Dying When We Need It Most

Military history at universities is an endangered specie in a hostile environment.

"The prevailing view is that war is bad and we shouldn't study bad things," says Williamson Murray, a former professor who is now at the Institute for Defense Analyses. "Thank goodness cancer specialists don't have that attitude."

Bird 1, Fighter Jet Nil

Fourth Estate as Fifth Column

If the Second World War had been covered by the press like the Iraq campaign is today:

December 1941. Though the press supports America's going to war against Japan after Pearl Harbor, several editorials want to know why we didn't prevent the attack by selling Japan more oil. Others criticize us for going to war with two nations that had never attacked us, Germany and Italy.

October 1942. The New York Times runs an exclusive story about the British effort to decipher German messages at a hidden site at Bletchley Park in England. One op-ed writer criticizes this move, quoting Henry Stimson's statement that gentlemen do not read one another's mail. Because the Bletchley Park code-cracking helped us find German submarines before they attacked, successful U-boat attacks increased once the Germans, knowing of the program, changed their code.

January 1943. After President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill call for the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers, several newspapers criticize them for having closed the door to a negotiated settlement. The press quotes several senators complaining that the unconditional surrender policy would harm the peace process.

May 1943. A big-city newspaper reveals the existence of the Manhattan Project and its effort to build atomic weapons. In these stories, several distinguished scientists lament the creation of such a terrible weapon. After Gen. Leslie Groves testifies before a congressional committee, the press lambastes him for wasting money, ignoring scientific opinion, and imperiling the environment by building plants at Hanford and Oak Ridge.

December 1944. The German counterattack against the Allies in the Ardennes yields heavy American losses in the Battle of the Bulge. The press gives splashy coverage to the Democratic National Committee chairman's assertion that the war cannot be won. A member of the House, a former Marine, urges that our troops be sent to Okinawa.

August 1945. After President Truman authorizes dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, many newspapers urge his impeachment.

Quote of the Day

Only the left would be stupid enough to protest against the weather

ArtVandelay

Update: Christopher Monckton takes on the Stern Report.

Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day from Ephemeral Isle.

Challenge

Their complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene when Muslims are victims, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, and always wrong when the Muslims are the oppressors or terrorists, as with the Taliban or in Iraq.

Given the world view that has given rise to such grievances, there can never be sufficient appeasement and new demands will continue to be made.

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, on Muslim double standards.

Time for the Muslim "community" to prove him wrong.

John Simpson: Telepath

John Simpson demonstrates his amazing powers far beyond those of mortal men (emphasis added).

But the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson said that after his tirade, which was clearly deliberate, Saddam Hussein seemed to have a small smile of triumph on his face as he was led away from the courtroom.

"It was as if he was thinking 'I've come here and done what I intended to do,'" our correspondent said.

Ah, yes. Why should a reporter confine himself to piddly little things like facts when he has the ability to read minds?

Next Stop: The Gallows

Saddam Sentenced to Hang

Ides of March

From the BBC:

The Army is hosting its first recruitment drive solely for young British Muslims.

That's the way to handle an unassimilated Muslim population that acts as a hiding place for Jihadists; give them guns and military training through a no-infidels need appply recruiting drive with the object of "promoting diversity" rather than destroying the enemy. The BBC doesn't even bother to bring up the diversity arguement, but merely makes a passing reference to recruiting shortfalls and the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan without mentioning the tiny little detail of who it is we're fighting and why this might explain why only 40 teenagers (at least they didn't call them "youths") have responded.

Will someone please remind the government that this sort of boneheaded PR drive doesn't work unless it's set up along the lines of the 442^nd or how the Roman's deployed provincial recruits?

Roundabout Logic

The days of the traffic light may be numbered. An experiment in Drachten, the Netherlands removed the familiar green, amber and red lights and replaced them with roundabouts. The result was that traffic deaths in the town dropped from three per year to zero.

What's interesting here is not the outcome, but the rationale behind it. Roundabouts were put in not because they are safer, but exactly the opposite. According to Hans Monderman, a traffic planner involved in a Brussels-backed project known as Shared Space,

It works well because it is dangerous, which is exactly what we want. But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk.

In other words, giving drivers personal responsibility for their safety results better decision making than what government regulation can impose.

Having lived in Milton Keynes and having still-green memories of getting lost on its notorious roundabout system, I am not the biggest fan of concrete carousels, but if they can provide a real-life parable about the fruits of liberty, I'm all for them.

The Big Question

From the BBC:

Police flush 2,500 cans of beer

Question is, was it directly or indirectly?

Crack in the Crystal Ball

The Stern Review: Portent of doom or mountain that brought forth a mouse?

Streaking Tomorrow

Mark Steyn on the future of Europe:

On Sept. 11, 2001, the American mainland was attacked for the first time since the War of 1812. The perpetrators were foreign -- Saudis and Egyptians. Since 9/11, Europe has seen the London Tube bombings, the French riots, Dutch murders of nationalist politicians. The perpetrators are their own citizens -- British subjects, citoyens de la République française. In Linz, Austria, Muslims are demanding that all female teachers, believers or infidels, wear head scarves in class. The Muslim Council of Britain wants Holocaust Day abolished because it focuses "only" on the Nazis' (alleged) Holocaust of the Jews and not the Israelis' ongoing Holocaust of the Palestinians.

How does the state react? In Seville, King Ferdinand III is no longer patron saint of the annual fiesta because his splendid record in fighting for Spanish independence from the Moors was felt to be insensitive to Muslims. In London, a judge agreed to the removal of Jews and Hindus from a trial jury because the Muslim defendant's counsel argued he couldn't get a fair verdict from them. The Church of England is considering removing St. George as the country's patron saint on the grounds that, according to various Anglican clergy, he's too "militaristic" and "offensive to Muslims." They wish to replace him with St. Alban, and replace St. George's cross on the revamped Union Flag, which would instead show St. Alban's cross as a thin yellow streak.

In a few years, as millions of Muslim teenagers are entering their voting booths, some European countries will not be living formally under sharia, but -- as much as parts of Nigeria, they will have reached an accommodation with their radicalized Islamic compatriots, who like many intolerant types are expert at exploiting the "tolerance" of pluralist societies. In other Continental countries, things are likely to play out in more traditional fashion, though without a significantly different ending. Wherever one's sympathies lie on Islam's multiple battle fronts the fact is the jihad has held out a long time against very tough enemies. If you're not shy about taking on the Israelis and Russians, why wouldn't you fancy your chances against the Belgians and Spaniards?

"Thin yellow streak"; how apt.

No Hurry

The French have removed the security clearance from 70 Muslims (one of whom was a friend of Richard Reid*, who tried blow up an airliner in 2001) at Charles De Gaulle Airport .

Only took them five years to spring into action, but better late than never, I suppose

*And who the BBC refer to as the "so-called British shoe bomber"-- as if that is in dispute.

Breaking News from Minitrue

According to the Surveillance Studies Network, Britain is a surveillance society.

In other news, Miniprod announced that the choco ration is to be increased to 20 grammes per week.

They Didn't Think This One Through

From The Sydney Morning Herald (emphasis added):

Papua New Guinea is threatening to dramatically reduce the money it receives from Canberra, suspend all official visits by Australians or impose onerous travel restrictions, and recall its high commissioner.

Go ahead, tough guy. Do your worst!

Via Tim Blair.

Fools and Their Rubles

From the Telegraph (emphasis added):

Russian trawlers are already being built to exploit the Arctic seas opened up as the sea ice shrinks as a result of global warming, scientists warned yesterday.

Scientists warned? Warned what, exactly? That a country that has backed the wrong horse every time in the past century from the Russo-Japanese War to electing Putin is now betting the farm that the Arctic Ocean is going to be open to fishing soon? That's not a warning; it's running to form.

The Ur Digital Watch

I actually owned one of these. The fun bit was that the mechanism ran so fast that you could see the minute dial turn like something out of The Time Machine.

When Worlds Collide II

It's not only Vegan Week, but November first is also World Vegan Day.

I'll bring the steaks.

Nigel Kneale: RIP

Bernard Quatermass & friend.

The creator of Quatermass has died at the age of 84.

Terrifying invaders from Beyond have lowered their fergnorbs to half mast.