© 2008-2011 Righty Blog
Aug
26
Are you familiar with the story, “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Lebanon/Israel? Me either.
from Ynet News -
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon has concluded that a tree at the center of deadly clashes along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Aug. 3 was inside Israel.
Aug
23
Who would expect anything less from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As I’ve said before, he appears to be twisted and dangerous.
from Ynet News -
A day after Iran began fueling its first nuclear power plant, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel was “too weak” to attack the Islamic Republic.
[...]
In the interview, Iran’s president offered friendship to the United States but also taunted Washington by saying he does not fear an attack by the US because it could not even defeat a small army in Iraq.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly offered to start a dialogue with Iran, but his administration says Iran chose international isolation instead. The two countries are at odds over Iran’s nuclear program, which the US fears is aimed at producing weapons though Tehran denies it.
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All posts related to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Aug
22
While other countries continue to build their programs, we continue to talk of trimming ours. So, we risk falling behind, instead playing big sister and working on outreach programs while those less powerful catch up.
Iran says they plan on sending their own astronauts into space by 2025. I see no reason we should doubt them. They also have a new, unmanned drone called, “an ambassador of death.”
from VOA -
Iran’s military has unveiled a new unmanned aircraft, saying the drone is capable of carrying out long-range missions.
Iran’s military displayed the drone Sunday at a ceremony attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and shown on live television.
Officials told Iran’s state-run Press TV that the drone, named the Karrar, meaning “striker”, can carry out long-distance bombing runs against ground targets at high speeds.
Tell me…exactly what is wrong with being a superpower? Don’t we have to continue to plan for the future in order to hold our power now?
April 13, 2010
President Obama today at a news conference closing his “Nuclear Security Summit,” where he made the odd statement that “whether we like it or not, we (United States) remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, we get pulled into it.”
from
Aug
15
While we don’t want to keep top military commanders around unnecessarily just because they’re not quite ready for retirement, we don’t want to get to the point that we need to look to other countries for our top brass when we have needs (of course I’m being sarcastic).
But then, we always have our Commander in Chief:
Fox News (video link): The president may be undecided on whether to put more forces in Afghanistan, but he was happy to share face time with some troops at his last stop in South Korea before returning to the United States. “You guys make a pretty good photo op,” the president reportedly joked with the 1,500 troops at Osan Air Base.
November 19, 2009
from the Boston Globe -
WASHINGTON — Of all the spending cuts and budget battles the Pentagon is confronting, none is causing more angst than Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s vow to start getting rid of generals and admirals.
Jul
24
That said by a reportedly emotional U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the retirement ceremony of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Washington on Friday.
Read the details of the unusual ceremony
Gen. Stanley McChrystal reviews troops for the last time as he is honored at a retirement ceremony at Fort McNair in Washington on Friday. AP Photo
Jun
29
Is it quantity or quality that makes a strong military?
For the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) it’s the latter.
from Ynet News -
“You were always a numerical minority but a majority in terms of quality,” President Shimon Peres said to Druze soldiers in Tiberias on Tuesday during a ceremony honoring the Druze in the IDF.
Jun
28
There always seems to be some warning of some type of revolution on the horizon. Here’s a new one. I don’t know if I would call it a “revolution.”
Is it a bird? Is it a plane (well, sort of…how about a drone…on U.S. soil)?
In the coming years, law enforcement agencies will seek to use UAVs to police borders, control crowds, track criminals, detect illegal narcotics activities, and spot crime. Other potential civilian uses include mineral and energy exploration, agricultural surveys, communications relay, and wildfire monitoring. The revolution is coming.
Jun
13
There’s a theme coming out of Afghanistan – the people don’t want foreign help when it comes to protecting them from the Taliban. It’s all about fear. The Taliban is fear.
From IPS News -
The Kandahar operation, which [Gen. Stanley A.] McChrystal’s staff has touted as the pivotal campaign of the war, had previously been announced as beginning in June. But it is now clear that McChrystal has understood for weeks that the most basic premise of the operation turned out to be false.
“When you go to protect people, the people have to want you to protect them,” said McChrystal, who was in Brussels for a NATO conference.
[...]The U.S. officials in Marja are trying to convince local residents, in effect, that they should trust the foreign troops to protect them from the Taliban, but the Taliban are still able to threaten to credibly to punish those who collaborate with occupation forces.
May
30
We Shall Keep The Faith
by Moina Michael
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
View a slide show of memorials presented by Military.com
May
19
Anti-government clashes from protesters haven’t done much good in Thailand, unless you would call death and destruction in major cities such as Bangkok (10 million people) making progress. These riots/protests have included women and children.
Slide show and explanation about the political unrest HERE
Now this makes sense:
from the Guardian -
The prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, imposed a curfew in the city and 21 provinces across the country from 8pm to 6am .”All of this has one goal, to bring peace and prosperity back to the country,” Abhisit said in a broadcast the government forced every Thai television channel to broadcast live.
The chaos erupted as soldiers advanced on demonstrators who had occupied the protest site in the centre of Bangkok for more than six weeks. Amid heavy fire from troops, armoured personnel carriers pushed through barricades of bamboo and tyres that the protesters had set on fire. Soldiers fired at fleeing protesters and shouted: “Come out and surrender or we’ll kill you.”
Right…”peace and prosperity.” Sounds like a plan.