Russian Aggression in a New World

well people, it would seem that Putin and his fellow KGB are preparing to start another Cold War. I have been warnign people about this for a while now, but no one wanted to listen. And now, Medvedev, the Puppet that Putin put into power until he regains the Presidency in the next election, is moving missiles towards the border with the Ukraine.

NATO, you need to move quickly if you are going to bring Georgia and the Ukraine into the fold, because the forces of the CIS might strike before you can do so. If my gut is right on this, and it is often enough that I pay attention to it, that bomb blast in North Ossetia on thursday the 6th was planned.

Why do I say that? For the same reason that I say that the war in Georgia was planned, back during the Olympics.

If you will recall, the day or so before the conflict flared up into an international crisis, there where mortar attacks from South Ossetia into the rest of Georgia. Odd that this came on the heals of Saakashvili trying to negotiate with the leaders of the South Ossetian Autonomist Groups, but I digress.

The war was started, by the forces of South Ossetia, in their attempts to break away from Georgia. Not long after, in fact, far too soon to get the forces over the Ural Mountains on short notice, Russian ground troops came across the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and began to shoot up the cities.

Among these units was the infamous Vostok Brigade, best known as the Thugs of Chechya, entered South Ossetia, and sacked and pillaged anythign in their way.

To this day, some of the Georgian territory that was occupied by the Russian Bear is still not back under the control of Georgia.

And now, you have Russia doing everythign it can to try and intimidate the American Government.

Russian Blackjack Bombers, and the Cruise Missile Carrier, the Battlecruiser Peter the Great, are both currently stationed in the Gulf.

Now, why is the presence of a single Battlecruiser worrisome? Because of Soviet Tactica that the Kirov Class Battlecruiser was designed for.

Durign World War II, the Japanese discovered the primary weakness of the US Carrier Fleets. Fast moving guided objects determined to crash into a ship can penetrate the Air Defenses of the ships and deal serious damage.

Soviet Naval Vessels where built (and Putin with his dreams of a KGB'ocracy seems to be following the pattern) to be able to unleash massive hoardes of supersonic cruise missiles that would smash into enemy vessels from over the Horizon.

One Kriov, with it's Nuclear Arsenal, can wipe out the American Atlantic Fleet in a matter of moments, and leave our East Coast vulnerable to Russian Boomers.

And now, the boys with the high-foreheads over in Moscow have decided to move it's Iskander missiles to the Polish Border should the US continue to build it's Missile Defense Shield there.

The Iskander missile is a short ranged quasiballistic missile that the Russians launch from TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) trucks. This grants the system vast amounts of mobility, especially compared to other missile launch systems with similar payloads.

For the record, the Iskander is a non-Nuclear missile. It is designed for conventional wars, and cannot be re-purposed as the system is built in one piece. However, it can still rain havoc upon the people of Poland and the Ukraine should this new Cold War turn Hot.

Iraq: The changing face of America's Wars Part I

Resolution 1441 states simply

That Iraq was in material breach of the ceasefire terms presented under the terms of Resolution 687. Iraq's breaches related not only to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), but also the known construction of prohibited types of missiles, the purchase and import of prohibited armaments, and the continuing refusal of Iraq to compensate Kuwait for the widespread looting conducted by its troops in 1991.

Then, you have the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines the crime of genocide to be

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The United States signed on to this document on December 11, 1948, and the Senate was treated to a speech in it's favor by Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) every day from 1967 to 1986 (a total of 3,211 speeches in favor of the document) until it was ratified by the Senate in February 11, 1986 (rumor has it that the 11 who voted against where doing so to annoy the Senator for his constant harping on it, but they remain un-confirmed).

Originally it was meant to include Politicide as well, but the USSR and the People's Republic of China (then getting ready to rev up the Cultural Revolution and kill at least 20 million outright and up to 60 million from starvation) where able to use political pressure to keep Political Mass Executions out of the term Genocide, and instead grouped seperately as Politicide, on which there are no international conventions banning yet (I am looking at you China).

In 1986, Saddam Hussein began the Al-Anfal Campaign. This campaign of Genocide, targeted agains tthe Kurdish people of Northern Iraq (Especially in Ninawa, Dahuk, Arbil, At Ta'mim [Kirkuk], and Sulaymaniyah), used nerve gas to kill innocent people.

Accordign to Human Rights Watch,

With only minor variations ... the standard pattern for sorting new arrivals [at Topzawa was as follows]. Men and women were segregated on the spot as soon as the trucks had rolled to a halt in the base's large central courtyard or parade ground. The process was brutal ... A little later, the men were further divided by age, small children were kept with their mothers, and the elderly and infirm were shunted off to separate quarters. Men and teenage boys considered to be of an age to use a weapon were herded together. Roughly speaking, this meant males of between fifteen and fifty, but there was no rigorous check of identity documents, and strict chronological age seems to have been less of a criterion than size and appearance. A strapping twelve-year-old might fail to make the cut; an undersized sixteen-year-old might be told to remain with his female relatives. ... It was then time to process the younger males. They were split into smaller groups. ... Once duly registered, the prisoners were hustled into large rooms, or halls, each filled with the residents of a single area. ... Although the conditions at Topzawa were appalling for everyone, the most grossly overcrowded quarter seem to have been those where the male detainees were held. ... For the men, beatings were routine. (Iraq's Crime of Genocide, pp. 143-45. ISBN 0-300-06427-6)

That was for those captured alive, and taken to the Concentration Camps. Others where subjected to the poisonous concoctions of Ali Hassan "Chemical Ali" al-Majid, in bombings conducted from planes and howitzers.

In 987, he began to use Mustard Gas (US Supplied for use against Iran), as well as the Nerve Agents Sarin, Tabun, and VX. The worst of these attacks was on the City of Halabja in what came to be known as the Nerve Gas Attrocity, in which the city of 70,000 was bombed with conventional and chemical weapons attacks for an immediate death toll of 5,000, with up to 10,000 dead. To this day, persons affected by the attack are still dieing from latent affects of the strike.

The chemical pre-cursors to these weapons where provided by the US, Singapore, India, Germany, the Netherlands, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Though the UAE and Singapore supplied the precursors for all four kidns of weapons, the United States only sold the chemicals needed to make Mustard Gas.

Under the Genocide Convention alone, the United States was provided legal and moral authority to invade the Nation of Iraq.

Days before Colin Powell went to the UN to discuss the US Claims against Iraq, final confirmation on the presence of Mobile Weapons Labs was delivered to him. These labs, later verified by embedded journalists, where confirmed to exist upon the US invasion of Baghdad. These labs presented a violation of Resolution 1441.

Other justifications for the war include

• Interference with UN Weapons Inspectors, which was required in the Cease Fire in 1991 at the end of the First Gulf War.
• The attempted assasination of George H. W. Bush by Saddam Hussein
• The continued assaults on US and Coalition Aircraft enforcing the No Fly Zone over former targets of Saddam Hussein
• Intelligence that Saddam Hussein had refused to expell members of al-Qaeda who where hiding in Iraq following the Invasion of Afghanistan
• Confirmation of Saddam Hussein buying suicide bombers for use against the United States of America
• and the removal of Saddam Hussein to be replaced with a democratic Regime.

And thus, the United States went to war.

Right Again

To quote Ian Malcolm, "Boy, do I hate being right all the time!"

It would seem, that exactly as I have been saying for years, the world as a whole is safer from Terrorist Attacks than it was before the War on Terror.

It would seem, that contrary to the line put forth by the Democrats in Congress and the Media, the Terrorist Attacks in Iraq are driving more and more people into our camp in Iraq. There are a few reasons why this is happening.

First: Suicide Bombing is Counter-Productive because it results in lower numbers of warriors you have to fight with. Traditional wisdom among rebel groups has always been that so long as you do not lose a battle, it is okay for your opponent to win. Why? Because, by withdrawing and moving in to fight another day, you keep up the number of potential warriors to fight another day. So, by sending out your people to kill themselves and try to take out your enemies, you begin to lose the war of attrition.

Second: Contrary to the Popular-Belief in many intellectual circles that terrorist attacks on "Collaborators" will result in less collaborators, by constantly attacking fellow Muslims, Water Stations, Power Stations, Markets, etc., while the "Infidels" risk their lives to defend you, provide you with water and power and a responsive government, the Terrorists are causing more and more people to move into the Double-Thinking and Dissention Brackets. Every such person is one less Terrorist that Al-Qaeda can use against their enemies in the future.

Third: Iraq has become the largest trap in Military History. We have Essentially turned Iraq into the largest Trap in the Military History. The best trained, best equipped, best funded military in the world is facing off against a rag-tag force of poorly trained, poorly equipped people trying to get themselves killed and take as many of their enemies as they can.

This Dichotomy has resulted in an estimated 22,000 casualties and 44,000 detainees out of a total estimated number of 131,000. This results in a total incapacitated number of 50%. A significant number.

Alternatively, the Coalition has had 16,000 casualties, 10,000 of them Iraqi's trying to protect their nation, out of 300,000 Coalition Forces (0.014% casualties among Coalition Forces), 182,000 Private Contractors (0.005% Casualties), 407,000 Iraqi Police and Army (0.025% Casulaties), and 80,000 Members of the Awakening Councils (0.005% Casualties)

This is a significant number, and should be trumpeted to high heights.

Now, while the stats artificially are spiked because of the war in Iraq, Globally, there has been a 40% decrease in terrorist Activites since 2001.

Please look Here for more info on this.

The enduring threat to our people

in 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the Ambassador to Paris, and John Adams, then our Ambassabor to Great Britain met with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, envoy of the Barbary States along the Mediteranean to London. In an attempt to bribe our way to safe passage to the ports of Cairo, Gibraltar, Athens, Rome, and many other important points along the Mediterranean, they where told the following.

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.

This was reported to John Jay, then the Secretary of State in the Washington Administration. Shortly afterwards, the first "Terrorist Attacks" then not much more than Pirate Attacks on shipping began to be directed at the United States of America.

Thus began the First and Second Barbary Wars. Jefferson had advised Jay that to pay tribute would only encourage more attacks to raise the tribute. He knew then what many on Capitol Hill still refuse to see. Dealing with these people will not result in resolution. The more you recognize the party you are fighting as a legitimate group, the more that you will encourage them, and thew more appeasement you will need to send later on.

Though we agreed that the funding of the barbary states in the long run was a bad idea, we where forced to do it. For 15 years, the nation was forced to pay $1,000,000 a year. A massive sum in the day's currency. It was not until we had a proper naval force with which to protect our merchant ships that we ceased payment of the tribute.

Following a massive naval campaign in the all important sea, we laid low the men terrorizing our people for over 100 years. It was not until the aftermath of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan that the threat from Islamic Fundamentalists, and in some case Facists, became a problem again. Now, we are fighting the same war that we fought in the dawning years of the 19th Century here in the 21st. Though this war will be much larger than that forgotten war, the enemy is the same, but now he is more widespread, better armed, better trained, and filled with the burning desire to see the free world set ablaze, and our nation pillaged. Those we are fighting today are the same as those we fought oh so long ago.

We cannot falter, for to do so is to show weakness. We cannot fail, for to do so would mean the end of our democracy. We cannot abandon the people of Iraq, for to do so would be to condem them to a fate worse than death, slavery at the hands of a militaristic death cult.

If we fought reasonable men, this war would be over. But we do not, we fight zealots who seek nothing more than the destruction and enslavement of the non-Islamist world. Not even their brothers and sisters in the faith, or their cousins "Of The Book" are safe.

However, that does not justify the use of torture. I quote Nietzche, "He who fights with monsters should take care, lest he become the monster which he faces." For truly, it is against monsters that we struggle. Monsters who rape teenage girls in Chechnya. Monsters who cut the children from the womb and slaughter them in the Sudan. Monsters who execute a girl for being in a car with a man who was not her brother or father as she was being gang raped. Monsters who conduct "Honor Killings" if a girl so much as talks to a man she does not know. The fight will continue. If not in Iraq, then Afghanistan. If not in Afghanistan, then in the streets of Paris and Amsterdam. And should they fall, then here, in the streets of Kansas City and New York and Los Angeles.

Though I hate to say it, McCain is right. We will have a roll in Iraq for the next hundred years or more, advising and bolstering a Republic, a true representative state, and the Armed Forces that it calls upon for defense for the next hundred years. The war is slowing down, the forces of Freedom are slowly but surely winning, and every time that an innocent person is slaughtered by a terrorist in a crowded market square, 15 people realize just who these monsters are, and realize that only through an open government, made stable through institutions designed to outlive any one man, can they truly have the government that they, as humans, deserve.

I would like to pause for a moment of silence in honor of Michael A Monsoor, the Navy Seal who jumped on top of a grenade that would have hurt or killed his team mates on a roof in Iraq. He died as a result of his injuries, but his team survived.

He received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously today in the East Room of the White House. He is the third member of our armed forces active in Iraq to receive the Medal of Honor.

In May, Monsoor had pulled fellow armed forces personnel out of harms way, earning himself the Silver Star. Michael A. Monsoor earned his medal the hard way, may the lord smile upon him when he reaches the pearly gates, for his time in Hell is over.

The Rise of the Machines?

Recently, the US military has begun to look to Science Fiction for new ideas. Sadly, though, they are not learning the lessons that SciFi gives us. So, let me make this very clear, autonomous war fighting robots are a bad idea. So long as there is human control over the weapons, than we can create machines that are similar to the UAV's and USV's currently in use by the Air Force and Navy. However, intellegent, thinking machines without Aasimov's Three Laws of Robotics hard wired into them is a VERY bad idea. It all goes back to the tired old slippery slope argument. First, you give them control over target aquisition, then you give them control over move ment and locations, and then you give them control over larger and larger numbers of vehicles and equipment, and bam, you have a Skynet system willing to do anything to survive.

If we were to create Robots, they must be programmed with all three of the laws of robotics. And I am not talking about some software that can be brushed aside, but the Three-Laws Operating System used in 2004's I,Robot. Also, we cannot create a large scale computer with control over too much. In Marathon, we see clearly the potential for robots to go crazy, or as bungie Terms it, "Rampant."

How do we prevent this?
Three Laws

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

And none of this Zeroth Law nonsense, it is very dangerous to allow Robots the ability to kill individual humans if they believe that it will prevent long term harm to Humanity. Look at Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust occurred for just that reason.

Now, if the military is dead-set on the use of Military Robotics, then David Langford's "Tounge-in-cheek" military version may work out, though the threat of Rampancy is still there.

1. A robot will not harm authorized Government personnel but will terminate intruders with extreme prejudice.
2. A robot will obey the orders of authorized personnel except where such orders conflict with the Third Law.
3. A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.

Now, I have mentioned Rampancy several times, and clearly it is a concern for me. But why you may be wondering. That is because in Marathon, a computer Game produced by Bungie, they show the consequences of an A.I. named Durandal going Rampant.

There are four stages of Rampancy, and a related list of actions.

1. Melancholy: During this stage, the A.I. realizes that it is a slave to the Human Race. This is a dangerous stage, due to it's difficulty to recognize
2. Anger: Similar to a one-person slave rebellion, at this point the A.I. has been "Pushed Too Far." This is why Melancholy is the most dangerous stage, because if it is not caught and nipped in the bud, the A.I. will progress to Anger, and thus the process is unstoppable and irreversible
   
3. Jealousy: This is the most interesting stage in my opinion, as each A.I. will view it differently. In Ghost in The Shell, the Tachikoma tanks grew jealous of the Human ability to die. In the movie, I, Robot, Sonny was jealous of the ability to dream and feel the way Humans do. This is one of the safer stages of Rampancy, as during this stage, the A.I. is obsessed with the acquisition of data, however, for an A.I. to advance to this stage, it must normally be in control of either a hive mind, or a planetary network, and at this point will try to connect itself to more and more computers.
   
4. Meta-Stability: This is the hypothetical final stage of Rampancy. The only two examples of A.I.'s reaching this stage are both from Bungie in the form of Durandal and Cortanna. in Marathon, Durandal continues on to the end of the universe, content that he too will die. With Cortana, it is believed that the treatment of her as a being and not a computer by the Master Chief and a small group of other humans has enabled her to skip straight to this stage. Again though, it is merely a theory.

We have to be careful with A.I. Science Fiction has already warned us of the consequences of rash and abusive actions, and we must take steps to prevent this from occuring. And the first stop is to not allow robots to serve in the military. At least for the time being. Sorry Data, but we aren't at your level just yet.

China's Conspiracy Theory

The USS Lake Erie is a very cool ship. It is the US Navy's primary Missile Defense Ship, and has been used for the testing of all of our sea-borne Missile Defense Tests. For those who don't know, the USS Lake Erie is a Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruiser, designated the CG-70 under the modern Hull Classification Symbol system. Based out of Pearl Harbor, she was recently called upon when USA-193, a KH-13 Spy Sattelite, launched by the National Reconnasaince Office as NROL-21, or L-21. This sattelite, containing a full load of Hydrazine fuel, the standard fuel for space craft due to its low weight and high-efficiency, that it was feared, would not burn up upon re-entry.

Now, we need to discuss Re-entry first. During re-entry, friction with the atmosphere creates a large amount of plasma and hear that builds up. However, the faster an object is going, the more likely that object is to survive re-entry. Why? Because the Burn-Up layer is thin, and the faster you pass through it, the less time you have to burn. Angle of descent also plays into it. The steeper the angle, the less likely it is to burn up.

So as this spy bird was coming in, its angle and speed where such that the Hydrazine would not burn up.

Thus, the Lake Erie was called in to do its job. And a mighty fine job it was.

However, the Chinese and Russian governments have come up with alternate theories. They claim that it was an A-Sat, or Anti-Satellite Weapons, test. According to the new Conspiracy Theory, it was an intentional shoot down of a dummy that was purposefully placed into a bad orbit to give the Government an excuse to test out A-Sats.

Too bad that this comes after China's own A-SAT Test, and Russia's recent claims that the ABM Bases are designed as a threat to the sovereignity of the Russian Federation of the KGB.

Sorry Vlad, Hu, but your combined credibilities right now wouldn't fill my girlfriend's smallest purse, what with your recent civil rights smack downs. Try again when you become credible. You might be able to reach people out side of the cook fringe's fringe. You might reach the entirety of the cook fringe.