Day: October 11, 2018

Death In Bulgaria

Closing Thought–11Oct18

My blog, In Saner Thought, has at least one loyal daily visitor from Bulgaria….I try to keep up with the news in the countries of my loyal visitors……..

A little info for those that may not know much about this country…..a country that not many Americans know much about these days……

The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People’s Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007.

Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova has become the third journalist to be murdered in the European Union in the last year and the fourth since the start of 2017.

The 30-year-old’s body was found dumped near the Danube River in the town of Ruse, northern Bulgaria, on Saturday. Police said she had been beaten, raped and strangled.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/08/bulgarias-viktoria-marinova-third-journalist-murdered-eu-last-year/1563296002/

A person has been arrested for the crime……

A suspect in the rape and killing of a Bulgarian television journalist whose work highlighted corruption in the East European country has been arrested in Germany, officials said Wednesday. Bulgaria’s prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, confirmed the arrest of Severin Krassimirov, a 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen, but gave no further details of his location, the AP reports. German authorities were not immediately available. “We are currently following a European arrest procedure. The German prosecutor has arrested the suspect, they will then assess how to proceed,” Tsatsarov said. He said evidence suggested it was “a spontaneous attack, not premeditated.”

Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said investigators had found DNA evidence on the clothes and body of Viktoria Marinova, who was raped and strangled on Saturday in the northern town of Ruse. “There is physical evidence to link to the murder,” Marinov said Wednesday. He said Krasimirov, a resident of Ruse, had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. The minister said investigators had spoken to Marinova’s family and friends and “there is no apparent link to her work.” Marinova hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving European Union funds—a sensitive subject in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic

TO my followers in Bulgaria…If the any information that I am missing please let me know and I will update my readers.

Black Hawk Down

24 years ago this month …….

A name that will live in infamy (to use a phrase from the past)….the year is 1994 and the US military was sent into Mogadishu, Somalia on an UN peace keeping mission…..the US decided the way to go about their task was to put away a local warlord, Mohamed Aidid…..taking on this task was mission drift and it went horribly wrong.

The year is 2001 and Hollywood issues a film adaptation to the book “Black Hawk Down”……the movie was a success but then most movies about war are a success…..the actual “war” may not be a success but the movie will be.

During this engagement the US lost 19 soldiers and 73 wounded….but like most of the “war stories” there will be more to the story than the movie will tell……

The 2001 blockbuster war film Black Hawk Down depicted a battle largely forgotten upon the movie’s release. Being released in the wake of 9/11 also gave it an extra dose of significance it might not have held otherwise. The battle occupies a special place in American military history, a legendary status among other post-Cold War military engagements that struggle to gain recognition in the public eye.

The price paid for recognition, however, is that the story becomes a legend that takes on a life of its own. It goes on an unscripted journey, ending up in a place well-removed from where it began. Consequently, the public often appreciates the wrong story or only a part of it. 25 years after the Battle of Mogadishu and 17 years after the film’s release, what the public believes it knows about Black Hawk Down, if not entirely inaccurate, isn’t the whole story.

Dramatic retellings are, of course, entitled to take creative license with a true story. This piece doesn’t contest such alterations. Nor are any of these facts “untold” – they are widely available in various books on the battle. Instead, this piece aims to correct some widely-held assumptions about the battle and reveal some lesser-known facts that have the potential to alter public perception of the Battle of Mogadishu.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/10/03/what_you_may_not_know_about_black_hawk_down_113860.html

This was in our recent history…..keep in mind that NO war is as heroic or as romantic as the movie would have us believe.

Turn The Page!

What I Like

As we edge ever closer to the midterm elections I need to let some thoughts be known……

What I Like (Or If You Cannot Fight Facts Then Make Shit Up)…(The code of the conservs)

You know what I like about conservs?  Well……(pause here for thought)….. NOTHING!  I guess I need to be a bit more forthcoming (something the Righties have NO idea how to do)….I dislike conservs these days because they think that society owes them a deal and in return they owe nothing to society.  They want society to let them go wild and do as they see fit regardless of what it destroys or ruins…..as long as they can profit.

I guess I had better stop here and explain that when I am saying “society” I am talking about the government (hope that clears it up for those slower readers on the Right)

That was not fair was it?  Well buck up….when the mental midgets on the Right learn civility then I shall be glad to do so as well……until then I shall continue.

I have to admit that by using “conservs” I am lumping all on the Right into one category….that is a mistake the slugs on the Right these days are no more a conserv than Eugene Debs (do I really need to explain that?).  Sorry to say that because you can quote a Biblical passage does not make one a conserv….it does make one a hypocrite in the highest order. So I will apologize to true conservs for this but the others can if they think I will apologize to them can…..BITE ME!

If conservs had their way the state would not be political at all…..but then that would not be profitable now would it?  These tools need the government to make sure that they are free to rape the nation without interference.

I mean what can you expect when the leader of their party is handling world affairs as if it is his real  estate business…..he is making as many friends as he can before he leaves office for further and future business opportunities….

These so-called conservs are doing more damage to this country than anything and their attacks on the nation will take generations to repair…..not even the much feared communists could have done this much damage.

For years the conservs blamed the Dems for everything that happened in this country and yet once their butt boy gets elected nothing is unacceptable….I mean they still blame Dems for things that they themselves are doing…it is all so amusing to anyone with an IQ above say their shoe size.

I also like the way conservs cannot explain liberals so they demonize them because they cannot beat them with truth and facts.

Vote for progress not regression!

Turn The Page!

That Incessant Drumbeat

Since WW2 there has been this part of corporate America that has fallen in love with the obscene profit it can make from war….and these people have never allowed the drumbeat to be silenced or far from the minds of Americans…..it made sure that we always had an enemy at the gates that we needed to prepare for their imminent invasion.

First it was those Godless commies…..then there was the threat of terror in every corner of the country…..a lie that scared the be-Jesus out of those weal minded fools on the Right….and now with terrorism on the wane (for now)……we are now focused on Russia (yet again) and China as the threats that we need to prepare for in the next confrontation.

Marketing war has become the mainstay of our foreign policy….more so now that ever before……

The claim that the national security of the United States requires that more than half the nation’s discretionary budget must be devoted to the maintenance of armies, global strategic bases and massive armaments is false. Until we can convince the majority of the public of this fiction, and surmount the wall of disinformation, nothing will change and we will continue down the road to a hellish future.

This statement of course contradicts the incessant indoctrination emanating from Washington and the corporate media that U.S. foreign policy is devoted to the maintenance of global peace and a “liberal” and just world order in the face of enemies who wish to destroy that order. The facts controvert such declarations yet to emphasize them is to be accused of disloyalty, a lack of patriotism, and conspiracy mongering.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/08/the-incessant-drumbeat-of-mortal-danger/

That sub-conscience drumbeat that every American has been subjected to especially through the MSM…..drumming….drumming….

The problem is that the nation has all the weapons it needs to fight its war either real or perceived but there is a bigger problem that needs addressing……

The U.S. military would be able to handle itself adequately in a single major regional conflict while maintaining smaller operations around the globe, but its “marginal” capabilities mean America would struggle if forced to take on a second major conflict at the same time, a new report has found.

That is the conclusion of The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of U.S. Military Strength, which offers reviews of the past year’s defense-policy issues. The index looks at both the global operating environment and an internal assessment of U.S. military strength. As in previous years, all topics are rated on a five-point scale: “very weak,” “weak,” “marginal,” “strong,” and “very strong.”

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/10/04/can-the-us-fight-two-big-wars-at-once-new-report-casts-doubts/

The drumbeat will continue until Americans realize that there is profit in peace…..all it takes is the will and a way will be found.

On The Road To Afghanistan

As usual there has been a wealth of reports and stories about the 17 year war in Afghanistan…..and as usual there is a wealth of sides to consider…..

A quick look at those 17 years…..

Sunday was the 17th anniversary of the start of the longest war in American history: the Afghanistan War. When Operation Enduring Freedom kicked off on Oct. 7, 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, few would have thought we’d still be there fighting the Taliban nearly two decades later. Heck, I doubt I thought we’d still be fighting today when deploying there myself “only” 10 years ago this month.

But here we are, engaged in a forever war in which the generals seem to have no plausible “theory of victory” and the Taliban remain stubbornly resistant to capitulating to our demands. It is a war that we ought to end honorably through a negotiated settlement with our opponents—or even by unilaterally declaring success, and prudently but surely coming home.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/08/public_realism_on_afghanistan_138280.html

The consensus is that we cannot win this war…..but the question should be….do we want to win?

This month marks the anniversary of America’s longest war: 17 years in Afghanistan. On this anniversary we must ask, why are we still engaged in what amounts to a forever war?

Even before he was a candidate for president, celebrity citizen Donald Trump tweeted in 2013: “We should leave Afghanistan immediately” and “Let’s get out of Afghanistan.” But he’s done a complete reversal as president.

In August 2017, President Trump acknowledged that his “original instinct was to pull out” but that “our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives.” Indeed, the president declared, “We will fight to win,” but what President Trump needs to understand is that we can’t win and, more importantly, we don’t have to win.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/10/09/we_cant_winand_dont_have_toin_afghanistan_113875.html

And every time it is pointed out the fruitfulness of this war there will be someone who thinks a new strategy is needed……now is no different…..

Sunday marked the 17th anniversary of the start of war in Afghanistan, the “War on Terror.” Originally referred to as Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. invasion was America’s response to the attacks of 9/11, still the deadliest terrorist strike in world history. Home to the training camps and masterminds behind the 9/11 carnage, Afghanistan was the proper target for an aggrieved and angry nation intent on punishing the perpetrators – and preventing future attacks. But somewhere along the line, this operation evolved into a conflict that historian Andrew J. Bacevich Sr. termed the “Permanent War for Permanent Peace.” And it has left our nation weary, if not apathetic.

Costing somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $5.6 trillion and the lives of nearly 6,000 U.S. service members (including 2,347 OEF deaths as of August 2018), the ultimate burden of war has been borne by an increasingly small portion of the population. And while support for OEF in the wake of 9/11 was overwhelming, the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq made the overall “war on terror” increasingly unpopular and Afghanistan a distant concern.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/09/afghanistan_we_must_decide_on_new_war_strategy_138284.html

The one aspect that galls me is that Americans seem to care not for our troops that are dying in Afghanistan…..

While most of America has been fixated on the Kavanaugh accusations and the Senate’s embarrassing attempt to handle those, the eighth U.S. service member of 2018 was killed in America’s longest war on Thursday. You likely didn’t hear about it in the news unless you saw a defense reporter tweet about it or you know a veteran who mentioned it. A single U.S. death in Afghanistan no longer draws media attention because Americans have become apathetic to the never-ending conflict, which has allowed our elected representatives to become indifferent to any sort of sustainable solution or realistic withdrawal.

This year the Afghan war is on track to cost the taxpayer $45 billion. The Taliban holds more territory today than they have since the post-9/11 invasion in 2001, and they show no indication of real interest in a sustainable peace agreement despite the United States’s high hopes for talks. The Taliban don’t want peace, nor do they want to share territory with the Afghan government. They want to rule Afghanistan the way they did prior to 9/11 and the Oct. 7, 2001, invasion.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/410093-when-america-forgets-about-those-who-are-dying-in-afghanistan

We have at least one Congressman that wants an end to this war…..

On the 17th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, one American congressman has called for its end.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said in a statement on Sunday that “American troops should come home” from Afghanistan, since our current course there is “not in our national interest.”

The U.S. presence in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Our objectives following that attack were to destroy Al-Qaeda, kill Osama bin Laden, and prevent a recurrence of an ungoverned space in Afghanistan that allowed for terrorists to plot and plan attacks on Americans and our allies. We accomplished all of those objectives years ago.”

https://taskandpurpose.com/gallego-afghanistan-war/

I try to keep my readers updated on the events in our many wars…I hope this synopsis was helpful…..