tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57995012011-04-22T00:57:50.079-04:00The War on Terror is a conflict of biblical proportions - literally. Terrible forces are being unleashed. I'm just trying to make sense of it all.Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-2864724044377382042007-02-08T22:37:00.000-05:002007-02-10T21:07:00.811-05:00

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran envoy 'abducted in Baghdad'The Bush administration's new strategy in Iraq is fairly opaque to the average American. The war in Iraq is a very complex animal. What we see in the media is a confusing, maddening mish mash of violence and blood served up by a media that understands very little of what it is showing us.So when things that are significant happen, events

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-52213030945890845282006-12-13T19:52:00.000-05:002006-12-13T19:57:45.733-05:00

This news item, carried by CNN on Dec. 13th, is a major reason why the US cannot simply leave Iraq. As tempting and desirable as that may be, to do so would be to invite a wider regional conflict that will inevitably draw us back to the region and perhaps in an even worse strategic positition than we are at present. Iran is a Shiite power. Saudi is a Sunni power, as are several of the

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1164133071539692842006-11-21T13:17:00.000-05:002006-11-22T16:13:15.803-05:00

A clear case of flying while Arab (FWA)I watched some footage on CNN's website regarding the removal of the Imams from the plane. Specifically, I saw an interview with a young white woman and an older white man. When they asked them to recall what about the men seemed suspicious or of concern, they noted the following:"One was wearing sunglasses and it was dark on the plane""They were kinda of

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1164053589063461162006-11-20T15:13:00.000-05:002006-11-20T15:13:09.396-05:00

KRT Wire | 11/20/2006 | Rangel says he's serious about reinstating the draftNow, this is precisley the kind of absurdity that I do not want to see the Democrats engaging in. While its an arguement to say that the threats we face currently in the world require a larger military (a view echoed by Abizaid in the recent hearings), addressing that need with the draft is not necessary. Beefing up pay

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1163377086993239032006-11-12T19:18:00.000-05:002006-11-12T19:18:07.003-05:00

Democrats to Press Bush to Redeploy Troops in Iraq - New York TimesIts been a while since I got into this blog. The mid term elections have come and gone and the Dems took control. Now the question is whether they will foolishly over reach and misread the American people, or restrain the urge to whole sale reverse course in Iraq.First off, the Dems won not because they have such great ideas for

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1143778665169093362006-03-30T23:17:00.000-05:002006-11-21T17:52:57.400-05:00

CNN.com - Carroll walks unharmed into Sunni party office - Mar 30, 2006Qoute"Ex-hostage says she was 'treated very well' during 3-month ordeal"Huh? Is it just me, or is anybody else confused by this? I'm getting really angry listening to the statements of this woman. She has been held captive for months, threatened with death. The terrorists released video of her showing her sobbing in fear

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1089128769904707282004-07-06T11:46:00.000-04:002004-07-07T00:26:21.456-04:00

NPR : The Tavis Smiley Show for Tuesday, July 6, 2004 A commentator on the Tavis Smiley show today drew what I thought was an apt analogy between the Islamic extremists and Jihadists killing Americans and Iraqis in Iraq, and the white supremacist thugs of the early 20th century (the Klan and related sorts). He talked about todays practice of beheading as a tactic to initimidate and terrify for

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1088873856349267372004-07-03T12:57:00.000-04:002004-07-03T12:59:12.973-04:00

Iran satellite images raise nuclear questions The game of nuclear hide and seek with Iran continues. As I noted in the previous post, a nuclear armed Iran cannot be permitted to arise. The Iranians have begun a game of diplomatic escalation with the U.S., which begun with the arrest of U.K. soilders. That opening salvo was answered nine days after the Iranian navy detained eight British

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1088480762283922672004-06-28T23:46:00.000-04:002004-06-30T15:18:01.356-04:00

CNN.com - Officials rebuke Iran for nuclear policy - Jun 26, 2004 From the US perspective, Iran cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. The reason is because the U.S. government assumes that were Iran to obtain WMD, those weapons would be provided to terrorists who would use them against the United States. That is an intolerable threat and one we believe to be real. The terrorists who

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1087971949498478602004-06-23T02:25:00.000-04:002004-06-29T00:17:11.870-04:00

CNN.com - Pentagon: South Korean hostage beheaded - Jun 22, 2004 Everyone is a target. You don't have to be American for the terrorist killers to target you. But like I said in a prior post, this is not going to work. The terrorists really got America wrong. Our mindset I mean. I mean, they think that these beheadings will frighten us. And it is frightening. But all it really results in is

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1087657861784358922004-06-19T11:11:00.000-04:002004-07-01T17:49:58.203-04:00

ALERT! American Hostage Paul Johnson Beheaded; Video of Act Reported -- GRAPHIC CONTENT Another beheading. The terrorists clearly intend to horrify and frighten us. The sad, pathetic thing is that it won't work. The U.S. government won't ever accede to demands to prevent a hostage from being killed. Period. Its just not going to happen. The terrorists also want to impact the population back

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1085454919460355292004-05-24T23:15:00.000-04:002004-05-24T23:22:18.293-04:00

Strategic Forecasting, Inc. I can't say there is anything comforting about this analysis from Strafor, but at least you can rely on them to have an understandable viewpoint.

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1085243142410878862004-05-22T12:25:00.000-04:002004-05-27T21:04:30.063-04:00

Baghdad Burning One thing about the internet is that you don't have to be relegated to mainstream media for your information. In the middle of a war, I'm not sure anything could be more important than being able to get information firsthand from people on the ground. Like the author of the link above. Riverbend is the name of a blogger in Baghdad. A young woman who is telling it like she is

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1085177786914277732004-05-21T18:16:00.000-04:002004-05-21T18:16:26.913-04:00

Oxford Student: 20th May 2004: This War on Terror Now, I find this article by some student at Oxford to be just plain naive. Its not surprising that it is, since I had the same sort of outlook when I was a student. His basic argument seems to be that if we would just politically do whatever the Islamic world desired, no one would attack us. He says that you can't win a war on terror. But

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1085166016973918382004-05-21T15:00:00.000-04:002004-05-21T15:34:24.326-04:00

Wizbang: The Video You've been hearing about the horrific video of the Nicholas Berg murder by Islamic militants. The video is available to see in a variety of places on the internet. I hunted it down at the site above, which also lists other places online that have a copy of the video. I watched it because I want to know the character of the enemy we are dealing with. Uncensored. I don't

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1085159524438893162004-05-21T13:12:00.000-04:002004-05-21T15:30:02.166-04:00

Videos Amplify Picture of Violence (washingtonpost.com) More pictures have emerged of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. I listen to Rush fairly regularly. He is outraged about the release of these pictures by "liberal" media outlets, and labels it as simply more of the partisan mainstream press' attempt to unseat Bush in November. Rush is actually a fairly good political

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1084336491253164752004-05-12T00:34:00.000-04:002004-05-12T01:02:44.640-04:00

Aljazeera.Net - US hostage beheaded The arab world is crying out about the prison abuses in Iraq. Americans are outraged too. Many are calling for Rumsfield to step down. But where is the condemnation in the Arab world against this atrocity? If its there, I don't hear or see it. To Americans, there is a quiet sympathy with this kind of act in the Arab world. Americans feel ashamed that our

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1083420333698064822004-05-01T10:05:00.001-04:002004-05-01T10:14:32.903-04:00

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion Now, its not like we don't have enough problems with the war on Terror and dealing with the aftermath of Iraq. Its not like we are not already hated and despised enough in the Arab world. Now, some moron soilders go and make our entire military look bad with stupid hijinks with prisoners, in the Saddam's most feared prison at that. The morons even

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1071552816996776222003-12-16T00:33:00.000-05:002003-12-24T02:37:54.090-05:00

Saddam's capture gives major boost to Coalition mission in Iraq - Jane's International Security News My third child and second son was born on Dec. 12th, Friday morning about 9:00 am. The next day they captured Saddam Hussein. I will tell my son that he was born in interesting times. Its good that Saddam was caught alive. I think it will be important for the Iraqi people to have closure on

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1064025890569843472003-09-19T22:44:00.001-04:002003-09-19T22:44:50.253-04:00

CNN.com - U.N. vote backs Arafat - Sep. 19, 2003 How does one parse the Arab/Israeli conflict? On the one hand, the Arabs are living under the yoke of occupation. Their movements restricted, subject to attack by Israeli forces, living in desperate conditions in many ways. Uncitizens of any country, voting members of an authority under siege. The Israelites, surrounded by enemies and besieged

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1063425611699255682003-09-13T00:00:00.000-04:002003-09-13T00:00:11.543-04:00

The Globe and Mail The deal that got US sanctions lifted off Libya will pay out $4 million a piece to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims. French victims of another bombing of a plane that Libya was responsible for are also receiving upgraded compensation packages. They had a deal, but it was not as good as what the U.S. got, so they held up the deal until they got a better one too.

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1063391926597743992003-09-12T14:38:00.000-04:002003-09-12T14:38:46.550-04:00

America's growing network of bases America's need to have a ready access point to the world's hot spots has given us a new network of "virtual" bases, ready to be revved up and utilized for military operations on fairly short notice. Bases in a lots of out of the way, seemingly god forsaken places in the old soviet republics and countries in Asia. With these bases, agreements and overflight

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1063339444555518552003-09-12T00:04:00.000-04:002003-09-12T00:04:04.573-04:00

Online NewsHour -- Profile: Hamas Hamas. Dedicated to the destruction of Israel. I know something of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Whatever side you come down on though, it just seems to me that you can't deny the futility of armed conflict. Hamas seeks no accomodation with Israel. They seek its destruction. Israel wants to survive, and cannot give ground to Hamas or

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1063368755405966622003-09-11T18:31:00.000-04:002003-09-13T18:33:07.256-04:00

Well, the anniversary of 911 has come and gone. Lot of emotions and feelings opened up again for so many people. I was in New Orleans at a training on 911. I'd been there for a day. I was staying at a hotel in the French Quarter, which happened to be directly across the street from a strip joint (didn't think my company was really winning one for family values that day). I woke up that morning

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5799501.post-1063306381989022062003-09-11T14:53:00.000-04:002004-05-19T00:05:25.656-04:00

I read Stratfor.com regularly in order to get a strategic understanding of whats going on with the war on Terror. With information resources and analysis like this available, I wonder why the media spends so much time with banal, lacking in depth commentary on the war on terror. I also wonder why the president does not take the time in an address to break the war down to the people like this.

Aaron + Alainehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09609253738367441591noreply@blogger.com