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The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

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Archives for March 2006

Iranian Policy- Understanding Their Thought Process

March 31, 2006 by Jack Steiner 7 Comments

If you are even remotely informed about current events it is no secret that the Iranian government has their own ideas about how the Middle East should look and their own role in the world. Their position is diametrically opposed to many in the West and they show little to no signs of changing their path.

Not suprisingly this has created tension as the West tries to formulate a response to their posturing. Amir Taheri has an interesting commentary about the Iranian mindset that is well worth reading. Take a look at this excerpt:

“Hassan Abbasi has a dream — a helicopter doing an arabesque in cloudy skies to avoid being shot at from the ground. On board are the last of the “fleeing Americans,” forced out of the Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam) by “the Army of Muhammad.” Presented by his friends as “The Dr. Kissinger of Islam,” Mr. Abbasi is “professor of strategy” at the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard Corps University and, according to Tehran sources, the principal foreign policy voice in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s new radical administration.

For the past several weeks Mr. Abbasi has been addressing crowds of Guard and Baseej Mustadafin (Mobilization of the Dispossessed) officers in Tehran with a simple theme: The U.S. does not have the stomach for a long conflict and will soon revert to its traditional policy of “running away,” leaving Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed the whole of the Middle East, to be reshaped by Iran and its regional allies.

To hear Mr. Abbasi tell it the entire recent history of the U.S. could be narrated with the help of the image of “the last helicopter.” It was that image in Saigon that concluded the Vietnam War under Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter had five helicopters fleeing from the Iranian desert, leaving behind the charred corpses of eight American soldiers. Under Ronald Reagan the helicopters carried the bodies of 241 Marines murdered in their sleep in a Hezbollah suicide attack. Under the first President Bush, the helicopter flew from Safwan, in southern Iraq, with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf aboard, leaving behind Saddam Hussein’s generals, who could not believe why they had been allowed live to fight their domestic foes, and America, another day. Bill Clinton’s helicopter was a Black Hawk, downed in Mogadishu and delivering 16 American soldiers into the hands of a murderous crowd.

According to this theory, President George W. Bush is an “aberration,” a leader out of sync with his nation’s character and no more than a brief nightmare for those who oppose the creation of an “American Middle East.” Messrs. Abbasi and Ahmadinejad have concluded that there will be no helicopter as long as George W. Bush is in the White House. But they believe that whoever succeeds him, Democrat or Republican, will revive the helicopter image to extricate the U.S. from a complex situation that few Americans appear to understand.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s defiant rhetoric is based on a strategy known in Middle Eastern capitals as “waiting Bush out.” “We are sure the U.S. will return to saner policies,” says Manuchehr Motakki, Iran’s new Foreign Minister.

Mr. Ahmadinejad believes that the world is heading for a clash of civilizations with the Middle East as the main battlefield. In that clash Iran will lead the Muslim world against the “Crusader-Zionist camp” led by America. Mr. Bush might have led the U.S. into “a brief moment of triumph.” But the U.S. is a “sunset” (ofuli) power while Iran is a sunrise (tolu’ee) one and, once Mr. Bush is gone, a future president would admit defeat and order a retreat as all of Mr. Bush’s predecessors have done since Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Ahmadinejad also notes that Iran has just “reached the Mediterranean” thanks to its strong presence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He used that message to convince Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to adopt a defiant position vis-à-vis the U.N. investigation of the murder of Rafiq Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon. His argument was that once Mr. Bush is gone, the U.N., too, will revert to its traditional lethargy. “They can pass resolutions until they are blue in the face,” Mr. Ahmadinejad told a gathering of Hezbollah, Hamas and other radical Arab leaders in Tehran last month.”

Whom ever follows Bush is going to be very important. They will help to prove or disprove this theory that they are floating. For all of our sakes I hope that we hold our ground.

Filed Under: Politics

Remembering Those Who Were Murdered

March 31, 2006 by Jack Steiner Leave a Comment

Israellycool has the scoop.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

I Am Arthur, King of The Britons

March 31, 2006 by Jack Steiner 5 Comments

Take the quiz:
Which Holy Grail Character Are You?

Arthur, King of the Britons
Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Random Thoughts On this and That

March 31, 2006 by Jack Steiner 3 Comments

It is a little before 4:30 am. It is a good thing that I love my daughter because not only am I sleep deprived she has chosen to share her food with me, after it was digested. Yes, she has the flu. Her doc says that if she is not ralphing every hour we shouldn’t worrry about dehydration.

That doesn’t totally prevent the worrying, but it makes it easier. What it doesn’t make easier is the loss of sleep and the projectile vomiting. Her mother and I have a system for sharing the responsibilities, but the little girl’s stomach has thrown the system out of wack as has her big brother.

In the wee hours of the morning my voice rumbles, I am not Barry White, nor am I quite Isaac Hayes. But it is deep enough to be the baritone in the Barbershop Quartet. More importantly I am tired enough to think that it actually sounds good.

One of my favorite Bruce Willis movies is the The Last Boyscout. I am too tired to recite the whole thing here, but I feel like I need to dance a jig. If you saw the movie you might understand what I am talking about, or maybe not.

The Guardian has given a terrorist a ton of space to publish propaganda, just lies and rubbish.

“Do policymakers in Washington and Europe ever feel ashamed of their scandalous double standards? Before and since the Palestinian elections in January, they have continually insisted that Hamas comply with certain demands. They want us to recognise Israel, call off our resistance, and commit ourselves to whatever deals Israel and the Palestinian leadership reached in the past.”

Can you imagine the nerve of asking that Hamas recognize Israel, that they amend their murderous charter, that they act as a responsible gov’t entity and abide by prior agreements that were signed off on by both parties.

You can color this anyway you want, but the tiger hasn’t changed its stripes. Hamas wants blood and in my sleep deprived state I am inclined to offer it to them, only make it their own.

I still don’t like the Sound of Music. The whole Von I am Trapped watching this stupid flick can go rot.

I love March Madness. Go Bruins. This is a load of crap. More later.

Filed Under: Israel

I Love Gadgets

March 31, 2006 by Jack Steiner 2 Comments

I love gadgets. I love little doohickeys and thingamabobs that go beep and boop and burp. I love little whirlygigs that whir and chirp. In part I can attribute this love to my father as he is the person that introduced me to so many cool items.

I enjoy stores and catalogs like: The Sharper Image, Levenger, Brookstone and The Discovery Store. There are some quality issues with some of the items, but even so I can always find items that interest me and that is part of the attraction.

Here is an incomplete list of gifts that I intend to get myself at some point in the future:

Mythbusters
, The Great American History Fact-Finder Book, an overstuffed chair, 1,001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die Book, The Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life, I already own and enjoy these two. I like this globe and well this list is far too long already and a bit ridiculous. Not to mention that it is missing many of the gadgets.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Poland Seeks Name Change for Auschwitz

March 30, 2006 by Jack Steiner 5 Comments

“WARSAW, Poland – Poland wants to change the official name of the Auschwitz death camp on the U.N.’s world heritage directory to emphasize that it was run by German Nazis, not Poles, an official said Thursday.

The government requested that UNESCO, the U.N.’s educational and cultural body, change the name from “Auschwitz Concentration Camp” to “Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau,” Culture Ministry spokesman Jan Kasprzyk said.

Polish officials have complained in the past that foreign media sometimes refer to Auschwitz — a death camp located in occupied Poland where Nazi Germans killed 1.5 million people during World War II — as a “Polish concentration camp.”

That phrasing deeply offends sensitivities in Poland, which was subjected to a brutal occupation by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces.”

Sure, and the families of the 1.5 million slaughtered there are more than happy to cater to Polish sympathies. Now I am sure that there were many good Poles during the war. But I also know that there were many who were only too happy to take the land and property of their Jewish neighbors.

I am not so keen on changing the name.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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