Weird Weapon

Does anybody know what kind of weapon this is? I though it might be a cluster bomb, but it looks like something new. Did we sell this to the Israelis, or did they think of this themselves?


It's no cluster bomb.

Photos courtesy The Drudge Report.

News from the Other Side

From a DEBKA File report on an Al-Jazeera broadcast:

"Al Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman Zawahri, accused Iran of cooperating with the Americans in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and the Shiites for failing to wage a jihad against the Crusader occupier."

Who did Harry Reid say was losing the war? Later, Quoting Zawahri:

“The most bizarre and astounding thing is that Hassan Nasrallah celebrates a victory every year. What victory?” he said. “Retreating 30 miles backwards? Allowing 15,000 Crusades to become a buffer between them and the Zionists?”

Maybe he just needs to lay off the Turkish coffee and get back on the Afghan hash.

The Toilet Wars

I'm not one to live and die with what the NY Times reports, but I happened across this article this morning. Among other things, they report:

"The Russians have also left the Georgian military base in Senaki, but only after confiscating almost everything of value, including televisions, refrigerators and even toilets, according to local residents who have watched the steady stream of Russian trucks moving in and out of the base for more than a week."

What does it say about the quality of life when people are stealing toilets? Is there a single human being in any western country who can relate to this? In spite of all the reforms put in place since the fall of communism, it would appear the underground economy in Russia is still in good health. Shipping toilets to Russia seems a better alternative than shipping guns to Georgia. Just a thought.

The Cost of Moralizing

Thomas Sowell, always a good source on economic topics, writes today on the Russia/Georgia conflict. Unlike most commentators, he bypasses the Serbia/Kosovo analogy and looks at the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. A unique perspective on recent news and food for thought about our history of tough talk and no action can be found here.

The entangling alliance of an ever expanding NATO is a disaster waiting to happen. Does anyone seriously believe that Europe will do anything but cheer leading in the next war? The truth is, Russia makes a better partner than all of Europe combined. We need them, and they need us. Who needs Georgia? Where does NATO end and the rest of the world begin?

Russia/Georgia and the Press

It's interesting how the press has been covering the Russia/Georgia conflict. I mostly just read the right wing stuff, and when it started, most of the commentary was sympathetic to Russia. It was generally agreed that Georgia had started it and had over-played their hand. They wanted a fight and they got one. Several commentators argued that the Russians were just doing what we had done with Serbia/Kosovo back in the 90's. After all, the Ossetians were a small group of people desirous of independence who were standing up to an aggressive neighbor. The Russians were coming to their aid for the principle of self-determination.

All that has now changed. The so-called "conservative" press is now calling the Russian action "meddling" in Georgian affairs. There is no talk of US meddling for the sake of NATO expansion, which has been a disaster for US/Russian relations. There is little question here that we are the expansionist power. NATO should have been disbanded long ago.

During the Serbian conflict, the US carried out 90% of the bombing, with England 9%, and everybody else just 1%. Now, with England backing away from our "special relationship" it's pretty clear to me that we'll be going it alone. To risk antagonizing the Russians, or even risk a shooting war with Russia for the sake of the "alliance" is insane. The fact that Georgia is a democracy is beside the point. Just about everybody claims to be a democracy these days. The government in the Gaza Strip can claim to be a democracy. So what?

The government of Georgia should fall, and Putin is just the guy to do it.

Google to the Rescue

An interesting side light to the Russian/Georgian conflict is this. The Georgian government is switching their web sites to Google blogger in a computer hacking war with the Russians. Estonians, who have some experience with Russian cyber-attacks, are being rushed to the scene. There has also been disruptions of Russian government sites reported.