All posts by Tanstaafl

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Assessing Europe

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Excellent sources of opinion and news from a European perspective:

The Brussels Journal

From the desk of Paul Belien on Thu, 2005-06-30 13:08

“I believe in being free, acquiring knowledge, and telling the truth.”

The above quote from the legendary American journalist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) sums it up pretty much. The Brussels Journal is a project set up by European journalists and writers to restore three values that are so lacking in the so-called “consensus-culture” of contemporary Europe: Freedom, the quest for Knowledge, and the Truth.

We defend freedom and, though we do not pretend to know the ultimate truth, we strive to acquire as much knowledge as possible by presenting facts and views that are hard to find in the “consensus-media” of Europe.

¡No Pasaràn!

Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

Davids Medienkritik

Policitically incorrect observations on reporting in the German media.

Fjordman

A blog about Islam, Scandinavian affairs and global politics.

EU Rota

News, Views, and Commentary Regarding the European Union

Transatlantic Intelligencer

The principal aim of Transatlantic Intelligencer is to “overcome the language gap” – or, more exactly, some of the language gaps – preventing Americans and other English-speakers from forming an accurate assessment of European political realities. Trans-Int pays special attention to developments in Germany and France, the leading continental European powers. Since there are also multiple “language gaps” within Europe, we are confident that Transatlantic Intelligencer will also be of interest to European readers.

WatchingAmerica

WatchingAmerica makes available in English articles written about the U.S. by foreigners, often for foreign audiences, and often in other languages. Since WatchingAmerica offers its own translations, regular users of our site will enjoy articles not available in English anywhere else. We are a unique window into world opinion.

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Allah’s Waiting Room

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Two Marines. Different attitudes.

War in Iraq
The Honorable John P. Murtha
November 17, 2005

The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We can not continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region.

"Ohmygod! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" It sure is. On the enemy.

A Marine reports from Iraq
By An anonymous Marine
November 22, 2005

Bad guy tactics: When the enemy is engaged on an infantry level they get their a**** kicked every time. Brave, but stupid. Suicidal banzai-type charges were very common earlier in the war and still occur. They will literally sacrifice eight-to-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending them screaming and firing AKs and RPGs directly at our bases just to probe the defenses. They get mowed down like grass every time — see the M2 and M240 above. [Name redacted]’s base was hit like this often. When engaged, the enemy has a tendency to flee to the same building, probably for what they think will be a glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and that’s the end of that, more often than not.

These hole-ups are referred to as “Alpha Whiskey Romeos” (“Allah’s Waiting Room”). We have the laser-guided ground-air thing down to a science. The fast movers, mostly Marine F-18s, are taking an ever-increasing toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire, especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is hardly used at all. Fun fact: The enemy death toll is supposedly between 45,000 and 50,000. That is why we’re seeing fewer and fewer infantry attacks and more improvised-explosive devices, suicide bomber s***. The new strategy is simple: attrition.

With all due respect to Mr. Murtha the war is going as advertised. It’s just if you listen to the media, who don’t seem to appreciate the difference between objectivity and negativity, you’d think Iraq was in complete disarray. More than a few right bastards might even feel a bit uplifted at the notion. So sorry to burst your bubble. There has always been a plan, and it’s going fairly well. Two elections and a constitution into it and you’d think people would have noticed by now.

In spite of this and contrary to popular opinion the military has not quite done all they can in Iraq. And I’m not talking about building more schools and hospitals. The fact is after 9/11 we had a tough problem: how to draw our enemy out of the shadows that favored them to fight instead where our military might could be brought to bear. There is no good time or place to wage war, but could we have expected anything better than the giant Alpha Whiskey Romeo Iraq has become? Are we not still busy issuing one way tickets to paradise? The enemy is where we want him and he’s losing. Which understandably flummoxes those whose twisted worldview figures the US as supervillain. "The bad guys can’t win! They must therefore immediately surrender and withdraw!" Riiiiight. Sounds like we’re doing just fine.

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Hijacking the Holidays

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During the handful of days each year traditionally set aside for such purpose many of us celebrate, and rightly so. Despite the never ending doom and gloom spewed by our news media there are many more reasons to be thankful for being alive here and now than not. Those of us who recognize the benefits of civilization, and the precarious height it has attained, are rightly concerned about its survival. We realize we enjoy today the fruits of the labors of previous generations. We respect their wisdom and sacrifice, and express this in small part by observing the holidays they’ve passed on to us.

Most of the year it is possible to overlook the watered down marxists who tirelessly strive to debase society, defame our heroes, cancel our celebrations, ridicule our joy, and profane our love. Frankly these days we usually have bigger fish to fry.

But our holidays are increasingly marred by social vandals who must be addled with loathing. Not content to suffer solitary alienation or even collective disaffection they feel compelled to foist the products of their guilty conscience and false humility on everyone. Their puerile vicimology assumes we have inherited not a gift from the past but a curse. They see nothing to be thankful for – we are all either exploiters or exploitees. These champions of political correctness are disturbed not one wit by the racist/sexist basis for their claims. Blinded with self-importance the worst seek not only to establish new holidays but to supplant what has existed for generations. Others just make shit up.

Phew. Am I relieved to find out it’s all in my imagination.

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Murtha’s Bluff

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IWCRRSIRMWMDNBHTSTMDRWWNHBVAI

Or, for non-acronym fans, "In Which Congress Rejects a Resolution Substantively Identical to Rep. Murtha’s, which Murtha Disowned as Not Being His, Then Spent 30 Minutes Defending the Resolution Which Was Not His Before Voting Against It." Apparently, WordPress doesn’t allow titles that are that long. Nonetheless, we shall not split hairs over such niceties, and perform a post-mortem on Democrat fund-raising below.

First, a little context behind this highly amusing debacle. To begin with, virtually every single headline in the country (world) over the last few days proclaimed that Murtha was calling for "immediate withdrawal" of the troops. Apparently, this was dead wrong. A Congressional committee will be formed shortly to determine why no one bothered to correct this apparently wrong notion before the GOP forced this vote to the floor.

Debacle yes, amusing no. The Democrats have virtually abandoned the field. There is no loyal opposition, all that remains are tantrums. Bush Lied! Bush Tortures! Withdraw from Iraq now! Where are the principled, logical criticisms? Our borders are wide open and government spending is out of control. Do something useful and hold the Republicans feet to the fire about that!

I’m curious about something, however, that perhaps some of our Democrat friends can clear up. If the problem was that this resolution said something drastically different from Murtha’s, can we expect the Democrat caucus to fight to bring the actual Murtha resolution to the floor? Should we expect them to support the deployment being "hereby terminated," if they’re not willing to support "immediately terminated"?

How long must one wait for assclowns to get serious before becoming an assclown oneself?

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Situation Normal All Franced Up

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The aftermath
Nov 17th 2005 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition

ONE measure of the ambient violence is that the French government this week welcomed the burning of 215 cars in one night as "a near-normal situation". At the peak of the recent riots, over 1,400 vehicles were torched in a single night. A week after the government declared a state of emergency, the Paris suburbs were mostly quiet—although sporadic arson attacks, including on nursery schools, continued elsewhere. The government has rushed through a law prolonging the state of emergency for three months.

What sort of Frenchmen are they?
By Dror Mishani and Aurelia Smotriez

"This problem is the problem of all the countries of Europe. In Holland, they’ve been confronting it since the murder of Theo van Gogh. The question isn’t what is the best model of integration, but just what sort of integration can be achieved with people who hate you."

And what will happen in France?

"I don’t know. I’m despairing. Because of the riots and because of their accompaniment by the media. The riots will subside, but what does this mean? There won’t be a return to quiet. It will be a return to regular violence. So they’ll stop because there is a curfew now, and the foreigners are afraid and the drug dealers also want the usual order restored. But they’ll gain support and encouragement for their anti-republican violence from the repulsive discourse of self-criticism over their slavery and colonization. So that’s it: There won’t be a return to quiet, but a return to routine violence."

France’s Toll of Destruction
From the desk of Paul Belien on Fri, 2005-11-18 23:23

Today in the Belgian newspaper De Tijd Nicole le Guennec, a French sociologist, says that car torching has been a common phenomenon in France for the past fifteen years. If this is true and if 100 is the average toll of destruction each night, a staggering 547,500 cars have been destroyed in France during that period. Probably more, because when one car is set alight and the fire destroys surrounding cars as well, the statistics count it as only one car fire. The worst night is traditionally New Year’s eve. Last New Year’s eve 330 cars were destroyed, a low figure compared to previous New Years when around 400 cars were set alight.

In contemporary multicultural France such staggering figures of lawlessness are considered to be a sign of "normality" and are hardly reported in the mainstream media. Neither is the following little piece of information. This week Professor Dominique Reynié of Sorbonne University in Paris, told the Brussels weekly Knack that the French state was obliged to borrow money last week to pay the wages of its civil servants. "The money has run out. One must concede: this is no example of a strong state."

Perhaps what we are witnessing in Europe, but what the politicians and the media dare not say aloud, is the implosion of the (welfare) state. The Soviet Union suddenly collapsed in 1989, when owing to the inability of communism to create wealth, the state went bankrupt, was unable to maintain its army and hold its empire together. In France, the same thing might be happening. The socialist welfare state is no longer able to maintain law and order and is abandoning entire neighbourhoods to anarchy.

Guy Sorman on the “Autism” of the French State
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Who is going to admit that the French state that gets involved in everything – the economy, culture, military interventions and other noble causes – has become totally ineffective on the ground? Two years ago, it let 30,000 dehydrated senior citizens die in their nursing homes without air conditioning. Now, it proves incapable of resisting a couple of hundred commandos of hooligans. The state? It is everywhere where society no longer needs it and absent where it is most needed. This political autism is the true cause of the conflagration.

Nothing to see here. Move along now.