A medium-range separating target missile is seen seconds after lift-off from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. Six minutes later, the target was intercepted by a developmental Standard Missile Three (SM-3) launched from the Pearl Harbor-based Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70).
www.navy.mil

Soldiers from Battery A, 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment practice firing their M198 howitzers at Q-West Base Complex, Iraq. www.army.mil

Stumbling Stone of Jerusalem

'Yet things might have gone far otherwise and far worse. When you think of the great Battle of the Pelennor, do not forget the battles in Dale and the valour of Durin's Folk. Think of what might have been. Dragon-fire and savage swords in Eriador, night in Rivendell. There might be no Queen of Gondor. We might now hope to return from the victory here only to ruin and ash. But that has been averted - because I met Thorin Oakenshield one evening on the edge of spring in Bree. A chance-meeting, as we say in Middle Earth.'

Gandolf the Grey

When looking back at Israel's attack on the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor in Osirak just outside Baghdad in 1981 could anyone have imagined that America would end up fighting this very same nation not once but twice in the next 22 years? And if Israel had not attacked and destroyed Saddam's nuclear facility how would have events transpired in his favor? Does anyone doubt that Hussein would have attempted to get a nuclear bomb into America after his bruising defeat in 1990-91 to US Forces in Kuwait? Let us give thanks for Israel's foresight in dealing with Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambition. Let us not countenance the thought of what might have been.

America and the free-world owes Israel, especially the Likud Party of which Menachem Began the Prime Minister was leader, a debt of gratitude considering it was France and Italy that gave Iraq its nuclear know-how. This and many more occasions where Israel has been the watchtower in the darkness of the Middle East gives the West a great advantage in seeing what lies ahead. However, the direct advent of the United States in the Middle East after 9/11 has radically altered the political landscape for both Jew and Arab. As the United States makes its weight fully felt throughout the region we are witnessing a new dynamic in the Sunni-Arab world as its foundations are being transfigured before our eyes towards a more open and democratic political system that the power of the information age will fully exploit. But ironically, it is Israel that has been affected most by the changes sweeping this ancient land.

Ariel Sharon, the founding member of Likud, has left his party and will begin anew in politics that has strategic repercussions we have yet to fully realize. We may have passed the days in which Israel relies solely on itself for her defense. The days have come in which Jerusalem is leaning on others for her survival all for the sake of security.

From the World Tribune:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has drafted a plan for Israel's withdrawal from virtually all of the West Bank by 2008.

Political sources said Sharon has begun briefing senior U.S. officials of his intention to withdraw unilaterally from more than 95 percent of the West Bank. They said Sharon, who quit the ruling Likud Party on Nov. 21, would seek a U.S. and international security presence in the area as well as a commitment for the dismantling of Palestinian insurgency groups.

"His decision [to quit the Likud] stems from his desire to bring the state of Israel to permanent borders during his term of office," Eli Landau, a longtime confidante of Sharon, said. "He knows that this step will be a dramatic one."

One can't help but note a nervous gamble in this move. A certain turning point in which there is no return. With the advent of "International Security" forces on Israeli borders this will only complicate matters for the tiny outpost of Israel which is the only extant presence of Western Civilization anywhere in the Middle East which was once the home of Koine Greek and the fountainhead of the Rule of Law.

The pullout would be accompanied by a pledge from Sharon of an additional pullout and full Palestinian independence should the PA dismantle insurgency groups and maintain security cooperation with Israel. The sources said a version of the plan has already been drafted by Israel's National Security Council.

On Nov. 21, Sharon pledged to lay the "foundation for a peace in which we set the permanent borders of the state, while insisting on the dismantling of the terror organizations." He did not elaborate, but stressed that this plan would be within the parameters of the so-called roadmap announced by U.S. President George Bush in 2002.

Moslem terrorism and European utopianism is the anvil and hammer that Israel has been subjected to for more than 30 years now. Israel could wage war and easily take more land but politically and culturally she is unable to accomplish this task. She has nuclear weapons but may not have the will to use them even defensively thus her only recourse is a Western Alliance. Just as America and to a lesser degree Europe as their Overlords both Moslem and Jew must acquiesce to our political, economic and military demands.

May God have mercy upon their souls.

The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Scranton (SSN 756) breaks through the Artic ice. For the first time in 33 years, Scranton was one of two U.S. submarines to surface at the North Pole. Scranton and her crew broke through almost four feet of ice as a part of Atlantic Submarine Ice Exercise (LANTSUBICEX) 1-01, a three-ship exercise which demonstrated the U.S. Navys commitment to assure access to all international waters. www.navy.mil

Spineless Jellyfish

What do Cindy Sheehan, Jack Murtha, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the French have in common? Cowardice and malaise. The amount of historical amnesia displayed by these people astounds even the most optimistic among us that America can wage war against our enemies. I find it humorous that the Cindy Sheehan's in government and media who daily cackle for a "withdrawal" from Iraq can be so malevolent towards our allies in the Middle East and really throughout the world. Where is a Woodrow Wilson or a FDR amongst Democrats today? They are dead. Even their spirit has been exorcised from them. A Democrat controlled congress in 1974 voted to "withdraw" funding for the South Vietnamese government at a time when they needed us the most and all hell broke loose when Hanoi could move against Saigon at leisure without any interference from Washington. This is their modus operandi for American Foreign Policy in the 21st Century which makes the Democrat Party unfit to hold the reins of presidential power. The liberal democrat mind is to this day in a "purple haze" about their responsibility to our allies as well as to the defense of the United States.

For these cowards, history matters not a whit. To them, every day is a "new" day and whatever happened in the past CANNOT happen in the future. Such naivete' can only lead to blunder and destruction and as well as a predictable pattern of retreat that the enemies of America can fully manipulate to their own ends. The noble and honorable character of our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen stands as a majestic mountain before an arid desert of cynacism and faithlessness that personifies the Left in America today. As the Left pretends to participate in a "die-in" on the Capitol Steps, our men and women on the battlefield are in reality sacrificing their blood and heritage to keep us free from the tyranny of socialist, religious and communistic government that makes up so much of the despotic world.

Make no mistake my friends of the reprecussions of the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers and the attack on the Pentagon: We are at war! If the destruction of the F. Murray Building in Oklahoma tells us anything, there is no place to run nor hide. America has been breached and the last time this occurred was in 1812 when Washington was burned to the ground by maurading British soldiers. The ONLY way to defeat this menace is to take the war to the enemy which resides in the capitals of the Middle East. Even now, Iran arms itself with nuclear weaponery and Syria continues to wage assymetric warfare against us in Mesopotamia from Damascus. Many battles lie ahead and it will take men and women of courage to stand against our enemies foreign and sadly, domestic.

Staff Sgt. Emanuel Walls, from 2nd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, keeps an eye on the terrain surrounding Namla village, Iraq, while his platoon monitors a traffic control point. www.army.mil

Squadron personnel work on the flight deck of the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) as ships assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 cruise in formation behind Kitty Hawk during a transit of the Tsugaru Strait as part of a bilateral Annual Exercise 2005 (ANNUALEX) with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. www.navy.mil

U.S. Navy guided missile cruisers and destroyers assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15, cruise in formation during a transit of the Tsugaru Strait as part of a bilateral Annual Exercise 2005 (ANNUALEX) with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. www.navy.mil

Moscow's Envious Eyes

As I have written earlier, it is my belief that Turkey will not be allowed to join the nascent European Union because of historical, cultural and religious obstacles that are politically impassable for a Turkish descent into a new Europe. The political and intellectual elites both in Turkey and Europe want Ankara to join the EU but the reality simply is too stark for this dream to come true. Well, for Ankara, there is always Russia.

From the Guardian:

During the Cold War, Turkey's Black Sea coast was the site of U.S. radar stations that looked across the sea into Russia to snoop on the Soviet fleet and nuclear missile tests.

Now, Russian gas warms the Turkish capital, and Moscow is this NATO ally's second largest trading partner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Turkey's Black Sea coast Thursday for a ceremony to inaugurate a $3.2 billion pipeline, another sign of Russia's growing economic influence in Turkey, ties that are so strong that a Turkish general once proposed that Turkey consider an alliance with Russia instead of the European Union.

Ah yes, Turkey sits astride the worlds highways of commerce, politics and religion which may ultimately become a catalyst for war as the tectonic plates of ancient civilizations grind against each other from Catholic Europe and Orthodox Russia to a seething Arabian Islam and an outnumbered and besieged Jewish state hated and reviled by all. Once Turkey is fully rejected by Europe, will she turn towards Mecca or Moscow?

Washington had balked at proposals to build the pipeline and has warned Turkey about its dependence on Russia, which now supplies 60 percent of the country's gas and 20 percent of its oil.

But Turkish officials say that in a world of tight gas supplies they have little choice but to increase their dependence on Russia, which produces almost as much oil as Saudi Arabia.
And being so close to key energy producers is fueling Turkish ambitions to use its strategic location to become a global energy conduit.

Considering that Russia also supplies nearly 25% of Europes natural gas it becomes painfully clear that Russia may turn its strategic goals south to dominate the Middle East as its trump card over Western Europe and America. Perhaps even going so far as to militarily invade and occupy the simmering cauldron of the Middle East. Would Turkey oppose Moscow or simply open the gates of the Bosphorous to the Russian Crimean Fleet to invest the Eastern Medeterranian in its bid at world rulership vis a vis occupation of Southwest Asia and Egypt? Have I treaded too far into the future to know with certitude the above scenario? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to lobby Putin to support a Turkish project that would extend that pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where Russian oil could then be exported to the West, a Turkish official said.

The pipeline could even be extended undersea to Israel, a project that the leaders will also discuss, the official added on condition of anonymity because Turkish officials are not permitted to speak to the press without prior authorization. The meeting says ``Samsun is not the end of the energy line, but the start of it,'' said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The pipeline ceremony will also highlight growing business ties between the two countries and their burgeoning political relationship. Erdogan and Putin have met five times since Erdogan's party took control of parliament in 2002 and trade with Russia is expected to reach $15 billion this year.

``Having this kind of high profile meeting sends a discrete message to Washington and Brussels that Turkey has other options,'' said Bulent Aliriza, an analyst with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But he added that ``we're still far away from the point where Turkey might want to exercise that option, not that Russia would not want to nudge Turkey down that path.''

The Cold War is over but we are in a new era yet to be named. America inhereted the responsiblities of the Anglo Empire after World War II when Britain no longer could financially and militarily sustain itself and now old enemies and well as Europes' restive colonies have taken their own separate pathes to ascert themselves in new directions at the expense of the good graces of London and Washington.

Many Turks have grown increasingly frustrated with Europe's ambivalence toward accepting the overwhelmingly Muslim nation. In 2002, a top Turkish general said that Turkey's efforts to join the EU were doomed to failure and Turkey should look toward gas-rich Russia and Iran for alliances.

Gen. Tuncer Kilinc - at the time head of the powerful National Security Council - said that Turkey needed new allies and it would be ``useful if Turkey engages in a search that would involve Russia and Iran.''

Behold, the future!

Sgt. Mitchell Levart, from 2nd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, keeps an eye out for insurgents in Namla village, Iraq. www.army.mil

Ides Of November

Yesterday, the Republican controlled Senate decided to turn against this President on the War on Terror. They have completely caved into the drumbeat of negativity pounding away from the Old Media, Democrat Party and Hollywood. The Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist apparently has delusions of grandeur regarding his future prospects for taking the throne as President of the United States. His total acquiesence to the liberal lie regarding Iraq is detestable and shortsighted and I'm afraid will cost Republican seats in the Senate. Perhaps Senator Frist has seen the future much like the Steward of Gondor, Denethor who gazed into the crystal ball of the Palantir and saw the hordes of armies pouring forth from Mordor bringing eternal darkness to the White City, he too only see losses for the Republicans under his watch and therefore acted unilaterally against this President.

He will suffer for his lack of vision. And we will suffer for his lack of vision. As stated before on this blog, the political star is rising for the Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid as this idealogical Republican retreat is working magnificently for him and his agenda. But there is another agenda that now has been energized and invigorated which will result in greater American casualities in Iraq and possibly elsewhere because now Al Qaida sees a chink in the armor of the Republican Party and even now counsels their dark forces to continue their march and insurrection against America and her allies in this grand battle for the minds and bodies of the people both in Iraq and the United States. With the triumvirate of enemies coalescing against America, the Terrorists, the Democrat Party and the Old Media, I see dark days ahead for the American People and will require all Christian soldiers both in and out of the military to put on their whole Armor of God and stay focused for the coming battles. This is a titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of Western Civilization. Its time to lock and load. You may fire at will!

The Senate has betrayed the President. The 2006 election is around the corner and that's all they see for themselves. They are burning bridges to this President for their own selfish desires to hold power even at the expense our troops in the field fighting for their slimy and corrupt asses! A pox upon them for caving to the leftist defeatism that has muddied the Democrat Party and only can serve the interests of our enemies overseas.

History has shown that when the enemy invests your city you have one of two options: Give them war or give them tribute. The Democrats have repeately cowarded before the armies of Mordor and seek only to find out how much tribute that Osama Bin Laden wants so that he will leave us alone. A cowardly and shortsighted policy from the beginning which will bring war not on our terms. This President has given them war and frankly not enough of it to deter them from their own global agenda of Islamic hedgemony to rule the Earth from Mecca. Who will fight for America and for Caesar?

God have mercy upon our souls.

Men of the Marine Corps

Happy Birthday Marines! You are a whopping 230 years old!

Your history is illustrious and memorable. Marines are making history even now in Iraq and every other hot spot in the world under the most extreme conditions that no slimy civilian would ever endure. Y'all are in my prayers and thoughts continually.

I salute you.

Now give em hell!

Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light), fire a howitzer during their deployment in Afghanistan. The unit's outstanding performance of duty during combat operations in Afghanistan was cited in its winning of the 2005 Phoenix Trophy, the Department of Defense's highest maintenance award. www.army.mil

The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73), left, follows the cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) during maneuvers off the coast of Southern California on Oct. 29, 2005. Both ships are part of Carrier Strike Group Seven and are undergoing their composite unit training with the Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. www.navy.mil

Nederlander Effect Revisited

Just last year I had commented on the murder of Van Gogh by a Muslim in the Netherlands and how the people of the Netherlands would react with a refutation of their multicultural society, however, things do move slowly and the Nederlanders are coming to grips with a chauvinistic Islamic population that has invested their society.

This week in France we have seen how their Islamic population has ameliorated within French culture by burning cars and throwing Molotov cocktails at just about everyone and anyone who isn't Muslim. Naturally, the Old Media hasn't even really covered this event in any detail other than to say "disaffected youths" have been "rioting" in and around Paris. You are pained to find any reference to Islam in their coverage of this riot other than its France's fault they haven't allowed Moslems to intergrate within the greater Gallic society.

Unbenownst to you, in Denmark there have also been Islamic riots spreading around this ancient land home to the Vikings of old. The Danes along with the rest of Western Europe has a large minority of Moslems living within their nation but not as part of their national culture which makes up Denmark.

Is Germany next? Spain? Italy? Britain? As Europe consolidates its power and the Catholic Church rises once again to prominence within ruling circles, I suspect the Europeans will reject wholesale the Islamic peoples that have attached themselves to their society but have refused to amalgamate within the European way of life. Even now Italy, Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands have weakened their immigration laws and strengthened the rules for expulsion for Moslems that practice "Jihad" in deed and in word.

From the Associated Press:

AUBERVILLIERS, France - Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, with youths torching an ambulance and stoning medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 250 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest.

Bands of youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and nearly 900 cars overnight as the violence spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France.

Interior Ministry said nearly 900 vehicles were burned throughout France from Friday night to Saturday morning, most in the Paris area.

As you can see from the report not a single reference to Islam is made. However, all of the "youths" are moslem and the neighborhoods where the rioting has occured are Islamic neighborhoods/ghettos/projects what have you. Many are saying because the "youths" are poor and unable to merge within French Society they are therefore rebelling and rioting.

However, I would argue this to be not the case. In every Moslem dominated country we see this type of reaction because for a Moslem violence is the best method to move their agenda forward. Elections, civil debate, public opinon are things of the West and are the virtues of Western Europe and America. In this case, the "youths" will have no part of it whether they are poor or rich. Moslems historically have been a poor people and bereft of the comforts of city life. Yes, some cities in the Middle East are large but cannot be compared to a Western city with all of its creature comforts and services. Their religion is frankly the reason for their unabashed chauvinism that emanates from their desire to see Islam prevail against the West.

In France it will be the battle of the two chauvinism's: Islam verses Gall. Who shall prevail?

An MH-60 Knighthawk assigned to the "Bay Raiders" of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron (HSC) 28 approaches the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower (CVN 69) during a vertical ammunition on load evolution conducted with the Nimitz-class carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). www.navy.mil