Obama, back to the 60's

What Israel looked like just before the 1967war

Maybe Obama does not remember the 60's, maybe all he remembers is Woodstock or the the girls with flowers in their hair. The Israelis have different memories of that time, war on their doorstep, threats to destroy them. in 1967 the Israelis pulled off one the most impressive feats of arms since the end of WWII, destroying 3 armies all poised to attack them. In turn making their tiny country more secure and winning the long sought prize of Jerusalem.

One factor that totally escapes Obama, is that even in 1966 there was no "Palestinian State", Gaza belonged to Egypt and the West bank to Jordon, in fact there has been no "Palestinian state" for centuries, prior to 1948, it was a mandate that UK took over from the Ottomans, who treated the area as part of a province of their empire.
The reality is that the Palestinians have enough to start a real state, Gaza strip is 364 sqKm and combined with West Bank land it compares well with Singapore. Also like Singapore, the only real resource that both countries have are their people. Singapore invested in it's people and the results are well known. The Palestinians instead invested in homemade rockets and suicide vests, the result are rather predictable. Their current plan to gain statehood by attacking Israel have achieved none of their aims and helped their economy to hit rock bottom and still digging.
So far all the "Great one" has achieved is to get both Israel and Hamas to agree his idea sucks, albeit for different reasons. No peace will be achieved till the Palestinians realize that the state of Israel is not going anywhere and the "Right of return" is a myth that will not happen. To people so morally opposed can not live in the same house and that is the simple truth here. The longer we enable the Palestinians to live this lie, the longer they will suffer. Fairly soon the number of people who actually did leave in 1948 will be a handful, every decade it will be less, till no one from that episode is alive from either side. Shall we allow the Palestinians descendants to carry living the lie and paying it's price?

If you need any help understanding why the Israelis don't want to give up land, take a look at this map. The 1967 borders were undefendable with no space to recover from a tactical error. In the 1973 war, the Syrians came within a hairbreath of breaking through the IDF lines in the Golan, only luck and a timid response from the Syrian saved them.

Note, can't remember the blog I got the maps from, but will credit them as soon as I find the link.

Shotgun Boogie

Could you imagine the present day media allowing a song like this? In their view guns are bad, therefore such light entertainment on such a subject is verboten!!

I like the part about asking the girls father for her hand in marriage. More on the singer; Tennessee Ernie Ford

How I wish it was true

Some reports are floating around that Mullah Omar is dead, as I mentioned in my post "No Remorse" I would like to see him dead, mainly as I think it will open the door to more negotiations and hopefully a political end to the fighting in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar and his senior advisers are the reason why any negotiations have not moved ahead, he knows the current government will never relent to his demands or negotiate with him, so why allow others to do so. I have no doubt that many of the Taliban foot soldiers and their low level commanders would like to settle on some agreement that would allow them enough face to put away their weapons, but they dare not express those views or take part lest the senior leadership gets wind of it.
An alternative possibility is that Omar was being moved in secret so he would not suffer from any backlash caused by the recent attack on the naval base. The attack will not help relations between the Pakistani military and the Taliban. after OBL getting whacked, you can bet senior leaders in the Taliban are nervous about who they can trust.
I like the fact that the Taliban are nervous, sowing mistrust in your enemy ranks is a good thing and another benefit of the attack on OBL.