Aum Gung Ganapathaye
Namah
Namo tassa
bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa
Homage to The
Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened
In the
name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Warfare
A Collection of Articles, Notes and References
References
(Revised:
Thursday, February 22, 2007)
References
Edited by
An Indian Tantric
What’s
in a name? That which we call a rose
By
any other name would smell as sweet.
- William
Shakespeare
Copyright
© 2002-2010 An Indian Tantric
The following educational
writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes ONLY.
Should NOT be used for
commercial, political or any other purposes.
(The
following notes are subject to update and revision)
For
free distribution only.
You may print copies of this work for free distribution.
You
may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computers and computer
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Otherwise, all rights reserved.
8
"... Freely you received, freely give”.
-
Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in
the last days.
2 People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5 having
a form of godliness but denying its power. Have
nothing to do with them.
6 They are the kind who
worm their way into homes and gain control over
weak-willed women, who are
loaded down with sins and are swayed
by all kinds of evil desires,
7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these
men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as
far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
9 But
they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their
folly will be clear to everyone.”
-
2 Timothy 3:1-9 :: New International Version (NIV)
6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
-
Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)
Therefore, I say:
Know your
enemy and know yourself;
in a hundred
battles, you will never be defeated.
When you
are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself,
your chances of
winning or losing are equal.
If ignorant both of your
enemy and of yourself,
you are sure to be defeated in every battle.
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, c. 500bc
There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer.
What are these two? The pursuit of desires and of the
pleasure which springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth,
ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit of pain and hardship,
which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.
- The Blessed
One, Lord Buddha
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
- Matthew
34 `Do not think that I came to bring peace on
the earth. I did not
come to bring peace, but war.
- Matthew
Contents
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A Brief Word on Copyright
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A Brief Word on Copyright
Many of the articles whose educational copies are given
below are copyrighted by their respective authors as well as the respective
publishers. Some contain messages of warning, as follows:
Republication or redissemination
of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written
consent of “so and so”.
According to the concept of “fair use” in US copyright Law,
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I believe that satisfies the conditions for copyright and
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References
Some of the links may not be active (de-activated)
due to various
reasons, like removal of the concerned information from the source database. So
an educational copy is also provided, along with the link.
If the link is active, do cross-check/validate/confirm the
educational copy of the article provided along.
References
Arkin, William M.
(Sunday, October 27,
2002) The Secret War.
Arkin, William M.
(Sunday, November 24,
2002) The Military's New War of Words.
Cornwell, Rupert. (Monday, September 23, 2002) Are
these the detailed battle plans for the most heavily trailed military attack in
modern history?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=335791
Dobbs, Michael. (Sunday, December 01, 2002)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/841609.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1
Freund, Michael. (Tuesday, November 26, 2002) Down on your knees, soldier.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1038285281131
Hendren, John.
(Thursday, November 07,
2002) Pentagon Moving B-2 Bombers
to New Roosts Closer to
Messmer, Ellen.
(Thursday, February 08,
2007)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020807-rsa-cyber-attacks.html?page=1
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020807-rsa-cyber-attacks.html?page=2
Mintier, Tom and Ramgopal, Ram. (Friday, October 04, 2002)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/04/pakistan.missile/index.html
http://thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1239852002
Padgaonkar, Dileep. (Saturday, October 05, 2002)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24200399
Reid, Tim. (Tuesday, November 12, 2002) Star Wars airships.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-477539,00.html
Satloff, Robert. (Friday,
November 08, 2002) Follow WWII's Torch Into
STRATFOR Global Intelligence Update. (Tuesday,
October 01, 2002) War timing depends on carrier availability.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29124
Sun
Tzu – Biography and Works.
http://www.online-literature.com/suntzu/
Tran, Mark. (Thursday, September 12, 2002) The Missionary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,791122,00.html
http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandoraV15/output/A4E53FA3-6FC6-42F2-813B-E7476321238A.asp
Obituaries: N. Wraga, 101, Sovietologist. (Friday, November 15, 2002)
http://www.newsday.com/news/obituaries/ny-wraga153003809nov15,0,1713145.story
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Educational Copy of Some of the
References
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
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Reference
Arkin, William M.
(Sunday, October 27,
2002) The Secret War.
October
27, 2002
The
Secret War
Frustrated by intelligence failures, the
Defense Department is dramatically expanding its 'black world' of covert
operations
By
William M. Arkin, William M. Arkin
is a military affairs analyst who writes regularly for Opinion. E-mail: [email protected]
SOUTH
POMFRET, Vt. -- In what may well be the largest expansiion of covert action by the armed forces since the
Vietnam era, the Bush administration has turned to what the Pentagon calls the "black world" to press the war on terrorism and weapons of mass
destruction.
The
Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources
stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organizations
are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised. Spy planes
and ships are being assigned new missions in anti-terror and monitoring the
"axis of evil."
The increasingly dominant role of the military, Pentagon officials say, reflects frustration at the highest levels of
government with the performance of the intelligence community, law
enforcement agencies and much of the burgeoning homeland security
apparatus. It also reflects the
desire of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to
gain greater overall control of the war on terror.
Insulated
from outside pressures, armed with matchless weapons and technology, trained to
operate below the shadow line, the Pentagon's black world of classified
operations holds out the hope of swift, decisive action in a struggle against
terrorism that often looks more like a family feud than a war.
Coupled
with the enormous effort being made throughout the government to improve and
link information networks and databases, covert anti-terror operations promise
to put better information in the hands of streamlined military teams that can
identify, monitor and neutralize terrorist threats.
"Prevention and preemption are ... the only defense against
terrorism," Rumsfeld
said in May. "Our
task is to find and destroy the enemy before they strike us."
The
new apparatus for covert operations and the growing government secrecy
associated with the war on terrorism reflect the way the Bush administration's
most senior officials see today's world:
First,
they see fighting terrorism and its challenge to
In
their understandable frustration over continued atrocities such as the recent
Bali attack, however,
Though
covert action can bring quick results, because it is isolated from the normal
review processes it can just as quickly bring mistakes and larger problems.
Also, the Pentagon is every bit as capable as the civilian side of the
government when it comes to creating organization charts and bureaucracy
that stifle creative
thinking and timely action.
The
development of the Pentagon's covert counter-terror capability has its roots in
the 1979
Known as the Intelligence Support Activity, or ISA, when it was established in 1981, this unit fought
in drug wars and counter-terror operations from the Middle East to
In
May 1982, Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci called the ISA "uncoordinated and uncontrolled." Though its freelance tendencies were curbed, the
ISA continued to operate under different guises through the ill-starred
Today,
the ISA operates under the code name Gray Fox. In addition to covert
operations, it provides the war on terrorism with the kind of so-called "close-in" signals monitoring --
including the interception of cell phone conversations -- that helped bring down Colombian drug lord
Pablo Escobar.
Gray Fox's low-profile eavesdropping planes also fly without military
markings. Working closely with
Special Forces and the CIA, Gray
Fox also places operatives inside hostile territory.
In
and around
These
commands and "white"
Special Forces like the Green Berets, as well as Air Force combat controllers
and commandos of eight
different nations report to a
mind-boggling array of new command cells and coordination units set up after
Sept. 11.
An
Army brigadier general commands the Joint Interagency Task Force
at Bagram air base north of
In
Meantime,
old commands are being
morphed into new ones for the covert war.
The two Joint Interagency Task Forces in the
The epicenter of the Pentagon's covert operations remains the North
Carolina-based Joint Special Operations Command, often referred to as Delta Force. The super-secret
command is still not officially acknowledged to exist. Its two-star commander, Army Maj. Gen. Dell L.
Dailey, who spent much of the Afghan war in
Among
Dailey's assets is a fleet of aircraft specially equipped for secret operations
-- conventional and covert military planes and helicopters, and even former
Soviet helicopters. The bulk of those craft, including
the reconfigured Russian choppers, fly from airfields in
The
Air Force and the CIA collect additional intelligence from unmanned Predator
and Global Hawk drones. They also have low-profile reconnaissance assets that
look like transport planes and operate under such code names as ARL-Low, Keen
Sage, Scathe View and Senior Scout.
Not
to be left out, the Navy's Gray Star spy vessel, reminiscent of the old Pueblo,
captured by North Korea in 1968, now sweeps up sophisticated -- and obscure -- "measurements and signatures
intelligence" to monitor the ballistic
missile capabilities of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
Even
with all this, the Pentagon wants to expand covert capabilities.
Rumsfeld's influential Defense Science Board 2002 Summer Study on Special
Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism says in its
classified "outbrief" -- a briefing drafted
to guide other Pentagon agencies -- that the global war on terrorism "requires new strategies, postures and
organization."
The
board recommends creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an
organization it dubs the
Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG), to bring together CIA
and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and
deception.
Among
other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at
"stimulating reactions" among terrorists and states possessing
weapons of mass destruction -- that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells
into action and exposing themselves to "quick-response" attacks by
Such
tactics would hold "states/sub-state
actors accountable" and "signal to harboring states that their
sovereignty will be at risk,"
the briefing paper declares.
Never
to be outdone in proposing hardware solutions, the Air Force is designing its
own Global Response Task Force to fight the war on terrorism. The all-seeing,
all-bombing Air Force envisions unmanned A-X aircraft capable of long-range, nighttime gunship
operations and an M-X covert transport, as well as hypersonic and space-based conventional
weapons capable of delivering a "worldwide attack within an hour."
Who
says the arms race is over? Rumsfeld's science board
warns against overemphasis on equipment even as it recommends more.
And
for those who worry that all these secret operations and aggressive new
doctrines will turn the
Rumsfeld
is now the field marshal of the war on terrorism, but the Pentagon is also
creating new layers of bureaucracy that may save it from itself. Not to mention
the rest of us.
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Reference
Arkin, William M.
(Sunday, November 24,
2002) The Military's New War of Words.
November
24, 2002
DEFENSE
STRATEGY
The
Military's New War of Words
By
William M. Arkin, William M. Arkin
is a military affairs analyst who writes regularly for Opinion. E-mail: [email protected].
SOUTH
POMFRET, Vt. -- It was California's own Hiram Johnson wwho
said, in a speech on the Senate floor in 1917, that "the first casualty, when war comes, is truth."
What
would he make of the Bush administration?
In
a policy shift that reaches across all the armed services, Secretary of Defense
Donald H. Rumsfeld and his senior aides are revising
missions and creating new agencies to make "information warfare" a central element of any
What
is disturbing about Rumsfeld's vision of information
warfare is that it has a way of folding together two kinds of wartime activity involving communications
that have traditionally been separated by a firewall of principle.
The first is purely military. It includes attacks on the radar, communications and other
"information systems" an enemy depends on to guide its war-making
capabilities. This category also includes traditional psychological warfare, such as dropping leaflets or broadcasting propaganda to enemy troops.
The second is not directly military. It is the dissemination of public information that the American people
need in order to understand what is happening in a war, and to decide what they
think about it. This information is
supposed to be true.
Increasingly,
the administration's new policy -- along with the steps senior commanders are
taking to implement it -- blurs or even erases the boundaries between factual
information and news, on the one hand, and public relations, propaganda and
psychological warfare, on the other. And, while the policy ostensibly targets foreign enemies, its most
likely victim will be the American electorate.
One
of Rumsfeld's first steps into this minefield
occurred last year with the creation of the Pentagon's Office of Strategic
Influence. Part of its stated mission was to generate disinformation and
propaganda that would help the
The
office's nominal target was the foreign media, especially in the Middle East
and
Faced
with a public outcry, Rumsfeld declared it had all
been a big misunderstanding. The Pentagon would never lie to Americans. The
Office of Strategic Influence was shut down. But the impulse to control public information and bend
it to the service of government objectives did not go away.
This
fall, Rumsfeld created a new position of deputy
undersecretary for "special
plans," a euphemism for deception operations. The special plans policy czar will sit atop a huge
new infrastructure being created in the name of information warfare.
On
Oct. 1, in a little-noticed but major reorganization,
Similarly,
the country's most venerable and historic bombing command, the 8th
Air Force, which carried the air war to Germany in World War II, has been
directed to transfer its bomber and fighter aircraft to other commands so that
it can focus exclusively on worldwide information attacks.
The
Navy, meanwhile, has consolidated its efforts in a newly formed Naval Network
Warfare Command. And the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan, or JSCP, prepared
by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now declares information to be just as important in war as diplomatic, military or
economic factors.
The strategic capabilities plan is the central war-fighting directive
for the
To
a large extent, these documents and the organizational shifts behind them are
focused on such missions as jamming
or deceiving enemy radar
systems and disrupting command and control networks. Such activities only carry forward efforts that
have been part of
But
a summary of the strategic capabilities plan and a raft of other Pentagon and
armed forces documents made available to The Times make it clear that the new approach now includes other elements
as well: the management of public information, efforts
to control news media sources and manipulation of public opinion.
The
plan summary, for instance, talks of "strategic" deception
and "influence
operations" as basic tools in future wars. According to another Defense Department directive
on information warfare policy, military leaders should use information
"operations" to "heighten public awareness; promote national and
coalition policies, aims, and objectives ... [and] counter adversary propaganda and
disinformation in the news."
Both
the Air Force and the Navy now list deception as one of
five missions for information warfare, along with electronic attack, electronic
protection, psychological
. attacks and public affairs. A September draft of a new Air Force policy describes information warfare's goals as "destruction, degradation, denial, disruption, deceit, and exploitation." These goals are referred to collectively as "D5E."
In
order to do a better job of deception, the joint chiefs have issued a
"Joint Policy for Military Deception" that directs the individual services to work on the task in peacetime as
well as wartime. Specifically, it orders the Air Force to develop
better doctrine and techniques for incorporating deception into war plans.
The
Air Force, in response, now defines military
deception as action that "misleads adversaries, causing them to act in
accordance with"
"Gaining and maintaining the information initiative in a conflict
can be a powerful weapon to defeat propaganda," the Air Force said in its January doctrine.
That
echoes a statement by Navy Rear Adm. John Cryer III,
who worked on information warfare in the Combined Air Operations Center in
Saudi Arabia during the Afghanistan war: "It was our belief ... we were
losing the information war early when we watched Al Jazeera," Cryer said at an
October conference, meaning that the U.S. perspective was inadequately
represented on the Arab
world's equivalent of CNN. "We
came around, but it took a lot longer than it should have."
Of
course there is nothing wrong with making sure the
The
problem is that Rumsfeld's vision of
information warfare seems to push beyond the notion that American ideas and
information should compete with the enemy's on a level playing field. And Rumsfeld's vision,
with its melding of public information and deception, is taking root in the
armed services.
The
new Air Force doctrine, for example, declares that the news media can be used not only to convey
"the leadership's concern with [an] issue," but also to avoid
"the media going to other sources [such as an adversary or critic of
The
disinformation campaign being constructed goes against even the military's own
stated mission. Truthfulness, the Air Force says, is a key to defeating adversaries. Accordingly, the service branch adds, "
The
potential for mischief is magnified by the fact that so much of what the U.S.
military does these days falls into the category of covert operations. Americans are now operating out of secret bases in
places like
In
all these cases and more, the
And when the information that military officers provide to the public
is part of a process that generates propaganda and places a high value on
deceit, deception and denial, then truth is indeed likely to be high on the
casualty list.
That
is bad news for the American public. In the end, it may be even worse news for
the Bush administration -- and for a
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Reference
Cornwell, Rupert. (Monday, September 23, 2002) Are
these the detailed battle plans for the most heavily trailed military attack in
modern history?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=335791
But even though
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Reference
Dobbs, Michael. (Sunday, December 01, 2002)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/841609.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1
Total
cost could run $200 billion, with little help from allies
By
Michael Dobbs
THE
WASHINGTON,
Dec. 1 — Within a month of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the first Bush administration launched what became
known as “Operation Tin Cup” —
a frenzied round of diplomacy aimed at getting U.S. allies to help pay for war
with Iraq. As a result, the bill to American taxpayers for the Persian Gulf War
was about $7 billion, a fraction
of its cost.
ALTHOUGH IT is difficult to predict how much
Americans would pay for a new war with Iraq, one fact seems indisputable: It will be many times more than the cost of the last war, if
only because other countries are much more reluctant to share the burden.
Informal estimates by congressional
staff and Washington think tanks of the costs of an invasion of
The 1991 Gulf War led
to a brief spike in oil prices and
a fall in consumer confidence that
helped tip the country into a
recession that cost President George H.W. Bush his chances of reelection.
Despite the high economic and political
stakes, there has been no equivalent of Operation Tin Cup this time around, and
the current administration has
refused to engage in
public debate about the likely costs of a new war.
“If we can plan a war, we should also be
planning a way to pay for the war,” said Rep. John M. Spratt
Jr. (S.C.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “Last time, we were able to slough the costs off
on other countries. This time, we will have to absorb most
of these costs ourselves. Someone ought to be asking questions about the impact on the budget.”
WHITE HOUSE: NO DECISION YET
A White House official, speaking on condition of
not being identified, said it would be premature to talk about the costs of a
war with
Using different methodologies, the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and staff for the Democrat minority on
the House Budget Committee have concluded that a
short, decisive war involving the deployment of 250,000
The direct military costs of a new war
will likely be less than in 1991 under most
scenarios, but the postwar occupation costs will be considerably greater, most
experts believe.
In
“It’s a no-brainer that this is going to cost
us more than the last time,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a military economist at the
Brookings Institution. “In addition to the nominal price tag for the
operation, you will need a large stabilization force in there for a number of years. Anything else will not be strategically
viable.”
Extrapolating from similar peacekeeping operations
in
Adding the costs of a stabilization force to the
costs of an invasion brings the total to between $100 billion and $200 billion.
This is in line with an upper-bracket estimate by White
House economics adviser
WAR ON THE CHEAP?
If the war costs between $100 billion and $200
billion, it would still be relatively inexpensive in historical terms. Because of the growth in the
Measured against a federal budget of
about $2 trillion a year, the cost of the war would be proportionately larger:
between 5 percent and 10 percent.
“You have to ask yourself where would that money come from,” said Spratt, who represents the pay-as-you-go philosophy in Congress. “While the costs of the war are clearly not beyond our means, they are
beyond our budget. Remember, this all comes at a time when we are losing
control over the budget.”
In 1991,
The generosity of the allies was “exhausted” by the
first attack on Iraq, said Chas Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Riyadh who
helped raise $16.8 billion from the Saudis to pay for Desert Storm.
The direct military costs of a new war will
likely be less than in 1991 under most scenarios, but the postwar occupation
costs will be considerably greater, most experts believe.
He added that the Saudi government
would find it politically impossible to pick up a substantial portion of the
costs of a new Gulf War even if it had the money, because the Saudi public is “now 100 percent against an attack on
Freeman says the
The most uncertain cost of the war, economists
agree, is the impact on the broader
“I was surprised to discover that the nonmilitary costs are likely to be much larger than the military
costs,” he said.
ASSESSING THE OPTIONS
A
recent conference by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies considered three
scenarios for a war with
A worst-case scenario
(5 percent to 10 percent probability) envisaged fighting for three to six
months, massive political unrest in the Middle East, terrorist attacks against
the
An intermediate scenario
(30 percent to 40 percent probability) included limited damage to oil
facilities, major urban warfare and fighting for up to three months. The
intermediate and worst-case scenarios would have “serious adverse effects” on
the
Nordhaus said
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Reference
Freund, Michael. (Tuesday, November 26, 2002) Down on your knees, soldier.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1038285281131
Nov.
26, 2002
Down
on your knees, soldier BY MICHAEL FREUND
George
Washington did it. Stonewall Jackson did it. So did Norman Schwarzkopf, Horatio
Nelson and Robert E. Lee.
As
different as they may have been from one another, these great military figures
all shared one thing in common: before embarking on a fateful battle, they made sure to arm themselves
with some much-needed perspective.
Simply put, each of
them prayed.
Though
we do not ordinarily associate spiritual sensitivity with men of war, the fact
is that some of the most prominent generals of the modern era were not ashamed
of invoking Divine mercy in
their hour of need. And neither, I think,
should we.
Take,
for example, George S.
Patton, the flamboyant World War II general
better known as "Old
Blood and Guts." Thanks to the 1970
Hollywood rendition of his life, which won eight Academy Awards, Patton's name
has become synonymous in the public's mind more with ruthless discipline and robust cursing than with acknowledging God's role in the affairs of
men.
Though a hardened soldier, Patton was in fact a staunch advocate of
prayer, deeming it a central component of any successful military strategy. "I
am a strong believer in prayer. There are three ways that men get what they
want: by planning, by working,
and by praying," he once said.
Indeed,
in early December 1944, as Hitler was preparing to launch a desperate assault
against Allied troops which later came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge,
Patton interrupted his war planning to place a call to James O'Neill, chief
chaplain of the US Third Army.
"This
is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather?" he told the
astonished chaplain. "We must do something about those rains if we are to
win the war." At Patton's request, a special prayer was written asking not
only for better weather, but also for victory over
"Grant
us fair weather for battle," it read.
"Graciously
hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may
advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our
enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen."
AT
PATTON'S instruction, the army printed up some 250,000 pocket-sized cards
containing the prayer and distributed one to each American soldier under his
command. Several days later, Patton led his troops in a surprise counter-attack
against the German forces, relieving a contingent of trapped soldiers, staving
off an Allied defeat and setting the stage for the demise of Hitler's regime.
To
any outside observer, it was evident that Patton's boldness at the helm was
responsible for the unexpected victory. But Patton himself saw things somewhat differently.
In
January 1945, after routing the Germans, he summoned Chaplain O'Neill to
Nearly
six decades later, the safety of the free world is again in danger. Between
As
General Patton demonstrated, it is precisely at times such as these that we
must mobilize all the forces at our disposal, marshaling not only our military might, but our
spiritual strength too.
Though
not everyone is capable of donning a uniform and joining the fray, what each of
us can and must do is enlist as a
spiritual warrior, brandishing our most powerful weapon of all: our
faith.
If
Islamic fundamentalists are intent on waging a "holy war," then what
could be more appropriate than confronting them with our own sacred fervor? It
is time for Jews and Christians, Israelis and Americans alike, to pray - to
pray for the safety of our soldiers, to plead for our enemies' downfall and to
long for their rapid defeat.
Let
the skeptics say what they wish, but prayer is neither a sign of weakness nor an indicator of despair. Just the opposite. It is a telling reminder of our certainty in
the justice of our cause, of our profound belief that there is good and evil in
this world, and that the only way to safeguard the former is to root out the
latter, come what may.
On
Yom Kippur, when our very lives are on the line, we fall down on our knees in
prayer as we reenact the special
On
the eve of war with
The
writer served as deputy director of communications & policy planning in the
Prime Minister's Office from 1996 to 1999.
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Reference
Hendren, John.
(Thursday, November 07,
2002) Pentagon Moving B-2 Bombers
to New Roosts Closer to
November
7, 2002
Pentagon
Moving B-2 Bombers to New Roosts Closer to
Hangars will be built on an Indian Ocean
island and in
Shelters
for the stealth
November
7, 2002
By
John Hendren, Times Staff Writer
KNOB
NOSTER, Mo. -- The Pentagon is moving the jet that
fired the opening salvos of the last two U.S. wars to within easy striking
distance of Iraq, erecting tent-like portable hangars for the batwinged B-2 bomber on the Indian Ocean
Four
of the new $2.5-million maintenance hangars, each serving two planes, will be
built on the British-held isle and one at
The
foreign positioning of the radar-deflecting aircraft has been in the works for
years, officials said. But the timing suggests the key role the B-2 is likely
to play if there is a second war in the
If
the
Diego Garcia is a five-hour flight from
The
futuristic bomber — housed at the same base the Enola Gay left to drop the first atomic bomb, on
"The
B-2 bomber was designed
specifically to kick the door down and kill targets," said Col. Doug Raaburg, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman.
The
Pentagon has long planned to
station B-2s at three sites
capable of striking
trouble spots throughout the world within 24 hours: Guam for Asian targets,
Military
officials wouldn't say exactly when the B-2s bound for Diego Garcia and
Even
many B-2 advocates concede that the aircraft played no more than a cameo role
in
But
The
Iraqis have built new facilities, reinforced others and added radar, experts
say. How much of it has been destroyed by U.S. and British planes patrolling
the country's northern and southern no-fly zones remains unclear, but those
areas do not include Baghdad, where Hussein has placed his best air defenses.
"We
didn't have to use the B-2s in
After
its introduction in 1993 at a cost of $2 billion each, the B-2 was criticized
as too delicate — critics erroneously said it couldn't fly in the rain — and
too expensive. But since the devastating opening bombing runs in Kosovo,
analysts say, it has become the Pentagon's first-strike weapon.
Eight
B-2s could drop as many as 576 bombs on Iraqi air defenses in the first three
days of a war, seizing control of the airspace. It takes three minutes for a B-2 to drop 16
satellite-guided "smart" bombs.
It is the only
plane that can carry the 5,000-pound explosive that crew members call "the crowd pleaser," which burrows up
to 20 feet into rock and destroys underground bunkers with massive force.
Some
analysts predict that after the first few days of an assault on
But
others note that during the entire 1991 Gulf War, the plane that Gen. H. Norman
Schwarzkopf used most to bomb targets in Baghdad was the earlier-generation
stealth fighter, the F-117, because it could evade detection. With a second war
likely to focus far more firepower on the Iraqi capital, the B-2 would be the
weapon of choice, perhaps along with F-117s, said John Pike, a defense analyst
at GlobalSecurity.org, an
"Baghdad
is the center of gravity in this war, so I would suspect that the B-2s would be
going downtown until the war is over," Pike said.
Placing B-2s at Diego Garcia
frees up bases nearer
After
the introduction of the B-2, which was built in Palmdale by Northrop Grumman, war planners were skittish about using it. They feared that losing
a $2-billion plane would cause a political backlash at home.
No one knew for certain how well it would work in combat, where the pilots are extremely vulnerable if spotted. Flying
a B-2 is something of an act of faith.
It
has no high-speed afterburner, no
missiles to return fire — nothing to protect it but
stealth.
It
is called the stealth bomber because its sleek shape helps it evade radar. Maintaining the shape of the smooth composite skin
is such a delicate endeavor that maintenance crews cover seams, rivets and any
dents from bugs or birds with radar-absorbing tape after each mission.
The
painstaking maintenance, which would be done at Diego Garcia in the new portable
hangars, can mean the difference
between life and death.
One kink in the body could tip off ground radar to
the bomber's location. Air Force officials
believe that the only
stealth fighter to be shot down, an F-117,
was struck in
Whatever
the risk to the pilots, any
missions from Diego Garcia to
B-2
pilots fly missions never envisioned before — a record 44½ hours to
Afghanistan, by circuitous routes — and they have forged their own on-board lifestyle. The trips are so long that pilots consulted sleep
therapists. (They were
advised to load up on carbohydrates and sleep either less than 45 minutes or
more than two hours to avoid the drowsiness brought on by waking during a deep
sleep.)
Pilots
steal naps in lounge chairs from Kmart that they stash behind the two seats.
After
a lengthy trek to the target, they turn around and head home without ever
seeing the ground.
"At
no other time in the world are you
so removed yet so involved," said a B-2 captain who asked to be
identified by his codename, Pita.
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Reference
Messmer, Ellen.
(Thursday, February 08,
2007)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020807-rsa-cyber-attacks.html?page=1
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020807-rsa-cyber-attacks.html?page=2
National
Cyber Response Coordination Group establishing proper response to cyberattacks
By
Ellen Messmer, Network World, 02/08/07
San
Francisco — If the United States found itself under a major cyberattack
aimed at undermining the nation’s critical information infrastructure, the
Department of Defense is prepared, based on the authority of the president, to launch a cyber counterattack or an actual bombing of an attack source.
The
primary group responsible for analyzing the need for any cyber counterstrike is
the National Cyber Response Coordination Group (NCRCG). The three key members
of the NCRCG, who hail
from the US-CERT computer-readiness team,
the Department of Justice and the Defense Department, this week
described how they would seek to coordinate a national response in the event of
a major cyber-event from a
known attacker.
This
week’s massive but
unsuccessful denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the Internet’s root DNS, which targeted
military and other networks, did
not rise to the level of requiring response,
but made the possibility of a
massive Internet collapse more real than theoretical. Had the attack been successful there may have been
a cyber counterstrike from the United States, said Mark Hall, director of the
international information assurance program for the Defense Department and the
Defense Department co-chair to the NCRCG, who spoke on the topic of
cyber-response during the RSA Conference here.
“We
have to be able to respond,” Hall said. “We need to be in a coordinated response.”
He
noted that the Defense
Department networks,
subject to millions of probes each day, has
“the biggest target on its back.”
But
a smooth cyber-response remains a work in progress. The NCRCG’s
three co-chairs acknowledge it’s not simple coordinating communications and
information-gathering across government and industry even in the best of
circumstances, much less if a
significant portion of the Internet or traditional voice communications were
suddenly struck down. But they asserted the
NCRCG is “ready to stand up” to
confront a catastrophic cyber-event to
defend the country.
“We’re
working with key vendors to bring
the right talent together for a mitigation
strategy,” said Jerry Dixon, deputy director for operations for the National
Cyber Security Division at US-CERT. “We recognize much infrastructure is operated by the private sector.” The
Page
2 of 2
The
third NCRCG co-chair, Christopher Painter, principal deputy chief at the
Justice Department, said the cyber-response group also seeks to communicate
with 50 countries around the
world where monitoring for massive cybersecurity events
go on as well. “Some of them have some of the same communications issues we
have here,” he noted.
The
Department of Homeland
Security’s National Response Plan
calls for coordination with a
number of agencies, including the Department of Treasury, when the decision for a national response is
made. So far, there has been no major cybersecurity
event against the
The
massive DoS attack attempt against the Internet’s root-servers this week, which specifically targeted military networks, raises the question whether the
“It’s
the President’s call,” said Hall said, pointing out the recommendation for a
counterattack would be passed to the chief executive via the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha.
In
the event of a massive cyberattack against the
country that was perceived
as originating from a foreign source,
the United States would consider launching a counterattack or bombing the source of the cyberattack, Hall said. But he noted the preferred route would be warning the
source to shut down the attack before a military response.
All the military services are preparing for military cyber-response, Hall pointed out.
Jim
Collins, R&D engineer at the Air Force Information Operations Center, who
also spoke on the need for network defense at a session at the RSA Conference,
said the Air force is also
gearing up for an offensive cyber capability.
“The Air Force hasn’t just been standing by,” he said, noting that in November, the Air Force added the mission to fight in cyberspace by creating a new Cyber Command.
“We’re standing up cyber-fighters to do network warfare,” Collins said. “Where we had pilots before,
we’ll have fighters in
cyberspace.”
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Reference
Mintier, Tom and Ramgopal, Ram. (Friday, October 04, 2002)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/04/pakistan.missile/index.html
Staff
and wires
Friday,
October 4, 2002 Posted: 9:47 AM EDT (1347 GMT)
SHAHEEN 1 FACTS
-
Length: 12.0 m
-
Body diameter: 1.0 m
-
Launch weight: 9,500 kg
-
Payload: Single warhead 1,000 kg
-
Warhead: 750 kg nuclear 35 kT, chemical, HE or submunitions
Guidance:
Inertial
-
Propulsion: Single-stage solid propellant
-
Range: 750-800 km
-
Accuracy: 200 m
Sources:
CNN/Janes
The
tests come during a particularly low point in relations between the two
countries, following closely a spate of killings blamed on Pakistani-based
militants during elections in the Indian-run half of
More
than a million Indian and Pakistani troops remain locked in a tense, 10-month-old
stand-off along their shared border.
"It
was a routine test. We are testing different parameters of the missile since
the past fortnight," said P. K. Bandhopadhyaya,
the Defense Ministry spokesman. "The missile is meant for air defense. It
will be used by the army and air force," he told The Associated Press.
Earlier
Friday,
"Prior
notification of the test had been given to neighbors as well as some friendly
countries,"
A
Pakistani military official quoted by The Associated Press described the test
as "routine."
"As
we have said before, we are not particularly impressed with these missile
antics of Pakistan," India's External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said to reporters
before India had responded with its own test.
"As
is well known, Pakistani missiles are based on clandestinely imported
materials, equipment, and technology," she added.
The
test also followed a visit by Christina Rocca, the
Some
analysts have suggested that with the current international focus on a possible
U.S.-led military attack against
Given
that possibility, the test may be a way of
With
tensions remaining high, both countries have been urged to halt missile tests
in order to avoid misinterpretations by the other side that could accidentally
trigger a war.
Diplomats
say that with each country
just four minutes missile flight from the other there is
little time for the opposing militaries to determine whether a launch is indeed
a test or a first strike
attack warranting
an immediate response.
Furthermore it is also impossible for either side to determine whether
an opponent's missile might be carrying
a conventional or nuclear warhead
-- raising the potential of
a retaliatory strike with disastrous consequences for the region.
--
CNN Correspondents Tom Mintier in
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Reference
http://thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1239852002
Thu
7 Nov 2002
Photo.
HMS Trafalgar was deployed alongside
HMS Triumph (pictured) and HMS Superb against
Nuclear
sub runs aground on Skye
Jeanette
Oldham and Liam McDougall
A
NUCLEAR submarine has run aground while taking part in a military exercise off
Skye.
The
Ministry of Defence was last night trying to find out
how the vessel, one of the navy’s 12 nuclear-powered attack subs,
managed to hit a rock while on a military exercise.
The
MoD would not say last night if the captain of the
submarine would face a court martial.
HMS
Trafalgar usually carries Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and it is
believed it will be used in any invasion of
The
MoD said two crew members on board the submarine
sustained injuries at 7:58am yesterday, when it hit a rock, Fladda-Chauina,
500 metres off the north-west coast of
An
MoD spokeswoman said: "There is no damage to the
pressure hull and a core integrity assessment of the nuclear reactor has been
conducted.
"There
is no risk to the public or crew."
The
submarine was taking part in a training exercise and surfaced immediately after
the incident.
One
of the crewmen suffered a broken nose and the other strained his back.
HMS Trafalgar, which was commissioned in 1983, was due to arrive at Faslane
naval base on the Clyde today , where the damage will
be assessed fully. The
4,750-ton submarine was last night travelling under her own power,
but was being escorted by a Royal Navy warship.
The
military exercise involved between 20 and 30 vessels, including submarines and
frigates, as well as aircraft. Such exercises take place beside the busy
shipping lanes of the west
coast of Scotland between Cape Wrath and Skye about two or three times a year.
Charles
Kennedy, the local MP and the Liberal Democrat leader, said in a statement:
"The first reaction to this news must be one of relief that no hull breach
or damage to the nuclear reactor has occurred and no lives have been lost.
"But when a nuclear submarine is involved in an incident of this
nature, with the potential for disastrous consequences, it is essential that a
full investigation is undertaken, the conclusions of which must be made
public."
Bernard
Jenkin, the shadow defence
secretary, said: "Accidents
happen but we have precious few of these submarines - where is the spare capacity to stand in when
such vessels are put out of action?
"The government
is unprepared for the unexpected, and the
armed forces are already overstretched as it is."
Jane
Tallants, the vice-chairwoman of the Scottish
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said: "It is very worrying that these submarines,
which are supposedly precision machines, couldn’t miss something the size of
Skye."
Carol
Naughton, the chairwoman of CND, said: "We are
calling for an independent assessment of this accident.
"We
are sceptical of immediate reassurances from the
Royal Navy following the case of HMS Tireless, which went to port in
The discovery of a "design fault" led to the entire
hunter-killer fleet being called back into port, claimed a spokesman for CND.
"Our
question is this: has this
incident been caused by another
design fault? If so,
will all hunter-killers be called back into port?"
A
spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive would only say last night: "Defence matters are reserved.
"A
full investigation is being carried out by the Ministry of Defence.
Scottish ministers will be kept fully informed."
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Personal Note
"The government
is unprepared for the unexpected, and the
armed forces are already overstretched as it is."
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Reference
Padgaonkar, Dileep. (Saturday, October 05, 2002)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24200399
DILEEP
PADGAONKAR
TIMES
NEWS NETWORK [
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2002 12:03:57 AM ]
But
the latter, unencumbered by diplomatic niceties, assert quite candidly that
According
to Prof Sun Shihai, Deputy Director of the Institute
of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, India had
advanced the ‘‘Chinese threat’’ thesis as a justification for its nuclear tests
in 1998. This mindset was equally evident from certain statements of defence minister George Fernandes.
Another
veteran specialist of Indian affairs, Prof Wand Hongwei,
said that an
‘‘ideological residue’’ of the 1962 border war still persisted in
The
experts also rubbished the theory, which has gained currency in certain Indian
circles, that the
Asked
whether
The
conversations with the experts and senior officials leave little room for doubt
that
At
the same time, however, it will act as a ‘responsible’ great power.
Its actions will not be very much at odds with those of the other four
permanent members of the UN Security Council. Its efforts to engage
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Reference
Reid, Tim. (Tuesday, November 12, 2002) Star Wars airships.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-477539,00.html
November
12, 2002
Star
Wars airships
By
Tim Reid
THE
Pentagon has turned to technology first used in Napoleonic
Sixty-five
years after the
Hindenburg disaster sent the airship’s
prospects crashing to the
The
In
the post-September 11 world, the technology could also enhance monitoring
terrorist activities on the ground, the Pentagon believes. Each airship would carry 40ft radars with a
sweep of about 750 miles, ringing the
Initially they would not carry weapons, but the Pentagon hopes that later they could use lasers to attack missiles, a marriage of Great War
and Star Wars technology.
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Reference
Satloff, Robert. (Friday,
November 08, 2002) Follow WWII's Torch Into
November
8, 2002
COMMENTARY
Follow
WWII's Torch Into
Allied invasion of
By
Robert Satloff, Robert Satloff
is the director of policy and strategic planning at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy.
As
the chance of war with
Thanks
to Torch, the momentum began to swing against Nazi
Three
lessons from Torch have special resonance today:
*
We need clear war aims, which
Despite
Torch's military victory, the Allies opted against demanding surrender from
Proponents
contended that this deal hastened the war's end. Yet it also gave
The
Allies, however, learned their lesson. Two months after Torch, President
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first time
decreed their war aim to be "unconditional surrender."
In
any war with
For
many, this would be as good as it could possibly get.
Yet
just as Roosevelt and Churchill eventually opted for clarity over expediency,
so too must we fight the urge for a simple solution to today's
Without
the full removal of Hussein's clique and his party, we will have bought merely
time, not peace or security.
* A small band of partisans can contribute much.
In
1942, on the evening before the Allies' arrival, 377 members of the Algerian
underground, more than 300 of them Jews, spread out across
Thanks
to their courage and cunning, many American and British lives were saved. In
cruel irony, many leaders of the Jewish underground were soon imprisoned by
In
today's
These
analysts fail to take into account the connection between
In
Torch, when the Algerian resistance learned that the Allies were truly
committed to the battle against
In
* We must remember to fight for people, not just interests.
One
week after the Torch landings, when it was apparent that Washington was doing
nothing to ease Vichy's persecution of local Jews, a number of U.S. Jewish
soldiers organized an ad hoc protest group and called on Roosevelt's personal
envoy in Algiers to ask why the U.S. government wasn't helping the Jews. They
were rebuffed.
How
brave those soldiers were. This was 1942, after all, just days after the first
American shots against an enemy heretofore thought invincible and on behalf of
coreligionists who spoke a different language and followed different customs.
Let
us honor the memory of the
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Reference
STRATFOR Global Intelligence Update. (Tuesday,
October 01, 2002) War timing depends on carrier availability.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29124
STRATFOR
GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
War timing depends on carrier availability
Unclear
when enough ships will be stationed in
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted:
October 1, 2002
5:00
p.m. Eastern
Editor's
note: In partnership with Stratfor, the global
intelligence company, WorldNetDaily publishes daily updates
on international affairs provided by the respected private research and
analysis firm. Look for fresh updates each afternoon, Monday through Friday. In
addition, WorldNetDaily invites you to consider
STRATFOR membership, entitling you to a wealth of international intelligence
reports usually available only to top executives, scholars, academic
institutions and press agencies.
©
2002 WorldNetDaily.com
The
timing of any attack on
Bush
administration officials are pressing the case for a new United Nations
Security Council resolution against Iraq, meeting with fellow Security Council
members China, France and Russia. But as
During
The
Any
major attack on
But
as in operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, when additional carriers were
brought into play, one must look at the entire carrier fleet to determine how
many ships will be available and when. In general, a
The USS Theodore Roosevelt
(CVN 71) returned to its homeport of
Vessels
in the Pacific are closer to being ready for action in the Gulf. The USS Constellation (CV 64) is scheduled to head to the Mediterranean
and the
The USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), which returned to San Diego, Calif., in late May, also will be ready for early 2003. And the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) – the only
In
addition to U.S. carriers, the
British HMS Ark Royal (RO7) reportedly is
ready to deploy to the region soon – though the two other British carriers, the HMS Invincible (RO5) and the HMS Illustrious (RO6) are
undergoing maintenance, as is the
French Charles de Gaulle (R91).
In
addition to naval-based aircraft,
Of
the seven
One
other MEU, the 24th, currently is participating in Operation Dynamic Response
in Kosovo. The 22nd recently returned from an overseas deployment, and the 26th
just completed urban combat training. All three MEUs
are based at
For
While
this does not guarantee military action before year-end, it does make action
any earlier unlikely for purely logistical reasons – even if political backing
could be rallied sooner.
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Reference
Sun
Tzu – Biography and Works.
http://www.online-literature.com/suntzu/
Chinese general, circa 500 B.C. A collection of essays on the art of war is
attributed to Sun Tzu. These are the earliest known treatises on the subject.
There is a growing number of translations of this Chinese classic, usually
titled Sun Tzu: The Art of
War. Sometimes the wording is reversed. Knowledge
of Sun Tzu reached
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Reference
Tran, Mark. (Thursday, September 12, 2002) The Missionary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,791122,00.html
George Bush has not come out and said that America
will be now a permanent
war economy, but all his declarations point to that, going back to his statement after the World Trade
Centre attacks. At the time Bush said
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Reference
http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandoraV15/output/A4E53FA3-6FC6-42F2-813B-E7476321238A.asp
Lawrence
Lindsey, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, projected the “upper bound” of war costs at
between 1% and 2% of
In
an interview in his White House office, Mr. Lindsey dismissed the economic consequences of such spending, saying it wouldn’t have an appreciable effect on interest rates or add much to
the federal debt, which is already about
$3.6 trillion. “One
year” of additional spending? he said. “That’s
nothing.”
At
the same time, he doubted that the additional spending would give the economy
much of a lift. “Government spending tends not to be that stimulative,”
he said. “Building
weapons and expending them isn’t the basis of sustained economic growth.”
Administration
officials have been unwilling to talk about the specific costs of a war,
preferring to discuss the removal of Mr. Hussein in foreign-policy or even moral
terms. Discussing
the economics of the war could make it seem as if the
Mr.
Lindsey, who didn’t provide a detailed analysis of the costs, drew an analogy
between the potential war expenditures with an investment in the removal of a
threat to the economy. “It’s
hard for me to see how we have sustained economic growth in a world where
terrorists with weapons of mass destruction are running around,” he said. If you weigh the cost of the war against the removal of a “huge drag on
global economic growth for a foreseeable time in the future, there’s no
comparison.”
Other
administration economists say that their main fear is that an
Mr.
Lindsey said that Mr. Hussein’s ouster could actually ease the oil problem by
increasing supplies. Iraqi production has been constrained somewhat because of
its limited investment and political factors. “When there is a regime change in
Currently,
Mr. Lindsey’s cost estimate is higher than the $50 billion number
offered privately by the Pentagon in its conversations with Congress. The
difference shows the pitfalls of predicting the cost of a military conflict
when nobody is sure how difficult or long it will be. Whatever the bottom line, the war’s costs would be
significant enough to make it harder for the Bush administration to climb out
of the budget-deficit hole
it faces because of the economic slowdown and expense of the war on terrorism.
Mr.
Lindsey didn’t spell out the specifics of the spending and didn’t make clear
whether he was including in his estimate the cost of rebuilding
This
time it is far from clear how much of the cost — if any —
Toppling Mr. Hussein could be more expensive than the Persian Gulf War
if the
During
the Gulf War, the
The
Gulf War started with the Iraqi invasion of
With
On
Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he doubted a war would
lead to recession because of the reduced dependence of the
The
www.msnbc.com
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Personal Note
“One year” of additional spending?
“That’s nothing.”
The fundamental law of Economics, ”There is
nothing called a free meal”. The whole subject of money management evolves from
that statement.
In the last century, the
"The
government is unprepared for the unexpected, and the
armed forces are already overstretched as it is."
-
http://thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1239852002
No single nation has the everlasting status of “super-power”. As time
goes on, the baton of super-power status moves to other emerging
nations or powers.
Why war then? Don’t waste money?
“It’s hard for me to see how we have sustained economic growth in a
world where terrorists with weapons of mass destruction are running around,”
If you weigh the cost of the war against the removal of a “huge drag on
global economic growth for a foreseeable time in the future, there’s no
comparison.”
Limited options.
Vocabulary.
Baton
n.
A short staff carried by certain public officials as a symbol of office.
He held the baton of command. --
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Reference
Obituaries:
N. Wraga, 101, Sovietologist. (Friday,
November 15, 2002)
http://www.newsday.com/news/obituaries/ny-wraga153003809nov15,0,1713145.story
OBITUARIES
N.
Wraga, 101, Sovietologist
THE
November
15, 2002
Washington
- Natalie Grant Wraga, who was born in czarist
Russia, saw great upheaval in her native land and became an expert in unmasking Soviet deception
methods for the State Department
and as a writer and mentor, died Tuesday at her home in Lovettsville, Va. She
was 101 and had a heart ailment.
Wraga
was born Natalia Konstantinovna
Mark in what is now the Estonian capital
Herbert
Romerstein, a former staff member of the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and director of the U.S. Information
Agency's office to counter Soviet disinformation, said that Wraga
spoke about everything from the
philosophical roots of Soviet deception to Soviet forgery techniques.
"Propaganda is obvious to anybody with any brains, but
disinformation is not," she told
John Berlau of Insight magazine.
"Sometimes more than
90 percent of the
content of disinformation is true. The thing that is important is to find the part that is false." Sometimes it can be one word, she
said.
Wraga
leaves no immediate survivors.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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Reference
Stowe, Judy. (Wednesday, August 21, 2002) Lt-Gen Tran Do - Vietnamese
army officer turned dissident.
http://www.opinionnet.org/mykdb13.html
Tran Do was regarded as one of the most outstanding
generals in the Peoples' Army of
Nothing in Tran Do's early career could have
forecast this outcome. As an idealistic young student he joined the Communist
Party in 1940 and was soon arrested and sentenced by the French colonial
authorities to 15 years imprisonment. The end of the Second World War saw an
end to that and Do was quick to enlist in the newly formed Peoples' Liberation
Army to oppose any attempt by the French to re- establish their presence in
Vietnam.
At that juncture in 1945, being well-educated and
with a gift for writing, Do was appointed one of the founding editors of the
army newspaper. He was not, however, content to remain
an armchair soldier. By 1954 he was appointed Political Commissar of the famous
312 Division which undertook the brunt of the fighting in the famous battle of
That had a major impact on Do. He saw not just the
heroism of war but also its suffering and encouraged young writers to record
their impressions of both sides of the battle. This led to a major
confrontation within the top levels of the Vietnamese military and political
leadership. Nobody was supposed to challenge
Despite being a northerner, Do was sent south to
become the Deputy Political Commissar of the so-called Liberation Army
operating in the
Only after the Communist victory in 1975 did Do
begin to emerge from his hitherto clandestine existence and, returning to
During this process in the late 1980s Do also came
to the conclusion that all the bloodshed and sacrifice that Vietnam had been
through in its struggle for independence and freedom was worth nothing if it did
not result in true democracy. In other words, he began to speak out against the
institutionalisation of the Vietnamese Communist
Party as the sole ruling body within the country. This, of course, was heresy
and in early 1999 Tran Do was expelled from the party which he had served so
long and so faithfully.
His expulsion sent shock waves throughout the
numerous ranks of army veterans who had served with him during the war. Nor was that all. The security services placed Tran Do under
strict surveillance and confiscated the personal memoirs he had started to
write. Naturally he protested and remained defiant to the end of his life. So
too did his son at Do's funeral. It was an event that the authorities could not
ignore. Thousands of people turned out to bid him farewell. Tran Do was truly
one of
Judy Stowe
-------------------------------
Tran Do, army officer and politician: born 1924;
married Nguyen Thi Phuc
Hang (four sons, one daughter); died
(Reference: Stowe, Judy. (Wednesday, August 21, 2002) Lt-Gen
Tran Do - Vietnamese army officer turned dissident.
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“Thou belongest to That Which Is Undying, and not
merely to time alone,” murmured the Sphinx, breaking its
muteness at last. “Thou art eternal, and not
merely of the vanishing flesh. The soul in man cannot be killed, cannot
die. It waits, shroud-wrapped, in thy heart, as I
waited, sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For
there is One within
thee, as in all men, that comes and stands at the bar and bears
witness that there IS a God!”
(Reference: Brunton, Paul. (1962) A Search in Secret
Amen