Sunday, January 24, 2016

Why Does Israel always Beat Arab Dictatorships?

I'll start with a broad answer and then drill down. A commonly repeated saying in the  Israeli military is that each war must be fought for our survival; we cannot afford to lose even a single conflict as that would be our end. That perception stemmed from a lack in strategic depth (Israel is tiny), the concern that blood in the water would have attracted the rest of our regional adversaries into combat, and that our enemies sought our destruction rather than achieving limited strategic goals. Hence, Israel won each conflict because it was much more committed to getting a favourable outcome - our continued existence as a people supposedly depended on it.
This was, perhaps, true until after the Yom Kippur war of 1973, which arguably saw Israel closest to its strategic demise since our independence in 1948. After that fateful war, if you chart most of Israel's conflicts (1982 First Lebanon War, 2006 Second Lebanon War, two Intifadas, multiple campaigns in the Gaza strip), you'll see that they've weren't that classically classifiable as "victories".
That's partially because they were no longer wars for survival. They were bouts of combat waged against an asymmetrically weaker adversary, with no clear and sustainable victory usually possible without significant collateral damage. Did Israel win the 2006 Second Lebanon War? Perhaps, depends who you ask. While Hezbollah suffered extensive damage and strategic losses, Israel did not achieve the majority of its goals. The same applies to several of the conflicts with the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.
To cycle back to the question - It is no longer as easy to say that Israel is able to win every single war with its Arab neighbours. Militarily, Israel still vastly outmatches any of its enemies in a conventional shooting war, especially with Syria crippled by civil war. But the wars themselves are no longer waged between the IDF and an Arab military, so results vary. Fighting insurgencies, terrorist organisations and entrenched militias is an entirely different process.
To wrap up the historical perspective, Israel indeed managed to achieve strategic success in each of its major conflicts up until the period described above for different reasons:
Indepdence War (1948-1949) - A massive recruitment effort, effective concentration of force, clever use of imported weaponry and combat against comparably ineffectual and unmotivated Arab forces (the British-trained Jordanian Legion a notable exception), all contributed to our success. By some historians' assessment, by the later stages of the war Israel's own forces were numerically close or even surpassed to those committed by Arab armies to the conflict.
Operation Kadesh (1956) - Well-defined, limited strategic goals kept Israeli forces on-mission. Significant logistical and combative support from French and British allies also enabled and cemented Israeli gains on the ground. Arguably most of all, achieving strategic surprise (the Egyptians realized they were being invaded too late) caused Egyptian forces to respond poorly to the ongoing campaign against them. There were some bloody battles, but shrewd and overly brave tactics by (then Colonel) Ariel Sharon were instrumental in quickly gaining ground.
Six Day War (1967) - Brashly and pre-emptively achieving strategic surprise with a massive aerial campaign against unwitting enemies completely altered the calculus of war. Entire airforces were wiped out on the ground, allowing the Israeli Air Force to operate with impunity and hammer at ground forces.
Yom Kippur War (1973) - A combination of holdout bravery, last-minute strategic wit, and of course critical supplies  and armament from the United States all contributed to Israel's eventual victory of a war it was initially about to lose. Some claims are that the Syrians were so surprised that they have achieved their initial objectives that they just halted their advance, waiting further orders. This allowed beleaguered Israeli forces to regroup for effective counterstrikes.

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Trump, Genius or Idiot?



I have read that Trump is highly intelligent, multiple sources claim his IQ is around 150, however, the statements he makes daily would cause the vast majority of voters to vote against him. 
If the things he says represent his thinking, he REALLY is an idiot.
If his goal is to become the GOP candidate and LOSE to guarantee the Dems win the White House, then maybe he IS a genius?
MFB
.................................................................................................................................................... 
What if everything Donald Trump was doing or saying in his "serious" bid for the presidency was just a ruse? What if's just a brilliant, cunning scheme, as a closeted Democrat, to ensure the election of Hillary Clinton in 2016?
What if, at his core, Trump really isn't the flame-throwing, racially-insensitive, sabre-rattling, xenophobic, anti-gay-marriage, narcissistic right-wing blowhard whose comments aimed at President Obama, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry, Mexicans and others have led many to believe he's become mentally unhinged?
What if his bizarre, combative, polarizing behavior is part of an ingenious plot; an act of pure political, public sacrifice and selfless patriotism?
Love him or hate him, Trump is the greatest showman in the world. The P.T Barnum of our time. He's a master manipulator of the media, with so muchfuck you money that he can do or say anything he wants even if it costs him heavily in lost business deals. So when Trump opens his mouth, people listen.
Curiously, Trump's no stranger to Democratic politics. Most of his contributions in the last 10 years have gone to Democrats and Democratic causes, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Hillary in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. She was even front-row at his 2005 wedding to current wife Melania Knauss. So is it possible that all the inflammatory rhetoric is in fact a brilliant secret scheme to hand the election over to Clinton?
It used to be that the right-wing crazies simply attacked their lefty opponents. But with Trump, the party's now eating its own. His incessant attacks on fellow Republicans is sucking all the oxygen out of the campaign and has made it impossible for anyone else, including likely favorites such as Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Scott Walker as well as fringe candidates including Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, to gain any traction.
As a result, the only candidate with any momentum is Trump, who maintains an appreciable lead in the polls. (note: in 2012 several Republican candidates including Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry enjoyed brief moments at the top). His name appears in national headlines 22 times a day, about three times that of a perceived favorite like Bush. The media loves him. And why not? He's the proverbial gift that keeps on giving. The embodiment of the old adage, there's no such thing as bad press.
And now Trump's threatening a possible independent run which would split the party and all but guarantee a Clinton victory given that his support would come from staunchly conservative voters.
To be sure, with Trump in the race, the GOP's been reduced to a dysfunctional, chaotic, fragmented, cannibalistic mess. Which could be Trump's ultimate plan.
Donald Trump, the Democrat? Maybe he's no so dumb or crazy after all...

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

The Truth About Islam

The following message is not PC.

No one has thought of this strategy to rid the world of Islam.
Tell the truth:
 Islam is a fake religion.
There never was an Allah doing anything,, It's an invention made up by a group of ancient hucksters.
There has never been a REAL Prophet named mohammed.

He didn't exist, certainly not as described by the Quran.
How do we knows this,.. how do we know that there is no muslim god on high encouraging Arabs to kill themselves or innocent people?
EVERYONE KNOWS IT!
It's a stupefying  that the people  that are suffering the most from this unfortunate religion don't somehow snap and say, "Wait a minute..Allah put me on earth to murder innocent people that have a normal amount of skepticism?"
The only thing that Allah and Islam have accomplished is that they have been able to keep so many individuals from progressing and enjoying life.
So, let's try this, 1,2,3, There is no Allah, There never was a prophet named Mohammed.
We were not put on earth to murder innocent people and women weren't created  so that we can have the sex life when we are dead that was not allowed while we are alive.



Zamir Etzioni

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Why do people hate Israel?


<em>Thai-Muslim demonstrators burn an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Bangkok on July 15. Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters</em>
Thai-Muslim demonstrators burn an Israeli flag during an anti-Israel protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Bangkok on July 15. Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
We live in a bad world.
There is nothing new about that. The world has been pretty bad since its inception. That’s why God destroyed it and started all over again (with little to show for the new experiment, one might add).
From a moral perspective, look at the world since 2000.
North Korea remains an entire country that is essentially a large concentration camp. 
Tibet, one of mankind’s oldest cultures, continues to be occupied and destroyed by China.
Somalia no longer exists as a country. It is an anarchic state in which the cruelest and strongest (usually one and the same) prevail.
In Congo, between 1998 and 2003, about 5.5 million people were killed — nearly the same as the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
In Syria, about 150,000 people have been killed in the last three years, and millions have been rendered homeless. 
In Iraq, there is a mass murder from terror bombings almost every week.
In Mexico, since 2006, approximately 120,000 people have been killed in the country’s drug wars.
Iran, a genocide-advocating theocratic dictatorship, is very near having the capacity to make nuclear weapons.
Christian communities in the Middle East are wiped out; Christians in Nigeria are routinely massacred.
Of course, the 20th century was even bloodier, but we are only in the 15th year of the 21st century. Nevertheless, showing how awful the world is for so many of its inhabitants is not my point. My point is that, despite all this evil and suffering, the world has concentrated its attention overwhelmingly on the alleged evils of one country: Israel.
What makes this so worthy of note is that Israel is among the most humane and free countries on the planet. Moreover, it is the only country in the world that is threatened with annihilation. 
This is the only time in history when people in free countries have sided with a police state against a free state. One cannot name any time in modern history — the only time in history when there have been free societies — when, in a war between a free state and a police state, the free state was deemed the aggressor. That’s because it never happened before Israel and its enemies.
The question, of course, is why?
Why, during a time when a Kenyan mall is blown up, Islamic terrorists massacre Christians in Nigeria and thousands more die in Syria, is the world preoccupied with 600-some Palestinians killed as a direct result of their firing thousands of missiles in order to kill as many Israelis as possible?
Why has obsession with Israel been the case since its inception, and especially since 1967?
It can’t be occupation. China occupies Tibet, and it merits virtually no attention from the world. And Pakistan’s creation, coming at the same time as Israel’s, led to millions of Muslim (and Hindu) refugees. Yet, that country, too, merits no attention. 
There are only two explanations for this moral anomaly.
One is the nearly worldwide embrace of leftist thought and values. According to this way of thinking, Westerners are almost always wrong when they fight Third World countries or groups; and the weaker party, especially if non-Western, is almost always deemed the victim when fighting a stronger, especially Western, group or country. Leftism has replaced “good and evil” with “rich and poor,” “strong and weak,” and “Western (or white) and non-Western (or non-white).” Israel is rich, strong and Western; the Palestinians are poor, weak and non-Western.
The only other possible explanation is that Israel is Jewish.
There is no other rational explanation because the fixation with, and the hatred of, Israel are not rational. Israel is a particularly decent country. It is tiny — about the size of New Jersey and smaller than El Salvador; and while there are more than 50 Muslim countries, there is only one Jewish one. She should be admired and supported, not hated to the extent that there are dozens of countries whose populations would like to see Israel annihilated — again, a unique phenomenon. No other country in the world is targeted for extermination.
As hard as it is for modern, rational and irreligious people to accept, Israel’s Jewishness is a primary reason for the hatred of it. 
Ironically, this fact — just as with the fixation on the Jew before Israel’s existence — confirms for this observer the divine role the Jew plays in history. Few Jews are aware of their role, and even fewer want it. But, other than the influence of the left, there is no other explanation for all the animosity toward Israel.


Posted on Jul. 23, 2014 at 11:14 am
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host (AM 870 in Los Angeles) and founder of PragerUniversity.com. His latest book is the New York Times best-seller “Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph” (HarperCollins, 2012).
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