I just see a bunch of stuff about him saying how he does not advocate water boarding because "he thinks it's real drowning"..but I meant to say I would take Zissou's stance as a been there done that guy, over a college student and his wiki source.
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VICTORY in IRAQ?? What is Victory?? Is there any substitute for VICTORY??
- Thread starter A4sForever
- Start date
I just see a bunch of stuff about him saying how he does not advocate water boarding because "he thinks it's real drowning"..but I meant to say I would take Zissou's stance as a been there done that guy, over a college student and his wiki source.
m0tbaillie
Former SWO
Well I was just asking a question. The thing about the Internet is that anybody can say absolutely anything and that doesn't necessarily make it true. I prefer reading hard evidence than just taking someone on the Internet's word for it, ya know?
Fair enough, just read what I wrote above ^^^ anybody can tell you anything over the Internet, but I find it most prudent to be remain skeptical [on the Internet] unless somebody can throw cold hard facts in your face. Which is exactly what I asked for and Zissou provided.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/authors/malcolm-nance/bio/
First link on Google.
I did, it seems a little too.....self-promoting to me. Plus, he spoke at the 'Intelligence Summit', that is a hit against him right there.
m0tbaillie
Former SWO
What was wrong with his bio, exactly? Seemed quite impressive to me.
Hmm, the "Legendary" Dick Marcinko is on their Executive Board......interesting.
No, I don't know ... ya know??
That's the difference between Air Warriors and the other relatively useless forums you may have visited in the past; those which you are more familiar with and those who's chief function is to engage in varying degrees of mental masturbation to no effect.
Questions are fine; respectful questions are even better --- but opinions and observations of guys who have actually "done something" carry more weight on AW's than opinions or impressions of guys who haven't done shit ....
... Guys who haven't done shit .... guys who don't know anything .... guys who could profit from S-ingTFU and keeping their eyes and ears open .... guys like college students .... guys like you.
Speaking of which -- why does your IP show emanating from Brusels, Belgium?? You know, when you purport to be a student @ Michigan State??
Ya know???
It does sound impressive, but most of his bio stuff is on sites where he is promoting a book/business or someone is promoting him speak.
There are more people that have a resume like his than you realize, not a huge number but they are out there, and they are not selling something. Nothing at all wrong with that, and he does have some valuable things to say, but take all of that into account when you read what he has to say.
Plus, the fact that he spoke at the 'Intelligence Summit' says a little bit to me. When government and military types are explicitly warned to stay away........well, money can buy you a lot of things.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/06/Southpinellas/Intelligence_conferen.shtml
Threadjack:We could start one!
If you are familiar with the new Inteldocs feature on JWICS and SIPR, then starting next Thur look up "Airwarriors" in the alpha look up and you'll find a folder there - I'll place things that I come across that I think would be of interest to this crowd. (For instance, yesterday I was just perusing the APG-79 AESA manual, and found it quite interesting...)
For those that aren't familiar but have access - Inteldocs is kind of like a "shared folder" structure for the JWICS & SIPR. Go to the Intelink homepage, and click the "References" tab on the upper right. On the next page, there will be a set of links. Hit "Inteldocs", and it will take you to a Sharepoint-like page. I'll post the rest of the directions when I get it set up; going to be at the PG School in Monterey from Mon-Wed, so it will be Thur before I get back to this.
I'll try and make it so anyone can save to it, so if you run across something of note you can stick it in there. Who knows, this might actually turn out to be useful...
Now, back to the arguing about who's opinion is worth sh!t...
Victory in conflict (from my perspective behind a monitor) depends on the political reasons for the war. This (lengthy) link from the Heritage foundation discusses the reasons for entering into the conflict (summed up as a "civilizing war") and thus our obligations on a proper end state to fulfill those objectives.
Just War and Endgame Objectives in Iraq
by Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D. and Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D.
Just War and Endgame Objectives in Iraq
by Joseph Capizzi, Ph.D. and Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D.
m0tbaillie
Former SWO
Because when I registered for this site, I was in Brussels, Belgium (for the summer) and my father was stationed at NATO HQ.
http://www.geobytes.com/iplocator.htm
m0tbaillie
Former SWO
jeez M0t maybe we need to switch avatars..i think im using your highschool senior pic
Haha get rid of that mullet (and add 50lbs) and you'd be pretty close.
Can't hate a guy for liking Linux
I (another college student...) have a stupid question.
I have always been of the school of thought that the de-Baathification (taking all of the competenet people that could make the trains run on time under Sadaam and black-listing them) was a bad idea.
I don't know much (anything?) about the origins of the insurgency, but I would tend to think they needed a grumpy and disenfranchised populace to supply / aide / tolerate them or even swell their ranks (just looking at historical examples).
If a lot of the bad guys didn't have the initial blessing / blind-eye of the locals wouldn't the whole Awakening thing (which I fear will soon become a wild animal all of its own) have happened a lot sooner?
In other words, did de-Baathification not have an effect on the insurgency?
I know that's different from what we were talking about before, but I'm just curious.
Eddie,
Yes, the de-baathification did alot to alienate the standing powerbase in the Sunni sectors. Particularly in Al Anbar. Though I dont think it was the most significant factor.
It may have been a bad idea. But at the time there were some serious fears of bigger problems if they were left in place. They had significant combat power and we had inadequate forces in place to hold it together if one year later they put something together. Remember, we had "won" with a small force and pressure was on to reduce the footprint in theatre before the Abrams had even shut down their engines.
Its a hotly contested decision but pinning the insurgency on it alone or it "mostly" is short sighted. I'de bet that without hindsight most others in Amb Bremmer's position would have done something at least similar.
The insurgency in the south was an altogether different animal and remains such.
Yes, the de-baathification did alot to alienate the standing powerbase in the Sunni sectors. Particularly in Al Anbar. Though I dont think it was the most significant factor.
It may have been a bad idea. But at the time there were some serious fears of bigger problems if they were left in place. They had significant combat power and we had inadequate forces in place to hold it together if one year later they put something together. Remember, we had "won" with a small force and pressure was on to reduce the footprint in theatre before the Abrams had even shut down their engines.
Its a hotly contested decision but pinning the insurgency on it alone or it "mostly" is short sighted. I'de bet that without hindsight most others in Amb Bremmer's position would have done something at least similar.
The insurgency in the south was an altogether different animal and remains such.