GROWING(?) AL QA'IDA THREAT

The London bombings took place during my blogging hiatus, but some of the analysis (to use the term loosely) struck me as really asinine. To be specific, this BS about the "evolving" global insurgency misses the mark completely. If we're talking about evolving as in changing, then yes, it is evolving. But if the point is that AQ is growing or becoming more dangerous, then these "experts" aren't paying attention. Let's cast aside the hyperbole and look at the math. Math doesn't lie.

September 11, 2001: Terrorists hijack four commercial airliners simultaneously and crash three of theM into buildings in NYC and DC. Death toll: approximately 3000.

October 12, 2002: Terrorists set off two bombs -- a backpack bomb, and a more powerful car bomb -- at a resort on Bali in Indonesia. Many Australians and Britons were at the resort. Death toll: 202.

March 11, 2004: Terrorists set off multiple bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. Death toll: 191.

July 7, 2005: Terrorists set off four bombs in London's mass transit system. Death toll: 52.

Let's look at the numbers again: 3000, 202, 191, 52. Am I wrong, or are they going down? I don't mean to minimize the pain and suffering caused by these attacks, but there is no denying that the attacks are becoming less destructive. According to the people who taught me about how wars are fought, you're in trouble when you lose your ability to do damage to the enemy. But what do I know, I'm not an "expert."

For a look at what a real expert has to say about the Global War on Terrorism, check out Lt. Col (Ret) Gordon Cucullu's column in Frontpage Magazine.

Before the dust had settled in the London subways and the wounded evacuated much was already being made by breathless commentators about the "increasing sophistication" and technical expertise of the terrorist killers. These kind of coordinated attacks, we were assured, presuppose a highly intelligent, highly skilled group of terrorists. The implication is that we are losing ground and are increasingly helpless in the face of such professional competence. We have been forced into a reactive mode to an invincible terrorist threat. Well, that's simply not the case.

In fact, to judge by the sophistication levels of terrorist attacks they reached the pinnacle with the simultaneous hijacking of airliners and converting them into homicide missiles on September 11, 2001. The terrorists have been unable to equal that attack and since then the degree and sophistication of terrorist offensives have declined. Frankly, it is no great shakes for a jihadist revolutionary movement with the kind of funding al Qaeda receives from sheiks in Saudi Arabia and mullahs in Iran to blow up a few bombs individually or simultaneously. It does not take loads of sophistication to pack a car with explosives, drive it to a target, and close an electrical circuit. Nor can it be anything other than sheer desperation to rely on terrorists who kill themselves along with their victims. Use of suicide bombers is a strategy of self-imposed attrition that can only result in organizational self destruction. Horrific, yes; advanced, no.
(emphasis mine)

Check out the rest of Lt. Col. Cucullu's column. With years of military experience, including time in Vietnam fighting real-live insurgents, I'd dare say that he knows more about unconventional warfare than the entire editorial board of the New York Times combined.

SUPREME PICK

President Bush has named his nominee for the Supreme Court Seat being vacated by the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

WASHINGTON — President Bush has picked Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Roberts, 50, is a conservative who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A former clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, his name has been floated for months as a possible Bush selection for the high court.

Bush announced the nomination to the American public at 9 p.m. EDT — with Roberts appearing alongside the president.

Senators Leahy and Schumer responded immediately after. It's tough to say how hard the battle over this nomination is going to be. One thing is certain, Chuckie Scummer will lead the charge against. He couldn't even wait for Leahy to finish his introduction before he went into his spiel.

If I was a bettin' man, I'd bet that it'll get nasty. Having the Scum-meister out front is a virtual guarantee of that. I really dislike that guy. He's actually gotten more obnoxious since he was reelected. I guess that's what carrying 71% of the popular vote will do to an already arrogant politician (is that redundant?). Of course he did run practically unopposed. But that's a whole different post.

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY...

Once upon a time, the folks in the mainstream media -- those would be the "real" journalists -- just loved a whistleblower. A high ranking government official who blew the whistle on less than ethical actions by...oh, say...a CIA official, would be hailed as a hero. As we now know (didn't we always know this anyway?), that doesn't apply when the whistleblower is a Republican, and the CIA employee is trying to advance an anti-Republican agenda. (Note: I was going to call it a pro-Democrat agenda, but I'd be hard pressed to explain what Democrats are in favor of these days, besides sticking it to Republicans)

Check out this site for a little background on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. This law was passed in response to the actions of former CIA Officer Philip Agee. Agee is believed to have blown the cover of CIA station chief in Athens Richard Welch, which resulted in Welch's assassination in 1975. Agee fled to Cuba, where he has lived under the protection of Fidel Castro. Ironically, Agee has been a darling of the left for decades for doing what the media has accused Karl Rove of. If you can stomach it, do a Google web search for Philip Agee. You'll find many of the sites about him to be of a positive nature. Nice double standard. Further proof that you have to be a hypocrite to be a lefty.

TAGGED

I got tagged with a meme by Bloodspite last week. Being up to my eyeballs in work, I just got around to it this week. If you're interested, you can read it here.

75 YEARS AGO TODAY

Today marks the 75th birthday of Dr. Thomas Sowell, one of the smartest men in America. Dr. Sowell wrote a column today looking at all of the events that have occurred around the world since his birth. Well worth reading, the column gives some historical perspective to our current situation.

KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES

I just saw this story linked at the Drudge Report:

Two thefts of small planes renew security concerns

Some 19,000 small airports across the US have varied safeguards.

By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – In the past two weeks, two small planes have been stolen and taken for joy rides. In neither case was the crime a national security threat, but some analysts note that in this post-9/11 era the thieves could have easily been Al Qaeda operatives and not teenagers out for a thrill.

That has again raised the question of whether enough is being done to secure the more than 19,000 small airports scattered across the nation. At the same time, the incidents also put into stark relief two challenges the nation faces as it tries to secure itself against another terrorist attack more than three years after 9/11.

The first is how to prioritize potential threats, determine which ones would cost too much to guard against, and then educate the public that they must simply learn to live with them. The second is how to balance the need for security against individual freedoms and commerce. Both challenges are evident in the $20 billion general aviation industry, which includes everything from small private planes to corporate jets.

"It's not enough to simply say you're going to regulate [the industry] totally - you can't because you'd end up destroying it," says Andrew Thomas, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio and author of "Aviation Insecurity." "On the other hand, you can't do nothing, because clearly it is still a very real threat given Al Qaeda's determination to use small planes in the past. We still haven't found the balance."

If that's not enough to make you feels just a little less safe, check out this column about the effect BRAC has had on the air sovereignty mission.

As of this writing, the only ANG units answering to First Air Force that are expected to retain both an air defense/air superiority role and mission posture are the 125th Fighter Wing, FLANG, located at Jacksonville IAP, FL, the 144th Fighter Wing, CAANG at Fresno Airport, Fresno, CA and the 177th Fighter Wing, NJANG located at Atlantic City IAP, NJ. The 125th and 177th Fighter Wings will continue their missions with F-15 Eagles (the 177th after it receives their primary assigned aircraft from three ANG fighter wings stripped of theirs), and the 144th will soldier on with its F-16 Falcons.

The reduction in the number of dedicated air defense units means that the continental air defense of the lower 48 will be carried out by just three fighter units. The entire west coast will be patrolled and protected from Fresno while the east coast will have a unit in the southeast corner of the country and another located in the Mid-Atlantic region. Alaska, considered to be a separate command, will lose most of its active duty fighter aircraft to realignments or retirements and there will be considerable holes in the air defense network there until the newer F/A-22 Raptors are assigned there later in the decade.

I don't believe for a second that the terrorists have given up on another airborne attack on US soil. They're just biding their time until the opportunity presents itself. Let's hope we don't hand them one on a silver platter.

READING ASSIGNMENT

Check out this piece, entitled 10 Things I'd Do If I Were The Commander-In-Chief, by Edward L. Daley. I'd bet that number ten will be Bloodspite's favorite.

MILBLOGGER RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Yankee Sailor has posted a set of rules of engagement (ROE) for MilBloggers. You can check them out here. These are all common sense things, but like the saying goes, "common sense is not that common." Yankee Sailor's rules are pretty close to the rules I imposed on myself when blogging from Qatar. If you're a MilBlogger, this post is a must read.

Hat tip: Mustang 23

MARTINEZ UPDATE

I've been hearing a lot about this case via the rumor mill. My sources are second-hand, but reliable. Be that as it may, I hesitate to post any of this info on the blog. I don't want to mess up the Army's legal case against Martinez or violate his rights--yes, even someone accused of a hideous crime like this has rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the UCMJ. I can confirm that WTEN Channel 10 is reporting the following:

A Schaghticoke man accused of killing two superior officers in Iraq was the subject of an Army investigation prior to the alleged murders.

The New York Post is reporting Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez was the target of the probe looking into irregularities connected to his job as a supply sergeant with the 42nd Infantry Division of the Army National Guard based in Troy.

The report said something had gone wrong in the logistical charin which often refers to missing equipment.

Military officials would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Martinez is charged with the murders of Lieutentant Louis Allen and Captain Phillip Esposito after he allegedly set off an explosive device.

(emphasis mine)

Irregularities? Let's just say that would jibe with the info coming from the rumor mill. And with the fact that Martinez had military ordnance in the basement of his house in Cohoes, NY.

DO THE WRONG THING

I was expecting this to happen. I just knew some of the anti-war left would become hopeful for more "fraggings" in the wake of the actions of alleged murderer Alberto Martinez. Check out this quote from the Worker's World website (that's what communists read when they can't get a copy of Newsweak):

Meanwhile, the Pentagon made it clear it considers the recent deaths of two officers in Iraq a case of "fragging." It has charged Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez with murder in the deaths of Capt. Philip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen.

Whatever the details of the case, this sends a shiver up the generals' spines. While there have always been examples of killings not by enemy fire, in Vietnam this reached the level of political protest, which many war resisters saw as a legitimate tactic against warlike or racist officers. Between 1969 and 1971, the U.S. Army reported 600 fragging incidents, which killed 82 officers and non-commissioned officers and injured 651.

The Pentagon knows the high level of discontent among U.S. troops, and fears that fragging will become a more popular method of opposing the tour of duty in Iraq.

(emphasis mine)

I'm waiting for the lefty moonbats to start praising Martinez for killing two of his officers and to call on other troops to do the same. For all I know, it's already happening over at DU or Daily Kos.

Mark my words, this is going to turn out to be a plain, old-fashioned murder case. If he's guilty, Martinez is just a crook. Nothing more.

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD

Well, it's official. Senator Dick Durbin is sorry. Was there ever any doubt? He shall henceforth be know as the Sorry Senator from Illinois. Or just Sorry Senator Durbin, for short.

MORE ON THE 42nd ID "FRAGGING" INCIDENT

Apparently SSG Alberto Martinez, the alleged murderer of his Commander and XO in Iraq has what you might call a less than perfect record. According to this story in the Albany Times-Union, Martinez was suspected of arson in a fire that destroyed his home in Cohoes, NY.

A Schaghticoke soldier accused of killing two of his superior officers is in a legal dispute with Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. after the insurer accused him of burning down his Cohoes home in 2002 to collect on a policy whose value had been doubled six weeks before the fire.

On Sunday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the motive for the alleged ``fragging'' in Iraq is unknown. ``I don't know of any of the dynamics behind it. It may come out at trial. We have to wait for all the facts to come out.''

Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez previously told fellow National Guardsmen, ``If I can't sell my house, I might as well burn it down,'' the insurer said in court pleadings obtained by the Times Herald-Record of Middletown.

Martinez, 37, denied any involvement in the fire. Police records show the cause was determined to be accidental. Martinez is suing Liberty Mutual for payment on the policy.

``We believe that the plaintiff, utilizing his knowledge of electrical wiring, has cleverly created the impression that this fire was of electrical origin,'' Liberty Mutual lawyer Thomas O'Connor wrote in court papers in September.

Martinez has an associate degree in electronics.

A guy is suspected of arson, and he gets deployed to Iraq? What was his chain of command thinking? Martinez is a supply NCO. Supply types often have access to arms, ammunition, and explosives. Not exactly the kind of job you want to give to a suspected arsonist.

Somebody screwed up when they decided to deploy this guy. When the whole truth comes out, I have a feeling it won't be pretty. Not that it's pretty now, but it's going to get uglier.

UPDATE
There's more on the Martinez story at the Insurance Journal website.

Court papers reviewed by the newspaper also show that Martinez was five months behind on his mortgage payments and his electric service was being turned off for nonpayment when the fire damaged his home. Neighbors said the family moved out about two weeks before the fire.

The civil lawsuit in the case was scheduled to go to trial in September, though what will become of that given his arrest is unclear, his lawyer in the civil case, Eugene Spada, told the newspaper.

Cohoes Detective Tom Ross told The Troy Record that 18 months after the fire, a caretaker overseeing rehabilitation work on the house reported finding in the basement a 47-pound bomb. Police contacted the Army, and the bomb was removed. Cohoes Police Chief Joe Fahd said firefighters had immediately found in the house several unarmed artillery shells, which were checked by a Watervliet Arsenal demolition team and eventually confiscated.

After the fire, Martinez moved his wife and two teenagers to his parents' house in the Schaghticoke, just outside of Troy. He worked at the Watervliet Arsenal before going full-time with the National Guard.

(emphasis mine)

A bomb? This story is just going to get weirder folks.

A SAD DAY FOR THE RAINBOW DIVISION

Tragedy struck my former unit recently. Not the usual tragedy you expect in war. This time, the enemy was one of our own.

Soldier charged with murder
A member of Troy's Rainbow Division has been charged with murdering two members of his unit.

The Department of Defense has charged 37-year-old Army Staff Sergeant Alberto B. Martinez with two counts of premeditated murder.

It stems from the June 7 deaths of Captain Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lieutenant Louis E. Allen.

The soldiers died at a base near Tikrit, in what was first reported to be an enemy mortar attack, but a criminal investigation found inconsistencies with that story.

If this jerk is convicted, I hope they throw the book at him. Hangin's too good for this dirtbag.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE

Complaints of abuse, torture, mistreatment, and poor living conditions by people who are incarcerated is nothing new. To get an idea of how often this happens, go to this site. Type the word "inmate" into the search box and click the search button. You'll get about five hundred matches. Most are lawsuits or motions brought by inmates against the State of New York in the New York State Court of Claims. Five hundred. The database only goes back five years. And most of those poor souls in NY's state prisons are innocent. Just ask 'em, they'll tell you.

No one is calling for us to close the prisons in NY. Maybe we should. Let 'em all go. Folks like David Berkowitz, Lemuel Smith, Reginald McFadden, and Patrick Baxter. Maybe they can all move in with Senator Dick Durbin. He's a millionaire, he can afford to support them.

DICK AND FRIENDS

I've spent the last couple of days fuming over all of this rhetoric from the left about the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This BS from Dick (boy, were his parents prescient, or what?) Durbin is the straw that broke the camel's back. If crap like this had been going on in World War II, we would have lost. The truth is, if we lose the GWOT, it's going to be because of folks like Durbin. When they go on TV and say the things they have been saying, it emboldens the terrorists. They think the US is losing its resolve.

Durbin & Co. can't not know the harm they're doing. The only other alternative is that they want us to lose the war. I know these folks like hardball politics, but putting American lives at risk is inexcusable.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; war is a holistic thing. The military can't win it alone. They need the entire country behind them. People like Durbin are trying to sabotage this. There's a word to describe people who try to sabotage their own country during wartime: traitors.

CHILD MOLESTATION RAP? JUST BEAT IT!

I'll be damned. So, Michael Jackson is "innocent." As soon as I heard the "not guilty" verdict on the first count, I turned to my wife and said "watch, he'll skate on all of the charges." Sure enough, he did. The question now is this: How long will it take before parents line up outside Neverland trying to get their kids next to Michael? After all, Micheal's been declared "safe" by the court, right? Or is he just a smooth criminal?

WEEKEND MILITARY HUMOR

Having just moved into his new office, a pompous, new colonel was sitting at his desk when an airman knocked on the door. Conscious of his new position, the colonel quickly picked up the phone, told the airman to enter, then said into the phone, "Yes, General, I'll be seeing him this afternoon and I'll pass along your message. In the meantime, thank you for your good wishes, sir." Feeling as though he had sufficiently impressed the young enlisted man, he asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing important, sir," the airman replied, "I'm just here to hook up your telephone."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

An Air Force Chief Master Sergeant and a General were sitting in the barbershop. They were both just getting finished with their shaves, when the barbers reached for some after-shave to slap on their faces. The General shouted, "Hey, don't put that stuff on me! My wife will think I've been in a whorehouse!"

The Chief turned to his barber and said, "Go ahead and put it on. My wife doesn't know what the inside of a whorehouse smells like."

WHO WANTS THE TERRORISTS TO WIN?

Last week I read an excellent column by Jim Simpson over at Defensewatch. The column was titled "Who Wants the Terrorists to Win?", and was posted on the site on May 16th. For reasons unknown, the column has disappeared from the archives of the site. This is a shame, because it is well worth the read.

In light of President Bush's recent Russia trip to celebrate victory over Germany in World War II - or the "Great Patriotic War" as the Soviets called it - it is useful to ask: Why do historians, pundits, journalists, politicians the world over, and even Hollywood, celebrate World War II as the last "Good War" in American history?

How does that conflict distinguish itself from Korea and Vietnam, wherein we faced anti-war opposition both at home and abroad? Why do we today face such vicious resistance to the Global War on Terror from many of these same sources?

At first, the disunity of our war effort today seems inexplicable given the unity that existed during World War II. The similarities between the two are striking.

In both wars, we joined with global allies to fight fascistic fanatics who committed mass genocide. In both cases, we were attacked by surprise, completely without warning, in a strike that killed thousands. In fact, 9/11 can be seen as the more barbaric, since the attackers chose defenseless civilian targets. In both cases, Western civilization itself was targeted.

The stock answer is that during World War II, we were all united in a common cause: to counter an imminent threat from a barbaric enemy and defeat the only genuine "Axis of Evil" that ever existed.

Simpson goes on to examine the political left and why they found it in their hearts to support World War II. And why they are opposed to the Global War on Terrorism. While the original post on Defensewatch is gone, some wise poster on the Military.com forums had the foresight to post the column there in it's entirety. You can check it out here. And just in case it dissapears from there too, the Google cache of the text is located here.

LAW AND (LEFTWING) ORDER

Apparently one of (how many of them are there now, anyway?) NBC's Law and Order shows took a swipe at Rep. Tom Delay on Wednesday. I missed the show (like I always do), so I didn't hear it myself. I can't say I'm shocked. The folks who produce this (formerly entertaining) show have a history of liberal bias. In 1995, former star Michael Moriarty left the show due to a disagreement with producers over attempts to censor the show at the behest of then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

Hell, who cares what they say on that show anyway. If you're up at 10 PM on Wednesday nights, you should be watching CSI: NY. It's a better show. And besides, star Gary Sinise is a major supporter of our troops and veterans.

DEAL

Our wonderful Senators have apparently reached a deal on the judicial filibuster fight.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement after days of talks to avert a showdown Tuesday over President Bush's judicial nominees, Sen. John McCain announced Monday evening.

Standing with a group of 13 other senators, the Arizona Republican told reporters the seven Republicans and seven Democrats had brokered a compromise.

"We have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the United States Senate and pull the institution back from a precipice that would have had, in the view of all 14 of us, lasting impact, damaging impact on the institution," McCain said.

Under the deal, judicial nominees would only be filibustered "under extraordinary circumstances," McCain said.

McCain said the group of 14 pledged to vote for cloture -- an end to debate -- for three judicial nominees: Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and Priscilla Owen.
He said the group made no commitment to vote for or against cloture on two nominees, William Myers and Henry Saad.

"We will try to do everything in our power to prevent filibusters in the future," McCain said.

"This agreement is meant in the finest traditions of the Senate it was entered into: trust, respect, and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority," he said.

Democrats filibustered 10 of Bush's 218 nominees in his first term, saying they were too radical for a lifetime appointment to the bench.

Of course "extraordinary circumstances" will be defined as circumstances where the President nominates anyone for the Federal Judiciary that Democrats don't like. And isn't it funny that nominees Brown, Owens, and Pryor are suddenly not "too radical" anymore.

It's too bad that Republicans didn't have the guts to make the Dems engage in a real filibuster, rather than this "virtual" filibuster. I guess they think that this deal will buy them some goodwill when they are in the minority again. Fat chance guys.