Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Expect the head-on collisions to continue.

Fighting every inch of the way December 1, 2005
smh.com.au
Making the Pacific Highway safer should be simple. So why isn't it, asks Miranda Devine. A FAMILY of four was killed in a head-on collision on the Pacific Highway this week, the latest in a long line of fatalities on that killer road. Christopher Arkell and Katrina Dooley, both 29, and their twin children Jeremy and Eve, 6, died on Monday afternoon when their Ford Falcon veered onto the wrong side of the undivided carriageway near Karuah, north of Newcastle. For six years a real estate agent, Jim Mangleson, and his Ocean Shores Community Association have been trying to discover the details of a secret meeting in 1999 he says the RTA held with environmentalists in the Byron Bay Community Centre to strike a deal on the route the highway upgrade would take.Mangleson lodged a freedom of information request but the RTA refused him access to information about the 1999 meeting. Finally, on Friday the Administrative Decisions Tribunal ordered the RTA to produce the information within 28 days. Mangleson hopes it will prove the "Green conspiracy with the Labor government" that he is sure has placed the wellbeing of the scented acronychia and Mitchell's rainforest snail over that of the residents of Ocean Shores.

"tragic mix-ups" Justice?

Google News has 1,470 items for Nguyen-Tuong-Van, drug dealer
Google News has 30 items for north shore golf death:
Girl's death 'a comedy of errors'
By Jonathan Pearlman
November 30, 2005 - 10:20AM
smh.com.au
A 16-year-old girl who was hit on the head with a golf ball died after a series of tragic mix-ups at Royal North Shore Hospital, including a 30-hour wait for a specialist, the NSW Opposition says.
"Warren Anderson, upi.com reports, father of the dead girl "We had a healthy girl." After Vanessa Anderson was injured Nov. 5, she was taken to one hospital and then transferred to another one for surgery. But no one made sure a specialist would be available at the Royal North Shore near Sydney, and she did not see one for 30 hours."

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

"Now, in a fit of collective madness"

He doesn't deserve a minute of your time
dailytelegraph.news.com.au
By PIERS AKERMAN November 29, 2005 - "THE nation pauses for a minute on Remembrance Day to remember the Armistice called at 11am, on November 11, 1918, bringing an end to World War I. On Anzac Day people stand at ceremonies, in schools, in offices and in their own homes, as the Ode, the fourth stanza of British poet Laurence Binyon poem To the Fallen is recited, refreshing the memories of the great sacrifices that have been made to keep this country free. Now, in a fit of collective madness, advocates of lunar politics such as the Democrats' perennial undergraduate Natasha Stott Despoja, the Greens' inner-urban conspiracist Senator Kerry Nettles, and the wetter-than-water Liberal Bruce Baird, are demanding a national minute of silence to mark the expected execution of the convicted drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore this Friday. They are effectively placing Remembrance Day and Anzac Day on par with the execution of a heroin smuggler."

Monday, November 28, 2005

NSW Roads Minister, Joe Tripodi

Four killed in head-on crash - November 28, 2005
smh.com.au - 4:45PM
Two adults and two children have died in a head-on crash on the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle, NSW Ambulance says.

Delays take their toll on deadly road - October 20, 2005
smh.com.au
"Andrew Fraser's outburst was wrong but entirely understandable, writes Miranda Devine. You could almost be forgiven for thinking the magistrate Pat O'Shane was right to claim there are no "community standards" any more when you see footage of the National Party MP Andrew Fraser monstering the Roads Minister, Joe Tripodi, on Tuesday night. Andrew Fraser knew people who died on the Pacific Highway. Just last month, he was at Coffs Harbour Hospital comforting the family of a friend of 20 years who had been killed in a head-on collision. So his emotion is understandable."

Will you boycott Singapore to protest against Nguyen's execution?

People should boycott Singtel Optus. Support Australian Telstra.

Faulty thinking clouds the drugs debate - Miranda Devine

Faulty thinking clouds the drugs debate
November 24, 2005
smh.com.au
Heroin users need guidance from professionals, not reformed addicts, writes Miranda Devine.

It is desperately sad for Nguyen Tuong Van's family that he is to be hanged in Singapore for heroin trafficking next Friday. You can only hope that last-ditch appeals for clemency are successful.

However, we should not allow our sorrow for Nguyen's imminent death to cloud our hatred of his criminal act.

Singapore has the right to administer its own law - Piers Akerman

sundaytelegraph.news.com
November 27, 2005
THE outpouring of hypocritical huffing and puffing over this week's planned execution of convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van has underscored the almost total disconnect between the views of political-and-media savvy Australians and the greater majority who like to think they actually mean what they say.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Okinawa - 1945

Victory: Cost and Value
Okinawa
The price paid for Okinawa was dear. The final toll of American casualties was the highest experienced in any campaign against the Japanese. Total American battle casualties were 49,151, of which 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631 wounded. Army losses were 4,582 killed, 93 missing, and 18,099 wounded; Marine losses, including those of the Tactical Air Force, were 2,938 killed and missing and 13,708 wounded; Navy casualties totaled 4,907 killed and missing and 4,824 wounded. Nonbattle casualties during the campaign amounted to 15,613 for the Army and 10,598 for the Marines. The losses in ships were 36 sunk and 368 damaged, most of them as a result of air action. Losses in the air were 763 planes from 1 April to 1 July.
The high cost of the victory was due to the fact that the battle had been fought against a capably led Japanese army of greater strength than anticipated, over difficult terrain heavily and expertly fortified, and thousands of miles from home. The campaign had lasted considerably longer than was expected. But Americans had demonstrated again on Okinawa that they could, ultimately, wrest from the Japanese whatever ground they wanted.
The sequel to Okinawa, however, was contrary to all expectation. In the midst of feverish preparations on the island in August 1945, with the day for the assault on Kyushu drawing near, there came the almost unbelievable and joyous news that the war was over. The battle of Okinawa was the last of World War II.

US - Iran - Iraq

Recent events have been portrayed as new, as below shows nothing has changed.
Experiment in Co-operation
Persian Corridor
The story of United States Army activity in the Persian Corridor during World War II has a central theme, supply. Its major development, lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union, grows out of its minor, lend-lease aid to Great Britain in supplying Russia and in preparing against threatened Axis invasion of the area.
The advisory missions, under Maj. Gen. Clarence S. Ridley and Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf respectively, performed two important functions. By aiding Iran's ability to preserve law and order along the supply line, they helped the lend-lease operations. But even more importantly, by demonstrating American concern for Iranian sovereignty, they contributed something new to the historic situation, easing, if only briefly, dangerous tensions.
One thing remains to note before commencing an account of the American effort in the Persian Corridor. It was not like the historical facts of enemy threat, Allied need, American planning, tonnages delivered. It could not be felt, as a swirling sandstorm is felt; it was not visible as were swarms of stevedores unloading ships, or convoys of trucks creeping through snow-choked mountains. It was a thing as intangible as discouragement, as impalpable as heat.
It was a spirit shaped by diplomatists and expressed by the sheer obstinacy of men's guts, a spirit animated by Roosevelt, who "considered Iran as something of a testing ground for the Atlantic Charter and for the good faith of the United Nations."

Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr.
Schwarzkopf Wikipedia
Major General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf (August 28, 1895 – November 25, 1958) was the first superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, and had investigated the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Born in Newark, New Jersey to German immigrants, Schwarzkopf attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in March, 1917, two months early because of the U.S. entry into World War I.
He was posted to Iran in 1942 and was tasked with organizing the Iranian police after the UK-Soviet intervention that made Iran an Allied protectorate. His trainees were active in suppressing the Soviet-inspired Azerbaijan (the so-called Marshabad Soviet) in 1946. After World War II, he was promoted to Brigadier General, and in the late 1940's, was sent to occupied Germany to serve as Deputy Provost Marshal for the entire U.S. Sector. Before retiring from the Army in 1953 with the rank of Major General, Schwarzkopf was sent by the CIA to convince the exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to return to power there, going so far as to organize the security forces he had trained to support the Shah. He is the father of 4-star General H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Friday, November 18, 2005

SMH supports Herion dealer

Your son dies in two weeks
Heroin dealer
The headlines omits the rest of the story: "In this case it was a huge amount being trafficked - nearly 400 grams. If you work it out it is 26,000 doses of heroin on the street, so it is an enormous amount in terms of the misery it can cause for families through the destruction of lives."

Guarding the USA and Its Outposts

CHAPTER VII
The Pearl Harbor Attack
Guard US Chapter 7
For the first half of 1941 the military strategy and preparations of the United States were aimed toward belligerent participation in the Atlantic war and maintenance in the Pacific of a defensive posture based on Alaska, Hawaii, and Panama. Then, during July, Pacific strategy and preparations began a rapid shift that profoundly affected the outlook and thinking of American commanders both in Washington and in Hawaii. Through decoded intercepts, Washington knew early in the month that Japan had decided upon further aggression to the south. In the light of this knowledge, during the last week of July the United States decided to try to defend the Philippines in the event of war with Japan, and at the same time it applied stringent economic sanctions against Japan which were intended to deter the Japanese but which actually had the opposite effect.

US Army - World War II - Civil Affairs

Recent events have been portrayed as something new. As the below shows nothing has changed in war-torn countries.
Foreword

In the midst of the large-scale combat operations of World War II, the Army was called on to occupy, to govern, and to help rehabilitate complex, war-torn countries and economies. Few of its task turned out to be as difficult and challenging as these civil affairs missions. They were beset by the problems of resolving conflicting national interests and of reconciling political idealism and military exigency. On another level-in feeding hungry populations, in tackling intricate financial and economic problems, and in protecting the cultural heritage of a rich and ancient civilization-they had to exercise skills that are also normally considered civilian rather than military.
Chapter I: Soldiers-Governors
Should Soldiers Be Governors?
The story of civil affairs in World War II as it emerges from the documents reveals the effort to perform a mission unprecedented in complexity and size. The mission called for military, political, and economic activity on every level - from the job of rebuilding a village bakery to that of rooting out and replacing Fascist and Nazi ideology and institutions. They are highlighted, on a lower plane, in an officer's problems on first entering a Sicilian town "And what a lot of headaches I found. Water supply damaged. No power. No food. No fuel, and corpses all over town to bury."
Chapter II: French North Africa
French North Africa
At the time of operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa, the most important civil affairs issue seemed to be the politically dramatic problem of the Darlan Deal and the apparent compromise of political principle which it involved. Many were unfavorably impressed by the military role in this issue, which seemed to place the Army on the side of political opportunism if not of worse.
Chapter XXI: Interdependence Precludes an Easy Way Out
The posthostilities occupation of Italy
The posthostilities occupation of Italy lasted more than two and a half years longer than the military campaign itself. No one, least of all the military commanders, foresaw or desired that the Allies would be forced to delay their exit so long. The explanation of the delay involves a factor more political than military. Clearly, it was impossible for the Allies to withdraw from Italy until the victors had agreed among themselves on the terms of peace. It is also clear that by the end of the war both the United States and Great Britain had a keen sense of what Assistant Secretary of War McCloy termed "a long-term interest" in Italy, or a recognition of interdependence between Italy and the Allies in the now emerging conflict between the West and the police states. This development made it seem inadvisable to agree forthwith to the very severe terms which both the Soviet and Yugoslavia soon showed it was their intention to impose upon Italy. Not to have tried hard and long to mitigate the severity would have alienated Italy.
Chapter XXX: Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Wake of Battle
Refugees
The care and disposition of refugees and displaced persons was one of the most perplexing of civil affairs problems. Though the problem had many ramifications some of the principal difficulties arose from certain false assumptions. In the planning stage the civil affairs staffs were obliged to proceed on very meager intelligence as to the nature and extent of the problem.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Conspiracy theorists fuel fire - Greg Sheridan

Conspiracy theorists fuel fire
November 12, 2005
Western intelligence agencies studying the terrorist phenomenon are increasingly coming to the view that what tranforms a young man into a terrorist almost always turns on a crisis of identity.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Ian Barker - Then And Now

The Trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain ("The Dingo Trial") A Trial Commentary by Douglas O. Linder (2005) The Trial of Lindy and Michael - Ian Barker opened the case for the prosecution, telling jurors Azaria "died very quickly because somebody had cut her throat." Barker added, "The Crown does not venture to suggest any reason or motive for the killing. It is not part of our case that Mrs. Chamberlain had previously shown any ill will toward the child." Barker called Chamberlain's story about the dingo attack "a fanciful lie, calculated to conceal the truth."
Lindy Chamberlain
Lindy Chamberlain wikipedia
Witch hunt Ian Barker
Witch hunt By Paul Toohey July 15, 2000 - And the prosecution never accused the campsite witnesses - those who heard the dingo growl, those who met the Chamberlains and joined the search - of being liars. The closest [Crown prosecutor] Ian Barker came to it was to dismiss the claims of snowdropping dingoes. I think he made fun of my evidence," she says without rancour towards Barker.
Now Ian Barker shows he is infallible as he was then about Lindy and now sedition law.
Sedition law should be made redundant November 14, 2005
Sedition law Ian Barker
While Philip Ruddock is open to debate.
Philip Ruddock
There is no threat to freedom of speech - November 14, 2005 - The new sedition laws are a work in progress and the Government is open to debate on their final form, writes Philip Ruddock who is the federal Attorney-General.

Japan's Decision for War -1941

Japan's Decision for War - 1941
The Journey Begins
The Army in Japan traditionally stood for a course of expansion which would make Japan the unchallenged leader of Asia. In 1936 the Army gained a predominant position in the political life of the nation and its program became the official policy of the government, and since then it had been preparing for war.
The war in China, from which Japan could extract neither honor nor victory, proved a continuing drain on the resources of the nation, requiring ever more stringent controls, higher appropriations, and further expansion of war industries. By the end of 1941 Japan's industry and manpower had been so completely mobilized that the transition to total war was scarcely noticed.

Musing: Like a FIFA in the night

In the Bible, 1 Thessalonians Paul: 5:2 "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."
In 2 Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
Now may we say like a FIFA in the night, Australian soccer has met an end?

Thursday, November 10, 2005

CIA-OSS-FBI linkage?

LBJ, Nixon now Bush?
Covert Paramilitary
Major D. H. Berger, USMC
The consensus among historians with an interest in covert operations is that paramilitary activity conducted by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War did not accomplish the objectives set forth for those operations;was not in line with the prevailing national strategy or national policy; and, made no significant contributions to national security.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of Coordinator of Information, the United States' first independent intelligence organization, by his presidential order of 11 July 1941. General William J. Donovan, appointed Coordinator Of Information (COI) by Roosevelt, had considered the subject of special operations as early as 10 October 1941.
On 13 June 1942 the COI was redesignated the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); the SA/G branch was subsequently renamed the Special Operations (SO) branch. The infantile SO Branch was less than a year old when General Donovan saw an opportunity to employ the paramilitary tool against the Japanese occupation force in Burma.
Ho Chi Minh OSS
For a week in September 1997, some of the surviving Viet Minh forces of Ho Chi Minh and veterans of the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), who collaborated in 1945 near the end of World War II, met for a second "reunion" in New York City. Some of these same men and women had met in 1995 in Vietnam to begin an oral history project sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Vietnam USA Society.
'Deep Throat' Mark Felt
FBI's No. 2 Was 'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Ends 30-Year Mystery of The Post's Watergate Source By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A01 Deep Throat, the secret source whose insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's groundbreaking coverage of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The Post confirmed yesterday. As the bureau's second- and third-ranking official during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence against the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the means and the motive to help uncover the web of internal spies, secret surveillance, dirty tricks and coverups that led to Nixon's unprecedented resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for some of Nixon's highest-ranking aides.
Plame's Input CIA
Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission
Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role
By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09
Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.
Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Paul Byrnes: thoroughly entertaining documentary

Paul Byrnes accepts rape?
Paul Byrnes
From little things, big things grow. Inside Deep Throat is a thoroughly entertaining documentary about the sex movie that swallowed America. When the right to individual freedom runs smack into the Puritan ideal of a civilisation built on decency, which idea is to prevail? Inside Deep Throat is a thoroughly entertaining documentary about the sex movie that swallowed America. (We do see a few seconds of what Lovelace was famous for, but then not showing it would seem somewhat hypocritical.) He met Linda Boreman through her husband, Chuck Traynor, the man she would later claim had forced [emphasis added] her into the film. The fact that Nixon was brought down by a different Deep Throat has a satisfying balance to it.

Fall of the Philippines - The End of Resistance

United States Army in World War II - The War in the Pacific -
The Fall of the Philippines - Louis Morton - Chapter XXXII: The End of Resistance
Chapter XXXII: The End of Resistance
In the context of global war, the Philippines did not in 1942 possess great strategic significance. The Japanese tide had already swept around the Islands and over southeast Asia and the Indies, through the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomons to Guadalcanal, and eastward across the Pacific as far as the Gilbert Islands. At the beginning of June the Japanese stood ready to move on Port Moresby, Midway, and the Aleutians, and to sever the line of communication between Australia and the United States. Everywhere, they had achieved phenomenal success, sweeping all resistance before them. Only in the Philippines had they been halted, and in this successful, though hopeless, resistance lay the real importance of the campaign. It demonstrated that the Japanese were not invincible, that they could be stopped by determined men, ably led, even when the odds were heavily in their favor. For an Allied world surfeited on gloom, defeat, and despair, the epic of Bataan and Corregidor was a symbol of hope and a beacon of success for the future. It was in this vein that President Roosevelt wrote to General Wainwright on the even of his surrender:
"In every camp and on every naval vessel, soldiers, sailors, and Marines are inspired by the gallant struggle of their comrades in the Philippines. The workmen in our shipyards and munitions plants redouble their efforts because of your example. You and your devoted followers have become the living symbols of our war aims and the guarantee of victory."[87]
[87] Quoted in full in Wainwright, General Wainwright's Story, p. 118.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Jihad in Australia: court told of plot

Jihad in Australia: court told of plot
November 8, 2005 - 1:25PM
Jihad in Australia: court told of plot


Nine men arrested overnight in anti-terrorism raids had formed a group aimed at carrying out a jihad or holy war, a Melbourne court has been told.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC told the Melbourne Magistrate's court the nine formed a terrorist group to kill "innocent men and women in Australia".

The nine include include Osama Bin Laden supporter, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr.

The Melbourne suspects had been planning terrorist crimes for more than 12 months, Mr Maidment said.

"There's been talk within the Melbourne group that the Sydney group are further ahead than them and they wanted to do something about that," Mr Maidment said.

"The members of the Sydney group have been gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the London Underground bombings.

"They've been involved in military training and were planning a weekend in Ocean Grove (south-west of Melbourne).

"It is alleged that all of the persons who have been before the court this morning along with another not presently in custody constitutes a terrorist organisation.

"That organisation is directed by the defendant Benbrika.

"Each of the members of the group are committed to the cause of violent jihad."

The men were arrested about 2.30am (AEDT) in Melbourne's north and west in what been described as Australia's largest ever anti-terrorism operation.

Simultaneous raids were conducted in Sydney's south-western suburbs, where seven people were arrested.

In Melbourne, police raided homes in Preston, Dallas, Hoppers Crossing, Fawkner, Hadfield, Coburg, Yarraville and Meadow Heights.

In August, Benbrika said Osama Bin Laden was a great man and it was okay for Australian muslims to fight coalition troops in Iraq.

He is a dual Algerian and Australian citizen who has lived in Melbourne's northern suburbs since 1989.
AAP

The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes

The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes (Hardcover)
by Edward Frederick Langley Russell Russell of Liverpool, Edward Frederick Langley Russell, Baron Russell of Liverpool
Book Description
This factual account of German war crimes of World War II is a formidable indictment of Nazi brutality and of the monstrous organization that so terrorized occupied Europe and murdered at least 12 million civilians. Along with "The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes" (1853674990) by the same author, it was a phenomenal best-seller when first published. Drawing on documentary evidence submitted to the Nuremberg trials and brilliantly written by an expert intimately connected to the prosecution of war criminals, this searing condemnation of the Third Reich's crimes is factual, objective, and unstinting in its efforts to expose the truth behind real or alleged atrocities. It examines Hitler's instruments of tyranny--SS, Gestapo, and Army--and repression, German crimes against prisoners of war, outrages committed on the high seas, crimes against civilian populations, the mass use of slave labor, the concentration camps; and the "Final Solution" of the Jewish question.

About the Author
Lord Russell of Liverpool served in World Wars I and II and acted as Deputy Judge Advocate General for the British Army of the Rhine, giving legal advice on the prosecution of war criminals in the British zone of occupied Germany.

The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes

This is the classic, standard account of Japanese war crimes-a best-seller in its time, but out of print for many years. Between 1931 and 1945 Japanese troops rampaged through one defeated country after another, executing civilians, despoiling cities, massacring prisoners, and cruelly exploiting prisoners of war and native populations. This carefully constructed history by the man who was Deputy Judge Advocate General for the British Army of the Rhine charts this brutal swathe of destruction, objectively examines individual crimes, and details the reasons behind Japan's unprecedented disregard for accepted humanitarian principles. Japanese troops behaved with considerable brutality in their war against China, a campaign designed "to punish the people of China." The Nanking massacre of December 1937 was just one example of the appalling series of atrocities the Japanese inflicted on the conquered Chinese. Japan also excelled in the mistreatment of prisoners of war. Allied troops unfortunate enough to fall into Japanese hands were abused, humiliated, starved, and forced to serve as slave labor. Thousands died as a result, and those that survived such mass torture were scarred for life.

About the Author
Lord Russell of Liverpool served in World Wars I and II and acted as Deputy Judge Advocate General for the British Army of the Rhine, giving legal advice on the prosecution of war criminals in the British zone of occupied Germany.

Marpi Point: Mass Suicides 1944

Recent events have been portrayed as new as below shows nothing has changed.
Mass Suicides: PBS American Experience
Victory in the Pacific - People & Events

The civilian population on Saipan numbered close to 30,000. Twenty-two thousand were Japanese -- though most came from the prefecture of Okinawa and were ethnically distinct from other Japanese. The rest consisted of Korean slave laborers and the original inhabitants of the island -- the Carolinians and the Chamorro. As the battle of Saipan reached its final days, Japanese soldiers and panicked civilians made their way north to Marpi Point. Here, despite repeated calls by the U.S. military to surrender, civilians chose death by jumping off cliffs or drowning themselves in the sea. They had been led to believe that surrender would mean murder, rape and torture at the hands of U.S. forces.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Defending the Driniumor continued

Defending the Driniumor: continued
The U.S. Army's extensive amphibious campaigns in the Southwest Pacific Theater during World War II have been all but forgotten today. The conduct of those far-flung operations, the sustenance of more than twenty-seven U.S. Army infantry divisions, and the imaginative planning required for bold thrusts deep into the enemy's rear areas offer timeless lessons for commanders. Moreover, a new aspect of the Pacific War has recently surfaced: the ability of the U.S. Army to read the most secret Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) codes-in short, to "see deep" for the purposes of operational planning. This Leavenworth Paper correlates, insofar as possible, the influence of Ultra intelligence on the conduct of General Douglas MacArthur's Aitape, New Guinea, campaign. The signals intelligence community regarded the U.S. XI Corps's destruction of the Imperial Japanese 18th Army as one of the singular achievements of the intelligence craft during World War II.

Defending the Driniumor

Defending the Driniumor
Defending the Driniumor: Covering Force Operations in New Guinea, 1944, Dr. Edward J. Drea [Leavenworth Papers No. 9]
In the lexicon of historians of World War II, "forgotten" has become a popular modifier. One reads of the forgotten front, forgotten soldiers, the forgotten army, and so on. The operations in New Guinea also qualify for the forgotten label. As James Jones wrote about those campaigns, "A year it had taken from Guadalcanal to Sansapor. And how many invasions? Fifteen? Almost all of them names people in the United States never heard of, and still haven't." The landings at Aitape and the subsequent Driniumor River campaign were two such names.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

The winter of 1941

The winter of 1941
The United States Government was in a difficult position in the winter of 1941. It was committed to a major effort in the Atlantic and the support of the British Isles but had drawn a line in the Far East beyond which it would not permit Japan to go. At the same time, it was preparing for offensive operations against Japan, preparations that would be completed within several months. Had Japan, without abandoning its aims in Southeast Asia, sedulously avoided any overt act against the United States -- a course that was debated in Tokyo until the end of November -- the administration would have been faced with a distasteful choice: (1) to declare war against Japan and risk an unpopular war, or (2) to stand idly by while the Japanese secured the rich resources of Malaya and the Indies which would enable them to push the war in China. The Japanese, by attacking Pearl Harbor, made a choice unnecessary and unified the American people as nothing else could have done.

Major error of the Japanese

Major error of the Japanese
Perhaps the major error of the Japanese was their decision to attack the United States when the main objective of the war was to gain the strategic resources of Southeast Asia. Had they bypassed the Philippines and rejected Yamamoto's plan for the strike against Pearl Harbor, it is possible that the United States might not have gone to war, or, if it had, that the American people would have been more favorably disposed toward a negotiated peace. While the Japanese would have had to accept certain risks in following such a course, they would not have forced the United States to declare war. The President and his chief advisers were prepared to ask Congress for a declaration of war if Japan attacked Great Britain.

Japan's decision to go to war

Japan's decision to go to war
Conclusion
From the vantage point of hindsight, Japan's decision to go to war appears as a supreme act of folly. By this decision, the Japanese leaders appear to have deliberately committed their country to a hopeless struggle against a coalition vastly superior in potential industrial and military strength. The Pearl Harbor attack, which brought the United States into the war, has been characterized as politically "disastrous" and strategically "idiotic."

American people were overwhelmingly isolationist

PACIFIC STRATEGY
At the turn of the twentieth century, after the war with Spain, the United States for the first time in a hundred years found itself involved closely in the affairs of other nations. The American people were overwhelmingly isolationist and unwilling to pay the price of colonial empire. It is against this background that American strategy in the Pacific and plans for the defense of U.S. island outposts must be viewed; it explains many of the seeming inconsistencies between policies and plans.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Musing: Daily Telegraph and Paul Gibson

NSW state MP Paul Gibson - seems to be the only MP ever to take an overseas trip.
Rort back and sides

France: Cultural Maginot Line.

France is sitting behind a cultural Maginot Line.
Maginot Line wikipedia In fact, it did exactly what it was intended to do, sealing off a section of France, and forcing an aggressor around it (and the few forts of the Maginot line which were directly attacked by German armoured troops held very well). So the rioting youths, like the Germans, are going around the defences of France.
French rioting spreads to new cities Reuters
Rioting by youths, many of whom are Muslims of North African or black African origin, has partly been stoked by their frustration at high unemployment and the perception they lack economic opportunities.
The original Maginot Line stopped the Nazis, but only in one area, there was a gap through which the Nazis gained their victory. What is the gap this time? Multiculturalism? No one culture to hold the nation together.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Deja Vu All Over Again

CMH Occupation Germany

Long before the dust settled on European battlefields in World War II, the US Army had to face the difficult tasks of occupying and governing war-torn Germany. Its leaders and troops were called upon to deal with a series of complex challenges in political, economic, financial, social, and cultural affairs, tasks beyond the traditional combat roles of soldiers.

.. combat hunger, disease, and crime, preserve cultural artifacts, re-establish industry and utilities, and resolve thorny problems involving currency, housing, education, newspapers, elections, and displaced persons. The account shows the pitfalls and difficulties in planning, organizing, and executing such a complex undertaking.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

AIM Report: New York Times Smears Patriots

Wes Vernon, October 27, 2005


Federal money was involved. Outside of the New York area, there was very little media mention of the controversial plans afoot at Ground Zero. Liberal media bias is a fact of life. But when the issue involves the business of journalism, the bias gets so bad as to be deliberately dishonest.

US Media Get It Wrong Again

Cliff Kincaid - November 1, 2005
We shouldn't forget those media hotdogs who tried to exploit the stories to make themselves heroes.
Remember all those stories, in the wake of Katrina, about how the media were performing a great public service by dramatizing the plight of the victims and holding government accountable? Now we know the media were responsible for circulating false stories about rape and murder in New Orleans.