Top 10

Courtesy of StrategyPage, the top ten signs of a US move against Iran:

1. – The U.S. Navy stages a "surge exercise" and moves six carrier battle groups into the Indian Ocean.

2. – A "regularly scheduled exercise" moves Patriot Missile Batteies to Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. These exercises happen from time to time, but if they happen when other things are happening…

3. -- Movement of B-52 and B1B bombers to the island of Diego Garcia (in the Indian Ocean).

4. -- Deployment of F117 stealth bombers and F-22 fighters to anywhere in the Persian Gulf.

5. -- Deployment of B-2 Stealth Bombers to Guam, where there are special facilities for maintaining these aircraft.

6. -- Lockdown of Whitman Air Force Base (where most B-2 bombers are stationed) in Missouri.

7. -- Increased delivery of Pizza to Pentagon

8. –Sudden loss of cell service near some air force bases (from which heavy bombers would depart). At the same time, there would be sightings of Middle Eastern looking guys around these bases, trying to get their cell phones to work, while being observed by what appears to be FBI agents.

9. Deployment of KC-135/KC-10 aerial tankers to Diego Garcia, Guam and the Persian Gulf.

10. America asks nations neighboring Iran for basing and over flight rights.

A fascinating read.

Shrine Bombing in Iraq

The recent bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in Iraq is very problematic. Pictures of the devastation can be found here. This will almost certainly lead to retaliation against Sunnis in Iraq, which is the entire purpose of this attack. Hopefully the outbreaks of violence can be controlled, or this could turn into a full fledged grudge war (as if it wasn't already to a degree).

A Little History For You...

Courtesty of the History Channel, a short history of Valentine's Day.

Hardly surprising that a holiday which celebrates love should have lasted as long as it has.

Cheney and Aaron Burr

Apparently, some people have taken the opportunity of Dick Cheney's hunting accident as an opportuntity to bring up parallels between him and Aaron Burr. This is of course, a ridiculous notion. If we tried to apply the analogy today of Aaron Burr, the situation would have been much different. Namely, that Cheney would have challenged Howard Dean to a duel and then shot and killed him. Please folks, less pathetic attempts to use history against the administration like this, thank you.


On a side note: I will reconsider my views herein detailed should the Vice-President, after leaving office, attempt to get Hawaii and/or Alaska to leave the Union and form a separate, independent state.

Intersting

I don't know how much truth there is to this report, but it is a fascinating read. Noticably absent is any mention of special forces, cruise missiles or any general land forces.

This is particularly interesting:

The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two years. If ready in time, they would also form part of the plan of attack.

This is copying what the Chinese have done, that is, creating a significant amount of conventional ballistic missiles to use as very long range artillery.

So thats where he has been...

Michael Totten is back from Iraq.

The Democrats Must be Suicidal

That is the only logical reason for picking Howard Dean as their nominal leader.

No Surprise to Me

This story doesn't really surprise me at all. I always figured that a few terror attacks in the US had been averted since 9/11, and this only confirms my suspicions. The reason we don't hear about such things should be obvious: the more we know about how terror attacks were foiled, the more the terrorists know, and the easier it is for them to plan around our defenses. We likely will not hear about the full extent of the terror threat, the threat which fools like Michael Moore deny exists, and likely will continue to deny existed until the day they die.

Raising the Thermostat

Things are heating up in the Cartoon Controversy. I only hope that Europe maintains its backbone. If it backs down now, it will be in serious trouble later on.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Via LGF, I found this picture on The Jawa Report.

The Situation in Europe

By all accounts, events in Europe and the Muslim World are not yet cooling down. Burning an embassy in Syria is probably only just the beginning. I am, however, optimistic. Like Wretchard, I worried that the troubles in Europe would ignite later, when they would be more difficult to put out. That being not the case, I believe that the European people and leadership will come out of this, if not for the better, at least no worse than they were before. Indeed, I rather suspect that many Europeans who didn't believe the Muslims in the midst to be a threat are quietly re-evaluating the situation. I do not think that this will be "the big event". It is, however, the harbinger of things to come. The Lines are starting to clear up, and soon we will be able to tell which players are which.