AMF: A Hero Rests
It's finally Friday. This week has been a little rough around the edges, but I think I'm making progress on some big projects. More about that shortly. First, the news.
The one, maybe two people who actually read this may remember that in yesterday's post, I talked about a communique` from the British ambassador that the French leaked. It claimed that the fight in Afghanistan is hopeless, and it's all the US military's fault. The Guardian has a similar article, because the British are much more daft than they admit. Meanwhile, Michael Yon has a new article up about Afghan compounds. It's a quicker read than most of his or Totten's pieces, and has some great aerial pictures to illustrate. At any rate, the big news in Afghanistan/Pakistan in the last couple of days is that Baitullah Mehsud, the Waziri leader of Taliban forces in Pakistan, may have died of kidney failure. (BBC, AP) There are also rumors that he might have died in a drone air strike earlier this week.
In other Afghanistan-related news, Afghanistan and Syria are competing for a seat on the IAEA board. For those of you who forgot, Israel destroyed a clandestine Syrian nuclear site in September of '07, and the bombing was immediately condemned by North Korea (which most analysts interpreted as an accidental admission that North Korea had been helping the Syrians in the first place). Not surprisingly, the Iranians are backing the Syrian bid for the IAEA seat. The fact that Syria would even be eligible for an IAEA board seat is proof that the IAEA, and the United Nations that it's a part of, are a complete and total joke.
Bahrain is calling for a Middle Eastern bloc of some sort, that would include Iran, Turkey, and - get this - Israel. Have a look for yourself.
Honestly? I think this would be awesome, and I wish that it could happen. The so-called "Arab League", which is the closest thing the Middle East has to something like this, is basically just a public relations platform for Arab thugs to denounce Israel. It would be awesome if legitimate Arab countries like Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Morocco, and Mauritania could help to solve issues like the situation with Israel, or Iran's nuclear program. Unfortunately, even the Arab countries with whom the Israelis have diplomatic relations generally call for Israel's destruction in their own media; and that's to say nothing of Iran, which threatens to do so openly. Still, even if it will never happen, and even then, never work, good on the Bahrainis for even suggesting it.
So, what about the Somali pirates(!)? I know you were waiting for it. Somalia has asked Russia for help with the Somali pirates(!), and Russia has basically waved them off. The European Union is supposedly going to assemble an EU naval force to fight the pirates, but with their limited efficacy in Afghanistan, and their brilliant battle groups strategy, I'm less than inspired. Meanwhile, there are some claims that the pirate threat could close the Suez Canal. I'm sure that would be awesome for prices on, well, pretty much everything.
Okay, so a couple of quick things, and then I'm off. First, remember how I just finished reading the Orkneyinga Saga? Well, isn't it just my luck that I'd find it online a week and a half after finishing it? Good grief. At least that means that I don't have to type it out myself from the paperback in order to include it on my (someday) upcoming revised archive CD-ROM. I should really get some work done on that one of these days.
In other news, I think I may have figured out the correct combination of my schedule, and the nearest YMCA's schedule. I hit the pool at 1600 yesterday, was out before the kids started their swimming lessons at 1630, and it was all good. I finally got the schedule for my workout plan plugged into a nice HTML table. Expect to see that next week. The current plan is to start the week after next, as I'll be leaving town tomorrow and returning Monday evening. So, assuming I don't post it this weekend, watch for it Tuesday. And that reminds me, I forgot the Stuff Fly Wants list last week. Bollocks. I may work on that this weekend while I'm gone.
So, I mentioned that I'll be out of town this weekend. I'll be spending the weekend with the Butt Rubber and Olive Oil, and then attending a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. The funeral is for Lieutenant Commander Ralph C. Bisz. You can read about him here and here. There's also a good article about it here. So why am I going?
When I was seventeen, I took a class trip to Washington, DC. (Being from the West Coast, this was a pretty big deal.) I bought a set of dog tags from a dude in a shack on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that had the information for Lt. (JG) Ralph Bisz, a Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam. I researched his background through a couple of POW/MIA websites, and have kept the dog tags to this day. Through a course of events that I won't go into, I was contacted by LCDR Bisz's cousin (Bisz was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant Commander), who updated me on his status. That was in late June. We've kept in sporadic contact, and a few weeks ago I asked if the family would be comfortable with me joining them for the funeral, since DC is just a few hours away. (How's that for providence?) He said that they'd be delighted, and that there were going to be guys from the squadron (VA-163, the Saints) there as well. Needless to say, I'm extremely excited about this opportunity to honor an American hero. I'll post more as I'm able, maybe by the end of next week.
Alright, folks, I have some things to get taken care of, and then I have to get to work. Have a great weekend.
The one, maybe two people who actually read this may remember that in yesterday's post, I talked about a communique` from the British ambassador that the French leaked. It claimed that the fight in Afghanistan is hopeless, and it's all the US military's fault. The Guardian has a similar article, because the British are much more daft than they admit. Meanwhile, Michael Yon has a new article up about Afghan compounds. It's a quicker read than most of his or Totten's pieces, and has some great aerial pictures to illustrate. At any rate, the big news in Afghanistan/Pakistan in the last couple of days is that Baitullah Mehsud, the Waziri leader of Taliban forces in Pakistan, may have died of kidney failure. (BBC, AP) There are also rumors that he might have died in a drone air strike earlier this week.
In other Afghanistan-related news, Afghanistan and Syria are competing for a seat on the IAEA board. For those of you who forgot, Israel destroyed a clandestine Syrian nuclear site in September of '07, and the bombing was immediately condemned by North Korea (which most analysts interpreted as an accidental admission that North Korea had been helping the Syrians in the first place). Not surprisingly, the Iranians are backing the Syrian bid for the IAEA seat. The fact that Syria would even be eligible for an IAEA board seat is proof that the IAEA, and the United Nations that it's a part of, are a complete and total joke.
Bahrain is calling for a Middle Eastern bloc of some sort, that would include Iran, Turkey, and - get this - Israel. Have a look for yourself.
Middle Eastern countries should set up a new regional organisation that includes all Arab states as well as Israel, Iran and Turkey, pro-western Bahrain urged yesterday.
The call - which is likely to provoke controversy - came from Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, the Gulf state's foreign minister. "Why don't we all sit together even if we have differences and even if we don't recognise each other?" he told the London-based daily al-Hayat. "Why not become one organisation?
"Aren't we all members of a global organisation called the United Nations? Why not [come together] on a regional basis? This is the only way to solve our problems. There's no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years."
Asked if that should include Israel, he replied: "With Israel, Turkey, Iran and Arab countries. Let them all sit together in one group."
Honestly? I think this would be awesome, and I wish that it could happen. The so-called "Arab League", which is the closest thing the Middle East has to something like this, is basically just a public relations platform for Arab thugs to denounce Israel. It would be awesome if legitimate Arab countries like Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Morocco, and Mauritania could help to solve issues like the situation with Israel, or Iran's nuclear program. Unfortunately, even the Arab countries with whom the Israelis have diplomatic relations generally call for Israel's destruction in their own media; and that's to say nothing of Iran, which threatens to do so openly. Still, even if it will never happen, and even then, never work, good on the Bahrainis for even suggesting it.
So, what about the Somali pirates(!)? I know you were waiting for it. Somalia has asked Russia for help with the Somali pirates(!), and Russia has basically waved them off. The European Union is supposedly going to assemble an EU naval force to fight the pirates, but with their limited efficacy in Afghanistan, and their brilliant battle groups strategy, I'm less than inspired. Meanwhile, there are some claims that the pirate threat could close the Suez Canal. I'm sure that would be awesome for prices on, well, pretty much everything.
Okay, so a couple of quick things, and then I'm off. First, remember how I just finished reading the Orkneyinga Saga? Well, isn't it just my luck that I'd find it online a week and a half after finishing it? Good grief. At least that means that I don't have to type it out myself from the paperback in order to include it on my (someday) upcoming revised archive CD-ROM. I should really get some work done on that one of these days.
In other news, I think I may have figured out the correct combination of my schedule, and the nearest YMCA's schedule. I hit the pool at 1600 yesterday, was out before the kids started their swimming lessons at 1630, and it was all good. I finally got the schedule for my workout plan plugged into a nice HTML table. Expect to see that next week. The current plan is to start the week after next, as I'll be leaving town tomorrow and returning Monday evening. So, assuming I don't post it this weekend, watch for it Tuesday. And that reminds me, I forgot the Stuff Fly Wants list last week. Bollocks. I may work on that this weekend while I'm gone.
So, I mentioned that I'll be out of town this weekend. I'll be spending the weekend with the Butt Rubber and Olive Oil, and then attending a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. The funeral is for Lieutenant Commander Ralph C. Bisz. You can read about him here and here. There's also a good article about it here. So why am I going?
When I was seventeen, I took a class trip to Washington, DC. (Being from the West Coast, this was a pretty big deal.) I bought a set of dog tags from a dude in a shack on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that had the information for Lt. (JG) Ralph Bisz, a Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam. I researched his background through a couple of POW/MIA websites, and have kept the dog tags to this day. Through a course of events that I won't go into, I was contacted by LCDR Bisz's cousin (Bisz was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant Commander), who updated me on his status. That was in late June. We've kept in sporadic contact, and a few weeks ago I asked if the family would be comfortable with me joining them for the funeral, since DC is just a few hours away. (How's that for providence?) He said that they'd be delighted, and that there were going to be guys from the squadron (VA-163, the Saints) there as well. Needless to say, I'm extremely excited about this opportunity to honor an American hero. I'll post more as I'm able, maybe by the end of next week.
Alright, folks, I have some things to get taken care of, and then I have to get to work. Have a great weekend.
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