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by A PROUD AMERICAN Irma S. Chambers

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him:

“Son, stand there and tell me what you see?”

“I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses.” he replied.

“OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush.”

Our son giggled and said “OK.”

“Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country.” my husband said.

“OK Dad, I’m pretending.”

“Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this son….what do you do?”

“Dad?”

“What do you on son?!”

“I call the police, Dad.”

“OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?!”

“Dad, but the police are supposed to help!” My son starts to whine.

“They don’t want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it,” my husband says.

“But Dad…he killed her!!” my son exclaims.

“I know he did…but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you’re pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children.”

“Daddy…he kills them?”

“Yes son, he does. What do you do?”

“Well, if the police don’t want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him.” our son says.

“Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him,” my husband says.

“But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can’t stop him by myself!!”

“WHAT DO YOU DO SON?”

Our son starts to cry.

“OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?”

“What Daddy?”

“He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then…he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!”

“Daddy…”

“WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!”

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers,�I close the blinds, Daddy.�

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him… “Why?”

“Because Daddy…..the police are supposed to help…people who needs it….and they won’t help….You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won’t help either…they won’t help me stop him…I’m afraid….I can’t do it by myself…Daddy…..I can’t look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible
things and…and…..do nothing…so….I’m just going to close the blinds….so I can’t see what he’s doing……..and I’m going to pretend that it is not happening.”

I start to cry.

My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells him….”Son”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Open the blinds because that man….he’s at your front door…”WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!!”

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up this tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: “I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I’M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I’M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I’M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!”

I see a tear roll down my husband’s cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight, and cries…”It’s too late to fight him, he’s too strong and he’s already at YOUR front door son…..you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what’s right, even if you have to do it alone, before……it’s too late.” my husband whispers.

THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove this evil man from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window and see crimes on humanity. So that my nine year old son won’t grow up in a world where he feels that if he just “closes” that blinds the atrocities in the world won’t affect him. Today the second day of “WAR on IRAQ” I felt compelled to write this and pass it along. Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my husband tried to teach our son.

“We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal, bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights.

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone — not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.

ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we’re just not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don’t be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.

ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don’t be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won’t have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You don’t have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness — which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights,”

ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don’t care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back, for good, to the hole you came from.

If you agree, share this with a friend. No, you don’t have to, and nothing tragic will befall you if you don’t. I just think it is about time common sense is allowed to flourish - call it the age of reason revisited.

Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert.

Lesson number one: In the mid 1990’s there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured died. 60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people, well they didn’t tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff is to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too).

Forget everything you’ve ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again out loud!)!

These weapons are about terror, and if you remain calm, you will probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and their “Experts,” make it sound.

Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians, they are not weapons of mass destruction. They are “Area denial,” and terror weapons that don’t destroy anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That’s the difference; you can leave the area and the risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it and that’s why they need all that spiffy gear. These are vapors and/or air borne particles. The agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that defines when/how it’s used.

Every day we have a morning and evening inversion where “stuff,”
suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack will have it’s best effect an hour of so either side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles they are heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches, basements and underground garages. This stuff won’t work when it’s freezing, it doesn’t last when it’s hot, and wind spreads it too thin too fast. They’ve got to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale it for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or wound you. Too little and it’s nothing, too much and it’s wasted. What I hope you’ve gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents and equipment so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff the more you realize how hard it is to use.

We’ll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house, plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don’t die in the first minute and you can leave the area you’re probably gonna live. The military’s antidote for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent, they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes, after that the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air and staying calm.

Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning.

Sudden headache, dimness of vision (someone you’re looking at will have pinpointed pupils), runny nose, excessive saliva or drooling, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, nausea, stomach cramps, twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you. If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn’t be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head up wind, or, outside. Fresh air is the best “right now antidote”.

If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Kayro syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body weight, what a crop duster uses to kill bugs won’t hurt you unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the ground for awhile. Remember they have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes while all you have to do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting space between you and the attack.

Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect your blood’s ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn’t be.
The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails, &rapid breathing. The military’s antidote is amyl nitride and just like nerve agent antidote it just keeps your body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your best individual chance.

Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle it let alone use it. It’s almost impossible to handle safely and may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to the things you’d see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don’t pop them. If you must, don’t let the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading.
It’s just as likely to harm the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff’s enemy.

Bottom line on chemical weapons (it’s the same if they use industrial chemical spills); they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to heard you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream.
They have to get the stuff to you, and on you. You’re more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area.

Soap, water, time, and fresh air really deals a knock-out-punch.
Don’t let fear of an isolated attack rule your life, odds are really on your side. Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn’t, fall to the ground!

The heat will be over in a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out-going, and one on it’s way back. Don’t stand up to see what happened after the first wave; anything that’s going to happen will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you’ll probably live for a very very long time.

Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of tanks. These will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that’s the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. Here’s the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a half mile circle of death and destruction, but, when it’s done it’s done.. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic device for a good distance, it’s impossible to say what and how far but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.

There are lots of kinds of radiation, you only need to worry about three, the others you have lived with for years.

You need to worry about “Ionizing radiation,” these are little sub atomic particles that go fizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus and keep on going. That’s how you get radiation poisoning, you have so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It’s the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets radiated. The good news is you don’t have to just sit there and take it, and there’s lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta particles, you just gotta try and avoid inhaling dust that’s contaminated with atoms that are emitting these things and you’ll be generally safe from them.

Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my brain hurt) and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material. On the other hand, it takes a lot of this to kill you. Your defense is as always to not panic. Basic hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits and vegetables are OK if there’s no dust on em (rinse em off if there is). If you don’t have running water and you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.

Finally there’s biological warfare. There’s not much to cover here.
Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don’t share drinks, food, sloppy kisses, etc., … with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don’t have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare is as easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of dollars trying to get it right? If you’re clean of person and home you eat well and are active you’re gonna live.

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you’d take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff and I’m not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one either (how’s that for confidence). We have a week’s worth of cash, several days worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don’t leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don’t have them. These people can’t conceive a nation this big with this much resources. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don’t run around like sheep they won’t use this stuff after they find out it’s no fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America. You’ve only gotta protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.

Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn’t the best.
This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations. If you don’t like my work, don’t nit pick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around three pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the United States can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

SFC Red Thomas (Ret) Armor Master Gunner Mesa, AZ
— GBU, Dave
— David Ford
— de435@earthlink.net

Todays Armed Weather Report is mild with a 100% chance of an ass kicking arriving over Iraq on Wednesday. Ok so I’m joking…and I feel bad about it…so here is the real Iraq weather report from an official source:

Ok I didn’t say how official, but it’s more than likely to be true. Finally we’re going to get this damn thing over with. It’s only been 12 years in the making and we’ve only allowed Iraq and her allies Russia, France, China, Germany, etc to jerk us around constantly since then. Today the UN pulled it’s people out of Iraq. The United States has asked all Americans to leave Israel, Syria and Kuwait….the French were asked to stay. Tonight Bush prepared the nation for the very likely possibility of war with an ultimatum for Saddam Hussein and his sons. I truly believe this will be a turning point in history and one in which people will remember who sided with who. We have many allies around the world both public and present at our side. And on the home front I think it’s time to pull together as a country. You may not all agree with what’s going on but I think it’s time to pull behind our president. Instead Tom Daschle, leader of what remains of a once proud and respected political party had this slimeball partisan response: “I’m saddened,” Daschle, D-South Dakota, said in a speech to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “Saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.” Wow, he blame our President. What a complete asshat. How about blaming the guy that has failed to respond to 12 years of negotiations, countless resolutions, pleads from all over the world. How about blaming the guys who kills thousands of his own people before having breakfast and then after breakfast negotiates deals for illegal weapon technology with the French and Chinese. How about blaming that guy. Asshole. Thank goodness at least Joseph Liebermann gets it: “It’s time to come together and support our great American men and women in uniform and their commander-in-chief,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democratic contender for the 2004 presidential nomination. He has been among the most supportive Democrats of a possible military strike against Iraq. “If military action is necessary, the fault will clearly be Saddam Hussein’s,” Hell, even Kofi Annan gets it: “War is always a catastrophe. It leads to major human tragedy, lots of people are going to be uprooted, displaced from their homes and nobody wanted that and this is why we had hoped that the Iraqi leadership would have cooperated fully and would have been able to do this without resort to use of force.” Well we’re off to war. I wish all our troops the best, I hope you all return home safely and as quickly as possible. Despite what the press would like people to think, a hugely vast majority of American support you in this task we have been forced to do. Good luck.

Lately the local media has been going on and on about a recent incident with the local police department. For your sake I’ll describe the event. A local Somali man was walking down a street carrying a machete and a crowbar. Police told him to stop and tried several times to get him to put down the weapons. Specially trained officers were called in that are trained to deal with the mentally ill. They followed him for seven blocks, before finally shooting him and killing him on the spot.

Now the local Somali community is in an uproar. They are screaming racism and police brutality. Basically the usual bullshit that follows a police shooting. This happens every time and it’s always the same arguments. I’m sick of it, so I’ll cover each of the Somali communities grievances here and explain why they are bullshit.

First of all they claim that the police should have used non-lethal methods. Of course they are forgetting that the police did attempt to. They shot this man with a Taser gun TWICE. Only the first time had any visible effect on him. He fell down and then got up again right away before police could restrain him. Of course since the Somali community would rather cry police brutality, this fact is conveniently forgotten.

I even saw a quote by one Somali woman, “Why didn’t they use mace??”. Ok my first thought is “what a damn fool”. Is she confused or retarded?? Mace isn’t exactly a long-range weapon. You have to get close…oh and remember this man has a machete and crowbar he’s swinging around. Does mace still sound like a good idea??? Only if your not the one actually have to fire it. Of course this woman was conveniently back behind police barriers, protected by police officers. She might do well to remember that.

Now they are also claiming cultural differences. Can anyone explain to me in what part of Somali culture carrying a lethal weapon down the street is encouraged? And if you think your culture is being disrespected so badly here, your free to return to Somalia. I assume there was a reason you came here in the first place, so I’m guessing you’d instead just prefer to keep bitching.

Now of course they are also claiming a language barrier. They say that the man didn’t know English. This is bullshit, but for sake of argument we’ll assume they are correct. I still don’t think this is a valid excuse. You are in America, if you expect to be able to function in this society, you better damn well know English. Quit expecting everyone to conform to you. You keep reminding us you are a minority, why do you expect the majority to conform to you then?

Now, regarding the language barrier, they complained that police should have asked Somali bystanders for help in translating. First of all, the police are supposed to be protecting bystanders. The last thing they are going to do is put them in more danger. And while we’re on the subject, why didn’t the Somali bystanders translate anyway??? What was stopping them from yelling out “stop!! drop the weapons!! They are going to shoot you!!”. If it was such a good idea, there was nothing stopping on-lookers from doing that exact thing. But of course it sounds good to say afterwards when the press shows up.

The Somali community leaders keep referring to this man as innocent? Is this meant to be funny??? This man was carrying and swinging a lethal weapon on city streets. This man refused to follow police orders. This man also struck a police unit with his machete. Do these sound like innocent actions?? But I guess they are always innocent aren’t they? They would still claim this guy was innocent if he mauled an officer or neighbor.

Oh and why would a innocent man, already be under observation by the FBI?? Oh of course the Somali community forgets to mention that. Convenient how these “trivial” details are forgotten, isn’t it?

But this man is mentally ill!!! Ok, then why is he not being attended to?? Why is he not on medication. What the hell is he doing on the streets alone?? How did this mentally ill man come to possess a lethal weapon?? Oh and remember that two officers specially trained in dealing with the mentally ill were on scene, including one that was also trained as a negotiator.

Yet another Somali woman was quoted as saying “Why did they have to shoot to kill?”. I’m starting to wonder if that whole neighborhood has a severe brain deficiency. If a police officer fires his weapon, that means that all other options have been exhausted and the officer still believes that the public, fellow officers or himself are in danger. When this is the case, why would you do anything else?? If you are forced to shoot, you damn well better shoot to kill. Police officers are trained to aim for the largest mass in the body and this is of course the torso. This is the easiest to hit and really if you have to shoot your not shooting just to make noise. You are shooting because you need to hit your target. The torso is the easiest to hit. What logical reason would the police have to shoot at anywhere other than the torso for anything but a fatal shot? But let’s not be logical people…remember the best method to determine public policy is pure emotions, not logic, right??

And of course I’m sure the officers just love it when they have to shoot someone don’t they? It just makes their day, especially when it could have been prevented. There is nothing more exciting than killing another human being is there? You realize how much many cities spend on the counseling for police officers because of mental damage that is caused when a police officer has to shoot someone??

Also this crazy man was shot a total of 16 times. The Somali community is mad because he was shot so many times. Of let’s break this down. There were six officers involved in the shooting. This comes down to an average of 2.66 shots per officer. First of all, when human beings are in a high-stress situation, they tend to develop “tunnel-vision” perception. They are aware of only what they are concentrating on. Therefore when an officer started shooting, he may not even have been aware that other officers were firing. But our police officers are superhuman right?? And it’s got to take an experienced and trained officer hours to fire two shots from the gun he’s been cradling for years right?

Also it is a misconception that when a person is hit with a bullet they fall over and are no longer a threat. This is certainly not the case, especially for someone that took two hits from a taser gun and kept going. Therefore, officers are trained to fire and continue firing until the suspect is knocked down and is no longer a threat. This they certainly did. They didn’t do the job half-assed, what a horrible tragedy!!

Also, the evening of the shooting I heard a detail, that while small I think is absolutely critical. I can’t help but noticed that our “unbiased” media hasn’t mentioned it since. Apparently all the officers began firing at the exact same moment. It wasn’t that one started firing so the rest followed his lead. Each one at the exact same moment in time independently made the decision that the situation had reached the point where lethal force was required. This wasn’t a group of police officers getting together and saying “let’s kill this minority!!”. No each officer, individually at the EXACT same moment made the decision to fire. More than likely the suspect did something at that exact moment that forced the officers to fire. But if we fail to keep that in mind, the story sounds much better doesn’t it?

Of course there is the usually argument that he was killed because he was a minority. If he was white, he would still be alive….wrong. Recently, another police shooting happened…this time a Caucasian upper-class male was killed. It involved a Caucasian airline pilot. He had been threatening his wife and children. After they left he got out a gun and was waving it around. Police told him to drop it and eventually had to shoot him. They also emptied their guns on him and he died on the scene. What’s the difference between these two cases??? Well he was white and was treated the same way this Somali was….imagine that? But you know what the big difference was??? This shooting wasn’t broadcast on the news for day after day. There wasn’t a big outcry over it. The news barely covered it.

So once again, we hear these same arguments. Once again I am reminded of how bullshit these arguments are. Once again, I feel like I want to vomit over the stupidity of some of these outraged citizens. Rather than follow the same rhetoric over and over, take the time to learn the facts and form your own opinions. But then again that would make sense….and besides, that would require effort. It’s much easier to arbitrarily condemn someone else.

Ok the following story came out of Iraq recently. It’s been around several other sites, and I’ve seen bits and pieces of it verified by several news sources such as CNN, FoxNews, The Guardian, etc. It is from an Iraqi living near, and working in Baghdad. The story of who it’s from and how it got out is fairly complicated. If you really care, email me but I assure you it’s the real deal. Here it is, followed by my comments:

A week ago on the way to work I saw a huge column of blackest-black smoke coming from the direction of Dorah refinery which is within Baghdad city limits, thought nothing of it really. A couple of weeks earlier to that a fuel tank near the Rasheed army camp exploded and it looked the same, stuff like that happens. My father was driving thru the area later and he said it looked like they were burning excess or wasted oil. Eh, they were never the environmentalists to start with; if they didn�t burn it they would have dumped it in the river or something.

The smoke was there for three days the column could be seen from all over Baghdad being dragged in a line across the sky by the winds. During the same time and on the same road I take to work I see two HUGE trenches being dug, it looked like they were going to put some sort of machinery in it, wide enough for a truck to drive thru and would easily take three big trucks. A couple of days after the smoke-show over Baghdad I and my father are going past these trenches and we see oil being dumped into the trenches, you could hear my brain going into action, my father gave me the (shutup-u-nutty-paranoid-freak) look, but I knew it was true. The last two days everybody talks about it, they are planning to make a smoke screen of some sorts using black crude oil, actually rumor has it that they have been experimenting with various fuel mixtures to see what would produce the blackest vilest smoke and the three days of smoke from Dorah was the final test.

Around Baghdad they would probably go roughly along the green belt which was conceived to stop the sandstorms coming from the western deserts. I have no idea how a smoke screen can be of any use except make sure that the people in Baghdad die of asphyxiation and covered in soot. I think I will be getting those gas masks after all.

Well my first thought is this was maybe another try at using trenches to stop allied armored units. Iraq tried that in the first gulf war only to see our tanks roll right through them barely slowing down in the process.

However, they are filling them with oil and one would assume they intend to set them on fire. Ok, well the obvious question is why?? I mean the Iraqis learned in the first Gulf War that by starting the oil rigs on fire it created a dark black smoke that caused our laser guided bombs some problems.

However, this time around we’d most likely be using GPS guided bombs. I’d have to think that the Pentagon already has the GPS coordinates for any potential targets in Baghdad as well as the GPS coordinates for targets NOT to hit. And one would have to assume that Saddam knows this. So what could they be for?

So here’s my thought, which is based upon nothing except my own knowledge and thought process. They’ve learned that this smoke negatively affects laser guided bombs but wouldn’t be effective against GPS guided bombs which we would primarily use. Now what would we likely use laser guided bombs against??? Most likely moving targets such as vehicles. Now I find it hard to believe that these trenches would create enough smoke to blanket the city (although I admit perhaps I’m not getting a feeling for the sheer scale involved here). But obviously this smoke would completely blanket this road, making bombing this road extremely difficult. In addition, attacking anything on this road would be very difficult with the fumes of the burning oil. Although someone passing through the area with a gas mask and other such protections would probably be fine for a short time.

So with all that put together it’s my guess, that perhaps this is an escape corridor. That Saddam is likely to flee Baghdad by way of this road before the ground forces reach Baghdad. The smoke would protect him from danger from both the air and ground. For how long I have no idea but it’s a thought.

On the other (and more serious hand) anyone in the city is likely to die from the fumes. I mean I think we can all agree that Saddam is a ruthless dictator. However, is he really THAT inhumane to eliminate an entire city to, at least temporarily, save his own ass? I’m not sure I can answer no to that question.

Well things are really shaping up on the international scene. Germany, France and Russia all declared they would do whatever they have to do stop the war on Iraq. It looks like a UN resolution won’t happen for the US, and if Russia and France follow through with their threat to veto it. Now contrary to what you might think I really hope they do veto it. The UN would never recover and would quickly become known as a defunct organization that won’t follow it’s own declarations and refuses to act upon anything. Resolution after resolution has come and gone, none of them have been enforced, even the one that proclaimed to be Iraqs last chance. The United Nations isn’t in danger of becoming the League of Nations, they ARE they League of Nations.

And then there is NATO, a multilateral organization that is largely funded by the US. During the last Gulf War, it became alarmingly obvious that the capability gap between the US military and that of the rest of NATO (except perhaps Britain) was insurmountable. Forces couldn’t even operate together, as the technology difference was too great. Not that it really matters since most of the forces NATO could muster would be American anyway. However, the political side of NATO is what is disturbing. The diplomats within NATO have become increasingly critical of their “ally” across the pond. Jealousy of their hegemonistic “ally” is becoming all too obvious.

All together it appears that multilateral foreign policy is increasingly becoming a giant pain for the US government. Not only difficult and time consuming but also dangerous and costly as is clearly shown in our current situation.

Finally someone in the EU is noticing, and the obvious outcome (especially considering the history of those involved) is enough to send any European into a panic. The Guardian (UK news source) covered a speech given by Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, which I’ll quote the parts of here.

“What I say to France and Germany and all my other EU colleagues is take care, because just as America helps to define and influence our politics, so what we do in Europe helps to define and influence American politics,” Mr Straw told MPs on the Commons foreign affairs select committee. “And we will reap a whirlwind if we push the Americans into a unilateralist position in which they are the centre of this unipolar world.”

Mr Straw referred to the UN and Nato and said: “It would be very unacceptable if we were to place those institutions at risk.”

I think that Mr Straw has reason to worry. Remember that historically the United States’ preferred foreign policy is isolationism. In fact even as recently as the past 50 years, Europe panics if the slightest hint of America returning to isolationism appears. This time I think they have a very real reason to worry.

Europe seems to have forgotten many costly lessons of history. The first being the lessons of World War II, that appeasement against a tyrannical dictator will not work and only delays the inevitable and indeed makes the inevitable even more costly. The lessons of Vietnam (in which we bailed out the French…again) seems to have been forgotten as well. Those lessons were that you shouldn’t fight unless your prepared to win and don’t stop fighting until the fight is won. In fact, Europe has not even learned
the obvious lesson of the 9/11 attacks, that being that we can no longer afford to wait for a threat to strike. We must prevent the threat from forming in the first place by striking first and striking hard.

The loss of these lessons among our European allies makes multilateral foreign efforts close to impossible. Continuously we find ourselves subverting our own vital national interests to the leftist government of Europe, Russia, China and others. The UN which is funded in no small part by the United States, has increasingly become a sounding board for people to criticize the United States.

The United States with its technological superiority, massive economy, powerful military now has to contend with an increasing resentment by the other countries of the world, even it’s allies. Not to say this isn’t inevitable. In the Cold War, you chose between the US and Russia, now it’s a choice between the US and everyone else.

But being the lone superpower brings with it certain obligations and responsibilities. It now becomes your responsibility to stick up for the oppressed and speak for those that can’t speak for themselves. If something terrible happens somewhere in the world, the first question will be “Why didn’t the Americans prevent this?”.

At the same time we are faced with increasing hostilities among both friends and enemies. Our enemies seek to destroy us in whatever way possible. Through the use of weapons of mass destruction, sabotage and terrorism they seek to demonstrate even a meager amount of power in order to obtain legitimacy in their region of the world. Even our friends seem to line up against us. Most are desperate not to be seen as simply puppets of the United States, if not only for their foreign image, but for their own
collective self-esteem as well. In an effort to demonstrate this, they show “power” by attempting to block the US in whatever means possible. By appearing that you can stand up to the worlds superpower, you inherit some of that image.

While all of this may seem inevitable, it also makes the job of the United States increasingly impossible. Not only are they criticized for defending the defenseless but they are also verbally and politically attacked for defending their own vital national interests.

Yet the United States continues to consult allies and perhaps she should. But when these same allies have little to offer other than shallow cliques and cold hospitality, these consultation quickly become exercises in condescension or phoniness. And no nation or state should be forced to continuously subordinate its own interests to those of other states, especially when its actions actually protect those other states from harm. Which is why Americans, at some point, just get on with it and ignore the chorus of whining from around the world.

Eventually however, these painful efforts in multilateralism could very well lead to the unilateralism that Mr Straw worries so much about. And this transformation may already be in the works. Already there seems to be the first rumblings of such unilateral ideas. The uselessness of the UN and NATO, once only spoken in hushed jokes and grumblings is now for the first time being openingly spoke of. The thought of abandoning the UN which has always been taboo, is now the subject of, if not serious debate, at least off-the-cuff remarks. The worth of NATO and it’s many European bases is part of official speeches about possibly closing many of them. Complete apathy about the opinions of our allies is becoming increasingly common.

When you put it all together, a very real and serious trend is appearing to form. That being that in the end, the United States will eventually ignore allies who refuse to cooperate in the war against terrorism and terrorist states and do what she needs to do. Those allies who cooperate freely and without prompting will likely be rewarded. The rest of the world becomes at risk of being left to it’s own devices.

That day may not yet be here, but it’s clearly the road we are traveling down. Diplomats and politicians throughout Europe seem to see it coming. Is it too late to stop it? Should it be stopped?? I leave that to history to determine.

As you’ve probably heard the human shields that made such a scene about parading into Iraq have quietly snuck back home with their tails between their legs. They waltzed off to stop the tyrannical imperialist hegemon leading the United States from bombing the sweet flower-filled country of Iraq. Along the way they hurled every insult imaginable towards the US and her allies and insisted they would never return. Well just as I predicted they would, they’re back….imagine that.

First of all they have all sorts of problems getting to Iraq to begin with. And apparently every single hardship they suffer is the fault of the US. Many came down ill…ya that was Americas fault. A crazy Italian wandered off with one of their buses? Ya that damn George W Bush must have made him do it. They suffered a flat tire…well it’s definitely CIA sabotage. It occurred to none of them that this problem could be due to the fact that the buses they were traveling 3000 miles in were made over 35 years ago. Then of course, being very intelligent they squandered the last of their cash on Prozac in order to cheer up the war-weary Iraqis. Stay with me people, this gets more bizarre.

Then they get to Iraq and they were not immediately granted access to the Iraqi civilians by their Iraqi “hosts”. I’m sure this came as a shock to them, after all Iraqi officials were supposed to be pure angels right?? They were supposed to be able to play with children!! Nope not allowed. How, about working along side the courageous Iraqi civilians. Well 200 government minders and dozens of guards with AK-47s will have to do.

The shields went to Iraq with the intention of protecting family homes, hospitals, schools, orphanages, etc….basically all the places that the US would go out of their way NOT to bomb. Aren’t these brave souls really making a statement??

Then they are told they instead have to occupy things like power plants, oil refineries, water-purification sites…of course all are located next door to major military installations. They are given an ultimatum, either occupy “strategic sites” that are likely to be bombed in a war or leave the country. In fact, they are told it is pointless to protect anything else….such as civilian housing. Wait a second, I thought the Iraqis were the “good guys” right? Apparently not, cause all these brave souls are on their way out of Iraq.

So they make a big show of parading off to help the enemy with tired cliques and shallow claims of bravery. Now when they see the enemy for what it is they come crawling back. When they made huge speeches on their soapboxes about how they were going to stop this war by being human shields what did they honestly expect?? Did they actually think that involved staying at the Baghdad Hilton, eating at the buffet and enjoying a good game of cribbage in the afternoons??? You left as human shields yet your not willing to shield anything. How can you honestly be this naive??

In my opinion any Americans among this group should be charged with treason and hung on the White House lawn. This absolutely sickens me and I see no reason for us to let them back in the country. In fact I would actually be offended if they were allowed to live in the same country with me, with the same freedoms and yet have the audacity to betray America like this.