Day: April 18, 2018

Closing Thought–18Apr18

I live in the South and of course a hot topic in this region is the   American Civil War….there is always someone that has to analyze this conflict…Hell they even play out each battle in their re-enactments…..

Of course one of the hot topics for discussion is what really started the war.  The most popular cause was the institution of slavery….but is it really?  In the South the common cause is the state’s rights thing….some even say it was economics that started the war….that is pretty close because Southerns did not want to pay the help…..

The first reason is that neither side had actual armies formed up and in position to fight at the time of the Fort Sumter attack. Abraham Lincoln, on April 15, had to put out a call for 75,000 soldiers to come forward and form an army because he had nothing with which to fight the South, and it would take weeks after that call for the first elements of the army to arrive at Washington. The South was in no better position and had to begin creating its own armies if it was to carry out its part in a war.

The second reason that war could not begin on April 12 or for weeks afterward is far more subtle than the first.  As of April 12, 1861, only seven states had declared their independence and joined the Confederacy. Those states were South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. Notably missing were Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, states that would only secede later.

http://www.historyinanhour.com/2011/09/13/the-true-beginning-of-the-american-civil-war/

Now the next question to be asked….why did the South lose the war?

“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on.”

Put that way, the business of fighting and winning wars sounds simple enough. And perhaps it was simple in the mind of the man who so concisely described the complex art: General Ulysses S. Grant. After assuming command of all Union armies in March 1864, Grant crushed the Confederacy in about one year.

But the American Civil War, like any war, was not simple. The North and South engaged each other for four long years. More than half a million people were killed. Families were torn apart, towns destroyed. And in the end, the South lost.

http://www.historynet.com/why-the-south-lost-the-civil-war-cover-page-february-99-american-history-feature.htm

Your history lesson is complete…off we go until tomorrow…..chuq

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Syria: Is There A Truth Bubble?

The deed is done!  Parts of Syria is a smoldering rubble in retaliation for the alleged chemical attacks on civilians by Assad forces.

It is interesting that a Russian general predicted the chem weapon and the US response about a month before the story began……

Sometimes bizarre claims by foreign governments are so shocking they are dismissed and never thought of again. But what happens when the events predicted occur exactly as described?

A stub of an article published by Reuters on March 13, 2018, almost a month before the purported chemical attack in Ghouta, reads:

“Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.

http://theantimedia.com/russia-predicted-chemical-attack/

After the attack the inspectors have arrived to check out the report….I am wondering why we did not get that report first……some are saying that Trump may have gotten it all wrong……

This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks – and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world’s most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There’s even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the “gas” videotape which horrified the world – despite all the doubters – is perfectly genuine.

War stories, however, have a habit of growing darker. For the same 58-year old senior Syrian doctor then adds something profoundly uncomfortable: the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html

I give these articles because the real story may never be known……only the crappy story line that leads to what the masters what to be done to Syria….

Good-bye Barbara

FLOTUS 41 has died!

Sad news indeed…..Barbara Bush has passed away at 92…..

Barbara Bush didn’t hesitate to tell people that her trademark pearl necklaces were fake. Americans liked that everything else about the snowy-haired first lady was real. The wife of the nation’s 41st president and mother of the 43rd brought a plainspoken, grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, displaying an utter lack of vanity about her white hair and wrinkles. “What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for president—George Bush is,” she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan. Mrs. Bush died Tuesday, the AP reports, citing a statement from family spokesman Jim McGrath. She was 92.

The Bushes, who were married on Jan. 6, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Mrs. Bush was one of only two first ladies who had a child who was elected president. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams. “I had the best job in America,” Bush wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.” The publisher’s daughter and oilman’s wife could be caustic in private, but her public image was that of self-sacrificing, supportive spouse who referred to her husband as her “hero.” In addition to a follow-up memoir, Bush wrote two other books; she had six children, one of whom died of leukemia at age 3. Click for more on her remarkable life.

A lovely lady…..may she rest in peace.

Afghanistan In The News

WE do not get much news from Afghanistan while the Lawyer-fest is in full bloom…..so I feel that we need to keep abreast of where our troops are asked to die.

This region has been calm for awhile…well at least in the news but otherwise it remains the same……..

In a newly released video, the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), an al Qaeda-linked Uzbek group, showcased a joint raid with the Taliban in northern Afghanistan. The video, which is dated for Oct. 2017, takes place in northern Afghanistan, but no specific location is mentioned.

The short video begins by showing the jihadists preparing for the military raid and driving through a remote Afghan village. A clash with Afghan forces, the majority which occurred at night, is featured. During the aftermath of the assault, a fighter is seen climbing a tower to place the Taliban’s white flag. Fighters are then seen parading and celebrating with captured equipment. This includes several captured US-made Humvees.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/04/11/islamic_jihad_union_conducts_joint_raid_with_the_taliban_113316.html

In recent months the Taleban has made great strides in Afghanistan and now the Marines are trying to turn back those successes…..

US Marines have been operating in Helmand Province nearly through the entire Afghan War. This area was the center of the capture-and-hold strategy for years. But Taliban gains are mounting in recent years, and they control more territory than any other time in the war.

US Marines are being sent back to Helmand and the surrounding area with a familiar goal, retake all those Helmand districts they used to hold. That may not be as easy as it used to be for US troops.

Afghan forces around Helmand are more and more limited, and under growing pressure. Much of the Marines’ focus is defending those allies. Officials are trying to put a positive spin on that, saying they can improve intelligence sharing from the Afghans.

But those Afghans are always under pressure, and that means that a lot of Marines will be stuck dealing with that, with few left to try to retake territory. The soaring amount of territory the Taliban is contesting also means that, while trying to reclaim districts, the Marines are racing to try to gain more than the Afghans lose.

(antiwar.com)

I will try to keep my reader up-to-date on our troops and they are asked to do in the name of freedom.