Middle East
More Middle East
22/09/13 10:15 Filed in: Politics
Here are two more articles about how we have given away our standing and power in the Middle East. Some of it by choice with this administration, some of it by being oblivious to the consequences. Time will tell what was the wrong course and what was right. Read about here and here. We are in the process of a long withdrawal of influence in that deadly region of the world.
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Lawrence of Arabia
19/08/13 09:53 Filed in: Interests
I was off to a day of relief work in Eugene. Time to get back into the swing of things and thinking veterinarian so not much time to ponder blog articles and post. Here is another look at T.E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia fame. His impact appears to live on to this day in the Middle East. Interesting discussion that he was a bit of a self-promoter.
The Hanging Gardens
08/05/13 08:54 Filed in: History
A British academic has recently produced evidence supporting her theory that The Hanging Gardens of Assyria were not in Babylon but in Nineveh. The Hanging Gardens are considered one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Where the gardens were located specifically has been a mystery and now some answers may be forthcoming. Time and further study should prove this theory. For now, the information at hand is found here.
Operation Eagle Claw
29/04/13 15:29 Filed in: History
A number of books have been written and movies filmed about the 1979 Iranian Revolution and hostage taking. One of the saddest and controversial episodes was the special forces action to rescue the hostages that failed in the Iranian desert. A number of lives were lost. A long article and description of this episode…….Operation Eagle Claw and Desert One is covered here.
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Fehran and took hostage all the Americans in the compound. Fheir proclaimed intent was twofold. They wished to force the United States to return the exiled shah of Iran, who was in America for medical treatment. Fhey were also seeking evidence of a CIA plot to overthrow the new Islamic republic that had formed under the cleric Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini. While publicly pursuing diplomatic efforts to free the captive Americans, President Jimmy Carter covertly authorized a top-secret rescue mission, Operation Eagle Claw. It would be conducted by America’s new and equally secret counterterrorist unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta—Delta Force, commanded by its founder, Colonel Charles Beckwith. Fhe hostage crisis dominated world news, the rescue attempt failed disastrously, the crisis ultimately lasted 444 days, and Eagle Claw’s failure in large part contributed to President Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election. Fhe mission became a textbook example that has been studied by special operations personnel ever since. More importantly, Operation Eagle Claw became the touchstone for the creation of Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Fehran and took hostage all the Americans in the compound. Fheir proclaimed intent was twofold. They wished to force the United States to return the exiled shah of Iran, who was in America for medical treatment. Fhey were also seeking evidence of a CIA plot to overthrow the new Islamic republic that had formed under the cleric Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini. While publicly pursuing diplomatic efforts to free the captive Americans, President Jimmy Carter covertly authorized a top-secret rescue mission, Operation Eagle Claw. It would be conducted by America’s new and equally secret counterterrorist unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta—Delta Force, commanded by its founder, Colonel Charles Beckwith. Fhe hostage crisis dominated world news, the rescue attempt failed disastrously, the crisis ultimately lasted 444 days, and Eagle Claw’s failure in large part contributed to President Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election. Fhe mission became a textbook example that has been studied by special operations personnel ever since. More importantly, Operation Eagle Claw became the touchstone for the creation of Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
Free Speech is Dying
16/09/12 10:59 Filed in: Politics
Yes, I realize I can still write and post this blog without total fear that I will be arrested. I now cannot somehow push it so far though that I offend certain people or groups and risk their wrath. I certainly cannot show up the President and his administration or I risk some form of government retaliation. We have the President and the Justice Dept. going after the maker of a silly online video and having this person hauled into local law enforcement offices to intimidate him. As some have mentioned, Free Speech for Pussy Riot (in Russia) and none for Innocence of Muslims. We have the Joint Chief of Staff, General Dempsey, calling a pastor in Florida to not support the video and to remove it. Some have called for the prosecution of those who made this video. Our government announced the location and name of the maker of the video, creating risk to them and anyone living close by. There is nibbling around the edges on what can be said even if it is offensive. I can see our current government working toward hate crimes speech legislation if re-elected. I read this awesome letter today in a comments section of PJ Media. I think it sums up the concerns I have and many others of what this sort of behavior means to all of us.
September 14, 2012
General Martin E. Dempsey
Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C 20318
General Dempsey,
If at any time in the last 45 years someone had told me that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States would react to the assassination of an Ambassador, and three other Americans, on foreign soil, by placing a begging/threatening phone call to a private American citizen, asking that person to curtail his freedom of speech, I would have laughed. It would have been inconceivable to me.
That a Justice Department in a Democrat’s administration would identify, by name and street address, the maker of a film which Muslims hate…..yes, I would have expected that. That the Obama White House would apply political pressure to a private company in asking YouTube to investigate whether the published trailer violated terms of use……not surprising at all. But from a leader of the U.S. armed forces, who have acquitted themselves unselfishly and honorably through this long war against Islamic terrorists, such a craven and despicable action is surprising, and indefensible.
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say “what should be the reward of such sacrifices?” Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” Samuel Adams
General Dempsey, may posterity record that you contemplated the desecrated body of Ambassador J. Christian Stephens, the bloody handprints of former U.S. Seals on the doorways of the undefended Missiony, the mortar fire and grenade scars, and…….phoned an American citizen asking him to desist from his criticism of Islam.
Samuel Adams also said: ‘Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.” It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.’
General Dempsey, your offense is in some ways worse than the violence and destruction and murder visited upon our American embassies. Those who riot and murder are evil; they have determined to be enemies to the United States, and were long before some film was put on YouTube or some Koran was threatened with burning. But they do not have the three-thousand-year heritage of Western civilization and Judeo-Christian teachings, in which the value of the individual, of freedom and liberty, have been hammered out. You, educated at taxpayer expense at West Point, do. You are without excuse.
“The liberties of our Country, the freedoms of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter.”
I call upon you, General Dempsey, to resign your commission, to leave the active duty military, and to retire quietly to civilian life, where you can tend your vines or play with your grandchildren. Make way for military leaders who understand the nature of the enemy and the dire threat this enemy poses to civilization and to future generations.
Meanwhile, I and other ordinary Americans will do everything in our power to win back our country from those who hold our freedoms in contempt. It is most sad that we must hold the first line of defense not against those outside our borders but against our own fellow citizens who have discarded the Constitution in favor of a putative peace and temporary safety.
Do not believe for an instant that I do not appreciate the great strength, the breadth of influence, and the determination of the enemy. And I know it is most difficult to be a military leader in a country which does not love war (although I know well that soldiers value peace above others, having seen the carnage of battle.) But these truths, although fearsome, do not eradicate the duty of those who love liberty to fight for its survival.
In sorrow,
Ann Hilliard
Show Low, Arizona
September 14, 2012
General Martin E. Dempsey
Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Pentagon
Washington, D.C 20318
General Dempsey,
If at any time in the last 45 years someone had told me that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States would react to the assassination of an Ambassador, and three other Americans, on foreign soil, by placing a begging/threatening phone call to a private American citizen, asking that person to curtail his freedom of speech, I would have laughed. It would have been inconceivable to me.
That a Justice Department in a Democrat’s administration would identify, by name and street address, the maker of a film which Muslims hate…..yes, I would have expected that. That the Obama White House would apply political pressure to a private company in asking YouTube to investigate whether the published trailer violated terms of use……not surprising at all. But from a leader of the U.S. armed forces, who have acquitted themselves unselfishly and honorably through this long war against Islamic terrorists, such a craven and despicable action is surprising, and indefensible.
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say “what should be the reward of such sacrifices?” Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” Samuel Adams
General Dempsey, may posterity record that you contemplated the desecrated body of Ambassador J. Christian Stephens, the bloody handprints of former U.S. Seals on the doorways of the undefended Missiony, the mortar fire and grenade scars, and…….phoned an American citizen asking him to desist from his criticism of Islam.
Samuel Adams also said: ‘Let us remember that “if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.” It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.’
General Dempsey, your offense is in some ways worse than the violence and destruction and murder visited upon our American embassies. Those who riot and murder are evil; they have determined to be enemies to the United States, and were long before some film was put on YouTube or some Koran was threatened with burning. But they do not have the three-thousand-year heritage of Western civilization and Judeo-Christian teachings, in which the value of the individual, of freedom and liberty, have been hammered out. You, educated at taxpayer expense at West Point, do. You are without excuse.
“The liberties of our Country, the freedoms of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv’d them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas’d them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath’d to us from the former, for the sake of the latter.”
I call upon you, General Dempsey, to resign your commission, to leave the active duty military, and to retire quietly to civilian life, where you can tend your vines or play with your grandchildren. Make way for military leaders who understand the nature of the enemy and the dire threat this enemy poses to civilization and to future generations.
Meanwhile, I and other ordinary Americans will do everything in our power to win back our country from those who hold our freedoms in contempt. It is most sad that we must hold the first line of defense not against those outside our borders but against our own fellow citizens who have discarded the Constitution in favor of a putative peace and temporary safety.
Do not believe for an instant that I do not appreciate the great strength, the breadth of influence, and the determination of the enemy. And I know it is most difficult to be a military leader in a country which does not love war (although I know well that soldiers value peace above others, having seen the carnage of battle.) But these truths, although fearsome, do not eradicate the duty of those who love liberty to fight for its survival.
In sorrow,
Ann Hilliard
Show Low, Arizona
Troubled Horizon
14/09/12 11:16 Filed in: Politics
There are a large number of anti-American protests in Islamic countries around the world today. Buildings and one embassy being set on fire, flags also burned, riots and agitation. There is much I could say in regards to this situation. I have a lot of anger and frustration at our government and main steam media. They are weak and useless. I am better off reading through reports on the internet or from over seas. Our media has abdicated their responsibility to report the news versus slant it to protect our current President. A President who has a credibility gap in my opinion. Maybe this bad boy rage will wear itself out before serious injury is done. We could see even worse problems develop. You cannot have a leader who is more worried about being re-elected than doing his job and doing the right thing. I keep crying out, We Deserve Better!
