Censorship under whatever guise or excuse is the ultimate of evils because no other evil can survive without it. It is thus found to be advocated only by fools and those of evil intent.
– Dale Amon
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I was reading Ian Murray’s blog The Edge of England’s Sword and followed a link to an interesting article he wrote for Britannica regarding the use of statistics in the victim disarmament debate. It is a excellent piece but the bit that stood out to me was:
Now whilst I realise I am a wild-eyed libertarian, it never ceases to amaze me how many people do indeed seem to think that government agencies are somehow less likely to have an axe to grind when they make some pronouncement. States are in no sense a disinterested third party standing apart from sectarian concerns of society. What they are is a group of people defending their own narrow institutional objectives and with a vested interest in finding ‘reasons’ to expand the remit of their authority. To think otherwise is almost hilarious. Only it is not really funny at all. November 27th, 2001 | Comments are closed
 I just watched the BBC news and must admit it was an admirable performance. Given that Kunduz has fallen, the Marines are outside Kandahar, and the al Qaeda have been pretty much annihilated… they still managed to come up with a full report of utterly negative tripe. They dwelled on a precision strike that hit a Northern Alliance position by mistake. Now the US forces have been hitting targets on the mark nearly 98 percent of the time. So the news chose to show one of the two out of the most recent hundred. They talked at length about 4 British troops that were injured and the possibility of the US now sustaining significant casualties, as if there weren’t already 9000 casualties. The BBC at least had the decency to show workers in the underground of the WTC, although the negativity even came through on that. One got the impression the presenter felt showing the clip was an onerous “fairness” duty forced from on high. Of course they focused on the mistakes that allowed prisoners at Mazar-e-Sharif to retain weapons, and again to dwell on one known American casualty there. And of course they panned their camera over a burning Red Cross truck. I have a few choice words for the BBC media. You are spiteful, biased, hateful people and I very much hope the public stops listening to you and instead gets their news through alternative sources. We are winning dramatically. Weapons targeting has been awesome in its’ pinpoint accuracy. The low level of misses and errors has simply been enough to leave any honest watcher with their jaw hanging. Any honest watcher that is. There don’t seem to be many of those in the media these days. We’ve succeeded in breaking the back of the al Qaeda and killing them off in droves (which makes Mazar-e-Sharif count as a success) while causing incredibly few casualties to innocents. We’ve brought down an oppressive regime in an amazing tour-de-force of military and diplomatic prowess. There is simply very little that one can complain about without being utterly petty. Which they are. The chatterers are under such pressure they are even making snide comments on the air about it. To paraphrase George W Bush: “We’ve smoked ’em out and we’ve got ’em on the run.” So let’s keep the pressure up fellow bloggers! The monopoly has ended. November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
20:00 GMT. SkyNews reporters in Konduz are sticking to the story and have uncovered additional details. It is amazing to me how slow the other major media outlets have been at picking up this story! I was just watching CNN and not so much as a whiff of it. For sure, it is the blogs such as this that have run it first on the Internet. For three nights the Antonov transport aircraft landed at Konduz between US airstrikes (which were said to have been occurring at night at predictable intervals), at around 02:00 am each night. This was attempted again last night but as Northern Alliance forward combat elements had worked their way to the very edge of the airstrip, it was driven off by ground fire and did not land. It would seem that some Al Qaeda fighters have indeed pulled off a ‘great escape’. A small comfort may be gained from the knowledge that if the Antonov came back again last night unsuccessfully then there still must be Al Qaeda people on the ground who did not make it out on the last flight. Clearly someone on our side has well and truly dropped the ball for this to have happened. Whilst Al Qaeda may be our loathsome enemies, one can still be struck by the sheer audacity of what they seem to have pulled off. We underestimate these guys at our peril. Whilst I am only speculating now, my guess is that it was the same aircraft each night (I mean, just how many large Antonov transport aircraft can Al Qaeda have access to?). The fact it came back four times suggests that not only were we not shooting their airlift down but the pilot must have ice water for blood. Landing on an unlit crater pocked airstrip at night, within range of Northern Alliance guns, through a sky ‘owned’ by USN F-18 Hornets? Not a job I would have cared to apply for. November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
It seems I am getting my wish and I am not the least upset about it. The Mazar-e-Sharif prisoner uprising appears to be accomplishing the best we could hope for. According to an article in Fox News:
This avoids the messy problem of sorting, trying and executing them: an exercise that would almost certainly lead to freedom for many trained villains. It is much to our advantage they have opted to let Allah do the sorting for us. I’m still hoping for a futile last stand in Kunduz, followed by Marine Mayhem in Kandahar. I’ll hold judgement until there is confirmation of the Antonov. Even if true, there is nothing to say those aircraft aren’t piles of smouldering wreckage in various remote valleys. Our fighter jocks haven’t had near enough air-to-air practice this last month or two. It’s only fair. November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
16:15 GMT. A SkyNews reporter was told by one of Northern Alliance General Doud’s forward battlegroup commanders that as his forces rolled into Konduz this morning, they were surprised by the lack of hardcore Al Qaeda fighters. They then discovered from locals that for the last two nights, large Antonov transport aircraft have been landing at the airstrip in the isolated Taliban pocket and airlifting out the trapped foreign Al Qaeda fighters, along with their weapons, flying them to safety under the very noses of the Northern Alliance and Americans. If this report is true,and the hardcore of Al Qaeda personnel in Konduz have slipped away to points unknown, it is a major setback for the ‘war against terrorism’. November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
The new developments in the war against Taliban/Al Qaeda could well be the end game, not of the war against global terrorism, but of the first stage of that war. In some ways, the ‘Afghan Interlude’ might actually be the easiest part (a few weeks ago I never thought I would be writing that remark). At least we have a relatively clearly defined enemy in Al Qaeda and their Taliban patrons. There is still some hard fighting and dirty politicking to be done before Afghanistan is ‘finished’ but I suspect that once the appetizer is well and truly digested, it will be time for the main course: Iraq Hi Saddam, Condaleeza here. Did you think we had forgotten that Mohammed Atta met with the station chief of Iraqi Intelligence in Prague right before heading off to the USA? November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
A Christmas Song Since it is that time of the year, I thought to set my keyboard to bits to bring forth some cheering thoughts for the Holiday Season and the New Year. Cheerful that is, for those of us who are not living in caves…
November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
03:15 in the morning GMT. First reports are coming in on satellite and cable channels of a major airmobile helicopter insertion at an airfield near Kandahar by over 1000 US Marines, followed by artillery and other heavy equipment being brought by C-130 Hercules transports. This is clearly not just a raid. Semper Fi. Godspeed to you all, gentlemen. November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. – Herbert Spencer November 26th, 2001 | Comments are closed
Whilst I understand what Dale Amon is saying and largely agree that the American public will be far more resolute now than has been the case since the Vietnam War, I think you should not underestimate the capacity of George Bush’s political enemies to make mischief. If you think the likes of Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Edward Kennedy, Charles Schumer et al. are going to stand resolutely by the President if large numbers of body-bags start coming home, then I think you vastly overestimate their attachment to the interest of American society as opposed to their own narrow political interests. What is more, there are large sections of the US media who will do their damnedest to undermine the Republican Party the moment they no longer think it will be commercial suicide to be seen as ‘unpatriotic’. For all its many and varied flaws, the British media and the elements of the body politic that actually matter are wired rather differently. That is the reason I made those remarks in my earlier article. Unlike many of the more inbred nitwits in the British media (i.e. the Daily Mail), I do not subscribe to the idea that all the US military’s special forces all have two left feet and that the United States will immediately recoil with horror at the first sight of American blood. I have lived in the USA on many ocassions and have met enough people in the SpecOps community that I know otherwise. I agree with you that Al Qaeda did a very good job of delivering aversion therapy to the US public regarding casualties. But do not underestimate the vipers within when things start to get messy. They will play the ‘bring the boys back home card’ the instant they they think can safely do so. Perhaps I am wrong about them, but I suspect otherwise. November 25th, 2001 | Comments are closed
For those who have been following the ghastly career of Bert as he spreads evil, fear, despair and bizarre haircuts across the face of the globe, here is proof that there is no blow too low for this once loved character gone bad. Read the full horror of Bert’s treason for yourself. November 25th, 2001 | Comments are closed
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