The Generally Impressive Man

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - The Generally Impressive Man



This is an extremely important development as far as I’m concerned. Petraeus is certainly the man for this job, for a whole host of reasons, not least of which is the astute balancing of resources by a man who knows that he has very real and competing interests in the proper execution of conflicts in both the present theatres of war and in preparing for the successful prosecution of any potential conflicts in future theatres of war.

But I am also very hopeful that his new influence will allow for the possible systemic realignment of leadership and training towards ever-greater force-wide integration of the principles of asymmetric warfare and counter-insurgency. We need a lot more officers (military wide) capable of this kind of thinking, and fighting ability, when needed.

I would also not be the least surprised to see recommendations from Petraeus, as well as implementable orders from his office covering wide-scale reforms in such operational functions as changing individual soldier deployment specifications, logistics, resource allocation, unit rotation schedules (I’m very much in favor of unit rotation instead of soldier and specialist rotation, with certain exceptions), intelligence gathering, and overall changes in theatre policy (especially and hopefully, Afghanistan.)

I am pleased thus far with the job Gates has been doing in his assignment and I’m looking forward to Petraeus as Commander of Central Command, though I know it will be quite awhile before the real turnover and real work begins.

The American military is changing, and mightily so. I suspect Petraeus is the man, as proven by his prior experience and adaptability and focus upon actionable success, for this job.

I don’t envy him this job. Not at all. Or the responsibility. But I suspect he is indeed the right man for this job.

I just have one question. Where are all of the left-wing
General Betrayus patriots now, and how come they’re not burning their bras at CENTCOM Headquarters? Maybe they’re afraid that with that many bras going up in smoke at once that their carbon footprint would be inexcusably heavy.




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US and the World

The Glair - US and the World

Happy Birthday

The United States has been and still is and will remain for the foreseeable future the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. For a variety of reasons, not simply because of military and economic strength, though those are in and of themselves important reasons since the military and economic force of the United Sates is so often employed in rescuing the helpless, defending the defenseless, and in fights against enemies such as terrorists, who would murder women and children, and oppress and enslave men whenever such opportunities for malignant cruelty arise.

The United States of America, for all her flaws, both obvious and subtle, still remains the last, best, and in many cases only defense, and hope of all that most civilized peoples consider greatest among human virtues.

It is an unusual, though hardly unique, time in human history: terrorists are attacking our allies and friends in Great Britain and Iraq, disrupting nations in Africa and Asia, seeking bloodshed and mayhem in Afghanistan. Rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea seek advantage and to foist psychological, human, and material destruction throughout the world while they simultaneously cannot afford or will not attempt to feed, clothe, educate, shelter, or provide energy to their own citizens. In many corners of the world some power, force, nation, or individual is restless with the idea of their own supposed greatness and determined to plant disorder and chaos so that they may benefit from the wake of entropy they disperse outwards like ripples left by bloated and waterlogged reptiles in a stagnant swamp.

Many hope to profit, seeking to exhaust America, and her allies, both old and new, hoping to overwhelm us with a sense of hopelessness, hoping to isolate us abroad and to isolate us within our own minds and worldview, so that we collapse from without, or collapse from within. It matters not to them, as long as we collapse. Because then the world would be as free reign to such individuals, give free reign to such self-absorbed powers, and because they would feel free to take rein and lead where they will no matter what pointless path they trample or how many innocent men, women, and children they cut down in the pursuit of their own dark ambitions.

Against such malignant proclivities stands this nation, in this time, at this moment of history. Imperfect though she is, though her reach is ultimately limited (as is always the case with all such great and singular powers), though she cannot alone save the world, the United States of America still (and if true to her own best instincts always will) stand as both bulwark and beacon, as defensible frontier and as proclaimed invitation for, all those around the world, no matter who they be, or where they live upon this globe, who desire to thrive, prosper, live in peace, build, and create a newer, better world. Our ideals are not merely our own, they are for all men and women, all children, all nations, for all time, or they are for no one, not even ourselves. All men have every right to be free, all men should be personably responsible and live in service for others, all people should have the opportunity to live and to thrive as long as they do no harm to others, all living men and women should be free to pursue their own best virtues. All men should be free to worship as they please, to speak what is upon their minds, to exist without the threat of slavery, oppression, or condemnation from those who have another and less wholesome idea about the meaning, purpose, and pursuit of life. All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, not just Americans, though as Americans we can never lack the courage to fearlessly proclaim these truths to the world beyond our immediate borders. Individuals should be free to thrive and succeed, free to engage in commerce, free to live without threat of murder and execution and terrorism from men bent upon a course of decay, destruction, despair, and ultimately degeneration of the broadest and surest kind.

America has intrinsic in her inception and coeval with her conception ideals and virtues and concepts and philosophies of human nature, conduct, and society which are a credit to mankind in general and which are pleasing and blessed by Divinity in particular. As such she is not just the Leader of the Free World, she is the protector and defender and the hope of the World that Would be Free, and as such, as true Citizens of the First Hope and as real Men of the Great Hope, let us not forget our duties or dismiss our obligations either to ourselves, our posterity, or to that lonely and yet to be liberated segment of the world yearning to be free, to live free, and to live well.

We are the Makers of Manners, we are the Liberators of Life, we are the Fortress of the Future, and we are the absolute and unbending Premise of the Present in this world and in this time.

We are free men, free born, and yet, when the time comes, when we are able, we shall also strive to lift up those like ourselves, around the world, who also cry out to be Independent and at Liberty from oppression. So join us in this Eternal Cause, and we shall be your brothers. Fight with us, for your own sakes and for the sake of everyone else who would be free, who would do their own best duty in their own best way, and we shall be your friends, and we shall not fail you.

Happy Birthday America.
God Bless You, and never forget that you war forever in the good cause.

And although at times exhausting, that is a far better and more noble and more selfless cause than any other.

© JWG, Jr. 2007



The Declaration of Independence


IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms:

Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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Civil War

The Exchange - Civil War

Since my daughters are homeschooled we have been watching the Ken Burn's documentary about the Civil War over the past two weeks as part of our study of history. That documentary is my favorite documentary and I've seen it three of four times since I saw the original broadcast.

But watching it this time with my daughters two things struck me as they never have before. First I was struck by the fact that despite having grown up in the South and lived here most of my life and dearly loving this part of this country of mine I am more certain than ever before that I would have gone north to Yankeedom to fight for the Union in that particular war. My religious and even my political convictions would have probably rendered any other outcome impossible. Certainly very unlikely. Even as a small boy I remember thinking I would never fight for any cause which threatened another man's enslavement. That being said I am still to this day amazed however by how mediocre, even disastrous, was the military leadership of the North in general, and yet how tremendous the political leadership of the North in particular. And yet with the South all things were as reversed. Their military leadership was little short of brilliant and their political leadership hardly worth the mentioning. An Army of giants built upon a government of misshapen and dwarfish, petty ideals. It makes me wonder if this was not as it was always meant to be. The world is as it is because they were as they were. It is hard, very hard, for me to imagine that war, as it was conducted, as it was concluded, not being as surely foreordained as the Birth of Man himself. Indeed it was a kind of Rebirth of America, if not even of Man himself, as a new thing. War is such a very strange thing, that washes away all of our past sins in a bath of blood to cleanse us and make us ready for the sins of tomorrow. It is like a womb of wrong we must begrudgingly inhabit, and yet without it the day of new life never comes. Tomorrow is never born.

The second thing that struck me this time, really struck me - like a hammer blow to my skull - was how much of all we are today was foreshadowed in that war. Battleships, a more true and just Republican democracy, mass communications and transport, concentration camps, warfare against civilian populations and terrorism, lightning attacks, modern espionage, modern cities and industry, guerilla and unconventional warfare, the machine gun, vast leaps forward in all kinds and varieties of technology, political reform, modern civil rights, political corruption and reform, leadership a century ahead of time, leadership centuries behind the times, and the incredible, if not outright suicidal bravery of the American soldier embarked upon that cause he and his leaders feel is just enough to fight for. It is hard to see the American soldier of the Second World War and the modern American combatant in Afghanistan and Iraq and not see him outlined in the Soldiers of the campaigns of the Civil War. That war, like many wars, but that war especially and in particular, just as with the Second World War, was a prophecy and harbinger of things to come which I doubt very seriously that we will escape before the turn of the next century, or beyond. If ever.

If history is a stream which never runs dry then the Civil War was truly the Mississippi of our nation's capital frontier. And an omen for the world to come.
It is like visiting the graveyard of your ancestors only to discover that those ghosts never stayed aground, but wander around you still, their burial more a memory
than a fact.

Anyway, it was a graveyard worth revisiting, and a memory worth the disinterment.




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Rumsfeld Aside, Realpolitik

The Glair - Rumsfeld Aside, Realpolitik

A very good summation by VDH of both political and military affairs.


Rumsfeld, Webb—and Being careful about what you wish for

Vaya Con Dios, Rummy!

Here is the record of Donald Rumsfeld. (1) Tried to take a top-heavy Pentagon and prepare it for the wars of the postmodern world, in which on a minute’s notice thousands of American soldiers, with air and sea support, would have to be sent to some god-awful place to fight some savagery—and then be trashed live on CNN for doing it; (2) less than a month after 9/11 he organized the retaliation against al Qaeda in the heart of primordial Afghanistan that removed the Taliban in 7 weeks, when we were all warned that the U.S., like the British and Russians of old, would fail; (3) oversaw the removal of Saddam in 3 weeks—after the 1991 Gulf War and the 12-years of 350,000 sorties in the no-fly-zones, and various bombing strikes, had failed. (4) Ah, you say, then there is the disastrous 3-year insurgency—too few troops, Iraqi army let go, underestimated “dead-enders” etc.?

But Rumsfeld knew that in a counterinsurgency (cf. Vietnam 1965-71) massive deployments only ensure complacency, breed dependency, and create resentment, and that, in contrast, training indigenous forces, ensuring political autonomy, and providing air and commando support (e.g., Vietnam circa 1972-4) is the only answer—although that is a long process that can work only if political support at home allows the military to finish the job (cf. the turn-of-the-century Philippines, and the British in Malaysia). He was a good man, and we were lucky to have him in our hour of need.

James WebbI received a lot of angry private email objecting to a pre-election syndicated column I wrote for Tribune Media Services, in which I criticized the Allen campaign’s attack on Webb’s shocking passages in some of his novels, along with the lamentable trend to confuse fiction with reality (http://victorhanson.com/articles/hanson110606.html.) I thought the Allen tact was both silly and wrong to equate a novelist with his literary characters, especially in wartime landscapes where realism is essential to a chronicle of battle and its effects on men.
I also wrote that Webb had led an exemplary life, and it might be a good change to have a novelist as a Senator. I know the campaign was cruel on both sides, but it was both an ethical and practical mistake to go after the veteran Webb on his literary characterizations, especially when his record of public service had long ago proved that he was a principled person. If the Democrats are to recapture any stature as a serious party, it will be because of moderates like Webb, whom I have always respected and admired. So no apologies here.

Be careful of what you wish for

Liberals used to deplore realists—a James Baker (“F*** the Jews” or “Jobs, jobs, jobs”), a Brent Scowcroft (letting the Shiites and Kurds get mowed down by helicopter gunships in late February/early March 1991), or George Bush Senior shaking down the Japanese et al. to pay for the first Gulf War and then leaving Saddam in power to “balance” Iran. But now with Baker and Gates sort of back, and apparent greater reliance on the first Bush’s realism, it will be interesting to see what the Democrats in the House will do—especially if there is a realist-Right and anti-war Left convergence that gives up on Iraq and comes home.

Link to Full Article:

Ambush in Afghanistan

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Ambush in Afghanistan

This is exactly the kind of situation in which it would be excellent to deploy small teams of Special Forces, along with Rapid Response Teams, to areas near the border and around these outposts. We should be ambushing and counterambushing these incursions from the Pakistani side of the border. In others words we should not set up posts to wait on these incursions, but to await these incursions.

Also I hope that the idea will be considered of building fake forward observation posts (if it is not already being executed) which are built specifically to be nothing more than ambush traps. The Taliban undertakes a probing and attempted overrun operation only to encounter a dummy post prepared to encircle and destroy the operation. It seems to me that now that we control some of the cave complexes which the Taliban had formerly held that these complexes would make excellent traps. Special forces could create and design and assist with operating the traps, Afghani troops could support and assist with operations, and mountain troops could execute and ambush.

This is also an excellent opportunity to invent, develop, and deploy new weapon sets designed specifically for mountain, close combat, ambush and special warfare.

The Afghan War has always interested me far more than the Iraq War, as a military and tactical matter, I guess because it is far more suited as a theatre and as a warfare type to my particular personality and mind-set. It is a more rural and frontier's war, a rougher and more open terrain, a more rustic war full of opportunities for ambush and asymmetrical warfare. It stimulates me tactically.

The Iraq war is basically an urban war, and although those types of challenges fascinate me as well, I guess my first real interest is in rustic, wilderness, and frontier's warfare and how to properly conduct those types of operations.


As a political matter however this should be extremely interesting for the Bush-Musharraf relationship. As well as for the Pakistan-Afghan relationship.
Sooner or later things will have to change.


Taken from the Fourth Rail:


The Taliban Consolidates Power in Pakistan as Violence Increases in Afghanistan

Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas

Yesterday's rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force compound in Kabul, Afghanistan highlights the increased level of violence throughout the country. Coalition and Afghan troop have seen a marked increase in suicide bombings, IED (roadside bombing) attacks and platoon and company-sized attacks from Taliban fighters over the past year. The Taliban's latest springtime offensive is now in full swing.
In the latest attempt to stem the violence, Coalition and Afghan troops launched Operation Mountain Lion in the Pech River Valley in Kunar Province, which borders Pakistan's Bajaur agency. Over forty Taliban were killed during the operation. The Pakistani Army reportedly has deployed paramilitary troops "along the border stretching from Dir Lower to Dir Upper and Chitral districts" to halt the flow of Taliban across the border during the operation. The Bajaur tribal agency hosts al-Qaeda and Taliban infiltration routes into Afghanistan. The agency is also the scene of air strikes in the village of Damadola, where U.S. Predator drones struck at a meeting of al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Ayman al-Zawahiri was thought to be in attendance but missed the dinner. Five senior commanders, including Abu Khabab al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda WMD committee are believed to have been killed in the strike.
A segment of the violence can be attributed to Coalition and Afghan Army's push into previously uncharted territories within Kandahar, Urguzan, Kunar and Helmand Provinces. The Coalition and Afghan forces are now making contact with the enemy. The Taliban are attempting to fracture the Coalition, and believe they can run up the body count and force the Canadians to withdraw. "We think that when we kill enough Canadians, they will quit war and return home," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yuosaf Ahmedi. The narcotics trade is also a major source of conflict, as Robert Charles noted last January. The drug lords are finding common cause with the Taliban as the Coalition and Afghan government seek to eradicate the poppy crops.
But the increased violence and regeneration of the Taliban in Afghanistan cannot be viewed as a strictly Afghan problem. The Taliban is reconstituting in Pakistan's lawless North West Frontier Province. The Taliban have been massing in large formations and have essentially taken control of the North and South Waziristan agencies, while consolidating power in the Tank, Khyber and Peshawar agencies. The Pakistani Army is essentially confined to the two garrisons in Miranshah (North Waziristan) and Wana (South Waziristan). The Taliban has openly declared Shariah law in North and South Waziristan and usurped power from the local tribes. Two tribesmen have been beheaded, Zarqawi-style, for "working as US spies." Eight Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed and twenty-two wounded in an ambush near Miranshah, and eight 'miscreants' [Taliban/al-Qaeda] were killed in the ensuing firefight.
The Pakistani Army has been conducting air strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban camps, and has claimed the Taliban and al-Qaeda have taken heavy casualties. While these accounts are likely true, Pakistan has gone to great lengths to hide their own casualties. Pakistan's Daily Times indicates "Taliban forces have so far killed 150 pro-government tribal Maliks in the North and South Waziristan Agencies and are openly challenging the writ of the government by engaging a number of security forces’ personnel in the area." A source supposedly privy to a high level Cabinet meeting also indicates "the ‘Talibnisation’ of Waziristan was damaging other parts of the NWFP and that the local ‘Maliks’ and political administration had been limited to their houses and offices..."
“The Taliban’s sphere of influence has expanded to [the tribal agencies of] DI Khan [Dera Ismail Khan], Tank and the Khyber Agency, where clerks of the area have started to join them. There has been a sharp increase in attacks on heavily-defended military targets in these areas as well,” according to Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao.
Steven Emerson aptly explained the status of Pakistan in the Global War on Terror, "[Pakistan] is both an ally and it's an "anti-ally," so to speak. It has been helpful. It's also been detrimental." The Taliban's consolidation of power in the tribal belt is a major detriment, and a problem the Musharraf government can no longer ignore.

Related:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2376780,00.html

http://counterterrorismblog.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061000006.html

The Glair - Welcome to Wonderland

The Glair - Welcome to Wonderland

Let me Posit a Theory.

Since the invasion of Iraq, and before in some cases, Syria has been acting as a communications facilitator between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Al Qaeda.
After the invasion, when North Korea is publicly named as a member of the Axis of Evil the North Koreans attempt to establish communications with Iran and Al Qaeda, perhaps through shared smuggling and ICC contacts, counterfeiting operations, shipping, etc. This they succeed in doing in time.

Each party, Al Qaeda, Syria, North Korea and Iran develop programs to obtain Biological, Chemical and Nuclear weapons (as well as unconventional weapons, programs and tactics) and eventually begin to assist each other in their various projects. Periphery projects and objectives, such as Kashmir, disrupting allied efforts in Iraq, the attempted resurgence of the Taliban, etc. start to become absorbed into a more reunified and wide-scale set of operations. The North Koreans are looking for energy and oil and the smuggling contacts with Iran will make them less dependent on China and less responsive to Chinese diplomatic and economic pressures. Counterfeiting operations run through Middle Eastern banks which don't charge interest but which are excellent laundering operations and allow business profit joint ventures of various kinds can quickly move funds into and out of North Korea covertly and illicitly.

Diversionary operations are planned and launched, some overt, some covert. Mutual cooperation efforts and objectives are established. Syria spurs efforts in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel. North Korea in Asia. Iran spurs operations, some diversionary and some real in Iraq, Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, and against Israel. Al Qaeda launches attacks and raids in Kashmir, Western Pakistan, Afghanistan, by subsidiaries and franchises in Africa, Iraq, and assist attempted attacks in Europe and America. The Iranian government believes that these events are precursors to the return of the Mahdi and so are more than willing to assist with funding, with logistical support, by timing their attacks with those of their partners, etc. Syria acts a communications and logistical conduit through the Western Middle East, Iran through the Eastern Middle East, Al Qaeda through Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and North Korea in Asia.

The Axis of Evil has become a fully functional and cooperative Axis, still covert as to direct and obvious connections, but operating as a kind of unit nonetheless.

Or the attacks in India, Hamas and Hezbollah operations, attacks against Israel, Lebanon, the North Korean missile tests, Iranian funding and logistical support and nuclear efforts, the attempted Taliban resurgence, the Sudan and Somalia, the coming new round of attacks in Africa, Europe, Asia, Iraq, Israel, America, Pakistan/India, are all just interestingly timed but wholly unrelated coincidences. With no connection to one another other than temporal happenstance.

Welcome to Wonderland...

Jack