Friday, August 19, 2016

'We' have been killing a lot of folks in Yemen with Saudi Arabia

The first rule is not to lose.

The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

Warren Buffett

"U.S. withdraws staff from Saudi Arabia dedicated to Yemen planning

The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters.

If a Sudanese terrorist organization whose stated goal is to eliminate Egypt, 
shoots rockets over the border
and the Sudanese government doesn't respond, 
should Egypt use force to eliminate the threat?

What if Canadian militants targeted Alaska?

...Fewer than five U.S. service people are now assigned full-time to the "Joint Combined Planning Cell," which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.

That is down from a peak of about 45 staff members who were dedicated to the effort full-time in Riyadh and elsewhere, he said.

...An annual U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year.

...On Tuesday, a coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in Yemen, killing 19 people and prompting the group to evacuate staff from six hospitals."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa-saudiarabia-idUSKCN10U1TL

Two kinds of morality.

One which we preach but don’t practice,
the other which we practice but seldom preach.

Bertrand Russell

"Who is a terrorist?

The Lynch Mob Mentality

…that the Government labels Person X a "Terrorist" is not proof that Person X is, in fact, a Terrorist.

…that the U.S. Government, over and over, has falsely accused numerous people of being Terrorists -- only for it to turn out that they did nothing wrong -- by itself should compel a recognition of this truth.

…look at the reaction to the Government's recent attempts to assassinate the U.S.-born American citizen and Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  Up until last November, virtually no Americans had ever even heard of al-Awlaki.  But in the past few months, beginning with the Fort Hood shootings, government officials have repeatedly claimed that he's a Terrorist:  …The Government can literally just flash someone's face on the TV screen with the word Terrorist over it (as was done with al-Awlaki), and provided the face is nefarious and Muslim-looking enough (basically the same thing), nothing else need be offered.

War is cruelty.

The crueler it is the sooner it's over.

General William Tecumseh Sherman
Employed "scorched earth" tactics against the Confederacy

That's enough for many people -- including many Democrats -- to march forward overnight and mindlessly proclaim that al-Awlaki is "a declared enemy of the United States working to kill Americans"

…Even now, beyond government assertions about his associations, the public knows virtually nothing about al-Awlaki other than the fact that he's a Muslim cleric with a Muslim name dressed in Muslim garb…

I don't care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I.

I won't let you beat me unfairly, I'll beat you unfairly first.

Ender Wiggin
Fictional Military Strategist

…the identities of the other Americans on the hit list aren't even known, but that's OK:  they're Terrorists, because the Government said so.

…an authority figure appears and affixes a demonizing Other label to someone's forehead, and the adoring crowd -- frothing-at-the-mouth and feeding on each other's hatred, fears and desire to be lead -- demands "justice."  I imagine that if one could travel back in time to the Salem era in order to speak with some of those gathered outside an accused witch's home, screaming for her to be burned, the conversation would go something like this:

Mob Participant:  Hang the Witch!!!  Kill her!!!

Far Left Civil Liberties Extremist-Purist ("FLCLE-P"):  How do you know she's a witch?

Mob Participant:  Didn't you just hear the government official say so?

FLCLE-P:  But don't you want to see real evidence before you assume that's true and call for her death?

Mob Participant:  You just heard the evidence!  The magistrate said she's a witch!

FLCLE-P:  But shouldn't there be a real trial first, with tangible evidence and due process protections, to see if the accusation is actually true?

Mob Participant:  A "real" trial?  She's a witch!  She's trying to curse us and kill us all.  She got more than what she deserved.  Witches don't have rights!!!

Return to Question 1."

Glenn Greenwald

The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change…
…so, in a month's time,
a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen,
or maybe one that wasn't going to happen does.

Ian Stewart
The Mathematics of Chaos

"I have studied the enemy all my life.

I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders.

I have even read his philosophers…

I have studied in detail the account of every damned one of his battles.

I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances,
and he hasn’t the slightest idea of what I’m going to do.

So when the time comes,
I’m going to whip the hell out of him."

George S Patton