Category Archives: Troops

Petraeus: A useful fool

He went to Congress and repeated the lie about the nasty anti-Muslim video being the cause of the Benghazi attacks and murders. His usefulness done, he fell under the infidelity sword Barry’s AG had hanging over his head since before election day.

To at least one observer, retired Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor—a Desert Storm combat veteran whose caustic battle book Warrior’s Rage rants against careerist, non-combat generals like Petraeus—he had it coming.

“Petraeus is a remarkable piece of fiction created and promoted by neocons in government, the media and academia…Petraeus was always a useful fool in the Leninist sense for his political superiors….”

And when the fool was no longer useful, Barry exiled him in permanent shame. Now he seems to be telling a new story in Congressional hearings, setting Democrats and Republicans to arguing about what it means.

There’s a clue to the reason behind Gen. P.’s downfall in old photographs of him in uniform: the “chest candy” (once called “fruit salad” in a more modest epoch) that precedes his smile. He wears every ribbon for every paper-pusher medal he ever received as a staff officer and aide to generals, plus more shiny badges than even Colonel Qaddafi used to wear, if not as large. He did dispense with Daffy Duck’s sash. Who knows, in the egotistical, banana-republic style of today’s generals and admirals, he may have one.

Makes you think he wasn’t really very sure of himself, which may explain why he threw his marriage and his children to the winds for a fling with his nubile biographer. He may well have done it before but wasn’t caught.

Good luck to the IDF

I wish it wasn’t necessary to put the brave young men and women of the Israel Defense Forces in harm’s way in Gaza, but after the terrorists of Hamas and its ragtag hangers-on fired rockets acquired from Iran at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it seems to be necessary.

According to Austin’s private, open-source intelligence company Stratfor,

“….during Cast Lead [in 2008], they operated at night and creat[ed] their own crossing points [into Gaza] as opposed to using previously established points.

“They also relied heavily upon combat engineers, armored construction equipment including unmanned D9 bulldozers, and dog teams to establish their own avenues of approach instead of using common routes through Gaza.

“Ground units also worked in heavy conjunction with air assets for reconnaissance and close air support, and had access to comprehensive artillery support. This allowed them to avoid improvised explosive devices, heavily mined primary access routes, ambushes and counterattacks militants had planned near the assumed IDF approaches.”

But they’re bound to face surprises this time which could see more of them killed and crippled, each one a major tragedy for their immediate family and everyone in such a small country.

“Already in this round of fighting, unconfirmed reports have emerged saying that militants are using [shoulder-fired ground-to-air anti-aircraft missiles]. If these rumors are true, it could force a more limited role for rotary-wing air support as well as anti-tank guided missiles and thus seriously hamper the firepower, cover and protection provided by armor.”

Read more: Considering an Israeli Ground Assault in Gaza | Stratfor.

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, the IDF asks bloggers and news media not to say exactly where one of these unguided Hamas rockets lands, which might help them improve their targeting. Done.

Our new stealth taxes

While the Democrat news media pretends that there’s only an enduring argument between Barry and the Elephants in Congress over whether to impose new job-killing taxes on “the rich,” new stealth taxes on the middle class from Obamacare are already poised to take effect in January.

According to an analysis by my insurer/mortgage lender USAA, taxpayers filing individually with wages and self-employment income above $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly, never mind how many children for either category) will pay a new 3.8 percent surtax on the lower of:

their net investment income or their modified adjusted gross income above the aforementioned thresholds. And there’s still more to come in terms of employer health-benefit accounts and others more complicated and challenging to understand. Naturally.

These $200K to $250K folks used to be considered upper-middle income. Obviously, in Barry’s cosmology, they have become the new “rich.”

“It’s party time, chumps”

This is a funny video. Also a weird video. But weird can be funny, so long as it’s not mean or ugly. No pejoratives were used in the making of this video, unlike so much of the toxicity that passes for “culture” in America today.

The quote of the headline is put in Romney’s mouth in the video, and it’s very appropriate considering what half the electorate did to him on Tuesday. They rejected his sunny optimism and a good chance at lower unemployment and renewed prosperity and, instead, opted for four more dreary years of the Liar President and his nasty, divisive politics.

It’s party time, chumps: half celebration, half wake in the new divided states of America.

Now we’ll see what Barry has (secretly) planned for us and endure what he has promised:  the death of the coal industry and subsequent astronomical electric rates burdening business and the middle class; higher gasoline prices for everyone as the EPA further undercuts our oil industry; the most expensive and intrusive entitlement ever in Obamacare; a further downsizing of our Navy, Army, Marines and Air Force; and who knows what mischief to come in the Middle East.

Nothing good for Israel, I’m sure. Get ready for a nuclear Iran and a dramatic shift in the balance of world power to the dictators King Barry loves so much.

UPDATE:  Today, I’m sure we’ll be assaulted with the usual blather about why Romney lost. Republicans need to be more “Progressive,” tune in to women and Hispanics, and blah, blah, blah.

It’s really much more simple. As my mother-in-law said months ago, Willard had no balls. He let Barry get off on Benghazi instead of hammering him for lying to the world. That and the fact that half the electorate apparently still get their views from the Obamedia.

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Election Day: Will you be complicit in the murder of Ambassador Stevens?

Cooling out the mark

If you vote for Barry, then you are the mark that’s been cooled out, sucker.

“From the time it took office, the Obama administration has sought to suppress the very concept of a ‘war on terror’ or the terrorists’ war on us.

“The painful farce of calling the Fort Hood murders ‘workplace violence,’ instead of a terrorist attack in our midst, shows how far the Obama administration would go to downplay the dangers of Islamic extremist terrorism.

“The killing of Osama bin Laden fed the pretense that the terrorism threat had been beaten. But the terrorists’ attack in Libya exposed that fraud — and required another fraud to try to “cool out” the voters until after election day.”

And when it comes to perpetrating fraud, Barry’s your man.

Via a commenter at Neo-Neocon, which also has a good Fox News special report on Benghazi video. While the rest of Barry’s court media joins in “cooling the mark,” Fox is on the case.

UPDATE:  So is the Drudge Report, the sometimes shrill but always influential news source that, if you remember that far back as some of us do, broke the Slick Willie-Monica scandal open when Newsweak was sitting on it.

MORE: Iowahawk proves (once again) that mockery is the best medicine.

Lots of blame to go around on Benghazigate

“Why did the National Security Council watch passively for seven hours while our ambassador and three other Americans died?”

Why, indeed? The Liar President couldn’t have let them die without help from all concerned, including the “workplace violence” (i.e. Fort Hood jihadi massacre) Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs of Staff  should resign, now!

UPDATE:  Fox News and the Christian Science Monitor are on the case. As Instapundit says: Remember, no one died in Watergate.

MORE: From military writer Bing West in National Review: “Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours,” Mr. West wrote.

“If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F-18 [Navy fighter jet] in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them. This procedure was applied often in the Iraq and Afghanistan [campaigns]. Conversely, if the attackers were terrorists, then the U.S. commandos would eliminate them. But no forces were dispatched from Sigonella [Italy].”