Month: December 2015

The Assassins Strike Again?

First this is NOT some review of some vid game.  Second, it is my chance for yet another of my historical perspectives (is that a heavy sigh I hear?)

Assassins…..when the word is mentioned most people think about the Ninja of Japan……but the original Assassins came out of Persia……I have seen that some have compared the barbarity of ISIS with the assassins of old…..but who are the assassins?

In the modern world, the word “assassin” denotes a mysterious figure in the shadows, bent on murder for purely political reasons rather than for love or money. Amazingly enough, that usage hasn’t changed too much since the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the Assassins of Persia struck fear (and daggers) into the hearts of the region’s political and religious leaders.

However, we know that the Assassins were a branch of the Islamaili sect of Shia Islam. The founder of the Assassins was a Nizari Ismaili missionary called Hasan-i Sabbah, who infiltrated the castle at Alamut with his followers, and bloodlessly ousted the resident king of Daylam in 1090.

For the most part, the Assassins’ victims were Seljuk Turks or their allies. The first and one of the best-known was Nizam al-Mulk, a Persian who served as vizier to the Seljuk court. He was killed in October of 1092 by an Assassin disguised as a Sufi mystic.

A Sunni caliph, Mustarshid, fell to Assassin daggers in 1131 during a succession dispute.

In 1213, the sharif of the holy city of Mecca lost his cousin to an Assassin. He was particularly upset about the attack because this cousin closely resembled him. Convinced that he was the real target, he took all Persian and Syrian pilgrims hostage until a rich lady from Alamut paid their ransom.

Why did the Assassins attack the Seljuks? As Shi’ites, many Persians had long felt mistreated by the Arabic Sunni Muslims who controlled the Caliphate for centuries. When the power of the caliphs faltered in the 10th-11th centuries, and Christian Crusaders began to harry them in the eastern Mediterranean, the Shi’a thought their moment had come.

The Assassins started their decline after the Mongol invasion and conquest of most of the region in which the Assassins operated…..

There is the quick history of the Assassins…..today’s debate about them being the modern day assassin is sad……the Assassins were Shi’a….ISIS is Sunni….this alone makes the argument over…..but I have seen and read that some people want to compare the two…..

Since the latest attack in Paris I have seen so many comparisons to past events and the comparisons of the Assassins to ISIS were inevitable.  A very good piece on this comparison…..

Source: ISIL fighters are not the new Assassins – Al Jazeera English

All I can say is thank you for letting me once again enlighten your life with some historical perspective……

 

Me And The “Donald”

I have been accused of being real mean towards the GOP’s front runner, Donald Trump and I guess if I am honest I have been a bit of a bummer when it comes to him.  I do not agree with Trump on most issues and I think he is a race baiting bigot and only speaks to hear the sound of his own voice but other than that I have nothing against him.

If I am honest there is something about him that tickles my funny bone…….basically it is the way the party, the GOP, reacts to him and his mouth…….the Party has no idea how to go about dealing with Trump…..

Jeb Bush has floated the idea of Donald Trump being a Hillary Clinton plant to help her take the White House, and seemingly never-ending Trumpcontroversies might have Republicans starting to believe it. Politico reports that GOP leaders are stressing out about the negative impact that Trump’s candidacy is having on their party, noting that their “fear is palpable and bursting into public view.” Republicans were already anticipating losses in 2016, expecting to relinquish 12 or so seats in the House and forced to defend 24 seats in the Senate, versus the Democrats’ 10 seats. “[Trump’s actions are] not what we’re about as a party … and we cannot yield to this,” says Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, head of the committee that elects GOPers to the House. “It puts … competitive seats in jeopardy. We’ll have a much more difficult time.”

Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers goes further, telling Politico a Trump nomination would be “devastating” for the GOP. Part of the conundrum: Republicans are afraid to go too hard after Trump—whom the New York Times labeled a “deeply polarizing figure” months ago—for fear of alienating his fervent base. That leaves some GOPers dealing with fallout from every Trump move (instead of putting energy into attacking Hillary Clinton, for example), while others are doing everything they can to avoid talking about him altogether. “Winning elections is an exercise in addition, not subtraction,” Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent tells Politico. “When comments are made that are so divisive that alienate women, Hispanics, the disabled, Muslims—it … limits your ability to win. It’s that simple.” The usually verbose Trump isn’t revealing what he thinks of the havoc he’s wreaking: An email from Politico to his rep went unanswered. (Politico and the Hill called it earlier this year).

The Party cannot openly criticize Trump without the chance of his supporters getting pissed off and turning their back on the Party…..if he, Trump, decides to violate his pledge and run as an independent then he will most likely drag his supporters with him and if that occurs then the Dems will walk into the Oval Office.

I am pleased to see the GOP sitting in the corner wringing their hands and weeping uncontrollably…..serves them right for all the obstruction they have thrown around in the past decade or so……

(Exit Stage Left…..Smiling)……..

Syria: Will Cooperation Succeed?

Just what does a successful conclusion to the Syrian situation look like?  Is it the defeat of ISIS?  Maybe it is a political solution?  Whatever the solution is it will…no must….include the wishes of the Syrian people.

The next question is…..who fights for the Syrian people?  FSA?  The Coalition?  Assad?  Who?

That question is begging for an answer……..there is an attempt….

Source: FSA: Syrian rebel groups must unite to defeat Assad | Middle East Eye

This is a valiant attempt for some sort of cooperation…..the big question after this is…..can common ground be found on which to build cooperation?

Source: Can the Syria meeting in Saudi Arabia bring unity? – Al Jazeera English

Personal opinion is that there will be little cooperation because there are too many players with diverse agendas……all that is well and good but….why are the options for Syria so bad?

Source: Why Syria’s Options Are So Bad – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

I realize this is a lot to take in but I feel that we should try to help this cause…..the cooperation cause……for one good reason……to keep American troops off Syrian soil…..that battle will be bloody and messy and I would prefer that Americans not become sand fertilizer……there have been too many senseless wars that accomplish very little other than the loss of American lives and massive profits for the M-IC……..

Understanding ISIS: Leaked document reveals nation-building plans

Everybody has an opinion on how to defeat ISIS…..I mean with the horrendous acts they have committed everyone wants them gone in one way or the other…..

The prez and every other world leader has given the country their assurances that ISIS WILL be defeated….there is a consensus among western leaders……the problem I have is that not one of them will give a rudimentary plan of how they will accomplish this feat.

To my way of thinking….the only way ISIS can be defeated is by understanding every aspect of their operation……I have written in the past that this organization is trying to act like a nation state…..this could be a source of information to help in that defeat….

A state-building manual for Islamic State administrators confirms the complexity and breadth of the group’s efforts to create a functioning state, albeit one ruled by terror. In life under Islamic State, however, many civilian services seem to be suffering.

Source: Understanding ISIS: Leaked document reveals nation-building plans – CSMonitor.com

As I have said…..this could be a good start in finalizing what to do about ISIS and their desire for a nation state…..

We Now Have Clarification!

For months I have been drilling Obama about his promise of no US combat troops (notice I use “troops” not boot….these are American sons and daughters they deserve respect and not this crap about footwear)…..I have pointed out that a special ops trooper is by definition a combat troop.

After months of hammering this point it seems that someone got through to them (I would like to believe it was me….but I am not hopeful)……..

Throughout a year and a half of war against ISIS, President Obama’s “no boots on the ground” pledge has been repeatedly revised by officials, initially insisting it meant no troops, then no combat troops, and now, according to President Obama, it simply meant no battlion-level deployments.

Obama now insists he never had any intention not to send combat troops to Iraq and Syria, and that the American people always understood he simply meant deployments would be small and limited to company-sized deployments or smaller.

Obama insists that the latest deployment of troops into Iraq, which the Pentagon has suggested will be in the 100 soldier level, will “squeeze and ultimately destroy” ISIS. During his comments, he continued to play up the idea that the war is going well, insisting ISIS is totally incapable of launching Paris-style attacks within the US.

(antiwar.com)

Finally we have the truth and the recognition of the fact that we do have combat troops operating in both Iraq and Syria….

Thanx for that, Mr. President.

Oh Boy! We Have A New Alert System

Hot dog!  We can all sleep better tonight!

With all the babble about mass shootings and terrorists delivering pizza the government has come up with a new system to warn us great unwashed about the chances of a terrorist attack…..

The Obama administration will announce a new terror alert system “in the coming days,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday. Johnson said the new alert system will better inform the public about threats to the United States, but he did not provide specific details. This will be the third terror alert system put in place by the Homeland Security Department since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The much maligned color-coded system was replaced in 2011 by the National Threat Advisory System, which has never been used because it requires a “specific, credible threat” to the US in order to be activated. The plan to change the alert system was announced in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, which the FBI has declared a terrorism investigation.

The new effort will include an “intermediate” step, Johnson said in announcing the new alert system during a forum with Defense One magazine. Johnson said while a specific motive has not been determined in the California shooting, the threat from home-grown radicals or those inspired by foreign groups is a growing concern in part because such attacks may not be discovered in advance. The new terror alert system, he said, better “reflects the current environment and current realities. We need a system that adequately informs the public at large … about what we are seeing, what we are doing and what we are asking the public to do about it,” Johnson said.

I need to know more…..for what I see is that this is just another lame attempt to appear as if everything is under control.

This will be the third different “alert system” that we had in place and nothing has stopped the idiots like this dude in California and his whack-out wife……where will this system be any more effective than the ones that preceded it?

I could say that I will sleep better knowing that DHS is one the job…..but that would be disingenuous because I trust NO one but myself….I definitely will not trust the media or either political party to keep me safe…

I will sleep well tonight but it has NOTHING to do with anything but the fact that I know what I am capable of doing if the event arises.

Turn The Page!

The Donald Speaks–1998

As we all know the Donald was many admirers…..and the Donald speaks the truth….at least that is the common feeling among his supporters…..he is not afraid to open his mouth and tell the world what he thinks…..right?

Well in 1998 in People Magazine Trump told the world what he would do if he ever ran for president…..

 

Embedded image permalink

Don’t come down on me….I am just the messenger…..

Maybe he does speak to the truth….after all…..

What About A Syrian Regime Change?

From the very beginning of the violence in Syria, even before ISIS reared its ugly head, the US has called for a regime change for Syria….”Assad must go” was the chant du jour in the early days.

This article makes some excellent points about the idea of regime change and the events in Syria……

Source: Syria, the Rise of ISIS, and the Perils of Regime Change | The Nation

SecState Kerry has said that we could defeat ISIS if only Assad was gone….

In new comments today at a European security conference, Secretary of State John Kerry again played up the idea that a political transition in Syria, which he reiterated would have to mean the immediate removal of President Bashar Assad, would be a game-changer for the ongoing war.

Incredibly, Kerry termed the removal of Assad not only a “boon for everyone,” but claimed that ISIS would be totally destroyed “in a matter of months” with this transition toward a rebel-dominated government.

Interestingly, the narrative of a rebel-government unity being the key to beating ISIS had been Russia’s talking point, and spurned by the US, but now the State Department are adopting a variation, with Assad’s removal their primary goal.

(antiwar.com)

This is just chest thumping in my opinion…..is he talking about ISIS in Syria or also in Iraq?  Assad has a huge well trained army…..what will happen to them if Assad is forced to leave?  Do we really believe that they will roll over and play dead?

Now is a scary moment…..I find myself in agreement with Sen. Ted Cruz…..SURPRISE!

Cruz made a statement in an interview that I could not dispute…..

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says the U.S. is more secure with Syrian President Bashar Assad in power, accepting one of the Middle East’s most brutal dictators as an unfortunate ally in the fight against the Islamic State.

The tea party favorite said in an interview with The Associated Press that America and the world would have been better off retaining deposed dictators in Iraq, Egypt and Libya — who committed crimes against their own people but also helped prevent the spread of violent extremism.

“If you topple a stable ruler, throw a Middle Eastern country into chaos and hand it over to radical Islamic terrorists, that hurts America,” Cruz said.

(yahoo news)

Like I said…..in principle I agree with Cruz (will I go to Hell for saying that out loud?)……