The Iraqi Alamo
"Reminds me to mention my undying gratitude to Swisher Company, the folks who produce the plastic devices that say 'Just Say No To Drugs' and place them where I can piss on them." -- Rocky Frisco
From pournelle:
"The column was supposed to be on the wire last night, but my head isn't working. It gets out tonight." -- Jerry Pournelle
From samizdata:
"Just imagine that instead of urging householders to barricade themselves inside their homes if a burglar attacks, a group of senior police officers were to write a joint signed letter to the Times saying that in such a case, fight the intruder, to the death if necessary. Imagine what impact this would have on the public debate about self defence and crime." - Brian Micklethwait
# avguy at Film Strip International - You're an Asshole - Flash animation. "Congrats to President Bush - America will have to learn the hard way now." Hehe. Don't click if you don't like hearing that A-word in the title over and over, applied to individual Busheviks. [smith2004]
# Paul Craig Roberts - The American Century Is Over - with the re-election of King George the Idiot, America has, in the eyes of the rest of the world, rubber stamped the neocon imperialist attack on Iraq. Don't expect sympathy when they nuke DC. [grabbe]
The entire world is stunned by the Bush administration's abandonment of a half century of U.S. diplomacy in favor of misguided, unilateralist, "preemptive" naked aggression on totally false pretenses against Iraq. America's allies are amazed at the ignorance manifested by the Bush administration. They are resentful of Bush's "in-your-eye" attitude toward friends who warned Bush against leading America into a quagmire and giving Osama bin Laden the war he wanted.
The world was waiting hopefully for the sensible American people to rectify the ill-advised actions of a rogue neoconservative administration. Instead, Americans placed the stamp of approval on the least justifiable military action since Hitler invaded Poland.
In the eyes of the world, Bush's reelection is proof that Ariel Sharon's neoconservative allies in the Bush administration speak for America after all.
# John Ross - Reflections on Race, Politics, the Election, and a Conversation with Mom - Mr. Ross doesn't understand the Democrat Party at all any more.
"Would you expect a black voter to ever vote for a candidate who had repeatedly and consistently voted for bills that would let cafes segregate their lunch counters once again?" I asked.
"Of course not," she answered.
"Then how can you hope people like me might support John Kerry, when he voted for every antigun bill put in front of him, and against every progun bill, in the last 20 years? Why do John Kerry, Claire McCaskill, Tom Daschle, and all the other Tuesday losers want to disarm me? Can you imagine Harry Truman wanting to disarm honest adult Americans?" My mother admitted she could not.
# Carl F. Worden at The Price of Liberty - Fallujah: The Iraqi Alamo - Mr. Worden believes that the destruction of Falujah, which appears to be the U.S. military's intention, will forever end any chance they have of making peace there on their terms (note that I didn't say "we"), short of killing a large percentage of the population, that is. But hey, they're only ragheads. Not! [price]
The Coalition forces far out-match the defenders in Fallujah in firepower. When you have unmatched firepower, you don't need superior numbers of soldiers to fight the defenders holed up in an urban area if you don't care how many non-combatants get killed in the process. All you need do is indiscriminately wipe out every single man, woman and child remaining there with massive "Shock and Awe"-- and that is exactly what the Coalition forces are prepared to do.
This attack will be genocide by its very definition, just like Mexican General Santana's assault on the defenders of the Alamo many years ago in what is now San Antonio, Texas. Santana's forces also far outmatched the American defenders, and the intended message Santana wanted to send was that resistance to Mexican rule was futile. He wanted to impart fear of any further resistance to Mexican rule. His forces killed every man remaining.
That tactic backfired on Santana, because it filled this fledgling nation with a rage that eventually drove Santana and his brigades south. While Santana's assault on the Alamo was a success, it translated ultimately into his defeat.
# Dale Amon at Samizdata.net - Finally! - Mr. Amon is happy about the attack on Fallujuah. [samizdata]
You know these people are insane: noone but the terminally mentally deficient would want to be a part of an amateur effort to hold ground against the Marines.
