Tim Blair

I love Donald Rumsfeld. (I even love Donald Rumseld)

I've said it once, and I'll say it again . . . . I want a Rice-Rumsfeld GOP ticket in 2008.

The obvious next step is carpet bombing with B52's-the ultimate tool for winning hearts and minds. ...But since this will only intensify comparisons with Vietnam, probably won't happen until after the election

He's the best thing since Reagan

If they're massing in mosques shouldn't they be killed there? They took photos but couldn't get an AC130 onto it?

The regular army—infantry, armored, old fashioned blood and guts grunts—hate him 'cause he gets IT about 21st C. warfare, ie, Special Ops. Spec Ops are ruled by non-coms. The top-heavy brass in the Pentagon is a dinosaur, headed to extinction.

The press hates him 'cause he ain't intimidated.

My lefty friends here in NY hate him for the same reason PLUS he handles himself so well.

I love 'em too!

Concerned about hearts and minds eh Carlos?

Like the Vietcong hacking off the arms of infants who received vaccination shots from US forces, the facist thugs in Fallujah seem to be working the hearts and minds of the civilian population just fine.

The only thing that seem to work on their hearts and minds of these goons is the sound of an incoming AC-130.

Well anyone who saw tonights SBS could not fail to agree with that comment.
The fallujah mobs are described as "militants" oppressed by the American bullies.
Kofi Annan statement is gleefully revealed and added to stoke the fire. Most of the news is dedicated to the demonization of george bush.
Then joy of joys , we are told that most of the terrorist suspects in Europe are being released thru lack of evidence. Perhaps SBS will now invite them over here.
eat your heart out brits, we have two state funded TV channels here!

fidens,
I see the problem - we just can't seem to get a good war going. It's always these ugly, thuggy, goony, treacherous types shooting at us.. How about we invade Brazil? Think of the babes!

Carlos - sounds like one of those South American leftists. They are so rare. Marxists from the latino world, hah! Next you'll be saying they play soccer and sell cocaine to fund their communist ambitions!

I hear Chief Wiggles is auctioning a photo of Sadaam, Aziz and some other fascist. You should buy it Carlos.

You can have a furtive tug over your own personal pic of your beloved dictator, and the Iraqis get a free media - it's win-win mate.

O Holy Warriors, Rise in the name of Allah the merciful! Let Allah's great hand guide your sacred bullets at the pig-chewing infidels.

AKBAR THE GREAT

O give us a break, Akbar.

Akbar reminds me I must have bacon and egg buttie for lunch tomorrow - yum, grilled pig. I recommend it Akbar - you would really love cooked pig.

Funny that no one has too hot under the collar about the Thai police today chasing a mob of Muslim terrorists into a Mosque and gassing and machining gunning them to death in the holy of holies. Slight touch of hypocrisy here.

Some quotes from the linked article:

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld explained the Fallujah violence in blunt terms."

He sure did!! I love it when politicians speak bluntly and avoid the BS. I hate the 'political speech' most employ .. use a lot of words, but actually say NOTHING.

"U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is under fire for the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, criticized American military efforts."

This is no surprise, considering the source. I'd think Annan would want to keep a low profile considering all the info. coming out about the UN's 'Oil For Everything But Food' program in Iraq.

Some people just can't be embarassed, I guess.

"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also defended U.S. attacks on Iraqi militants in mosques.
" ... when individuals who are murderers, who are thugs, who are terrorists, go into holy places ... for the purpose of shooting at and killing innocent people and killing our servicemen and women, who are there to restore order, then this is a desecration of a holy place." "

Another voice heard from. Nice to see this from Powell.

I dislike our soldiers being FORCED into the situation with regards to the mosques, but if it's OK for them to use the mosques as military strongholds, it's equally ok for us to target them.

Give fair warning that we will defend ourselves, no matter where the enemy hides. Then, go in and clean up wherever we need to. If it's a mosque, so be it. I'd think the same of a church, a synagogue, monastery, shrine, etc.. Buildings can be replaced. No need placing soldiers' lives at risk because the enemy has hidden in a 'holy place'.

(I'd also LOVE to see a Rice-Rummy ticket next time as well.)

walter plinge:
"Funny that no one has too hot under the collar about the Thai police today chasing a mob of Muslim terrorists into a Mosque and gassing and machining gunning them to death in the holy of holies. Slight touch of hypocrisy here."

An obvious difference is:
-this all happened in THEIR country

Is it me, or is there more and more of this happening around the world since Iraq was liberated?

Time to pull the plug on the yanks:

The letter sent this week by more than 50 former British ambassadors to Tony Blair, urging him either to influence US policy in the Middle East or to stop backing it:

"We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States.

Following the press conference in Washington at which you and President Bush restated these policies, we feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment.

The decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a "Road Map" for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds.

... But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing effective has been done either to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence.

Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain.

Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.

Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land and which have been the basis for such successes as those efforts have produced.

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal occupation in Iraq.

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement.

All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the Coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case.

To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful.

Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region.

... The military actions of the Coalition forces must be guided by political objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from them.

It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local commanders.

Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition.

... We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the United States on both these related issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally.

We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency.

If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure. "

The signatories are: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne; John Birch; David Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge; Terence Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig; Brian Crowe; Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker; Marrack Goulding; John Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter Hinchcliffe; Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb and David Logan.

Also: Christopher Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan; Philip McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin Morland; Keith Morris; Richard Muir; Alan Munro; Stephen Nash; Robin O'Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew Stuart; David Tatham; Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin; Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy Varcoe; Hooky Walker; Michael Weir and Alan White

The US has seen first hand the benefit of the previous 4 decades of middle east policy - it was called September 11 and it would have been a precursor to other horrors if they had not acted. The US has got the message all right - has Britain? Wait another 10 years and see what state Europe is in, it will make the US seem like a picnic ground in comparison. That will also be the result of 4 decades of middle east policy and all on your front doorstep bulldog me old mate. Enjoy.

"What's going on are some terrorists and regime elements have been attacking our forces. And our forces have been going out and killing them." (emphasis added)

They attack, we kill. They try, we succeed. Although the kill ratios would suggest that that is the case to a large extent, Rumsfeld is still being a little euphamistic.

G'day British Bulldog,

Your post reminds me of the "Yes Prime Minister" episode in which Hacker is told that the perception is that the FCO is full of traitors - his answer is "Well its not full!"

The record of the FCO does not exactly inspire confidence in the judgement of fifty former ambassadors.

British Bulldog

None of those signing that silly letter are of the top rank. We are not talking about generals, but merely colonels and brigadiers in the Diplomatic Corps who have lost the plot. Isn't it funny these FO types are always wanting to talk and talk and talk, yet they always FAIL to achieve anything very much.

Well the islamofacists are running scared now. They are fighting with their last gasp because our vastly SUPERIOR culture has got the weapons and the courage to exterminate them. And they've fallen for the "flypaper strategy" that the Coalition has set up to trap them. Hence, all the nasties are flying to Iraq to get killed there. The only real hope they have is that the fifth column of the inane lefties in the West will aid them by exhausting our to fight on, just like it did in the Vietnam and in Northern Ireland where they pushed and pushed the "peace process" when the terrorists were just about beaten operationally.

I'm so bloody sick of your type blathering on and on about us having to give in and be nice to completely evil rengade muslims who think nothing of killing innocent civilians. Why should we give in? This a war we are fighting my friend! These islamofacists don't want ot co-exist with us, they don't want anything from us in the Middle East or anywhere else. They just want to kill us or convert us to their filthy, disgusting, barbaric worldview (I won't dignify their beliefs by calling them a religion). Well, at least Bush and the Coalition of the Willing know that we have to stamp out the islamofacists, even if twats like you are still busy wimping out and trying to find a way in which somehow we are to blame for the barbarism of terrorists.

These terrorists are responsible for their own evil deeds. Nothing justifies killing women and children, no matter how "oppressed" you are. In any case if these idiots stopped being professional victims and oppressing their own people with their silly religion they might actually be able to make something of themselves. Just think these nations have got gazillions in oil money, but they can't raise most of their people out of poverty. Sounds to me like our lefties should be complaining about the gap bewteen the rich and the poor in the Arab world before they start berating the West for anything at all.

Bulldog- I'll take a platoon of Marines over your
assembly of diplodorks.
Carlos- If a holy mosque in a holy city occupied
holy warriors is flattened by infidels in the holy month of ramadan, would you say "Holy Shit?

"Hearts and Minds". Pffft. Grab them by the balls and the hearts and minds will follow.

Once the USMC is let off the leash, they will be stacking up dead terrorists like a cord of wood.

Semper Fi.

Toryboy- "Coalition of the Willing"

Are you sure?? More like "coalition of the bribed, the desperate, the arm-twisted..."

The coalition you mention is actually reducing in number.

"coalition of the bribed, the desperate, the arm-twisted..."

Are you sure you aren't referring to the countries opposing the war?

Bribed - you mean like the UN "Oil for Food" scandal? With billions so far unaccounted for you can truly say the UN leads the world in at least one thing.

Rumsfeld is tops. Bring on Rice-Rumsfeld 2008 (although he is probably too old for that).

Fidens - I am being lazy here (I could google) - but are you sure the Vietcong story is not apocryphal? I have seen it a lot lately, but more in the sense of Kurtz in Apolcalypse Now and Heart of Darkness than actually having happened in Vietnam (although of course it may have happened in Muslim controlled states in Northern Nigeria after imams said that Western anti-polio vaccines were an attempt to sterilise Muslim girls, but even this might be apocryphal).

These things are quite common - Windschuttle points out the persistence of the 'soldiers using babies heads as footballs' meme in all atrocity histories in The Fabrication of Aboriginal History I, and this may be another one of those memes.

However, no dispute on the AC-130s!

I think we could really use those Thai police in Fallujah! Bomb the fuck out of 'em right there in their bloody Mosques. I think it shows better than anything how much care the Americans are taking, in that these creatures feel perfectly secure in these places with their weapons. That's all these Mosques represent to these fuckers, somewhere to incite violence, somewhere to plan death and destruction, somewhere to manufacture and store bombs and a safe place to shoot people from. Let them have it. Then maybe they wont be so fast to scurry into them like the filthy roaches that they are!
And Kofi Annan...what a hide he has to tell anyone they're making the situation worse. He more than anyone should be grateful to the Americans. They well and truly saved the U.N's sorry arse. If America hadn't got them off the hook for the Iraq mess, if American troops had packed up and gone home after Saddam had flouted yet another U.N. resolution..resolution 1441...where would he and his stupid U.N. be today?

In a lapidary example of the clarity of leftist thought, Kofi Annan, who has led the charge against the US/UK effort in Iraq, now says that only the US/UK could have done something about the UNSCAM oil scandal...

Brian, don't forget the Palestinian contribution to modern warfare - Red Crescent ambulances used for weapons transport...

Press is reporting that Marines are pulling out of Fallujah and letting Saddam-era general take over.

Don gets it. The mooks in Falluja/Najaf are gonna be trouble from now to doomsday. Better to kill them all now. Ok, so it's harsh. Tough shit.

Religious instruments: AK-47s, RPGs.

What, no Holy Hand Grenade?

Press is reporting that Marines are pulling out of Fallujah and letting Saddam-era general take over.

Nah. Read Wretchard over at Belmont Club (http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/). The press is predictably mis-reporting on a rear area redeployment being done to set up the final offensive.

I love the recent comment by a Marine commander in Fallujah. The press was mis-reporting as "an all-out offensive" the recent probing attacks by Marines to degrade the terrorist perimeter. The Marine characterized it as "playing patty-cake."

Rumsfeld sure knows how to tell it straight.

I only wished he stopped being infatuated with Special Operations, "transformation," and most of the military "fads." Sorry, Mike Force, but Special Ops is not the group you want for peace-keeping/foreign internal security operations. Sprouting cliches like "airpower will replace artillery" is not a good sign either, and neither is trying offload every single aspect of combat logistics and support to civilian contractors.

Other than those blind-spots, Rumsfeld is the man for the job. And he is prescient too - space-borne battle, anyone?

C.T.

I'd like very much to remind everyone who read the Rumsfeld quote with his being honoured by the "Plain Enlish" twerps for being -unclear, and not to the point-

sheesh!

Carlos-

You quote Walter - "Funny that no one has too hot under the collar about the Thai police today chasing a mob of Muslim terrorists into a Mosque and gassing and machining gunning them to death in the holy of holies. Slight touch of hypocrisy here."

...and you say-

>An obvious difference is:
>-this all happened in THEIR country

>Is it me, or is there more and more of this
>happening around the world since Iraq was
>liberated?

Give the wooly-headed nonsequiturs of your previous posts, I'm loathe to even attempt trying to figure out what the hell you're talking about. But hey, I'm bored.

So what are you talking about? More of what? Terrorists being killed? I hope there is. You have something against that? Really?

Or do you mean violence in general? You must be pining for the halcyon days before this war, when the lion slept with the lamb and all was peaceful in places like Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, East Timor... yes, Carlos, truly the Americans have let slip the dogs of war in Eden.

I'm hoping for Rice/Rumsfeld in '08.

> The press was mis-reporting as "an all-out offensive" the recent probing attacks by Marines to degrade the terrorist perimeter. The Marine characterized it as "playing patty-cake."

The press seems to have absolutly no idea what an all out offensive is. they seem to be under some misconception that the USA military is about as strong as Iraqs... the sad thing is the terrorists seem to think so also.

Dunno. I'd rather have Rumsfeld at the top of the ticket- Condi's plenty smart, but Rummy's had more management experience. IMO, Rumsfeld/Rice '08, Rice/? '12 would be the way to go.

Dave S,
Sorry my comment wasn't clear. What I meant was, since the war in Iraq there seems to be more muslim/terrorist incidents throughout the world. Now one of the reasons given by the coalition for going to war in the 1st place was to make the world a safer place. We know this is not true.

Carlos said:

What I meant was, since the war in Iraq there seems to be more muslim/terrorist incidents throughout the world. Now one of the reasons given by the coalition for going to war in the 1st place was to make the world a safer place. We know this is not true.

Why, Carlos! So you have inside information that the muslim terrorists would have returned to their homes to grow crops, raise children, and pray facing Mecca? Perhaps you should enlighten us with your intelligence sources? Why, Senator John Kerry would probably fly you to his Idaho retreat for a personal conference if you can produce such earth shattering evidence. This would win him the election, hands down.

Especially since Osama bin Laden issued his fatwa declaring jihad against the West in 1996.

#British Bulldog:
I assume by your nickname you're a pom? Then may I direct you to Melanie Phillip's site - she discusses that letter signed by those ex-diplomats, you should read it and learn something for once. Tim has already provided a link on the left.

#the Thai crackdown on muslim militants
I noticed in today's SMH, the headline called these criminals "teenage rebels" Hmmpf!

"Are you sure?? More like 'coalition of the bribed, the desperate, the arm-twisted...'" Blardy-blardy-blardy-blah. Sorry, no rhesus monkeys allowed; rhetard -- I mean, "rhactive" has been banned.

Lorna: to direct British Boredom to anywhere, you need to furnish a url. Just go ahead and paste it in straight; if he doesn't know how to select and paste into his address bar then too bad.

Ah ty Andrea for the reminder: The whiny types have to be spoon fed, don't they?

I don't know how to make the link look fancy, but Mr British Whiny Bulldog, you can manage a simple cut & paste, right? Scroll down to the April 28th entry.
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/

Carlos,

Purportedly there was a decrease in international terrorist attacks this past year, slightly down from '02 levels and significantly down from '01 numbers. "The figure in 2003 represents the lowest annual total of international terrorist attacks since 1969", from Patterns of Global Terrorism- 2003 (April 29, 2004)

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2003/31569.htm