How stupid are we in responding to the jihadi attack on Orlando?
By this point our jihadi enemies must be furious at our Left. A Moslem (and a registered Democrat) commits mass murder at a gay nightclub (which even mainstream Islam outlaws), proclaims his loyalty to ISIL--repeatedly, has his attack praised by ISIL Central, and yet still the Left insists that this has nothing to do with Islam and that Christian Republicans are really at fault. What, the jihadis must ask, do we have to do to get a little credit for having responsibility for our actions to bring the glorious caliphate one step closer?
The Army is adopting the reloadable Carl Gustav recoilless rifle rather than rely on the Carl-Gustav-derived single shot AT-4.
I learned to use the smaller single-use LAW. In basic training, the then-new AT-4 was demonstrated for us as something we would eventually learn to use in an Army career. And now it is being replaced.
The Obama administration is mostly taking drone strikes away from the CIA and putting the job in the military's hands--or at least the trigger finger part. (And try here for link if no direct access to WSJ)
That's fine. But do remember that the war on terror is not a body count exercise. Killing leaders (high value targets) should be a means to the end of defeating and discrediting jihad-prone Islamism.
And as I compile this data dump, the stupidity expands, which is related to the drone policy:
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that love and compassion are the best responses to terrorism during remarks to the media in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday.
Shall we unleash the James Taylor in our own country now? I'd rather respond with more dead jihadis on the way to getting Moslems overseas to put those little equal signs on their cars' bumpers.
Let me continue.
A Clinton loyalist twists reality so badly that it must have bruised his soul:
Notwithstanding the usual hype, a close reading of the 42-page report (plus timely recommendations and appendices) reveals that the State Department system was susceptible to cyberattacks both before and after Secretary Clinton’s tenure. Some experts have suggested that Clinton’s server was as secure, and maybe even more secure, than the department’s system.
Oh my Lord! Hillary Clinton's ploy was in fact done to defend our secrets by keeping them away from the State Department's vulnerable system? Seriously? Then why, pray tell, did Clinton defend her actions as not hiding her emails from FOIA by saying all of them were available because all of them would go to someone in the State Department? And why didn't she use her position as the Secretary of State to fix the problem rather than let the rest of the department use an insecure system?
How do people write and say this kind of obvious BS without damaging their very souls?
France is defending our position on the South China Sea's status as international waters:
French ministers present in Singapore also indicated that they plan to hold discussions with European Union partners in search of a guarantee that EU navies would more frequently navigate these waters in efforts to help retain the territorial integrity of the waterway and prevent further Chinese encroachment. While the Netherlands and the United Kingdom currently send ships to the area from time to time, France aims to coordinate a more unified presence and end long gaps between patrols by EU states engaged in the region.
France is a signatory to the law of the seas treaty. As I've long said to counter those who say we can only resist China (which doesn't abide by the treaty) from within the flawed treaty, why can't we enlist like-minded members of the treaty to help us resist China from within the treaty group?
The answer is, we can. And we did.
And ultimately, American military power, which our allies can support with their military power, is the ultimate guarantor of the territorial integrity of the international waterway.
In related news, Indonesia has resisted Chinese expansive claims of authority:
Indonesia and China clashed on Friday in their third naval confrontation this year when an Indonesian navy vessel fired at Chinese fishing boats and injured one person, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
Alone, Indonesia might not dare resist China's power. With others in the game, the risk is worth taking.
Western intelligence agencies believe the Cyber Caliphate is actually Russian intelligence:
In other words, the Cyber Caliphate is a Russian false-flag operation. Although that loaded term has been hijacked by tinfoil-hat wearers and fringe websites, including lunatics who think horrific school shootings didn’t actually happen, it’s a perfectly legitimate espionage method of venerable vintage. Spy agencies routinely pose as third parties for operational purposes such as agent recruitment and covert action. The nastier intelligence services will even masquerade as terrorists to further their agenda.
I did wonder how the shallow end of the gene pool that jihadis seem to recruit from could produce a credible cyber organization. Some talented individuals, sure. But cyber-war on this scale? Well, apparently the jihadis didn't manage that after all. Our friends the "reset" Russians in action.
I hope this description of our idiocy in trying to fight al Qaeda and ISIL in Afghanistan without fighting the Taliban--on the stupid theory that jihadis who only want to kill and oppress our Afghan allies are okay while international jihadis who want to kill us aren't okay--predates recent news that we have begun Afghan War 2.0 by hitting the Taliban too in order to help our Afghan allies win.
And in Mali, where a rapid advance by a small but well-trained French force broke the back of jihadi control of northern Mali in January 2013, the situation is getting worse as the central government dominated by the more numerous southerners refuses to make deals with the north on autonomy to keep the jihadis down for good.
Unless we go to Ogre-sized combat vehicles, are we hitting the limit of tank guns at 130mm, which the Germans are developing?
So there you go. And it helps me keep my personal vow not to go overboard on blogging. Which is why I try to avoid more than 100 posts per month.
