Friday, June 30, 2006

Easy there big fella

Wow, major overreaction this week from the Israelis. Let’s stop for a little while and think about this a sec. Israel loses three soldiers in a Palestinian raid and they respond by moving ground and air forces into Gaza and seize 64 members of Hamas, including a third of the Palestinian cabinet?! Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft buzz the Syrian capital in a show of force?

What in the hell is going on? Where was the diplomacy here? Ehud Olmert, the new Israeli PM, is really flexing his muscles here without significant justification. Nothing good can come from this. Fatah, the “moderate” party is going to be pulled farther into the radical camp while these military operations, especially the air strikes, are going to give Hamas hardliners a major injection of popular support. What’s the political end here fellas? Regime change? Who’s the replacement? The whole damn thing is going to shit!

Face it, Hamas was democratically elected, you can’t just bring down the government when you don't like the result. Exercise some restraint and give them a chance before you get all cowboyed up, they might just self-destruct on their own. By all indications sanctions seemed to be working and it appeared an agreement was in the works to recognize Israel, even though Olmert wouldn't give Hamas the time of day. All this is moot now though. Oh and by the way, where in the hell are the voices in the press calling out for restraint? Everybody’s so damn happy about the Gitmo ruling, I guess they don’t have time for this.

Monday, June 26, 2006

A Strategic Signpost

This is REALLY great news from Iraq. For all the focus on security operations we tend to forget that counterinsurgency depends on long-term stability. Schools bring literacy, literacy brings jobs, and jobs provide economic opportunity thus dissuading disillusioned men from turning to terror groups. This kind of news is in the same category as nailing Zarquawi and in some cases is even more important. Zarqawi was one man, these school will disuade thousands from becoming terrorist sympathizers. THINK MACRO PEOPLE!

Amid Iraqi Chaos, Schools Fill After Long Decline
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
The New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 25 — Enrollment in Iraqi schools has risen every year since the American invasion, according to Iraqi government figures, reversing more than a decade of declines and offering evidence of increased prosperity for some Iraqis.

Despite the violence that has plagued Iraq since the American occupation began three years ago, its schools have been quietly filling. The number of children enrolled in schools nationwide rose by 7.4 percent from 2002 to 2005, and in middle schools and high schools by 27 percent in that time, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.

The increase, which has greatly outpaced modest population growth during the same period, is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape of bombs and killings that have shattered community life in many areas in western and central Iraq. And it is seen as an important indicator here in a country that used to pride itself on its education system, then saw enrollment and literacy fall during the later years of Saddam Hussein's rule.

Sorrows seep into the classrooms. During a chemistry exam at Hariri High School in Baghdad on Thursday morning, a random sample of students turned up one whose father had been killed three days before, another whose uncle had been killed in an American-led raid and yet another whose family was leaving Iraq for good once she finished. The official who helped prepare the statistics for this article was assassinated this month.

But while life in Baghdad grows more paralyzed — it was the only province in the country where primary school enrollment fell — the figures for the rest of Iraq show that everyday life goes on, particularly in the largely peaceful south, which experienced the biggest jumps, with some regions having above 40 percent enrollment increases since 2002.

Full article here. (Free subscription required)

Sunday, June 25, 2006

To the Readers of The Greater Good

I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God my presence stands again on the soil of blogdom -- soil consecrated in the postings of thousands who have gone before. I have come, dedicated and committed, to the task of destroying every vestige of left and right-wing bullshit, and of restoring, upon a foundation of indestructible, strength, the quality of For the Greater Good.

At my side is my bloated ego, Elitist Know-it-all, worthy successor of that great patriot, Better Than-you. My presence is now therefore firmly re- established on Internetian soil.

The hour of your redemption is here. Your loyal readers have demonstrated an unswerving and resolute devotion to the principles of The Greater Good that challenges the best that is written on the web pages of human history. I now call upon your supreme effort that the enemy may know from the temper of an aroused and outraged readership within that he has a force there to contend with no less violent than is the force committed from without.

Rally to me. Let the indomitable spirit of national security and military history lead on. As the lines of battle roll forward to bring you within the zone of comment, click and type. Strike at every favorable opportunity. For your blogs and history departments, strike! For future generations of military historians, strike! In the name of disillusioned graduate students, strike! Let no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled. The guidance of divine God points the way. Follow in His Name to the Holy Grail of righteous victory!




Long absence from the blog over the past few weeks. It’s been a little rough on my end. For some reason events just seem to spiral out of control at the same time and serious setbacks ensue. The main victim in all of this, besides you the reader of course has been my MA thesis. I tend to write most effectively by allotting long periods of time to the process. Early morning to early evenings with an extended caffeine break around noon. I’m a creature of habit. I don’t know why but I find it extremely difficult to start my process in the afternoon and write into the night. Now I’ve got problems though. I’m trying to finish this gaudy monstrosity before law school starts in August so I’m gonna have to buck up this week and do some serious work. That’ll mean around- the-clock writing. I need to get the first draft written as soon as possible so I can work my revision magic which, hopefully, will turn this baby into an effective post-revision yarn of the Revolt of the Admirals.

Time to get it on!!!.