We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:54:13 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification I was not nearly as verbose and wandering with this, but I won’t torture everyone by putting it on the front page. You masochists can find out what I have to say below the fold. -ry [Go ahead, read it. It won't hurt you... just click on that Flash Traffic/Extended Entry thingy -ed]... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html Mon, 21 Aug 2006 03:27:41 -0600 In a nutshell, they are recruiting the young and the restless from among the civilian population. Hezbollah day camps where they sing songs about how glorious it is to die for Allah to mass rallies where 'Death To America' is chanted and clerics spread the word. That is the point of the insurgency being the song that never ends..we need to kill Niddhogg at the root of the tree. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49555 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49555 Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:24:31 -0600 Trias, events are not inherently going to go one way or another. They aren't constrained to only go one way or another. Right now the Brits are using the Belfast Rules in southern Iraq and they aren't working. They're working so poorly that they had to send a large chunk of the IA there to deal with the problem. No action is garaunteed to have always produce only a single outsome. Life isn't like a mathmatical function. Single inputs can have multiple outputs. Yeah, it can go bad. Lots of room for that. But more room for it to go right than the original situation did. At least until the cheese-eating surrender monkeys pulled a bait and switch...... But yeah, that's what I think it was. Given how hard the Israeli army wanted to full attack I'd say yeah. They were out for a chunk of land that could serve as a buffer zone. Not to colonize it. Not to put settlements on. But to disrupt HEzbollah, make Hezbollah a problem for all the Lebanese as much as it is for the Israelis, and to get the Int'l Community to patrol the area in conjunction with the Leb Army and Israeli Army. THey failed in achieving that though. They got bupkiss. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49542 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49542 Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:21:44 -0600 Nah I realise brevity just isn't the ry. So you're convinced that's the go then? Perhaps it is but I don't see it as certain. It may be a side effect. I may also lead to longer term trouble. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49493 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49493 Tue, 22 Aug 2006 05:11:39 -0600 DId you follow and read the links? I didn't have someone else read this before I put it up, but isn't it obvious? Lots of people are screaming, screaming mind you, that the violence used by Israel had no point, was ineffective, and ill considered. That's true unless you start looking at things from the Israeli pov and what the nature of irregular warfare is. Unless you start asking those questions none of this will likely make sense. Once you do all kinds of things start slapping you in the face like a flounder. Somethign I don't think most people are doing. Seeing the mosaic in entirety is important in trying to fathom out outcomes of war, why wars are fought, and whether war is good for anything at all(it is---but in limited scenarios). (Or are you running with the whole brevity joke too Trias? ;)) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49489 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49489 Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:14:37 -0600 I'm trying to find the point to all these words. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49450 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/08/more_thoughts_by_rygollum.html#comment-49450 Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:42:28 -0600