Short Bits: Killing Osama

I seem to remember a soldier being court-martialed for giving a captured terrorist, a fat lip. Now I could be wrong; I never heard anything about it again. I understand, the rules of engagement are really quite stringent – unless, of course, they are overruled by the Commander-in-Chief.

A police officer who has killed in the course of duty often requires many hours of counseling. Now that Obama has a targeted kill under his belt, he cannot help being a changed man. (Somebody must have given the order to ‘kill on sight’.) He can now go one of two ways. Either he will grow hesitant and indecisive, or he will take on the role of mob boss with renewed gusto.

Killing has always been the ultimate wet dream of the Left. I remember people incessantly toying with the idea while Bush was still in office. And just this week liberal talk show host, Mike Malloy, proposed on air that the Navy Seals kill “mass-murderer” George W. Bush.

Despite the apparent applause from all virtually quarters, I cannot shake a distinct sense of unease.
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Now for a different view by Corlyss D, Guest Contributer, responding to John Batchelor's question, "Why not capture him (OBL)?"

Hypothesize me no hypotheticals. They are frankly less than worthless. Reality demands response. You can sit and think and think all day long about "what ifs."

I say good on SEAL Team 6! We need more of that kind of covert assassination rather than a moralizing epitaph for the dead. A writer who fancies himself a historian and moralist declared a couple of years ago that the only "winners" of WW2 were the European Jews because most of them died and, in so doing, aquired a sort of beatification of the defenseless. The writer implied that was a state that all peoples should aspire to if they want their reputations to survive conflict. Bugger that.

"Why not capture him?" (John Batchelor asks.) "Infamous war criminals make for epochal landmark war crimes prosecution (the delusional, deprraved, stupid Martin Borman: and surely the Nuremberg gang was far more frightening the Bin Laden)."

Why capture him? The Nuremberg trials might have been epochal, but they were a huge political mistake. They gave the illusion of state action without a legitmate state. They polluted the judicial process with a star chamber whose outcome was never in doubt. They wasted a lot of money creating the impression that there was such a thing as consensus in an international community that was hardly more developed than the Libyan resistence is today. Churchill was right: the trials have indeed come back to haunt the hell out of us, establishing a precedent that lives in the feckless ICC and the misguided internationalist blather that motivates many policy makers in the EU and other trend-setters seeking legitimacy for an international community incapable of doing anything but relief work by consensus. Quasi-states are impotent in so many categories of critical civil society functions that to bestow on them serious state functions like law enforcement and war-making capability is simply delusional.
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Final thought: I guess what has me upset is that this Osama killing accrues to Obama. It’s just one more way for Obama to maintain the illusion that he is an ‘American’. He is not. Everything he’s done has been detrimental to our nation. I say it’s deliberate. Read Kimberly A. Strassel’s opinion piece entitled “Obama’s ‘Gangster Politics’” in today’s WSJ; and then go on to read Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.’s “Barney Frank’s Latest Bad Idea”. Then turn the page and read Michael B. Mukasey’s “The Waterboarding Trail to bin Laden”. And that’s just today! Every day brings a fresh outrage or more. And now we’re supposed to forget it all and say he’s the best thing since sliced bread? Not me, brother!

Perhaps Cicero said it best:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Incomplete Passings

I believe that everyone, at the end of his life experiences the ecstasy of enlightenment and passes willingly over into an existence where there is no time - only echoes. The sole exception is the suicide who has crossed the threshold already. It is what prompts suicide bombers to say, “We’re already dead.”

The sole exception is those who write wills in the belief that they will still be in a position to dictate what happens from beyond the grave. And even they will ask themselves at the very last moment, “Why did I bother?”

There are, however, always a relatively small number of incomplete passings which results in the tortured and wanderings of ghosts. No longer able to affect outcomes, they are nevertheless unwilling to “jump” (thank you, Corlyss, for the Jung quote)*.
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Feast or famine. Too much is happening right now to properly assess. Add to this the fact that ‘the first three reports are always wrong', and one runs the risk of appearing with one’s invisible pants down.
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Saw “Barney’s Version” yesterday and couldn’t help thinking “when your mind goes, you might as well forget it.” Why so much perverse interest in Alzheimer’s of late?
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If one were to have asked my father-in-law what he did for a living, he would have answered, “I was a miner.” In fact, he was the second in charge of finding yellow cake on the sub-continent of India during the 50’s. He chose to go down into the mines with the men. He was personally cited by the (then) president (of India) for his work. When the mines closed, he retired rather than stay on as a paper pushing bureaucrat. He died instantly (and in the peak of health) in a car accident while on vacation in the U.S.
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Thank you, J.G. for the kind words. Am unfamiliar with the writings of the authors you mention, but will make it a point to educate myself.
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Can you imagine if any of this had happened in places like Pakistan, Venezuela or Iran? If Japan is having so much trouble fixing any of this, all of us are in trouble. I have confidence that Japanese ‘experts’ are doing the very best they can under difficult circumstances and that they will succeed in bringing these problems (with the help of God) under control. Doomsday predictions from the peanut gallery are never helpful. It would be a shame to politicize this, though many will try. Besides carbon-based fuels, what else is there? Sushi?

Much more is at stake than simply this. There are those pushing hard to advance a 'new world order' without actually explaining what this would mean for the rest of us. I got a whiff of it when I got stopped the other night for not having a valid inspection sticker on my car. I paid the fine and got my car inspected. All of it amounted to a tidy sum which I spent gladly, essentially for protection (to not be stopped again).

Sidebar: My mechanic told me that if I could pay in cash, my bill would be less by a third. And, after all this, my ‘check engine’ light on the dashboard is still blazing. It’s amazing to me what simply scraping off an old sticker and replacing it with a new one can cost these days.
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*"If you find yourself falling, jump."

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

When The Law Is Eric Holder

Exactly right, Corlyss! This is all part and parcel of the ‘politics of personal intimidation’. That’s why there are no ‘good’ Muslims around. They’re afraid they will be singled out; their neighbors and families harassed.

The emphasis has shifted away from polls and is now firmly entrenched in virtual power. It’s long been the case on the nation’s college campuses; in the media; in the arts; on the cocktail circuit. Never let your conservative sentiments slip. You’ll find yourself disgraced; ridiculed; excluded. I’ve noticed it myself, buried in my bunker as I am. “I’m no longer your friend,” says one. “You’re just plain crazy,” says another. “I think you should see about getting some help,” a third suggests.

A few years back, I thought I might be able to further my career by writing liberal stuff. I tried. I just couldn’t do it. Yet, there are some out there doing it and collecting salaries.

Loved the ‘Arcade Fire’ tune though. I think I’ll post it on my own blog later. Oh, I know they’re all lefties - but, then again, they couldn’t all be that mindless. Most are just putting on an act to stay alive.

With these latest tactics, it only takes a relatively few - enough to fill a camera angle. Everything else drops off the frame. After that, you can say anything you want and have it be everywhere. It’s like these watchdog groups that consist of three people and a fax machine - the ones that caution against treading on cryptobiotic soil. I guess now it’s even gone beyond that.

In India, computer usage is strictly monitored. When you go into a cyber café to check your e-mails, you’re required to sign in and show your ID or passport. “There’d been threats against the Chief Minister,” they say.

It’s about to happen here as well. The government will control the internet in the name of ‘National Security’ and only the ‘right’ people will have full access. It’ll only take one mishap traced to some loony tunes in some basement garage to initiate a crackdown and make it permanent.

The freedom to assemble was included in the United Nations’ ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ in 1948. The fact that it had to be an enumerated right in the first place meant that some countries viewed it as a threat and did not allow it.

Conventional wisdom had it that relatively small gatherings can never be a threat to the enormity of a state. They never envisioned virtual assemblies on Facebook.

Still, a treat is a threat. It might be overt or implied. It’s a matter for the law to handle. It gets a bit trickier when the law is Eric Holder.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Reply to Corlyss: Trouble in Egypt

Corlyss - You knew this was coming. Always looking ahead. Here, in America, it’s already happened. Both in Egypt and in America the people were made to so despise the status quo, they would stampede for ‘change‘. Both in Egypt and in America, there are (and have been) good people in support of ‘revolution’. Mubarak was a dictator, Bush was an incompetent who insisted on playing by the Queensberry rules. But both were more or less benign.

In Egypt, the mullahs painted Mubarak black. In America, the press painted Bush black. The people were riled up. They were told it couldn’t get any worse. In Egypt, they are now taking to the streets. In America, they went to the ballot box (2008).

Ours was a bloodless revolution. We had money as a buffer to absorb the shock (of revolution). When the money runs out, we too will take to the streets. We’re apt to suffer our own Tehran moment. Egypt, on the other hand, is a relatively poor nation. The only option for them is (go directly to… Do not pass GO) civil unrest. In both countries, the revolution was carefully orchestrated. As I said, a lot of good people were enticed to join in. They will be the first to be crushed in what follows.

The revolution is not over - neither in Egypt nor in America. In Egypt, Iran’s “Moslem Brothers are hanging back“. In America, the Marxists radicals are hanging back. Both revolutions are made to appear as a grassroots movement attracting only the pious. In America, we ended up with a dictator. The same will result in Egypt. In America, things will get worse; in Egypt things will get worse as well. Both freedom and any hint of optimism will suffer - along with tolerance, civility, and fair play. Israel should be worried.

Israel has been painted a pariah. Israel is the ultimate target - the jewel in the crown of dictators. America will not help. America’s conscience has been severed from its body politic in the interest of (short-term) expedience. America is going down the same road as Israel (and Egypt). The difference is that America has already had its revolution and the bad guys won. “The Marxists (sic) are patient and relentless.”

By the time the dust has settled, America will be already be preparing for its next ‘revolution’. The military will take the side of the people. The next one should be relatively brief as all of America’s enemies will be residing at close quarters - in Washington/DC.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Reply to Corlyss D

Not quite (insane). It’s always been there. In fact it’s hard-wired into the human condition. I’m talking about religion. Progressivism is a religion. High priests comprise the State. It comes complete with sins (littering), sacraments (abortion), rituals (protest marches), denominations (splinter groups), proselytizing (propaganda), ash cloth and salvation. God, of course, is Gaia, the Earth Mother. Today, it is as virulent as Islam.

Before it came ‘the divine right of kings’ and feudalism. Democracy is its exact opposite. Democracy confers rights to the individual. Power extends from the grass roots. It was a rare but bold experiment. And it led to unparalleled success for the people who dared to take this leap of faith. It required an educated public and a free press. It is no accident that exactly these fundamental prerequisites have been precisely targeted all along.

Democracy, if you wish, is also a religion. It requires a personal faith in the goodness of one’s neighbor. It requires a belief in the soundness of ones own judgment. It requires daring and self-reliance; and an understanding that all people possess such qualities individually.

As I said, the experiment yielded great success. We became the shining city on the hill and nothing we could envision was impossible.

Lucifer couldn’t stand it. He planned and plotted ways to tear our city down brick by brick. He used our own success against us. He imbued us with guilt, doubt and self-loathing. …and then he took power.

The only one totally in the clear in this sordid drama is the agnostic. He couldn't care less either way.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/