Read it for yourself. My earlier comments on the memo and it’s contents hold.
TO: Gen. Dick Myers, Paul Wolfowitz, Gen. Pete Pace, Doug Feith
FROM: Donald Rumsfeld
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism
The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the USG changing fast enough?
DoD has been organized, trained and equipped to fight big armies, navies and air forces. It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror; an alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere – one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem.
With respect to global terrorism, the record since Septermber 11th seems to be: We are having mixed results with Al Qaeda, although we have put considerable pressure on them – nonetheless, a great many remain at large.
USG has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis. USG has made somewhat slower progress tracking down the Taliban – Omar, Hekmatyar, etc. With respect to the Ansar Al-Islam, we are just getting started. Have we fashioned the right mix of rewards, amnesty, protection and confidence in the U.S.? Does DoD need to think through new ways to organize, train, equip and focus to deal with the global war on terror? Are the changes we have and are making too modest and incremental?
My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?
Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us? Does the U.S. need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists?
The U.S. is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists’ costs of millions. Do we need a new organization? How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools? Is our current situation such that “the harder we work, the behinder we get”?
It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog. Does CIA need a new finding? Should we create a private foundation to entice radical madradssas to a more moderate course? What else should we be considering?
Please be prepared to discuss this at our meeting on Saturday or Monday. Thanks.
Actor Fred Berry has reportedly passed away in Los Angeles, at age 52. Conflicting info on cause of death at tis point; CNN doesnt know, but AP says natural causes.
At 52? Berry was well known for hs addictions, which he supposedly kicked in the 80’s.
Berry played “Rerun” on the old TV show “What’s Happening!!”,and if I’m not mistaken did a cameo in the movie “Child Star” as himself.
Supposedly, he’d lost a lot of weight since the show, as I’m told shows in the movie, so it’s not overly clear what the cause is.
Sad to see him go, though.
Just in case anyone thinks it’s only the states where the press is tilted to the left…
An interesting writeup in the Toronto Star today. Apparently, the girlfreind of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris is in the process of going htough a rather nasty court fight with her ex… and what do you know… all this ends up in the paper, with Harris’ picture right up front and center. Read the article and tell me… can you imagine a liberal or an NDP pol being ‘covered’ this way by the STAR?
And check this act:
Right under the link about Harris and his girl, is a story about a ‘liberal focus on the family’. The ocasion? Says the paper:
“Premier Dalton McGuinty’s swearing-in yesterday was a family affair, and he says families will also be the focus of his new Liberal government” (Full link for THAT bit of sunshine)
No… no liberal agenda HERE is there?
What a crock…
Not that there hasn’t been enough to comment on in the BITSBLOG, here, but there certainly hasn’t been enough to peak my interest enough to write a full weekly commentary. Not much has changed. The Democrats are still lying about President Bush, the Economy and Iraq. The trends in each tend to Favor Mr Bush for re-election, and tend to favor the Democrat candidates to simply join hands and colletively stroll off a high cliff together. which, may I say, they seem intent on doing anyway
The trip Mr. Bush went on seems to have gone fairly well, given the conditions. Nothing huge to report there.
I notice with some small satisfaction that the Marlins are handing the Yankees their heads. I rather wish the Cubs and the Sox had gne, but I can live with this, I suppose.
(Shrug) I suppose I’ll come up with something by this weekend…
Much has been said about that memo of Rummy’s that leaked the other day. Here’s my two cents:
Questions about how exactly that memo got out aside.. if the intent of leaking the memo was as I suspect, to discredit the administration’s policy on Iraq and on terrorism in general, it failed.. miserably so.
The left has tried in the past to compare our efforts in Vietnam to our more current situation in Iraq. At the risk of giving credibility to such nonsense, I’ll allow for that comparison for a moment.
Consider the Johnson administration, and Robert MacNamara, and their refusal to do any of the self-questioning that Rumsfeld is clearly doing in that memo. The difference, I think is not that the position of our actions in Iraq are any more questionable, but rather that Rummy is open-minded enough to entertain such questions as a part of the operating process for himself and his teams. A plus, in my book. If viewed on that level, I can’t imagine that even liberals will find fault with it. Thing is, I doubt it will be viewed at that level by his detractors on the left. Liberals will take it as ‘proof’ that even he doesn’t trust the policy.
But if I were Hamas, PLO, ElQueida, or any of the other scum, I’d become quite worried by this memo, when I saw the degree of resolve in solving this issue permanently. I think the (admittedly unintentional) message for the American people from this memo is that this problem will be solved… that this administration is committed to that end.
That alone will make liberals nervous, I think.
I wrote about one aspect of this, a short time back, in respect to Mel Gibson’s new movie.
Of course I caught hell for it. But the proof of my points keeps piling up….
I noticed this feed from the UK this morning, (and apparently, Boortz, who I read daily, noticed it too)
The European Union’s elite are determined to destroy Europe’s Christian heritage, Italy’s reform minister, Umberto Bossi said yesterday.
Then there’s Ann Coulter:
“In an emerging scandal, NBC News has produced tapes proving beyond deniability that the new deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence is … a Christian.”
Well, gang… we’ve identified the issue. Will we attack the anti-Christian movement as such, or will we sit back and let ourselves be dissolved in the name of ‘diversity’?
Let’s remember; The Communist Chinese are trying to do the same thing that both the Islamofascists and the American Left are attempting; Eradicate Christianity.
Question is, will we let them?
I haven’t fully worked this through yet, but there are some unavoidable parallels between this guy who broke the Fed’s secruity to put those boxcutters on the planes, and the so-called ‘white-hat’ hackers, who break systems security… both supposedly in an effort to expose and cure security problems, in each environment.
As a professional server jockey, (And thereby inherently, a network security person as well) I’m intently aware of, and have formed opinions about, the White-Hat crowd, over the years. This new situation with the boxcutters and so on, on the planes; all it does, to my mind, is to give a physical manifestation to the argument the so-called “White Hat” Hackers have been making all along. This is simply a different application of the same argument.
The right or wrong part I’ve not worked out yet, frankly, on either one. But I’m not sure, whatever conclusion we come to, that we can treat one differently from the other. I’ll be interested in seeing your mail on this one.
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly.
One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & more welfare programs. In the middle of her heart felt diatribe based upon the lectures she had from her far left professors at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school.
She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.
Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Mary.” She replied, “Mary is barely getting by”, she continued, “all she has is barely a 2.0 GPA” adding, “and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies.” But to explain further she continued emotionally, “But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn’t even show up for classes because she is too hung over.”
Her father then asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to her friend who only had a 2.0.” He continued, “That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair & equitable distribution of GPA.”
The daughter visibly shocked by the fathers suggestion angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!”
The father slowly smiled and said, “Welcome to the Republican Party.”
(A tip of the hat to my Sister for sending that along)
You knew it was only a matter of time before the thuggery that is inexorably attached to unions would come out in California.
Two guys in Chula Vista who decided they didn’t want to work under the conditions laid out under the existing agreement, chased the guy who need the job more than they… chased him in their car, stopped him, and beat the snot out of him with a baseball bat. Reports suggest he stopped because they were trying to run him off the road. After beating him up they then proceeded to beat up the car he was driving. The surgeons will have to rebuild his face for it to heal.
The Union thugs are under arrest at the moment. Not only should the people in question be jailed for the remainder of their lives, so too should the Thug Union Bosses for an equal amount of time.
According to reports I’m seeing, the DNC-Funded leftist hate group, International A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning a their usual hatefest Saturday, October 25, in DC.
According to their website, they plan on marching past the White House right up to the Pentagon to protest American ‘occupation’,imperialism’ and the usual list of crap. The usual suspects are listed as speakers, of course. It’s a sure bet that the so-called mainstream media is going to pitch this as if this loudmouthed minority can be taken as proof that the American public opinion as a whole is turning against our mission in Iraq.
But many groups are already planning on showing up and shouting them down.
Last time the DNC in the form of ANSWER tried this (Last February in SanFran… here’s some pics of the leftists being put back into their place) they basically got shut down by counter protestors. Given what I see going on around the net, it’ll be more of this same this time.
But the question remains, which group will the press cover? A look at the pics, vs a look at what the media wrote the SanFran event up as, should give us a clue. Unbiased press, my butt.
It would appear so.
I noticed a few days ago that around half of my June archives are gone, and have been considering what to do about it. Today, I find links from a number of sources including Sullivan, that suggest there’s something far more sinister than a corrupted file going on here.
Apparently, the targets are blogs who support our actions in Iraq, and those who support the President. No shock, I suppose, since such people as would benefit from such attacks have always lacked something i the maturity department, in my view. I’m starting to think I should be doing a backup blog somewhere. I may do that, as part of the new system which I’m thinking of putting up about 1/1/04. (more on that later) Certainly, I’ve written enough to tee off the idiots…
Meanwhile, here’s the link to the story, on Winds of Change, who took the time to explain what kind of attack they were under.
And here’s a statement of responsibility for the attacks
This stuff isn’t just playtime, folks. This is a battle for the hearts and minds of America and the world.
It’s one they won’t win. They attack us because they know the only hope they have is disinformation, or at least limiting the real information’s flow.
Rather like the Democrats.
Boortz, this morning:
SOONER OR LATER THE TRUTH COMES OUT
As the Democrats continue to hammer their “Bush lied, Bush lied” theme, bit by bit the real story is coming out.
First we have this insistence on the part of Democrats that Bush told the American people that Saddam Hussein was directly tied to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. An editorial writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer made just such an assertion, and then was challenged by a reader to back it up. The editorial writer took the challenge, did the research, and then wrote a column in which he admitted that Bush had never, in fact, made any such statement.
Democrats are also fond of saying that Bush’s claims that there was a connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda was a lie. Looks like the democrats are going to have to eat some crow on that one too. A recent issue of an independent Baghdad newspaper contains an interview with a former Iraqi army officer who talked about the presence of Al Qaeda terrorists in training camps in Iraq.
“They were a mixture of Arabs, Arabs from the Peninsula [Saudi Arabia], Muslim Afghans, and other Muslims from various parts of the world. They were divided into two groups, the first one went to Al-Nahrawan and the second to Salman Pak, and this was the group that was trained to hijack airplanes. The training was under the direct supervision of major general (M. DH. L) [only identified by initials] who now serves as a police commander in one of the provinces. Upon the completion of the training most of them left Iraq, while the others stayed in the country through the last battle in Baghdad against the coalition forces.
“On April 5, 2003 orders were issued to send these individuals to the battle front immediately. About 100 of them were sent to the 11th company division in Nasiriya. And for the sake of history I will say that this division’s endurance was due to some formidable fighters, the commanding officer and members of Al-Qa’ida who fought with intensity and brutality that are seldom matched, while they were praising Allah.”
This report will be largely ignored by Democrats. They don’t want the truth to get in the way of their lie or their drive to return to their rightful position of power in Washington.
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad, acting as his own lawyer, withdrew a request today that might have allowed him to introduce mental health evidence at sentencing to convince a jury to spare his life.
Acting as his own lawyer? A sure fire way to become a martyr to whatever cause he’s following, I think.
Does anyone see a similarity between this and the Long Island case involving Colin Ferguson? It’s all looking strangely alike. And of course, like Ferguson before him, Muhammad pulls out the race card…. asking a witness, “Was it because we was black that you remember us?”
Are we going to see ‘Black Rage”, a defense used by Ferguson’s Slimeball mouthpeice, Kunsler, being used again, here?
Or perhaps “Muslim Rage”?
BTW, I’m still not convinced the DC Sniper wasn’t somehow related, if in a secondary way, to the Muslim nutcases world wide.
A nice Blog, I’ve found while looking though my fellow Bloger(Blogspot) blogs.
HEALING IRAQ
Nice to have an Iraqi perspective.
One major point I see being made, here:
Most of the attacks are overrated. I know this. The following story is an example:
One afternoon I had just got back from work and was going to change my clothes when suddenly *BOOM* The windows shattered all around me in pieces, there was a smell of something like gunpowder. I looked out but there was dust everywhere. I remembered that my brother was outside. I carefully opened the door, and to my surprise found 4 American soldiers in our garden, they were knocking on my grandmothers house door, I worriedly asked them what happened. They told me to stay away. I offered to open the door for them, which I did. They entered and went upstairs all the way to the roof, I stood in the hall with one of them who informed me that a bomb exploded behind their humvee just in front of the house, no one was hurt. They were suspecting someone attacked them from this house. The others came down, apologized to me and my grandmother (who didn’t understand what was going on anyway) then left the house.
I went out to find a crater in front of the house. My god that was close. By a miracle nobody in the street was hurt. The idiots who planted that bomb were dumb enough to put it inside a sewers drainage which absorbed the shock of the blast. The only damage was the sound it made. Most of our windows were shattered.
After a while the soldiers left the place. Suddenly a reporter and a cameraman from Al-Arabiyah station appeared, they were so fast. I crossed the street to take a look. They were talking to some bearded guy who I hadn’t seen before in the neighbourhood. He was enthusiastically talking about the humvee that flew in the air, and the 4 injured soldiers. I didn’t see any of that. I was bewildered. Someone next to me told me that nothing like that happened at all. My brother and a couple of friends of his started to chant in front of the camera: LIAR, LIAR,… Everyone laughed at this, but the bearded guy started to swear by Allah. Someone pointed out that the bearded guy wasn’t even in the area when the bomb exploded. Uh oh, I thought, he seemed to know about it before it happened. The cameraman violently shoved my brother and his friend aside telling them to shut up. I stepped forward and gave hime a push from behind. He almost fell over. I warned him that the camera he was holding would be in a thousand pieces if he dared touch my brother again. He backed up. A neighbour of ours hollered them to come and see the damage in their house. They refused to do so and left.
In the evening, Al-Arabiyah reported the following: 3 Americans badly injured and one Jeep damaged at …. in Baghdad. They showed the bearded guy talking and edited the rest of it.
Thats the way media in present day Iraq works.
I’m going to be perm-linking this Blog tonight, and keeping an eye on it; and I encourage you to, as well.
Editor’s note, half hour later: I see Sullivan has this up as well.
