Linked by Instapundit, who says, "The response to Foley’s beheading should have been a MOAB dropped on an ISIS-held town."
I have no idea what the right answer is. I am not a military strategist. I want ISIS defeated, but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game. They might love us to obliterate one of their towns.
ADDED: The NYT reports
[ISIS] pressed the United States to provide a multimillion-dollar ransom for his release, according to a representative of his family and a former hostage held alongside him. The United States — unlike several European countries that have funneled millions to the terror group to spare the lives of their citizens — refused to pay....Paying ransom strikes me as a terrible strategy, funneling money to terrorists and inciting more kidnapping. As for the Special Operations activities, I infer that when they don't work, we don't hear about them, but the White House made an exception here, because disclosing failure seemed, in this case, like better PR.
Sensitive to growing criticism that it had not done enough, the White House on Wednesday revealed that a United States Special Operations team tried and failed to rescue Mr. Foley....
FOR REFERENCE: "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."
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395 comments:
1 – 200 of 395 Newer› Newest»Instapundit is a piker. Why MOAB when you can use a right sized nuke. If you decide to kill the innocents along with the guilty in the first place, why temporize?
He may have wished he wasn't Jewish too. Poor bastard. God bless him.
But given what I have read of him, even now I do not think he would have chosen to annihilate an entire town in response.
O'bama should channel some of the "good Roosevelt" :)
"This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"
PS: a MOAB is small ball.
send 4 B-52s with a load-out of 440 - 500 lb bombs
so what if it hits mostly desert. It sends a message
PPS: We can't ransom journalists.
We're having another "vacation from history." We had one during the Clinton years and it came back to bite us. Like Jean Kirkpatrick said in response to "we can't be the world's policeman," what should we do then if there's a world criminal?
Ann,
"The response to Foley’s beheading should have been a MOAB dropped on an ISIS-held town."
And whites are bloodthirsty savages. (That hypothetical town is "held" by ISIS, it doesn't mean they agree with them - sheesh.)
"I have no idea what the right answer is."
STOP LISTENING TO THE LIKES OF GLENN REYNOLDS,...
Anyone who thinks it's improbable the -- excuse the term; I know it's no longer fashionable with the fashionable tribe -- GWOT won't become a war between Muslim civilization and the West is seriously deluding himself. We have not plumbed the bottom yet, but when we do it certainly could be in the cards. And, in our country, if the worst happens -- a major terrorist event -- as a result of infiltration of our southern border, they'll be hunting Democrats with dogs.
The exception of disclosing our attempted, and sadly failed, Special Forces operation was so that President Obama could win the news cycle.
It was a pressure valve for the liberal media. And it was deployed by savvy political operatives.
But it has little to do with national security.
Indeed. Why temporize when you can vaporize.
Those great lovers of death, the Japanese Samurai bushido guys said the same things as ISIL DO about the USA, until vaporizing them started and the only place in Japan left unvaporized was the Imperial Palace.
Two days later the Emperor decided to call the war off. Better to be a live dog than a dead sun god.
I saw an analysis of the video in a UK newspaper. Some think Foley's statement was filmed at a separate time. Normally under the threat of death you're in shock, but he delivered his lines with a lot of force and fairly calmly, probably to please his captor. More than likely he wasn't under the threat of death at that time. Later he is shown shaking and sweating before he is killed.
I didn't watch the video so I have to take their word for it.
The Crack Emcee said...
Ann,
"The response to Foley’s beheading should have been a MOAB dropped on an ISIS-held town."
And whites are bloodthirsty savages. (That hypothetical town is "held" by ISIS, it doesn't mean they agree with them - sheesh.)
"I have no idea what the right answer is."
STOP LISTENING TO THE LIKES OF GLENN REYNOLDS,...
8/21/14, 10:35 AM
So, what would the great and wise Crack do?
What would you do if it was a person of color that was beheaded?
If your answer is different, why?
If your answer is the same, why?
Inquiring minds want to know...
Significantly increase the airstrikes against ISIS,
weaponry to the Kurds, reverse the cutbacks to our military, start executing ISIS leadership, increase operations against al Queda elsewhere, stop the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Basically, do the opposiet of what we've been doing for the past six years.
"Paying ransom strikes me as a terrible strategy, funneling money to terrorists and inciting more kidnapping."
It seems to be standard procedure for European governments to do just that.
Never negotiate with terrorists. Never release them from prison camp. That is only playing their game and encourages more hostage-taking.
One thing that shouldn't have been done is to have a well coordinated leak from the White House, for obvious political purposes, about the failed attempt to rescue the hostages putting those that helped us at risk and will hinder any future attempts. That is the thinking of our military experts.
Crack is right that whites are blood thirsty when attacked. And we feel no shame about it. We are a difficult people when attacked. Which is why MLK was such an important and valuable man. He turned white people's hearts to peace with our non-violent cousins.
That is being tested these days much like the plot of Peter Sellers' 1963 movie, The Mouse That Roared. By attacking the USA and intentionally loosing the world's smallest country gets itself enriched with rebuilding aid money from the USA, much like the current black reparations game.
I agree with Reynolds 99% of the time, but not here. It is never, ever justified to deliberately target civilians for bombing. That goes for WWII as well. If you wouldn't personally walk up to the young child of your enemy and execute the kid, then you should not do it remotely from the comfort of a bomber or drone controller.
but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game.
Is it?
I think they are just doing what they want to do.
Crack once again proves "If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."
Other US news organizations have paid ransom. These guys' problems were their independence.
That was a very stupid thing for Instapundit to say.
It is going to take "boots on the gound" -- lots of boots.
Or I should say it has been rumored they have paid ransom.
The MOAB idea isn't very good. Freeing a town by killing them all isn't all that productive.
Our options on a response is limited because we left nothing behind to support a firm military response. That was a choice on policy, right or wrong. I suspect those who feel like we need a strong response are part of the majority that also said they wanted ALL troops out of Iraq.
They went in for a rescue. It failed. I don't fault that call. It was worth a try. Please, no ransom. It does indicate how awful our intelligence is.
No one will admit it, but a serious choice is to let them all die. Hostages, Christians, et al.
I think we should have paid the ransom.
The video of the beheading is worth millions to ISIS.
The USA squanders billions of dollars. Foley's life was priceless to his family, to him, and to to the USA.
"Those great lovers of death, the Japanese Samurai bushido guys said the same things as ISIL DO about the USA, until vaporizing them started and the only place in Japan left unvaporized was the Imperial Palace."
Unfortunately, we're not fighting a Japan, or a Germany, or even a state at all. From whom would we extract an unconditional surrender, when the ideology remains in the hearts of a million jihadis over the world, including London, Boston, Minneapolis?
Make Dan Savage our Special Envoy to ISIS. He has proven that he knows how to handle a bully. Maybe he could give them the Rick Santorum treatment. A good Google bomb can be very effective.
Michelle, Val, Sam Power, Jan Psaki and the all the girls can start a #campaign. They could use Swaggy Black English Spice, #StopHatin, #StopBeinSoMad.
We could trade some Gitmo saints!
I'm not sure the winning Obama smile will be effective with Baghdadi. A beer summit or a round of golf would be a better idea.
For God's sake the last thing we want is to be lured into fighting evil. As John and Barry say all the time, that just doesn't work in the 21st Century. Unless, of course, the evil is a right-wing Tea Party type.
@ virgil hilts...There is not any morality in war. war is total murder and theft with no rules until it is over.Ergo: Getting it over faster is the only moral stance to take.
Harry Truman's choice in the summer of 45 was whether to vaporize 170,000 Japanese and end the war, or to invade Japan and kill 4,000,000 Japanese along with 1,000,000 dead Americans. Some moralizing idiots still cannot understand his correct choice.
lgv said...
The MOAB idea isn't very good. Freeing a town by killing them all isn't all that productive.
no it isn't. But bombing the piss out of an ISIS convoy does send a msg.
Glenn Reynolds talks more sense than any politician I can think of, including the elderly TN Senator Lamar Alexander.
We are going to pay big time for Obama's pitiful vacillation.
The purpose of war is to break the enemy's will to resist. And the other side is doing a great job of that.
It clearly appears that it is going to take a major event, one far beyond 9/11, to get people in this country focused.
"I have no idea what the right answer is. I am not a military strategist. I want ISIS defeated, but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game. They might love us to obliterate one of their towns."
I don't think they'd really love that. They have limited resources, made more limited the more we destroy equipment and men. They gain more resources by taking towns.
There might be short term take backs on their end as they battle us, but if we let loose the dogs of war, they'd be on their heels pretty quickly.
When Sadaam promised the mother of all wars his army fell like a cheap tent (during the first Gulf War). Talk is cheap.
I'm all for MOABs on them. And everything else. In this war, there are no "innocents." The barbaric savages set those parameters on 9/11. They see this as total war, and so should we. We'll get to that point soon enough, and then you'll see some REAL bloodthirsty white folks. Which is a good thing.
As a side note, Crack has had a vendetta against Glenn Reynolds ever since Glenn figured out early on that Crack was batshit crazy and decided, wisely, not to link Crack's virulent hate site.
Everyone captured is already dead, as far as I'm concerned. Never ransom anyone. Especially journalists. The retaliation should be at the point of capture in the first place, and it should be on a level of violence the enemy is incapable of matching.
ISIS will avenge small attacks. They cannot avenge large ones.
Refusing soap opera would help. But the audience would tune away, and that would hurt the media and the politicians who have a business arrangement with them.
The terrorists would have nobody to play to.
Crack emcee wrote:
And whites are bloodthirsty savages. (That hypothetical town is "held" by ISIS, it doesn't mean they agree with them - sheesh.)
its ISIS sawing off journalists heads. The bombs would destroy those engage in war not hopefully people held hostage.
And it would be A black president thst carried out the bombings.so, if you want to call people heartless for using bombs Its a sin for blacks too I guess.
I'm with Glenn on this one. And although he didn't mention it, before the town is bombed into oblivion, they should drop leaflets saying, "Get out of town, you have 72 hours. In 72 hours, this entire town will be gone from planet Earth."
The first time we do that, they may not listen.
All times after? Yeah.
If you subsidize something you get more of it. True for kidnappings as well. What would hurt it would be making it EXTREMELY costly. We should lay down a line in the sand that for every journalist killed we will kill ISIS tenfold, and then wrap the dead bodies in pig skins. They will not go to heaven. And send the tapes of the dead bodies wrapped in pig skins who are now consigned to hell to Al Jazeera.
@Chris...The Muslims will go quiet again if we defeat them militarily .
And have you considered Ann Coulter's bottom line advice on the subject. First we kill their leaders,and then convert them to Christianity and live in peace.
That should not shock you. It is the antipode of the ISIL plan for you and the USA.
Does ISIS understand the serious threat posed by Anthrpogenic Global Climate Change? Does ISIS know that we have Kill Squads posing as police in America. Does ISIS know that JayZ and B are having probs. We can't be worryin about beheaded photographers and kidnapped women. Obama has golf and fundraising to attend to.
And whites are bloodthirsty savages.
Yup. Now think about that next time Spike Lee calls for an uprising.
"When Sadaam promised the mother of all wars his army fell like a cheap tent (during the first Gulf War). Talk is cheap."
Saddam had something to lose: money, power, a decadent standard of living. His army had no interest in maintaining all that, and they did the rational thing.
These ISIS assholes have nothing to lose, except their lives, and they seem willing to trade those for their idea of glory.
@eric, you are reminding me of a line from one of Heinlein's books: "This is a 30 second bomb, this is a 30 second bomb...29..28..."
If you decide to kill the innocents along with the guilty in the first place, why temporize?
Fallout comes to mind.
ISIS blames Obama for the beheading.
It's widely understood that paying ransoms encourages kidnapping and fuels terrorism. The Atlantic knows better. European governments know better but lack the backbone to stop paying.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141882/tom-keatinge/the-price-of-freedom
http://voiceofrussia.com/uk/news/2014_01_28/UN-moves-to-curb-ransom-payouts-benefiting-terrorist-groups-8617/
I guess, all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.
The USA remembers Nathan Hale. Mr. Foley will be lost in the next news cycle.
The Atlantic article contains the pitiful sentence: "There are no easy answers in kidnapping cases" and adds that European governments (!) have paid al-Qaeda $125 million since 2008.
“Kidnapping hostages is an easy spoil,” Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, wrote in a 2012 letter to the leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate in North Africa, “which I may describe as a profitable trade and a precious treasure.”
He is a pirate, no more no less. According to Wiki, the British regularly executed them, when captured, without trial.
I suspect those who feel like we need a strong response are part of the majority that also said they wanted ALL troops out of Iraq.
Please explain how you came to that conclusion.
"The response to Foley’s beheading should have been a MOAB dropped on an ISIS-held town."
That's uncharacteristically thoughtless for Reynolds.
An ISIS-held town is some town full of (mostly, presumptively) innocent bastards who happened to be conquered by baddies.
The equivalent would be destroying a French village held by the Nazis in 1944 as a reprisal - laughably stupid.
(STOP MAKING ME AGREE WITH CRACK MC.)
garage mahal said...
ISIS blames Obama for the beheading
Leftists and their allies always blame the wrong people for their own actions.
Nothing new here.
Leftists and their allies always blame the wrong people for their own actions.
You're breaking with ISIS? Obama not to blame for something? WOW!
"And whites are bloodthirsty savages."
I missed them among the looters in Ferguson.
"ISIS blames Obama for the beheading."
They have a point. Clinton played a large role in 9/11 by refusing to retaliate for the African embassy bombings and the Cole.
"@Chris...The Muslims will go quiet again if we defeat them militarily ."
What does it mean to defeat them militarily? I can only think of two options: first, they surrender unconditionally. Second, we kill every last one of them.
I don't think the first scenario is possible, because we're not dealing with a state actor (Germany, Japan, Saddam's Iraq). The second scenario is a Sisyphean task.
Crack -- blacks are bloodthirsty savages too, exactly to the same extent that whites are. Would you disagree?
If you would, then clearly, you don't know much about history or biology.
Of course, you clearly don't know much about anything anyway, but I'm just curious whether you'll really try to defend the proposition that "blacks" (whatever the heck that means) are more or less bloodthirsty than "whites" (whatever the heck that means).
I think we should remember that a lot of this mess was started with Jimmy Carter's policy toward Iran, mainly aiding and abetting the ouster of the shah of Iran.
More lefties siding with terrorists:
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/08/21/sen-bernie-sanders-confronted-by-constituents-in-vermont-f-israel/
It never ends.
Althouse said ...
"I am not a military strategist. I want ISIS defeated, but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game. They might love us to obliterate one of their towns."
The kidnappings and beheadings are the old school "shock and awe". A much smaller and weaker force can defeat a superior force by being incredibly brutal. Half of a future battle is psychology based on past actions.
Example: in actual head to head combat you may only have a 10% chance of winning. But, if you DO win you butcher, crucify, rape, and sell the people who fought you into slavery (which is what ISIS is doing). The other side will most likely break and run, or simply join you.
ISIS want their own Islamic country based on Islamic brutality. They are going to get it because we don't care if they rape, butcher, and enslave Christians, Yazidi, and apostate Muslims. Fighting and killing Americans is just gravy to them.
Also, the word "Caliphate" is not a joke to them. And if you don't understand that word, then spend time getting to know it. The last one murdered 1.5 million Christians and sparked the need for a new word. Genocide.
Good PR for the White House. Increased risk for Special Operations.
Even here, in a posting regarding the beheading of an American, garage, as the left always does, feels the need to deflect and minimize.
With islam the left finally has a religion/political system they can fully back.
Touching.
Remember this one?
Barack Obama: "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."
Note: Failure to accept Islam and/or accept Muhammed as the prophet of Islam is considered "slander" and blasphemy by muslims.
Which obama knows quite well.
So, really, in obama's formulation, Foley had it coming.
I want everyone to remember Andrew Sullivan (and others) going crazy about the fact that a female interrogator used fake menstrual blood to try to get information about these types of fighters.
People let their Bush hate make them so stupid. I hope they feel chagrined.
Since when do we not negotiate with terrorists? Most recently we conducted an exchange for a deserter.
We have four choices. One, arm the people. Two, return American forces. Three, disrupt their finances and supplies. Four, ignore the problem.
Oh, and decapitation is not just for ISIS. With proper planning, send in the scalpels!
Just saw a Krugman article I actually agreed with, in substance if not tone: "Why We Fight Wars" in the NYT.
Thesis: wars are never profitable for the wealth of the nation. (He's said the opposite many times, but nevermind). But they're politically profitable.
Countries rally around their leaders when they go to a war that the people believe (rightly or wrongly) is just. I'm baffled Obama hasn't tried to take advantage of this. He could get some real mileage out of defending Ukraine or exterminating ISIS.
He must prefer to work on his domestic agenda. /snerk
James Foley needed to play by big boy rules.
That is, your a big boy and if you go to dangerous places expect you might get hurt, or dead.
Yes we don't pay off terrorist lest they kidnap Americans all over the world (like the cartels could, and sometimes do, in South America if they saw a real good profit.)
To bad Foley paid the price for his risky endeavors, but they were HIS endeavors, not Americas.
n.n.: "Most recently we conducted an exchange for a deserter."
According to the left, we conducted an exchange for a "hero".
It's not hard to understand why the left thinks this way.
Bergdahl deserted to the radical islamist terrorists.
Thus, that makes him a hero.
DS,
Obama simply is to AFRAID of making war and it becomes his 'Vietnam'.
He is so afraid of that he does nothing, and therefor his whole world will become one Vietnam.
DS: "Thesis: wars are never profitable for the wealth of the nation. (He's said the opposite many times, but nevermind)."
LOL
That is Krugman in a nutshell.
madAsHell said...
I guess, all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.
The USA remembers Nathan Hale. Mr. Foley will be lost in the next news cycle.
I don't want to disparage Mr. Foley or his family, but a little more character would be nice. It's almost embarrassing that the best example of dying well in the face of terrorism was demonstrated by an Italian.
dreams said...
I think we should remember that a lot of this mess was started with Jimmy Carter's policy toward Iran
Yes, it dates back further than Clinton, all the way to Carter. The refusal to take a strong stand against terrorism is a carry-over from the 70's that was continued by Democrats and Republicans alike until we paid dearly for it on 9/11.
Sorry, this is a little long.
Paying ransoms is a bad idea not only because it incentivizes more abductions, but it provides the terrorists a lucrative income stream, money that is going to finance the next atrocities on western turf. When they say they will fly their flag over the white house, take them at their word. Only instead of a flag, picture a column of fire and death, if not an actual mushroom cloud.
I had a Poly Sci 101 prof who proclaimed what he called "the ultimate triumph of the sonuvabitch". In order to beat a sonuvabitch, you have to be a bigger sonuvabitch than he is. But once he's out of the way, you can go back to being yourself.
You cannot appease these people. Omelettes, eggs etc. It will be ugly in the short run. Innocents will die no doubt. Seems to be SOP for this world. But much fewer will die in the long run if we can eliminate this evil.
Evil will endure if not faced and driven out. These people will never go away.
Todd,
"So, what would the great and wise Crack do?"
Plan, wait - be patient. ISIS ain't that bright. That's why they've gone this route.
"What would you do if it was a person of color that was beheaded?"
Like that matters (you really don't know what I'm up to, huh? Whites be stupidly unobservant,...)
"If your answer is different, why?"
I repeat - the race of an American held by ISIS is not a domestic issue.
"If your answer is the same, why?"
Because I'm aping these racists - which gets me called a racist, because they can see themselves in my actions - even though Ann & Meade wouldn't let me do it if I was a racist.
White racists be stupid.
"Inquiring minds want to know..."
I've been making predictions about the future, based on watching the culture, for a while now - I predicted race was going to be our next big issue and jumped in with both feet - because I'm rarely wrong:
Romney was never going to win.
ObamaCare wasn't going to be stopped.
The government shut-down did hurt Republicans.
The drive to recruit hispanics was racist and backfired.
I could go on.
My point is, and I've been saying it for a while now, "culture trumps politics."
Until whites get up-to-speed on THAT, they're going to lose, because it's their weak spot - and black's target. What should be white's worst fear:
A black "Birth Of A Nation".
Starring Justin Timberlake.
Race in America is a moving target.
ISIS is a sitting duck,...
Foley was a civilian, not a soldier, and had been held in ghoulish terror for months. He deserves our sympathy and prayers.
traditionalguy,
"Crack is right that whites are blood thirsty when attacked. And we feel no shame about it. We are a difficult people when attacked. Which is why MLK was such an important and valuable man. He turned white people's hearts to peace with our non-violent cousins."
Tg, stop with the myth-making - he's dead. And with his death, whites made Black Power necessary. Then Bill Ayers and all the rest.
White supremacy did that.
"That is being tested these days much like the plot of Peter Sellers' 1963 movie, The Mouse That Roared. By attacking the USA and intentionally loosing the world's smallest country gets itself enriched with rebuilding aid money from the USA, much like the current black reparations game."
Wow, Tg - that is so wrong. Reparations are a debt being re-paid and our history finally being told correctly. It ain't no "game".
The fact, you'd think, I'd be engaged in a shake-down says a lot,...
VIrgil,
" you wouldn't personally walk up to the young child of your enemy and execute the kid, then you should not do it remotely from the comfort of a bomber or drone controller."
So you must be against vaccinations, too, right? Because there will always be some small percentage of recipients that have a violent reaction and die.
There's an old story that during the period when hostage-taking was all the rage in Lebanon, some of the terrorists grabbed a Soviet 'tourist'. After having various body parts of loved ones mailed to them, the terrorists released the 'tourist' and no further Soviets were taken hostage.
What does it mean to defeat them militarily? I can only think of two options: first, they surrender unconditionally. Second, we kill every last one of them.
It's probably true we can't stamp out all terrorism militarily, just like we can't stomp out all crime. We can, however, make it much easier to fight terrorism.
Right now, state sponsors of terrorism (like the government of Iran) know that terrorism is personally a low-risk proposition for them personally. Ideally, they would have learned a lesson from both the fate of Saddam (successfully accomplished) and from a firm and united response to their interference in post-Saddam Iraq (which didn't happen).
Right now, the people of Iraq have a choice; ally with a feckless Iraqi government and die at the hands of ISIS, or ally with ISIS and live. If the option was: ally with the Iraqi government alongside the US vs. ally with ISIS, I can imagine more would be willing to fight ISIS.
If the people of the Middle East thought they'd have a chance at a better life, many of them would stand up against groups like ISIS. But as long as the sponsors of terrorism can do so with impunity and the feckless West looks like it will pack up and go at any moment leaving them to their fate (as happened to the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq after the first Gulf War), they won't stand up because it would be suicidal.
The best strategy of course would be a quiet one, a strategy the Mafia would use: disappearing them.
No uniforms, face paint, no equipment insignia, generic munitions, drone and stealth Apache cover, comms and news blackout, engage with high cover, just hunt & kill and no comment, to anyone at any time. An invisible and dread Satan come from the sky to walk the countryside. We don't have to win, just demilitarize back to the Stone Age.
Repeating that quote seems just as gratuitous to me as showing the video of the murder. Maybe it's worse. I don't know but if showing the video is worth debating, repeating his coerced words is also worth debating. Something seems obscene about using Foley in this way, it's exploitive.
I'd be interested to know if anyone else feels that way.
Chef Mojo,
"As a side note, Crack has had a vendetta against Glenn Reynolds ever since Glenn figured out early on that Crack was batshit crazy and decided, wisely, not to link Crack's virulent hate site."
As a side note, I'd like to say how funny it becomes when someone white, here, appoints him or herself as "knowledgable" on my history for the gratification and edification of other whites. It's always charming, and a fine example of why and how the world under white supremacy DOESN'T WORK.
Compare the story "Chef Mojo" just cooked up for you with the truth:
Althouse is the very blog where I first met and challenged Glenn Reynolds - long before he ever linked to me. Ann and Meade can testify to it. Maybe TG. Maybe Freeman Hunt and some others who have been here a long time.
But not Chef Mojo because, unless he was lurking, he WASN'T here when Glenn and I met.
In other words, instead of me declaring Glenn Reynolds was a cult-like fruitcake from the beginning - with him living up to that with his endorsements for quack remedies and leading whites to political doom over and over again - "Chef Mojo" has flipped reality upside-down, for the sake of white supremacy, and tried to make the white guy look correct and rational while the black guy is crazy.
A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHITE RACISM IN ACTION ONLINE,....
And whites are bloodthirsty savages.
Far be it for me to say anything, since I'm just an occasional poster, but I think Crack has reached his expiration date as a commenter here.
If you wouldn't personally walk up to the young child of your enemy and execute the kid, then you should not do it remotely from the comfort of a bomber or drone controller.
Then understand that we will never completely win another war again. Ever.
There’s a part of me that would hope that anyone captured by these monsters would go out like Nathan Hale or Fabrizio Quattrocchi with their last words being of defiance to their executioners. But there’s another part of me, the part that knows that when we train our troops to resist torture that they’re told that everyone has a breaking point and the best that they can do is hold out as long as they can and not give up any information that can get our people killed. The same part of me which remembers stories of Vietnam POWs being forced to make “confessions” for propaganda purposes and which holds no ill will for these men who were forced to denounce their own country and wishes that they can come to peace with it.
I don’t know James Foley or what they put him through before he uttered those words but I have to think that nothing in his life had prepared him for what these pieces of filth must have put him through. He was someone's son and had he lived could have been a great husband and a loving father. I'm certain that he wanted nothing more than to be back home with his loved ones. That if he were physically capable of if, he would have crossed his fingers and muttered “Not!” under his breath when he said those words.
He wasn’t a traitor or a coward. He had nothing to give the enemy that could compromise our security or put our people at risk. He was a person who didn’t deserve to be tortured and murdered by jihadists and I hope that he’s in a better place.
But we're not trying to "save the village" in this instance. ISIS/ISIL has the advantage of being interspersed with non-militant populations. Most of the time. But, when they move, and especially when they are using Humvees and other equipment "acquired" from the US, we can locate them and obliterate them.
My natural inclination to want nothing to do with that awful part of the world that attracts such monsters is often in conflict from the part of me that wants to kill 'em all, brutally, and sow the ground with salt so nothing can grow there again.
Hey Chef Mojo,
Here's Glenn Reynolds when he "figured out early on that Crack was batshit crazy"
And here's how Glenn Reynolds "decided, wisely, not to link Crack's virulent hate site."
And how do you square your story with Ann once saying:
I think Crack is wrong about why Glenn doesn't link to him. I think Glenn's mind and Crack's mind are just far enough out of sync that... well, maybe one day, one of them, all of a sudden will realize he's on the wrong page or on the right page but the wrong note, and he's got to get in sync with the other one to understand what’s happening in this country. And it will be blogged.
It certainly will:
When the likes of Glenn Win-By-Losing Reynolds, and Chef Mojo, admit they have been harmful to Republicans - and the body politic as a whole.
I'm not the one three years later having to say I'm wrong - I'm hated because I've been right:
Including telling y'all race was THE ISSUE we'd be dealing with.
You KNOW it's true - Tg?
I still got it,...
>> even though Ann & Meade wouldn't let me do it if I was a racist.
You make two interesting assertions here:
1) Ann allows you to post here, thus you are not a racist
2) Meade has some control over what Ann does here
I doubt either of those two are in fact true.
PB Reader said...
Never negotiate with terrorists. Never release them from prison camp. That is only playing their game and encourages more hostage-taking.
=================
That is a brainless slogan. Much like "Leave no man behind". The originators of it, the Israelis, might have had a far easier time if they had negotiated with the Palestinians at an earlier time in the 50s, 60s, even the 70s - to compensate the people for the land, businesses, money in banks the Israelis stole.
Nowadays of course, the Israelis routinely breach their own slogan to trade money and prisoners for captured soldiers.
(In part because their media forces them to pay whatever it takes to honor the brainless slogan leave no son of Zion behind..)
Not saying that John McCains buddies against Assad, ISIS, falls into that "negotiate with" category - like Mandela, the IRA, Basque separatists - do.
Just that slogans shouldn't run our military or foreign policy.
I Callahan,
"Far be it for me to say anything, since I'm just an occasional poster, but I think Crack has reached his expiration date as a commenter here."
Do I have to explain EVERYTHING?
You guys do NOT keep up,...
DanTheMan,
"You make two interesting assertions here:"
As do you,...
"1) Ann allows you to post here, thus you are not a racist
...I doubt either of those two are in fact true."
So, you're asserting 1) Ann Althouse has unleashed a virulent black racist on her readers - the white conservative ones specifically - for what? Sport?
Please break that one down us before we go forward.
Right here on her blog - explain that one.
Popcorn, somebody, popcorn:
We are about to witness madness in action,...
Remember, all these "whites are racists" posts by crack are on a thread whose topic is another beheading by islamist terrorists.
The same folks who enslave african blacks today.
And will tomorrow.
Plan, wait - be patient. ISIS ain't that bright. That's why they've gone this route.
LOL...yeah, ask the Jordanians (for example) how they feel about the "wait it out" strategy as ISIS is nibbling at their border. Crack won't be moved to do anything about ISIS until they're at his doorstep.
Crack: "So, you're asserting 1) Ann Althouse has unleashed a virulent black racist on her readers..."
Well, no one knows precisely if a leash was actually involved.
NTTATWWT
Though your presence in the Bay Area does increase the odds of it quite substantially.
So, you're asserting 1) Ann Althouse has unleashed a virulent black racist on her readers - the white conservative ones specifically - for what? Sport?
Wait a f'ing second, are you just realizing that's your role NOW? Hoo boy.
So, you're asserting 1) Ann Althouse has unleashed a virulent black racist on her readers - the white conservative ones specifically - for what? Sport?
Possibly. She is a university professor; perhaps she views it as an interesting experiment.
@I Callahan -- re Crack's "whites are bloodthirsty" -- it's strictly true, in the sense that humans are remarkably bloodthirsty.
The Crack Emcee said...
traditionalguy,
The fact, you'd think, I'd be engaged in a shake-down says a lot,...
8/21/14, 12:21 PM
Sorry, no "think" needed here. You ARE engaged in a shakedown. You want reparations. YOU. You won't say what specifically happened to YOU that makes you deserving of any government money other than being black in America (neither of which is the fault of this Government) but no, you an't no shakedown artist...
DanTheMan,
You can start your case against my racism by referencing this post from 2008,...
Be coherent now - it has to all make sense - remember:
YOU SAY YOU KNOW ME,...
Oh - and hardly off-topic.
If anyone wonders why we still need the A-10 Warthog in our air arsenal, these sorts of engagements are why from the standpoints of both cost and efficacy.
Destroy the village to save ourselves. They will bring the war to us whether we like it or not. They live to die and we die to live. That is their rule and we would do well to accept their ideology as the existential threat to our way of life that it is.
"If you wouldn't personally walk up to the young child of your enemy and execute the kid, then you should not do it remotely from the comfort of a bomber or drone controller."
Then understand that we will never completely win another war again. Ever.
Warfare is by it's very nature a case where there is no perfect answer; there is no case where everything ends up happy for everyone.
Having rules for war is nice, in theory. It does make it a lot less messy if, and only if, both sides play by the rules. But if one side ignores the rules, then the rules are useless. Worse, the rules are counterproductive. If you are at war, you have to be willing to break any and all rules if the other side isn't playing by them. And that means, sometimes, doing what would otherwise be completely inhumane acts.
Take some simple rules. Attacking ambulances is bad. Our hypothetical perfect country would never do that. And if both sides agree to and work under that rules, everyone wins. Ambulances are safe in a war zone. But if one side is willing to break that rule, then the rule has an effect opposite to it's intentions. The evil villain takes the ambulance, loads a bomb into it, and uses it as a weapon. End result? The country that uses ambulances as a weapon has an advantage from doing so, so more people will do it. Further, countries that are willing to shoot at ambulances are at an advantage over those that aren't. You've just rewarded the ruthless over the merciful. The only way to keep ambulances from being abused into weapons is by being willing to destroy them if they are used that way.
You have to be willing to kill the kid if he's used as a shield, whether personally or via drone, in order to make sure he's not used as a shield. That's the tragedy.
Crack: "YOU SAY YOU KNOW ME,.."
Well, we know that when it comes to weapons systems you are a bit of dumbshit (re: SCUDS)
It's not difficult to extrapolate out from there.
the wolf,
"LOL...yeah, ask the Jordanians (for example) how they feel about the "wait it out" strategy as ISIS is nibbling at their border. Crack won't be moved to do anything about ISIS until they're at his doorstep."
No - Crack likes winning. Not what y'all have been doing - *something* - whether it has merit or not.
You see the list I made above - Ted Cruz's fiascos. That ain't me, which is why I bailed. Fuck LOSING.
ISIS ain't shit compared to the U.S. military. I don't know why we talk about anyone like we do:
There's nobody but us - we just don't fight.
And we're not being smart.
Obama, BTW, is doing about what I'd want and expect:
Wait - opportunity knocks.
If you have experience with hot spots, you learn,...
DS,
"Wait a f'ing second, are you just realizing that's your role NOW? Hoo boy."
My "role"?
Hoo boy indeed - tell me:
Am I wearing the mask, now, or not?
Are you?
If anyone wonders why we still need the A-10 Warthog in our air arsenal, these sorts of engagements are why from the standpoints of both cost and efficacy.
Someone will say drones yadda yadda yadda, but for the most part at least, human pilots are unhackable.
Take the Warthog, update it's avionics to the nth degree, give it new-gen engines, maybe even a new composite/stealthier skin. Keep the Avenger, the bathtub, the survivability and sheer orneriness.
But no...that makes too much sense...
Jesus tapdancing Christ, Crack, what a weak comeback. Yes, your "role." Do you know what that word means? Did my text fucking stutter? Your role on this site is angry black troll.
Drago,
"Your presence in the Bay Area does increase the odds of it quite substantially."
But being a black Republican has always thrown you, too - which is why you've never come across as too bright.
The whole meaning of the party escapes you,...
And if I thought you were well-read enough to recognize it, I'd remind you that Mencken thought it was so obvious that everyone wears a mask that even philosophers recognized it.
But I won't, because your incandescent rage has stripped you of everything interesting, including the capacity to read what other people say.
So of COURSE that's your role. You're not here because you're interesting -- you're the most predictable, boring poster ever. Did a thing happen? Oh, here's Crack to beg for money. Boring.
Do they not even teach the Barbary Coast Wars anymore?
When Jefferson was confronted with a nearly identical problem, he reasonably sought a negotiated cessation of the murder, enslavement and "tribute payment" of and for American citizens (merchant mariners)
The reply from the quasi-Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman was, "It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once."
Levi Lincoln, the AG at the time was not consulted as far as I know. The nascent US navy did however play a role.
Big Mike,
"She is a university professor; perhaps she views it as an interesting experiment."
She's also an artist, as am I,...
Althouse allows me to post. This is *not* proof that I am not a racist.
Everyone wears a mask, Crack. That's what "person" means, for Christ's sake.
Not everyone plays a role, though. Or at least, not a single, well-defined role, like you. You're getting typecast at this point.
I'll show you how an Italian dies.
Hey crack,
Black despots in Africa routinely murder other blacks by the thousands.
Like Mugabe, Idi Amin, Jean Kambanda, Menghistu, Yakubu Gowon, Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh, etc...
They didn't just bomb a village to kill terrorist who held it, they systematically, not unlike the Nazis, murder their enemies.
See crack, sometimes in war in order to destroy military targets you end up killing innocents. That is war.
But the Muslim terrorist seek out innocents to murder so as to make a point.
So I have no problem if the US finds out a terrorist cell is in a building and we try to take them out.If some innocents are killed, well that is war.
One of the many weird things about Crack's rantings is: why does he think that people care what political party the beggar on the corner nominally belongs to?
Crack wants a blackiphate here in the U.S. He must be stopped.
After years of captivity, I'm sure you have time to think about how you will ultimately meet your end. I'd like to think I'd have enough steel to refuse to kneel and submit myself to a humiliating death on camera. Make them earn my death, rather than complying on my knees.
Rumpeltweezer - "Like Jean Kirkpatrick said in response to "we can't be the world's policeman," what should we do then if there's a world criminal?"
=========
The obvious riposte is "the world???"
Why is it the US duty to spend 90% of the money guarding the trans Suez shipping lanes for China, Japan, Europe, Russia and the ME countries when only 3% of our stuff goes through those channels??
The argument that the US is forever responsible to be World Cop rests with another idiot slogan "No more Munichs". The logic goes unless we fail to borrow trillions from China to stabilize the world, another Hitler will rise and we will fail our Duty to The Jews..
Like America failed in MUnich.
Actually, the lesson of Munich was the Germans had a right to annex the majority German regions of Sudetanland and the German city of Danzig just as the post WWI victors had used Wilsonian "majority rule" as pretext to strip Germany and Austro-hungary of whole regions where other ethnicities formed majorities.
The problem was the other Western nations blustered they would never accept the Germans in Sudetanland joining Germany...and in the end they had to cave from that dumb stance - which Hitler saw as weakness.
Then of course they compounded the error by making Germany taking Danzig the basis to declare war - when it was not in Frances or Britain's vital interest to make a military guarantee to Poland that Danzig and it's Germans was to be the tripwire.
(We almost repeated the same idiocy a few years back with John McCain and the neocon scum trying to push the US to demand Europe add the Ukraine to NATO and be the tripwire for WWIII.)
ISIS distracts Iran without us in Iraq. I hate to see what's happening but I'm not sure what we can do about to make it better. Our time in Iraq likely made that place worse. So let war consume them. Let war fix the post-colonial mess England and France left behind. Let war settle the Sunni and Shia schism. And let us stay out of it.
To do that, we must tap our own oil supply and free ourselves of the Middle East oil addiction. We'll still have Israel to keep us attached to the region. But that needs to be it and we can help Israel defend itself. Let this caliphate take Mesopotamia back to the dark ages.
In 1801 a far smaller and poorer United States went to war against the Barbary Pirates.
Thomas Jefferson argued that paying ransom would just encourage more attacks.
To be sure, the young USA did try to negotiate with Tripoli, only to conclude that (in the language of those times) "It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. "
Todd,
"Sorry, no "think" needed here. You ARE engaged in a shakedown. You want reparations."
Dude, look, if you don't UNDERSTAND reparations - fine - say that. But don't try to assert that blacks have been dying for all this time merely to get white's charity or to run a game on you.
Our family members were people - not animals - a fact we can see, in Ferguson, whites still aren't clear on.
That alone - being able to prove whites don't see human beings in this day and age - will be part of our case.
And we intend to get justice for their abuse as well as our own arising from that deadly mistake on white's part.
We have a centuries-old righteous beef and we're taking it to court - whether you like it or not - just like in South Africa.
I think the beheading was provocative enough that ISIS needs to find out what it's like to wake a sleeping giant.
DS,
"Jesus tapdancing Christ, Crack, what a weak comeback. Yes, your "role." Do you know what that word means? Did my text fucking stutter? Your role on this site is angry black troll."
Then why aren't I playing it now? I just explained the whole thing and you're still insisting it's something else.
That's how dumb you are.
I'm friends with Ann and Meade, Tg, Freeman Hunt, Garage, Tank (sometimes) and many others - and I live in a major metropolitan city - but I HATE WHITE PEOPLE.
Sure - makes total sense.
Some of you guys are THICK.
That's why blacks are rioting.
We have to live under that,...
DS,
"Did a thing happen? Oh, here's Crack to beg for money."
Where? There's now 120 posts on this thread - and there's many others I've posted on others:
Where's Crack begging for money?
If you mean reparations, join the rest of the morons in line of the clueless,...
Eh, whatever.
ISIS is the same people as AQI during the Iraq war doing the same things. Where was the outrage then?
The only thing that changed was leaving Iraq to its fate. What is happening now was exactly what was predicted by anyone with a brain- collapse of the Iraqi state and the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
Obama getting all outraged now is rich. When we were fighting the barbarians in Iraq he was doing his best to undermine the war effort. Now he wants our support? When he allowed them to rest, rearm, and return?
Fuck you, Mr. President. You only want to fight our enemies when it makes you look bad.
DS,
"You're getting typecast at this point."
More lies:
You can't typecast me because you have nothing to work with - because you don't know blacks.
First, you were insisting I was a rabid racist, but - like now - I can drop the pose in a heartbeat.
Which guy are you going to criticize and/or possibly hang from the flag pole when whites get too uncomfortable?
The one, you think, hates you - or the one who can prove he doesn't?
Whites should've been paying attention to race long ago:
You're just babes in the woods now,...
....Aaaaaaaaaand Crack beheads another thread.
"I am not a military strategist. I want ISIS defeated, but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game. They might love us to obliterate one of their towns."
Right. So you want ISIS "defeated" but you don't want to play their "game."
But any "game" to defeat that crowd starts with the will to kill. What exactly should we be obliterating? If ISIS fighters hide in "their towns," Hamas-style, should we call the whole thing off?
You are right to imply that they win playing their game. But we can only win playing our game (not that Barry has a clue or the desire) by upping the ante -- being willing to play a more devastating game if necessary. Bigger sonuvabitch and so on. That is, if we/you really want them defeated. You do, don't you?
Of course, we wouldn't have to do it all ourselves -- plenty of people who hate their guts.
Wait a second, did Crack really just say "but some of my best friends are white people?" This is getting better and better.
Crack, you can't really be as stupid as you sound, can you?
Paul,
"Hey crack,
Black despots in Africa routinely murder other blacks by the thousands."
Hey Paul,
Don't care - I'm an American - never been to Africa, don't know why you'd bring it up in a discussion about American affairs.
Maybe to distract us from white's crimes here?
That's usually it,...
"I'm friends with some white people and I live in San Francisco, I can't be racist!" This is incredible.
For one thing, I never said you hated white people. I said that you are allowed to pollute this forum because you play the role of angry black troll. Try to keep up, man.
For another, few things make me happier than watching you mutter and mumble the same defenses whites used to use before enough people made fun of them. Can you imagine a white person these days saying "but some of my friends are black?"
Crack Emcee says - "And whites are bloodthirsty savages". Yeah sure, that's why Africa is such a peaceful Continent. Racist comment and ignorant too!
Freeman Hunt,
"I think the beheading was provocative enough that ISIS needs to find out what it's like to wake a sleeping giant."
They will - I have no doubt about it:
All my black friends have mentioned it,...
"I can drop the pose in a heartbeat."
Well (a), you didn't drop it. (b) if you could, that would make you inauthentic.
We all wear masks. That's not the same thing as taking a pose. Geez, not only are you an angry black troll, you aren't even a particularly bright one.
The only thing that changed was leaving Iraq to its fate. What is happening now was exactly what was predicted by anyone with a brain- collapse of the Iraqi state and the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
Obama getting all outraged now is rich. When we were fighting the barbarians in Iraq he was doing his best to undermine the war effort. Now he wants our support? When he allowed them to rest, rearm, and return?
Fuck you, Mr. President. You only want to fight our enemies when it makes you look bad.
This. Also, wasn't there some Romney guy who predicted this? Too bad he didn't run for President. Who wouldn't have wanted to vote for the hyper competent guy? Would've been a lock for sure.
DS,
"Wait a second, did Crack really just say "but some of my best friends are white people?" This is getting better and better.
Crack, you can't really be as stupid as you sound, can you?"
Dude, I live with two white people who you amuse greatly,...
"Chef Mojo said...
As a side note, Crack has had a vendetta against Glenn Reynolds ever since Glenn figured out early on that Crack was batshit crazy and decided, wisely, not to link Crack's virulent hate site."
Not everyone catches on so fast.
"Jay Vogt said...
Do they not even teach the Barbary Coast Wars anymore?"
Or Teddy R, the good Roosevelt?
"This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"
DS,
"I'm friends with some white people and I live in San Francisco, I can't be racist!" This is incredible.
Taking another swing in the DS-Can't-Be-Wrong Olympics. Be my guest:
"For one thing, I never said you hated white people. I said that you are allowed to pollute this forum because you play the role of angry black troll. Try to keep up, man."
But that doesn't explain my time here BEFORE I started on the the role of angry black troll.
You're already wronger-than-wrong. And you know what I really hate?
Rather than admit you're wrong, you're just going to disappear, like it never happened - only to re-appear one day saying the exact same shit.
I've been here a long time, seen it a billion times before - intellectual cowards.
"For another, few things make me happier than watching you mutter and mumble the same defenses whites used to use before enough people made fun of them."
They are funny. I have 5 books and two magazine articles, next me now, that I'm using on y'all.
If you would stop and think it would ruin everything - as long as you act like "stupid Republicans" I can never get enough. As you can tell.
" Can you imagine a white person these days saying "but some of my friends are black?""
No - most whites don't have black friends.
But I'm an American,...
"I guess, all in all, I wish I wasn’t American." Said James Foley, shortly before his beheading...
Was he also wearing an "I'd Rather Be Golfing" t-shirt?
So wait, Crack doesn't even get why it's funny that he said "some of my best friends are white people"??
Crack, let's try this: why do you think I think that's very funny? Do you think it's because I disbelieve it? Or can you maybe reach into those cavernous stores of knowledge you deploy here so frequently and come up with some more historically informed reason?
The Crack Emcee said...
Todd,
Dude, look, if you don't UNDERSTAND reparations - fine - say that. But don't try to assert that blacks have been dying for all this time merely to get white's charity or to run a game on you.
Our family members were people - not animals - a fact we can see, in Ferguson, whites still aren't clear on.
And we intend to get justice for their abuse as well as our own arising from that deadly mistake on white's part.
We have a centuries-old righteous beef and we're taking it to court - whether you like it or not - just like in South Africa.
8/21/14, 1:30 PM
Crack, I completely understand the concept of reparations. What I don't understand and you have never explained is why YOU deserve any. Is it simply because you are black? Or is there some other justification that merits actual monetary compensation, that merits the government taking everyone else's money and giving it to you? Were you or your parents slaves? Were you or your parents robbed by the government? Why should YOU get any money? Simple question, you should have a simple answer.
Crack, I'm just happy watching you flail around. It's one of the things I enjoy. It's especially nice that it seems to bother you that I won't "admit I'm wrong" (about what, exactly? My opinion that you're the local nutcase beggar?)
hstad,
"Crack Emcee says - "And whites are bloodthirsty savages". Yeah sure, that's why Africa is such a peaceful Continent. Racist comment and ignorant too!"
Yep - that's me - y'all have got me NAILED!
Did I ever tell y'all about the time me and a white guy won an art contest and got to meet KISS in person?
Or that white guy, who I used to compete with, for how many girls we could bag in a day?
I know I have mentioned that 3 of my friends growing up - all white guys - became cops. One IS a BFF.
But you know me.
And what I'm doing.
Without understanding blacks or having ever met me either.
One day, when white supremacy is over, you guys will be able to admit you were drifting through a fog of racist thinking your ancestors would've been proud of,...
One of the funny things about Crack is how he goes on and on and on about details of his personal life as though they matter.
Such as: "I didn't always used to be a begging troll on this site! I have a history of being better than that!" Uh ok. Neat.
And: "I live in San Francisco and I have white friends!" Nice work.
And: "I'm an artist!" Good for you.
Not sure what that has to do with the polluted mess that you leave this place, with your halfwit racial ravings and begging. But thanks for sharing the details of your sad little life.
Whatever Obama did or does, it is wrong and he should be impeached because of it.
Crack, Ann will shortly put this place back on moderation, because you a race-baiting lunatic halfwit beggar. And every time she tries to take this place off moderation, you will reappear and fuck it up again.
She was able to drive away the homophobes. But not you. You're here to play your role -- troll the white people.
I wonder whether you have the intellectual capacity to be upset at being an unwitting part of the professor's act.
DS,
"Well (a), you didn't drop it. (b) if you could, that would make you inauthentic."
It IS inauthentic, you moron.
"We all wear masks. That's not the same thing as taking a pose. Geez, not only are you an angry black troll, you aren't even a particularly bright one."
Ahh, now you're going to tell me how to do what you don't understand I'm doing.
ANYTHING but admit you - the white man living under white supremacy - doesn't have it all together.
Dude - honestly - you're doing it right now.
Being a totally stubborn white racist - who doesn't listen - in order to stigmatize a black person.
You're incredible,...
I don't understand why people get so upset when a journalist is killed. Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace, the deans of American journalism, said openly that they would let American soldiers be killed in an ambush rather than spoil a story (and camera footage) by warning them. They weren't repudiated and vilified by their peers. If journalists don't care about American soldiers, why should Americans care about them?
lol, just realized that AS I WAS COMPOSING a post about how dumb Crack is for posting details of his little life, he was writing a post with lots more little details!
"I'm much more interesting than I look, sound, and act! Because of this and that. You don't know me!"
Well gee Crack. First, pat yourself on the head. Then, make yourself some cookies. Then, take the cookies and eat them, while saying to yourself, "people are super interested in me!"
Who wouldn't have wanted to vote for the hyper competent guy?
Angry black racists.
jr565 - "We should lay down a line in the sand that for every journalist killed we will kill ISIS tenfold, and then wrap the dead bodies in pig skins. They will not go to heaven. And send the tapes of the dead bodies wrapped in pig skins who are now consigned to hell to Al Jazeera."
That seems to be a stock line for every rear ech neocon clueless about war and Islam.
Many centuries ago it was determined by Islamic scholars that any slain or wounded by a pig bone, an arrow or sword coated with a haram substance is not hurt in the eyes of Allah by such.
That any slain in Jihad in battle by any means, even with corpse unburied and rotting or desecrated by enemy - go immediately to Paradise.
Pershing was not stupid - the Muslims he directed his psychological warfare against were illiterate villagers you did think desecration affected the Moro fighters souls after life.
But the people who are stupid are the ones today thinking using lard coated bullets, wrapping dead jihadis in bacon, pouring beer on their bodies will somehow "shock and awe" other Muslims...who basically are just pissed at the desecration...since they know from their readings and school that the soul of a Jihadi goes to Paradise instantly on death, regardless of the way the fighter in Jihad died.
Basically, anytime you read or hear someone talk about the "pork treatment" for dead Muslims, you just are interacting with a stupid or ignorant person.
Desecration does piss the Muslims off...just as Israelis got really pissed when they found Syrians had cut off the cock and balls of slain Israelis they had overrun and shoved em in the body's mouths. No Israeli believed that the dead soldier would then have to meet God castrated and spend eternity trying to socialize in the afterlife with God and other Jews trying to talk with a severed cock and balls in their mouth. But the Syrians sort of guaranteed none of them would be taken prisoner in the 1973 War..any Syrian wounded or trying to surrender were shot, bayoneted, clubbed, had their cock and balls cut off.....(something the Jews of the ACLU and NY Times blanch at these days..)
Or nowadays, it is quite common to have rival drug cartels mutilating their enemy's bodies..
Freeman Hunt,
"This."
No, not this. Jesus Christ, Freeman, don't let the freaks turn you. Just like whites can stop being bad to blacks but choose to be stubborn instead, there ARE other ways to do things.
"Also, wasn't there some Romney guy who predicted this?"
Yeah, but guys who lose elections don't impress me as strategists.
"Too bad he didn't run for President."
He did - proved to most he represented a racist past - and, last I checked, we dumped him in the desert with a black grandbaby.
"Who wouldn't have wanted to vote for the hyper competent guy?"
If "hyper competent" refers to the scam of him selling worthless homeopathic products to the American people - me.
"Would've been a lock for sure."
Yeah, "Slavery, Part II,..."
Here's the thing: Foley was kidnapped while visiting a country the State Department has, for years, warned Americans not to visit.
America doesn't generally forbid Americans from visiting other countries, and I'm glad we don't. But the flip side of that is that we *really* shouldn't sign up to rescue Americans who visit dangerous places, despite being warned not to, and suffer the predictable consequences of their actions. It creates moral hazard.
Curious George,
Not everyone catches on so fast.
WOW - YOU COMPLETELY IGNORED THE TRUTH TO ENDORSE THE LIE!
WOW,...
Crack, just to get serious for a moment: the reason you are a fuckup is, Insty made a comment about bombing ISIS. And you made a comment about his race.
That comment was inappropriate and degraded this blog.
The only thing that changed was leaving Iraq to its fate.
Why, it is almost like Iraq was a separate country, with its own government and population. Oh wait. It is. And they *told* us to leave.
Now, was it, in hindsight, a bad choice for the Iraqis to demand we leave? Yep. Is that our problem? Nope. We're not the world government. It is not our job to save other countries from their own stupidity.
Oh, and, not that it really needs to be said, but: you're not a fuckup because you're black. You're a fuckup despite being black.
Noodle that for a minute. Well, it'll probably take you much more than a minute, but noodle it anyway.
Scott M said...
"If you decide to kill the innocents along with the guilty in the first place, why temporize?"
Fallout comes to mind.
Scott, you and a few others have missed that my comment was untended to show the absurdity of MOAB the idea by exaggeration. Next time I try a comment like that, I will try to avoid the mistake of failing to consider my audience.
wrap the dead bodies in pig skins. They will not go to heaven.
I feel kind of embarrassed for Americans in general whenever I see that urban legend crop up again.
"This. Also, wasn't there some Romney guy who predicted this? Too bad he didn't run for President. Who wouldn't have wanted to vote for the hyper competent guy? Would've been a lock for sure."
It just seemed so obvious to me that Romney was the perfect person to fix our country, he had a long career of proving his competence at fixing poorly run companies, I think our country's economy definately needed fixing. It was also obvious to me that he took seriously foreign policy and the defense of our country but the voters who are the most uninformed once again got to decide who would be our president.
DS,
So wait, Crack doesn't even get why it's funny that he said "some of my best friends are white people"??
Nope - some of my best friends are white people.
"Crack, can you maybe reach into those cavernous stores of knowledge you deploy here so frequently and come up with some more historically informed reason?"
Sure - white people who know me having been write long pieces about me for ALMOST 30 YEARS and they put them in newspapers and stuff and - amazingly - AFTER ALMOST 30 YEARS NONE OF THEM SAY I'M A RACIST!!!!
They ask me about race and shit - nada - zip. Nothing.
Not like your heroes Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, and whatnot.
Shit, Glenn Reynolds used to post my shit - that's how "racist" I am.
I think you find it all funny because you've been talked into joining the racists and can't find your way out,...
he had a long career of proving his competence at fixing poorly run companies, I think our country's economy definately needed fixing.
The belief that the right leader can fix the economy is exactly the problem.
You can't "fix" a nation's economy from above. It isn't like running a business at all.
The Crack Emcee said...
I think you find it all funny because you've been talked into joining the racists and can't find your way out,...
8/21/14, 2:21 PM
Sorry, no. I find it funny because here, now, you say racist shit a lot. You may not have been a racist and you may not currently be a racist but here, on this blog you post a LOT of racist stuff. To folks here, you are what you post. Saying "but I have white friends that like me" does not change what you actively post HERE which is racist.
As to ransom, I understand why the government desires not to pay it, though I can imagine that there are individuals for whom exceptions would be made.
But private actors are not constrained by the limitations that affect government. My understanding is that many countries (France for example) inform private donors of the "opportunity" to help. Aparently we do not, or no donors stepped up.
He might have been better off if he had worked for the Washington Post. But of course WAPO probably never would have allowed him to go the places he went either.
One effect of such assassinations of journalists is even less information from areas of conflict in the Middle East. One might say that this is one of the consequences of non-governmental actors carrying out military attacks an terror. But ISIS wants to be seen as a government. Perhaps we should accommodate them and respond like a government. Would Congress like to declare war on ISIS? Silly question, I guess.
What happens if they kidnap one of Bush's daughters, or one of Obama's? They would if they could.
The Crack Emcee said...
I'm hated because I've been right:
Wrong. You're hated because you hate us. It's a gut reaction, and one you could have averted.
Well no, Crack, that's not it. Any joke that you need to explain isn't a joke, so suffice it to say, it's real funny you say you have a lot of white friends. It's even funnier that you say that white people write stuff about you that doesn't mention your posts on Althouse.
Anyway, I think I've found the right line to describe you, so I'll just repeat it. Crack: not a fuckup because he's black; a fuckup despite being black.
"You can't "fix" a nation's economy from above. It isn't like running a business at all."
A business, a country, an army or any entity has to have good leaders to be successful, Romney had already himself to be a good leader and that is my point.
Romney had already proven himself to be a good leader.
Revenant said...
Here's the thing: Foley was kidnapped while visiting a country the State Department has, for years, warned Americans not to visit.
America doesn't generally forbid Americans from visiting other countries, and I'm glad we don't. But the flip side of that is that we *really* shouldn't sign up to rescue Americans who visit dangerous places, despite being warned not to, and suffer the predictable consequences of their actions. It creates moral hazard.
This is a more general principle. People set off on boats unsuited for ocean voyages with limited skills and when trouble occurs expect a search and rescue. If this can be done with limited prospect of loss of life it is usually done but there are always limits, something the relatives do not always understand.
As ever the issue is why did we get involved in that shit-hole in the first place. The Iraqi Sunnis were mostly benign back then, at least from our perspective. Not everyone's, of course, but that was their problem not ours. There are 1.6 billion muslims in the world, we can't 'defeat' them with any conventional military strategy, we have to reach an accommodation. Although I find the anti-muslim fervor that breaks out here on occasion to be naive I generally agree that large tracts of the muslim world are hopelessly crazy. Fundamentalism is, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from a mental disorder for any of the monotheist religions, and there are a hell of a lot of muslim fundamentalists. They take their religion seriously, unfortunately.
All things pass, even religious fervors, but until then we need to be a lot shrewder and pragmatic than we have been to date.
reams said...
Romney had already proven himself to be a good leader.
I was a fan of his universal health care plan.
"You can't "fix" a nation's economy from above. It isn't like running a business at all."
The right policy from above makes all the difference.
AReasonableMan said...
reams said...
Romney had already proven himself to be a good leader.
I was a fan of his universal health care plan.
8/21/14, 2:34 PM
I was too but only because its affects were limited to his state and not the entire country.
Another benefit of a weaker central government on domestic issues. Allows all 50 states to experiment instead of one VERY BIG country wide experiment.
"I was a fan of his universal health care plan."
And do you love Obamacare?
Forget one MOAB. depopulate the whole Arab zone. Rubble makes no trouble. as Admiral Bull Halsey put it in WWII, "My goal in this war is to ensure that the Japanese language is spoken only in hell."
"but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game."
Not proved. They very well could be their strategy for intimidating us out of their game, or just their strategy for trying to extort money, or their strategy for attracting more extremists to their cause.
Todd,
"Crack, I completely understand the concept of reparations. What I don't understand and you have never explained is why YOU deserve any."
Not that I should have to - it's a question of right and wrong you're asked to endorse - not who gets it. So you DON'T understand this.
"Is it simply because you are black?"
I have multiple reasons, but - there is a stigma attached to being black in America - so yes, that would be one reason.
"Or is there some other justification that merits actual monetary compensation, that merits the government taking everyone else's money and giving it to you?"
Yes.
"Were you or your parents slaves?"
Dumb question. Again - you say you understand reparations but you don't understand the issues. Here - The Case For Reparations - if he ever mentions being raised by slaves as a necessary reason to get them, you win.
"Were you or your parents robbed by the government?"
Almost all blacks have been. Multiple ways.
"Why should YOU get any money?"
I told you.
"Simple question, you should have a simple answer."
I did.
Now, why do I think, even though you said it first - as a requirement - it won't be good enough?
DS,
"Crack, I'm just happy watching you flail around. It's one of the things I enjoy. It's especially nice that it seems to bother you that I won't "admit I'm wrong" (about what, exactly? My opinion that you're the local nutcase beggar?)"
O.K., that was unserious, and not even funny. You did exactly what I thought and are now being intelectually cowardly.
Done,...
ARM: "I was a fan of his universal health care plan."
The lefties simply cannot bring themselves to confront/discuss islamist beheadings and other atrocities.
They will look for any reason to discuss anything else.
It's not hard to understand why.
Done what, Crack, arguing with me about whether you're a nutcase that drags this place down? That's cool.
Don't tell me you think it matters to me whether you reply to my posts! That would be too much. I've had too much fun already today. To hear that you think I'll be upset if you just stfu for a minute -- that would push me over the edge into a dangerous euphoria.
Gerry Daly said...
"but these kidnappings (and beheadings) are their strategy for luring us into their game."
Nmaot proved. They very well could be their strategy for intimidating us out of their game, or just their strategy for trying to extort money, or their strategy for attracting more extremists to their cause.
Take into account that the assassin was directly addressing President Obama in his remarks. That's a studied insult to both Obama and the country. Of course you can not "prove" it but there's a good basis for the inference that they are trying to bring more Americans into their closer range sights.
It won't happen right away, but perhaps they should be careful what they wish for. War with the United States generally has not worked out well for the other side, notwithstanding a few more recent exceptions.
DS,
"Not sure what that has to do with the polluted mess that you leave this place, with your halfwit racial ravings and begging. But thanks for sharing the details of your sad little life."
He's abandoned the you're-a-racist position.
He's abandoned the you-hate-whites position.
Now he's standing solid on you're-ruining-this-blog - a whole new argument.
Cowardly.
And whites wonder why they can't get traction on Michael "Game Changer" Brown.
I've learned this about these racist conservatives:
There are absolutely no positions they will take that they will not sell-out.
No wonder blacks confuse them,...
DS,
"Crack, Ann will shortly put this place back on moderation, because you a race-baiting lunatic halfwit beggar. And every time she tries to take this place off moderation, you will reappear and fuck it up again."
Dude, you need to take a break - you're losing it like Bill O'Reilly last night,...
As ever the issue is why did we get involved in that shit-hole in the first place.
Foley wasn't kidnapped in Iraq. He was kidnapped in Syria.
DS said...
Done what, Crack, arguing with me about whether you're a nutcase that drags this place down?
Do you think it would be more elevated if everyone agreed on tiny little issues like race? I doubt that Crack's perspective is as rare as you might like to assume.
Drago said...
They will look for any reason to discuss anything else.
Drago, the impenetrable, failing reading comprehension one more time.
madisonfella said...
Whatever Obama did or does, it is wrong and he should be impeached because of it.
LOL
Noted lefty takes time out from blaming Bush for any and everything that occurred during and after his presidency to complain about people noticing that obama is incompetent.
Unfortunately, Foley isn't around to write an article about it.
Because he had his head cut off.
By Islamists extremists.
Which the left excuses.
If not lauds.
"Were you or your parents robbed by the government?"
Wait. I'm being robbed by government right now. Do I qualify for reparations?
Count me among the folks who would like to see Crack gone. Adults are talking about something important and Crackhead comes in with his idealogical Tourette's syndrome. I'd rather deal with Mary and Titus than this idiot.
ARM: "Drago, the impenetrable, failing reading comprehension one more time."
You'd be better off sticking with your "fire can't melt steel" and associated 9/11 conspiracies.
DS,
"Crack, just to get serious for a moment: the reason you are a fuckup is, Insty made a comment about bombing ISIS. And you made a comment about his race.
That comment was inappropriate and degraded this blog."
You're not getting serious - you're flailing.
You came in charging me with one thing, now you're desperately looking for something else.
A coward,...
Revenant said...
Foley wasn't kidnapped in Iraq. He was kidnapped in Syria.
Would he be now headless without the Iraq war?
Were you or your parents robbed by the government?
Constantly, why do you ask?
The Crack Emcee said...
"Crack, I completely understand the concept of reparations. What I don't understand and you have never explained is why YOU deserve any."
Not that I should have to - it's a question of right and wrong you're asked to endorse - not who gets it. So you DON'T understand this.
"Is it simply because you are black?"
I have multiple reasons, but - there is a stigma attached to being black in America - so yes, that would be one reason.
As I said, I do understand the concept and as such agree that there is a place for it. I do not agree with you that in America anyone living today merits any.
And as to that link you keep throwing around, read it, don't agree with it, and have repeatedly told you such but you keep dragging it out like it is somehow magic.
On an ongoing basis you continually re-enforce my opinion of you, which you have worked so hard these last few years to earn.
Revenant: "Foley wasn't kidnapped in Iraq. He was kidnapped in Syria."
Indeed.
Syria.
Where President "pretty smile" set a red line.
But then claimed he didn't.
Not to worry.
The Russians are now in an unchallenged position of influence there.
Mission accomplished for President "Please mr putin, wait until after the election when I can be really really flexible".
Todd,
"Sorry, no. I find it funny because here, now, you say racist shit a lot."
And how long have whites been saying racist shit here?
Were you here when I was begging everyone to stop?
No.
YOU KNOW SO MUCH,....
ARM: "Would he be now headless without the Iraq war?"
No, of course not.
Why, the islamists and their 7th century mentality were created by the Iraq war.
Oh yeah, and those jooooooos.
""Crack, just to get serious for a moment: the reason you are a fuckup is, Insty made a comment about bombing ISIS. And you made a comment about his race."
And you can't see the connection that Crack made? You don't understand it? You don't have to agree with it, but the connection is pretty damn clear.
Tyrone Slothrop,
"Wrong. You're hated because you hate us. It's a gut reaction, and one you could have averted."
Right, Tyrone, that's why I'm here, everyday, rain or shine:
Because I hate you.
It's kinda wild:
Just like whites have wiped slavery and Jim Crow and all that from their minds, you've even wiped the history of this blog from it, too.
Now THAT's funny,...
Crack: "And how long have whites been saying racist shit here?"
Once someone said "addresses".
Which we know is a racist "codeword".
There are lots of racist "codewords".
Some others are "golf", "Chicago", "Constitution" and "sweet and sour sauce".
So, yeah, given those parameters, lottsa racist speech on Althouse.
I wonder if we could get back to the beheading lovin' and black african enslavin' muslims?
And Crack is right. Some of the comments here are flat out racist. You don't have to see racists behind every lamppost to see that. He sees it as his job to point them out. Perhaps some of the rest of us should be a little more vocal in agreement when he is right.
I know it gets tiresome. Racism is tiresome. Ignoring it is perilous.
EMD,
"Wait. I'm being robbed by government right now. Do I qualify for reparations?"
Yes - I think whites have a case for being deceived.
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