CNN reports that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to numerous terrorist attacks on US interests across the world. Interesting to note that this is not a guilty plea (as of yet), but rather “proof” that he should be classified as an enemy combatant and therefore go before a military tribunal for his ultimate trial.
Guantanamo makes me a little nervous, I’m not going to lie. Unobserved “questioning” of suspects could get very nasty very quickly. I hope our soldiers have more integrity than that, but I know that some don’t. If I had my way, this transcript wouldn’t be admissible as evidence in the courtroom. Get him out in the open, where there can be no coercion, and if he confesses again on the stand, amazing. Our justice system can do its job and he’ll be charged as a war criminal.
Thoughts? What about the language barrier? Any thoughts on that? Should he have a team of translators in the courtroom? If the samples from the transcript are anything to go by, he’s got an awful grasp of the English language.
It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Rock and roll was the original music of the younger generation, and it has had to make some room for rap as the decades have progressed. Classifying them together is an interesting move, but I’m all for it. Thoughts?
WARNING: PERSONAL OPINION AHEAD
This is a mistake. Exiting Iraq before the country itself is good and ready will only cause problems. I’m all for getting out as soon as the Iraqis are ready to take over, but is it really reasonable to set some sort of mandatory timeline for that? Regardless of whether you think our stepping into Iraq was just in the first place, we did break the structure that was in place. To leave it broken is irresponsible- and dangerous.
I do think we need an exit strategy, and I like the idea that the President be assigned clear goals. Dr. Brian Orend, who I mentioned earlier, has a great list of goals for the restabilization of a country: Security; Freedom; Equality; Personhood and Material Subsistence. I’ve only heard him speak once, but from what he said I like the idea.
I don’t think that a forced withdrawal is the right response to a failure to reach those goals. On the other hand, Congress would need some sort of teeth to spur progress. Any ideas on what they could use besides forcing the boys home?
P.S.> If you have strong feelings one way or the other, I encourage you to write your political representatives. We elected them for a reason!
DynCorp has been hired to provide logistic support for the AU’s (and the UN’s?) peacekeeping mission in Somalia. According to Forbes, it’s not clear whether or not there will be private American boots on the ground or if it will be limited to planning/supply, but either way: this seems dangerous to me. We’re allowing a private corporation to the be the de facto political and military representative of the federal government in a war-torn region. What happens when they kill the sacred cow?
((I know, I know, the sacred cow’s are in India. The idea still applies))
Come one, come all, and view the definition of an epic flame war. It started a few posts back, but this is the one (with over 75 comments) that is becoming a… conflagration, if you will.
I probably shouldn’t get involved, but I will anyway. Enlightenment (since I hope you read this), I’ve already touched as much as I plan to on your conspiracy theories, so don’t post any more about them here. I find your faith in youTube and other all-encompassing, easily modifiable, non-discriminatory information conduits rather disappointing. Here’s a suggestion from the world of law: pick your strongest points and harp THOSE. Throwing up 30 some links to websites of middling to ill repute in the international news community will not help you prove your point. In fact, it will only encourage people to paint you as an overzealous crackpot. I’ve reserved my judgment, and I’ve tried my hardest to treat you with respect. Please do the same.
((Okay, maybe I wasn’t quite done. I swear I am now.))
What I’d really like to address, though, were your initial comments. I’ll take them piece by piece.
ENLIGHTENMENT SAID: The U.S. telling China to sit down and shut up?? I almost fell out of my chair laughing. The U.S. is so bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan it couldn’t afford to send troops to bully Haiti, let alone trying to defend Taiwan. Be realistic. And take a good long look at the war in Iraq: The so-called “world’s only superpower” is getting the runaround from a bunch of rag-tag untrained Rebels…
WingMan says: Numerous sources claim that the insurgents are actually well trained, using squad based tactics and terrain-adaptive strategy.
ENLIGHTENMENT SAID: …whose weapons are small arms and homemade bombs. Four years on and the U.S. STILL can’t control the damned road from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone!!
WingMan says: Yet again, numerous sources say that the insurgents are using surplus Soviet rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, heavy machine guns and mines. Not to mention that “home-made bomb” isn’t necessarily a slur. Take a look at the EFPs. Mixing bleach and ammonia at home will still kill you.
ENLIGHTENMENT SAID: Every time U.S. forces encounter even two or three Iraqi Rebels with rifles they are too chickenshit to fight the Rebels like a REAL army’s infantry would, using fire and maneuver, but instead they cower and call in air support to do the fighting for them.
WingMan says: When was the last time you took machine gun fire? I don’t know who you are, so it could have been yesterday, but I somehow doubt it. I’ve never been involved in a live fire situation, but I’ve been in combat exercises. I’ve had M-16s fired at me, and I’ve done a bit of firing of my own. I’ve had GBSs (Ground Burst Simulators) go off next to my ear. It’s not exactly a… comfortable… situation. Calling anyone chickenshit who would rather have a steel bird do the job is not exactly justified if you’ve never been there.
Regardless of that, your classification of them as chickenshit, besides being unfair, is categorically wrong. This article regards only one of the numerous extended firefights US and Iraqi units have gotten into. Notice that the bombs stopped dropping at noon. The troops were beating feet until after dark. Also note: it wasn’t exactly “two or three Iraqi rebels,” but instead the largest force concentration they’ve seen. And directly opposing your accusations, in fact, Colonel Sutherland says that most of the time, it’s the insurgents who do the ’strategic relocating’- which is to be expected.
ENLIGHTENMENT SAID: And this is against Iraqi Rebels who have next to nothing to work with. Could you imagine if the U.S. tried to fight China?? Or even Iran??? Iran would sink their carriers in the Gulf in an afternoon and close the Strait of Hormuz to all tankers and watch the U.S. economy grind to a halt in a couple days. No, the last thing the U.S. wants to do is to poke a stick at a country like China or Iran who can actually FIGHT BACK. They had better go back to picking on Panama or Grenada or something like that, something they can handle. America’s military is the world’s biggest paper tiger.
WingMan says: As the well-respected just war theorist Dr. Brian Orend said just last night: no one can match the United States in “kicking regimes over.” We’ve been a dominant military power in conventional warfare since World War II, and we’re not getting knocked out of that spot any time soon. True, we’ve got some problems holding on to the occupation. Rebuilding is not our strong suit. But against men in uniform driving tanks and flying planes? We’ve proven numerous times that we’ve got that down.
In the interest in covering both sides of a story, this is a short piece rebutting military apprehension about the new J-10, the Chinese fighter I spoke of earlier. The author lists few sources, but then again, it’s a newspaper. I’ll see if I can fit in running down accurate stats on the J-10 this weekend. Expect an update.
TIME reports that China has recently lambasted the United States for its stance in Iraq, citing Abu Ghraib and US State Department statistics on the rising violent crime rate. The English text, which can be found here, uses some very colorful language, but relies on statistics from US news services and government reports. Regardless, the PRC is expressing severe displeasure with the way the US is doing things, especially overseas.
To be fair (but it doesn’t really make it better) this was in response to a report filed Tuesday by the State Department. We’re calling each other barbarous murderers, there’s conflict in the Taiwan Strait, they’re dissing our moves in Iraq… what’s next?
According to LTCOL John Graham of West Point (as reported by Mr. David Axe of DANGER ROOM), cadets are key nodes in a network he’s designed to analyze terrorist networks. Go ahead. Tell your cadet command. You could bring the whole thing down.
All joking aside, it’s a very interesting idea on how to attack loose networks of people.
Apparently there’s some issues with the Wingman NewWire and missing graphics in Internet Explorer. I apologize for the crappy red x’s and I swear the logo will be fixed too. Look for the updates NLT Monday.
DANGER ROOM yet again.
New York Times reports that LTGEN Raymond Odierno recommends ’surge’ troop levels (meaning the deployment of five more brigades, only two of which have been rolled out thus far) be sustained until at least early 2008.
Remember, this isn’t anything official since the surge is currently slated to drop this August and many congresspeople aren’t too happy about even that. The chances of them approving an extension look slim right now.
But who knows what could change between now and August?