Thoughts Aloud

Archive for December 29th, 2008

I have chaffed at the notion of “limited warfare” since Vietnam. I reckon that a people get the government they deserve, and I have no sympathy for the wives, children, and supporters of those who have declared war on me and mine. The current hand wringing over a few civilian casualties in Israel’s war with Hamas is nonsense. The Palestinians freely elected Hamas for their government, precisely because these terrorists vow to push Israel into the sea. Actions have consequences, and the sooner they learn of their foolishness, and are completely and utterly vanquished beyond all will to try it again, the sooner peace will become possible in Palestine.

Vanderleun has recycled a five-year-old memo he wrote for the Israelis to deliver to the Palestinians. Too bad they didn’t use it; but hopefully they are in the process of executing its intent, for they don’t seem to be paying the international community much heed:

We have, with your agreement and assurances of a better performance, given you time, money, professional help, medication and a more than reasonable offer of land for you to live in while you work out “your issues.” In the course of these meetings we feel we have been more than forthcoming in our attendance to your “special needs.”…

It has come to our attention, through a continuing rain of the body parts of our citizens onto our streets, that “your issues” do not seem to be resolvable through considered and mutually agreeable negotiations. The outcome of these ‘negotiations’ in the recent past seems to us to be one of we give and you take and then you kill us. We have decided that this is not a peace project that we wish to continue…

Bear in mind that we have not in recent memory over-reacted against your unremitting efforts to exterminate us. We have been patient and measured in our responses, cognizant of a watching world and not wanting to seem, even for a moment, to be as savage and violent as those who have been waging a coward’s war against us for decades. We have, at all points, been as honorable in war as possible — even when the wars in which we were engaged were not fought by honorable adversaries but by cowards and murderers…

Because we are weary of having our streets used as your martyr’s mausoleums, because we are extremely angered when we must place the shredded bodies of our children into body bags, because we would feel a lot better getting up in the morning if we knew we’d be coming home at night, we have decided we must, regretfully, engage in methods which will, finally, either get your attention or leave you without the capacity for attention in the first place…

Should you fail to do so and, as we stated above, even one more of our citizens should be killed by the cowardly methods you have perfected over the years, we will conclude that your entire society values martyrdom more than life and peace and will endeavor, to the utmost limits of our ability, to supply you with same.

Read the whole thing. It is masterful. ◄Dave►

I posted about Prof. Panarin’s prediction a month ago: “Russia Gets It!” Now there is a WSJ Article about it:

“There’s a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario — for Russia.” Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

While the article makes it clear that a lot of people don’t take him seriously, his credentials and access to data are sobering. So is his map:

Divided States of America

I certainly don’t agree with his predicted territories, and I suspect Sarah Palin isn’t going to give up Alaska to Russia without a fight; but the notion of a breakup during the coming depression is sounding less nutty all the time. Another telling quote:

Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia’s biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt “a pyramid scheme,” and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington’s role as a global financial regulator.

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama “can work miracles,” he wrote. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

A Ponzi scheme has never been saved by a miracle… ◄Dave►