Brave New World Indeed.

Not one that Huxley would have envisioned… but plenty close enough for most of us, thank you very much! Trying to quantify the challenges facing this nation is a daunting task in itself. Especially with a country still largely in the grip of the greatest recessionary period since the great depression. A populace still raw from the economic collapse of 2007-2008.



I know I’m not alone in saying that these days I think things over several times before spending anything. It’s just become second nature. You’ve heard of the ‘bunker mentality’? Well, we have a ‘bunker’ economy. Despite the reassurance of having a somewhat stable tax picture for the next two years, individuals and most especially companies are intensely careful with expenditures. There is a tendency to hoard resources, an entire nation like squirrels before the first snow.

The economy is showing signs of life. It’s not out of the woods… not yet… not by a long shot. But the stock market has been showing growth… manufacturing is beginning to stir… what manufacturing hasn’t been forced overseas, that is.

We are being invaded through our southern border and we have a federal government which stubbornly refuses to do one of the only constitutionally mandated responsibilities it has. We’re fighting terrorism around the world and we’re fighting two wars.

Our one ally in all of the middle east is herself on the brink of conflict. Israel’s border with Lebanon has become the focal point of tension as Hizbollah continues to solidify its hold over that country. The border on the Lebanon side is said have a series of fortified villages linked by tunnels. They have amassed an astounding 40-50 thousand rockets and missiles.

Everywhere we look there is the potential for conflict. Venezuela’s communist adventuring will have to be dealt with eventually. North Korea continues its bellicose demands and threats. China is the greatest ultimate threat to this country and the one we least understand.

Aldous Huxley wouldn’t recognize our Brave New World.
We, as Americans, have got to keep our eyes on the goal we have set for ourselves and our party… a return to Constitutional law and government… a limited government with less job-stifling regulation on business.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

Israel Braces Itself In Face Of Imminent Threat Of Hostilities.

The chatter among the bad guys, Syria, Hizballah in Lebanon, Hamas and the Palestinians and the Islamic Jihad, is all about the high state of preparedness for war.

Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant and Ehud Barak

Israel moved quickly to solve command issues, with Ehud Barak’s nomination of OC Southern Command Major General Yoav Galant to serve as the country’s Chief of Staff in February, when Lt.General Gaby Ashkenazi steps down. A wise and timely move by the Israeli government.

Iran has its surrogates threatening war, as it continues its insane race for more and more weapons and its relentless pursuit of nuclear arms. Iran may be goading its puppets into attacking Israel to bleed the Israelis as much as they can, before Israel launches an assault aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear weapons program.



When you stop and consider that Hizballah has some forty thousand rockets and missiles hidden just over the border and the length of time they’ve had to fortify strong points inside Lebanon, it makes the prospect of combat there worth serious consideration.

I don’t know how brave the Syrians are. They talk up a great game but they don’t seem particularly eager to go mano a mano with the Israelis. As I recall, the last time the two armies met, the Syrians got fed their lunch. What is more worrisome are the missile batteries that she has concentrated in the border area.

Hamas and the West Bank… there won’t be much change here… Israel will still have to go in and dig them out, only this time the Palestinians will bring out all their toys.
It’s a monumental undertaking that Israel has known was coming for years.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

How Much Time?

I love enigmatic titles. This is one that is sort of sober in the sense that I’m attempting to discern how soon the business in the Middle East is going to erupt into something really nasty. The build-up of opposing forces is reaching fever pitch with multiple missile systems, both offensive and defensive, on both sides.

Fajr-5, supplied to Hamas by Iran.

Israel has developed some truly remarkable defensive anti-missile systems. Their offensive punch is legendary and has just been made much more powerful with the arrival of the LJDAM deep penetrating bunker buster shipment, which had been held up at the island of Diego Garcia by order of Barack Obama when he was trying to strong-arm Israel. With some help from US anti-missile systems Israel has a reasonable capacity to repel a rocket or missile assault. Still, with the sheer numbers of rockets and missiles they face, some are bound to get through.

Iran would like nothing better than for Israel to be bled out in a prolonged land engagement with Hizballah, with their other surrogate Hamas, and their ultimate stooge, Assad of Syria. The foremost thought in my mind at this point is just how long Israel can or will wait to take action?

Iran has juiced up its nuclear program to fever pitch, while President Obama runs interference for them with his feckless and ineffectual policy of appeasing Islamists and interference with Israel’s security, through endless, pointless negotiations in which Israel has been urged to give, give and give more, for the ‘promise’ of a peace which will never come and the Islamo-fascists who will grant no peace, having sworn to Israel’s destruction and the slaughter of every man, woman and child. More pointedly, their goal is the death of every Jew on Earth. That’s only the appetizer y’all. Then they are going to exterminate or enslave the rest of us if we don’t defeat this cult of death.



If President Obama does not support Israel in this extremely dangerous region, the American people will. Sixty three percent of Americans support the nation of Israel. Aside from the tens of thousands of offensive rockets and missiles sitting just across the border in Lebanon, with the new longer range missiles supplied by Syria, the launchers don’t even have to be near the border. Syria has been training large units of regular Hizballah troops and around 5,000 ‘special operations’ commando types, thought to be the spearhead of a possible incursion into Israel itself.

Hizballah

Israel has had a long time to prepare for that which they knew to be inevitable. The odds against them seem to multiply, as more and more arms are smuggled across the Syrian border and more and more Hizballah ‘troops’ are trained by Syrians.

I keep seeing new factors come to light that I think may be the thing that pulls the pin on Israel’s grenade. So far I’ve been wrong. But neither do I see how she can let the situation deteriorate beyond the point at which they can militarily be confident of success.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Iran – While We Were Asleep….

With all the Obama-Congressional dog and pony side shows to dazzle the rubes losing their luster, and the country coming to the stark realization that President Obama’s ‘transformational’ leadership is actually the gateway to durance vile for all Americans, have we taken our eyes and attention from what is actually happening in Iran?

With our attention riveted to the battle in Washington over the detested health care legislation, and Congress poised to attempt to thwart the will of the great majority of the American people apparently without regard to political consequences, are we missing the increasingly obvious signs of impending Middle East conflict?

IGLA-S

Syria has ratcheted up the war index by supplying the Lebanese Hizballah with the advanced shoulder-fired Russian-made IGLA-S surface to air missile, ignoring Israel’s pointed warning that such an action would guarantee Israeli retaliation on Syria. The IGLA-S is an all-weather day or night missile which could threaten low-flying F-16 warplanes, drones, helicopters, cruise missiles, transports or surveillance aircraft.
These weapons in the hands of the Lebanese Hizballah could seriously hamper Israeli operations over Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already stated in a visit to Washington that if Israel is attacked from Lebanon by Hizballah, she will retaliate by attacking Hizballah’s terrorist sponsors in Iran and Syria. There are an estimated 45,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon which could be loosed on Israeli towns and cities by Hizballah.

Iran has successfully test-fired a multiple warhead missile. Though the range was not stated, it was thought that it was comparable to Iran’s existing ballistic missile which has a range of 2000 miles.

Iran's Simorgh Rocket

Iranian state television said that the missile had the capability of avoiding anti-missile radars. The launch of the FAJR-3 raises the odds even farther that Israel is going to have to act soon or face much heavier odds.
Iran is also building a massive new launch site with the aid of the North Koreans. The new launching facility is located in Semnan province, east of Teheran. Intelligence sources say that the site may be for launching the Simorgh, which is supposedly intended as a space launch vehicle but which could be converted to a military long range ballistic missile.

Semnan Province Launch Site

Iran is planning large-scale military exercises in late March aimed at ‘repelling’ Iran’s ‘enemies’.
And the beat goes on…..

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Clock Ticks – Israel Faces Off With Enemies.

Before I get into the cauldron simmering in the Middle East, I want to revisit the ‘health care summit’ and an article written by Joe Klein of TIME/CNN. If there is a better example of why the ‘lamestream’ press are becoming extinct in this country I haven’t seen one.

Mr Klein was apparently elsewhere during the hearing and depended on ‘tea leaves’ for his reporting. Read: ‘I don’t know anything about this but I’ll pass judgment based on second hand garbage from other lefty sources’. Klein’s article was a misrepresentation from beginning to end. Joe, your boy Obama was on the defensive the whole time. The only way he had to protect himself from the very cogent points being presented by the Republicans was to repeatedly cut them off and go off on some obscure posturing or another. Despite being held to only one hundred and ten minutes the Republican lawmakers made the Democrats and President Obama look pretty damn silly.

Events in the Middle East are becoming more dangerous by the day following talks in Damascus, with Syria calling for military support from Iran in the event of war with Israel. Iran has been ginning up the image of war with Israel in talks with Syria, Lebanon and Hizballah.

Ahmadinejad and Assad

Iranian President Ahmadinejad, in a series of phone calls with Syrian President Assad, Lebanese President General Michel Suleiman and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, said that Israel is after finding a way to compensate for the ‘defeat’ they suffered at the hands of Hizballah in Lebanon.

Despite this nonsense Israel’s hand may be forced soon. The on-again off-again Russian missile deal is apparently back on again. Israel has been beefing its anti-missile and civil defense postures considerably. IDF training has been going on at a fevered pitch. The new long distance drones are operational and could conceivably take some of the pressure off of the IAF by performing deep penetration real time surveillance and targeted strikes, leaving the more difficult precision strikes to the IAF fighter and fighter-bomber strike forces.

The Heron TP Drone. The IAF are also currently engaged in exercises to 'rapid refuel' aircraft while on the runway.

There are reportedly some 45,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon ready to rain down on Israeli towns and cities. Our own Coward-in-Chief has sent our national security adviser and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ‘ensure’ that Israel doesn’t do anything rash… like defend themselves and their country. One would hope that the Israelis told them to put it where the sun doesn’t shine, but they’re more diplomatic than that. One thing is for sure, when they do decide to go they won’t be asking Obama for permission.

Too tempting to pass up? Iran, in a puzzling move, has taken virtually its entire stock of 4,300 lbs of low-enriched uranium to an above ground facility from storage in a hardened facility underground.
It’s like they are begging Israel to do its worst… and they might just find out that Israel’s worst is likely to be Iran’s worst nightmare.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Obama – Tough… On What?

We used to have a saying around the playground as wise-guy adolescents. “He’s tough ok, around the mouth”. This was generally used to describe a guy who was all talk, who would back off and cower to any half-baked bully who happened to come along. Striking simile to the Benighted One and his Clown College where it comes to the very first tenant of a President of the United States of America.

This bunch are as inept as it gets. It is really tragi-comic to listen to this boob go in front of the cameras ‘and talk tough’. While he is pontifically pronouncing his willingness to take ‘COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY’ for security failures, one wonders how we would extend that to the numbers of dead Americans that are going to happen because of his imbecilic ineptitude. For deaths there WILL be.

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter showed us and the world what a weak, pacifistic appeasement could do for a country. It gave us the fanatical Iranian regime and the world-wide jihad. The MAD MULLAHS only backed down when confronted by the reality of a no-nonsense American leader, who made it patently clear to them that the full strength and power of US arms was right over the horizon, had they continued the games with our embassy and our citizens that they had buffaloed the foolish, feckless Carter with.
Bullies, third rate dictators, mad or just semi-mad Mullahs, jihadists, foreign or homemade, thought twice before they messed with Ronald Reagan. The notable exception to that being the bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983, when Reagan had the Marines withdrawn in the aftermath.

Then with the advent of the FIRST “most ethical administration in history”, the bad guys figured out Billy Jeff in a hurry. In his best non-confrontational manner, Clinton quickly telegraphed his intention of handling obvious terrorist attacks against the country as a criminal issue, as opposed to an international terror network which had already adamantly telegraphed its declaration of war against the country, setting the stage for 9/11.

George W. Bush

George Bush kept the country relatively safe by keeping the terrorists pretty much pinned down in the middle-east and elsewhere. A number of would-be terrorist related attempts were thwarted during Bush’s tenure, mostly because they had been convinced that he WOULD FIGHT.

Now we have the SECOND “most ethical administration in US history”. (Please Lord, save us from a third). It’s Jimmy Carter and Billy Jeff rolled into one delightful fun package. Criminalizing CONFESSED terrorists into US courts just as though they were citizens with rights. Treating would-be mass murdering Jihadist bombers to ACLU attorneys, instead of a military commission and interrogation that may, just may, save more US CITIZENS’ LIVES!
Yes BARRY, you and your goofball security apparatus do so inspire confidence.
Gee…don’t we all feel so fuzzy warm and safe?

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Iran’s Fool’s Gambit Will Be Their Undoing.

It’s as though Iran was on its own march of the lemmings. History has seen and recorded stories like this one before. Iran should have taken note when their arch nemesis, Saddam Hussein, was taken out in a matter of weeks by a first-world military.

For all Iran’s bluff and bluster, it should be remembered that Iran’s war with Iraq endured for eight years with neither side gaining significant advantage. This was the war, you’ll remember, where the mighty Iranian Army used children as mine clearing cannon fodder. They WILL NOT be facing a third world military when Israel comes after them, as it must. They have given Israel no choice. The world has given Israel no choice. Faced with a United Nations more akin to Hitler’s Germany, with regard to its attitude toward the Jewish people, and a United States led by a man and an administration of dubious character and obviously pro-Islamist.

Israel has long ago made the determination that they would do what they had to do to ensure the survival of their country. They also knew that they would have to go it alone. Iran, and any other middle east country who align themselves with Iran, will be facing a first world military of some of the finest men and women on the planet.
A military that has proven itself in combat time after time. A military whose skills have been honed in the crucible of the very terror attacks that Iran has been sending against them for thirty or more years.

The newest in Israel’s arsenal has caused a sensation among nations that, like Israel, are vulnerable to attack from the sea. The Israeli ‘Death Shark’ unmanned stealth craft is now operational and has highly impressed western military experts. With an anti-missile, anti-aircraft capability and its ability to lurk undetected off the shores of Iran, Syria and Lebanon it should give any potential aggressors pause.

But NOT the insanely self-destructive Iranians, who may have just signed their own death warrant with the disclosure of proof positive that theirs is indeed a weapons program and not a ‘peaceful’ pursuit of nuclear technology as has been their mantra. A technical document revealed by an Asian intelligence source reveals a program to develop a neutron initiator, whose sole purpose would be to actuate a nuclear explosion. There is no peaceful application according to western scientists.
Dollars to stale donuts this is not news to Mossad. But it strips whatever cover Iran had, and it is now readily apparent to even the most self-deluding countries exactly what Iran’s purpose is and has been.

Now there is no reason for Israel not to strike Iran…none at all…and every reason to do it.
Like the lemmings, that rush to destruction is all the Iranians have to look forward to.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009