World at War

There is not exact formula for surviving an ambush. There are general guidelines for surviving an ambush, but that doesn’t mean they will work. Generally speaking, if you are not mounted and you are in a close-fire ambush, there is one way out: assault the ambush. You can take cover, pop smoke, toss grenades, etc. but the bottom line is you MUST go INTO the line of fire.

This formula is simple enough on paper, but it must be practiced repeatedly. When reacting to any ambush, most will not seek to close with the enemy.

Reacting to indirect warfare is more difficult. The unconventional warfare of silent killer is the enemy who never directly engages you. This enemy lays in wait. He may work behind the scenes with both your friendlies and your enemies in order to defeat you. This enemy cannot be directly engaged.

At the first sign of confrontation, this enemy disappears in order to continue the insurgency with unconventional and psychological warfare methods. Over time, the poison injected by indirect warfare can topple even the mightiest occupier.

My brother-in-law was ambushed on October 1st, 2009. None of these techniques would have helped him. The ambusher fired a single RPG, killing one of their high school buddies.

End this fucking war.

Special Report: Republicans Knew Bullets Cause Death

Recent highly sensitive confidential reports have surfaced across the news media and have sent shock and awewaves across the blogosphere. It seems that Republicans knew all along that bullets, when used properly, actually lead to death. Some historians have even argued that bullets have been killing people as early at the 1100s as depicted in early cave sculptures. Republican leaders have argued that the vase-shaped bombard depicted in the primitive artwork is not a death-dealing device at all, rather it is one of the earliest known depictions of Democracy and Freedom attempting to gain a following in a feudal kingdom that would later transform into a Communist regime and warned us that if we continue down the path of the drastic leftist policies of a veiled Socialist regime, we will lose everything.

Apparently, little metal objects propelled at a high rate of speed through the air have always been lethal but when marketed properly, people will think that they are immune to the effects of these small metal shards entering their flesh. Republicans have also recently revealed that anyone who can run faster than seven-hundred miles per hour will actually be able to avoid most modern bullets fired from any projectile. They even recommended a Nike running shoe and iPod remote to help you avoid bullets while enjoying your favorite music.

Republican leaders also advised that with proper moral instruction, young people will learn that not only are bullets useful tools for problem solving, but they are actually good for the environment. After all, nothing bad ever happens while mining and if we don’t get the metal out of the earth, then some Communist will come along and take it from us.

Endorsing Reform

On this historic day in America, a lot of folks will reflect on where we have come in the past seven years. They will ponder lost love ones and how we will leave the world to loved ones yet to be born. This is an election year, and folks will be wondering who the next President will be. Will it be Barack Obama? Will it be John McCain? In this election, experience is being discussed at great length. Who has it, who doesn’t. The problem is that folks are focusing on the wrong experiences.

In this election, it’s not about which candidate does or does not have the best suits, or the best contacts or job history. This election is not about candidate experience at all.

The person whose experience matters most is: YOU.

What has the last eight years brought you and your family?

Are you worried about fuel prices? Has your house dropped in value? Can you afford to pay your bills? Do you have any money left to do anything else? Before 9/11, were you at risk for a terrorist attack? Are you or your family at risk for a terrorist attack now? Is the Global War on Terror making your world more or less safe? Does it matter if people in other countries love or despise Americans? Does killing people in other countries really make you more safe?

In the last eight years has your employer started sending jobs to other countries? What happens if we bomb countries where your jobs are being sent? Do people in other countries care if the job they have has put an American out of work?

Do you purchase goods that are not made in America? Do you love your country? Will electing a Republican REALLY bring change to Washington, DC? Is a longtime Washington insider REALLY going to reform ANYTHING?

This historic election will guarantee one thing: white men will finally lose the stranglehold of power in our country that they have been holding for over two-hundred years.

I am endorsing and voting for Barack Obama. If you want real reform and real change that will bring good experiences for YOU AND your FAMILY and not for the exclusive Republican elites in Washington, then you will vote for Barack Obama.

Video Killed the CIA Star

For the past several weeks now we have been inundated with news stories about destroyed CIA tapes. The President is exercising his right to remain silent. I wonder if anyone has also mentioned he will be treated as innocent until proven guilty? I am sure he knows of his right to an attorney, but if we detain him as a terrorism suspect we may be able to stash him away down in Gitmo or at a Rendition-friendly country for a few years until shit dies down.

But all the criminal activity aside, I want to know this: Who really makes tapes of anything nowadays? There are no destroyed tapes. Basically because there are no tapes! The criminals involved with this investigation often mention videos and the news stories alternately mention videos and tapes.

This is 2007. Let’s get realistic. These videos were recorded onto some kind of camcorder and were then digitally saved to a hard drive somewhere. There ARE no tapes! If they’re smart, they’ll sell the digital recording device on eBay to a UK buyer or someone engaged in German porn. That way, the traces of the torture videos will be written over so many times as to be irrecoverable. If they sell their disks and cameras to the porn industry, then even if a disk were sent out for recovery all we’d see is the Money Shot.

A typical hard drive data wipe requires data to be written to every writable sector several times before it is certified as “clean” and I would expect an additional step of destroying the hard drive would be mandated. Not destroying by smashing either, but destruction by an incinerator or another more robust shredding or melting process.

It’s only a matter of time before someone who was not comfortable with the illegal torture activities shows up with a USB stick, or a camera phone or some other digital representation or copy of the tortures at Gitmo.

This is the digital age. Remember the pictures at Abu Ghraib? Remember the Holocaust concentration camps? The records exist. They will be found for the torture at Gitmo. It’s only a matter of time before someone’s conscience catches up to the illegal atrocities of this Republican Administration and they all go to jail. The President may pardon every criminal involved, but let the written and digital records come forth. The truthiness is out there!

Bush to Iran: “Stop making nucular weapons… MORE!”

We’re Fucked

Iraqi Army Training

Get In Line America!

This week President Bush announced sanctions against Iran. If there’s one thing that America should have learned over the past eight years, it’s that war in the Arabian Gulf region does nothing for America. We do not have cheaper oil, we are no more safe now than we were before 9/11. We are not consuming all terrorist resources “fighting them over there instead of over here.” But where is there? Where is here? I suspect folks in Germany do not consider themselves integral to any war on terror. But Germany has been targeted. I am guessing Michigan, Florida, Chicago, (insert your state or town here), all count as “over here” but the question is: Even if we turn all of the Arabian region into a fun-filled theme park, would we have stopped these wackos from trying to carry out plots against Americans?

It took America five years to even figure out who was a terrorist. We’re still not REALLY sure. Bottom-line is: if we think you are, then you are. If we think you’re not, well…then you probably are, but we’ll let you in our country as long as you remember: YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AT ALL TIMES. Note: Cease communication and start running if you see someone approaching you sporting this lapel pin.

As you count your blessings over the course of the next few months of the holiday season, remember what makes America great. Next year will be election season and the hyperbole and exaggerations will be flying faster than a politician denying a crime.

We have a rule in America: If you are a politician getting a blowjob, then we try to run you out of office because you’re a sick, immoral pervert who lowers the standards of society. But if you’re giving the blowjobs, then we just pull out our peckers and get in line because after all, who doesn’t like a good blowjob?

G-man Falls

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has resigned today. This being the second recent senior Bush Administration to submit walking papers in the past few weeks. The political wheels are finally coming off of the Bush war-wagon.

What does this indicate is happening to this Administration? Is the President finally accepting defeat? Are these resignations finally the Administrations way of saying, “Yep. We couldn’t do it ram it down everyone’s throats. We tried, we said 9-11 lot, and we showed a lot of gore on the TV, but the people still wouldn’t go for it.”

I am not sure if these resignations indicate a duck and cover strategy or if they are simply trying to put some distance between the most divisive of Bush’s cronies and the election in 2008. With Rumsfeld, Gonzalez and Rove all out of the public eye over a year before the next election, I suspect it will make people think the Republicons ain’t so bad. Especially if the cost of a gallon of gasoline starts to drop dramatically right before the next election.

I predict that gasoline will drop to about $1.45 to $1.55 per gallon right around Halloween of 2008.

Do any 8n5ers have any predictions or theories as to why Bush is throwing in the towel?

GWoT cost? 33,134 Dead or Injured Americans and still going!

The surge is not working.

With today’s helicopter crash, the Department of Defense will add fourteen more to their list. Right now the official number the media’s reporting is

“at least 3,721 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.”

Inver Grove Heights, Richfield, Cottage Grove, Shakopee, Roseville, Fridley. These are cities in Minnesota that all have one thing in common: Their population is equivalent to the number of reported casualties in the GWOT. There are over thirty other cities in Minnesota with fewer citizens than casualties in the GWOT.

How can this be? It’s because the media is reporting the corpse count of U.S. military personnel who have died in Iraq. The media has a slightly higher corpse count than the DoD. But if one were to examine the raw numbers the DoD is reporting, one would simply need to add some columns to get the real casualty report.

The surge is not working.

Total deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan: 4,129 dead U.S. soldiers. This count is not designating between combat deaths and non-combat deaths because after all, the families aren’t any less distraught that their son or daughter died from non-hostile action.

The number of soldiers who were wounded but returned to duty is at 15,751, and the number of soldiers who were wounded but could not return to duty is 13,254.

If you add all three together, the total number of casualties as reported by the DoD is 33,134 (source: DoD website defenselink.mil).

To put this in perspective, it would be the equivalent of taking all the citizens of a large metro-area suburb, killing 4,000 of them and wounding the rest, half of which could go back to their daily routine (albeit injured) and the other half which would require a hospital stay. All of them would likely need psychological treatment.

So when Fox news (the only media source with the headline “Positive Surge Results…”) or one of the other mainstream media outlets suggests that the surge is working, you can tell them they are dead wrong.

The surge is not working.

YOUR TAX CUTS AT WORK

A bridge in America just shouldn’t fall down.
-Senator Amy Klobuchar D-MN

The Mississippi bridge had a 50 out of 100 rating.
49 would mean it has to be replaced.
Road infrastructure in Minnesota is paid for by the gas tax. Minnesota’s constitution requires that gas tax be spent solely on ROADS not trains, not busses. ROADS! The gas tax in Minnesota has not been increased in 20 YEARS. This is because republicans have spent the last 20 years running on the primary issue of TAX CUTS.
Tim Pawlenty has been vetoing attempts at increase spending on transportation since 2003. The republican party gets support by claiming that raising taxes on gas would raise the price of gas. Consider that Wisconsin pays more than 10 cents more tax per gallon than Minnesota and their gas prices are exactly the same (while big oil makes record profits).

When you hear a republican say “Government is the problem.” Remember that someone needs to maintain food standards, someone needs to educate our children, someone needs to make sure OUR BRIDGES DON’T FALL DOWN. If someone running for office, for a place in government says “GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM” how can we expect them to govern well? Obviously we can’t.