Posted on 04/13/2008 6:19:09 AM PDT by moderatewolverine
You can’t just leave us hanging. Please tell us a bit about the technique...
Follow Up:
The episode was the loss of the submaring Scorpion. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about the novel search technique:
The public search continued, a team of mathematical consultants led by Dr. John Craven, the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Navy's Special Projects Division, employing the novel methods of Bayesian search theory, initially developed during the search for a hydrogen bomb lost off the coast of Palomares, Spain in January, 1968 in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident.
Thanks!
Consider the source ... LA Times.
Sheesh... Why does everything cool have to involve math, which I hate so badly :)
Oh please!
First the author leads off with a gratuitous slap at President Bush's successful counter terrorism strategies, (there have been no completed attacks on the US or US forces outside of Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001), the author then pushes the notion that "democracy" in Pakistan will not have the same basic result as "democracy" in the so called Palestinian territories. A significant fraction, perhaps a majority, of Pakistanis are sympathetic to Bin Laden and the Jihadies, most of whom were schooled and/or recruited in Pakistan's Madrases.
"Osama, Obama. Obama, Osama."Nice chiasmus you've got there!
Mr Coll is so feverish consumed with his ignorant BDS that he refuses to see ANY factual reality that doesn't validate his emotion based hysteria. The reason Bin Laden is in danger is because we have been so successful in killing off his networks in Iraq. That has been allowing us to penetrate their communication and cell networks. Iraq is the vital front on the War on Terror no matter how desperately ignorant Left wing bigots like Coll refuse to admit it.
Here is what we are doing in Iraq. It only been explained to Mr Coll about a zillion times. But like most Leftist clowns ego is so fragile he simple refuses to admit, even to himself, that he has been all wrong about Iraq from the start.
Why Iraq
One of the really infuriating things in modern politics is the level of disinformation, misinformation, demagoguery and out right lying going on about the mission in Iraq. Democrats have spent the last 3+ years lying about Iraq out of a political calculation. The assumption is that the natural isolationist mindset of the average American voter, linked to the inherent Anti Americanism (what is misnamed the “Anti War movement”) of the more feverish Democrat activists (especially those running the US’s National “News” media) would restore them to national political dominance. The truth is the Democrat Party Leadership has simply lacked the courage to speak truth to whiners. The truth is that even if Al Gore won the 2000 election and 09-11 still happened we would be doing the EXACT same things in Iraq we are doing now.
Based on the political situation in the region left over from the 1991 Gulf War plus the domestic political consensus built up in BOTH parties since 1991 as well as fundamental military strategic laws, there was NO viable strategic choice for the US but to take out Iraq after finishing the initial operations in Afghanistan.
To start with Saddam's Iraq was our most immediate threat. We could NOT commit significant military forces to another battle with Saddam hovering undefeated on our flank nor could we leave significant forces watching Saddam. The political containment of Iraq was breaking down. That what Oil for Food was all about. Oil for Food was an attempt by Iraq to break out of it's diplomatic isolation and slip the shackles the UN Sanctions put on it's military. There there was the US Strategic position to consider.
The War on Islamic Fascism is different sort of war. in facing this Asymmetrical threat, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone.
Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The “Holy” soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is mostly neutral in terms of guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
Did any of the critics of liberating Iraq ever look at a map? Iraq, for which we had the political, legal and moral justifications to attack, is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A Geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack in either state or into Saudi Arabia if needed.
There were other reasons to do Iraq but here is the strategic military reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. One has to wonder if the American people have either the emotional maturity, nor the intellect” to understand. It's so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like “No Blood for Oil” or “We support the Troops, bring them home” or dumbest of all “We are creating terrorists” then to actually THINK.
Westerners in general, and the US citizens in particular seem to have trouble grasping the fundamental fact of this foe. These Islamic Fascists have NO desire to co-exist with them. The extremists see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. There is simply no way to coexist with people who completely believe their “god” will reward them for killing us.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest of the Jihadists realize we are serious. They same way killing enough Germans, Italians and Japanese eliminated the ideologies of Nazism, Fascism and Bushido.
Americans need to understand how Bin Laden and his ilk view us. In the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming “We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad” and recruit the next round of “holy warriors”. Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11-01 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it -
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Winston Churchill
Osama is dead. Has been since Tora Bora.
Zawahiri hides out with his video editing equipment and splices together tape after tape to fool the gullible press.
I do believe this is so...None of them are safe in Paki anymore, as many who have been sent to their 24 virgins in the past 3 months can attest...in a manner of speaking.
Those Drones making "door yard" calls have got them very nervous
Staffer? Teddy Kennedy would do the honors — though he probably couldn’t keep the names straight.
I know! Like I said, it makes me feel good to hear that. I’m 23, so I’m still working on my understand of politics/world affairs.
Understanding, that is.
He’s dead Jim.
Why, thank you. I've always been rather proud of it.
Seriously--thanks for the new word. I looked it up.
You should visit our Word For The Day thread here on FreeRepiblic.
Thanks for that link.,...
Updates On The War On Terror 04_14_08
*************************EXCERPT*************************
Some interesting news on the war front in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One piece that caught my eye was an LA Times article that claims this is the year to finally get Bin Laden. It notes the drop in support for al-Qaeda and their ilk in Pakistan and Afghanistan as the key change that could expose Bin Laden:
***********snip*******
Confusing determination and patience when dealing with an ally’s sovereignty is not rudderless leadership - it is dealing with reality. Everyone wants an easy button when it comes to this war. We clearly are not the greatest generation - we don’t have the patience and resolve to see things through to the end. Well, not all of us. Bush and his small cadre of supporters (like myself) have helped hold our resolve in the face of partisan defeatism. And now it is paying off.
Bin Laden is ‘a guest’ in Pakistan, which is not an Arab country. He has worn out his welcome there just has his thugs did in Iraq. I agree, this year could be the year, conditions are definitely trending in the right direction.
In fact there is continued pressure on the terrorists in Pakistan, who were dealt a huge blow in the latest elections in that country. They are being continuously rolled back into ever shrinking enclaves.
AQ celebrates their leaderships death.....They don't hide it....Yet they don't foolishly seek it or help facilitate it either......Well, some do. UBL clearly isn't one of them....
He cannot stay outside of our OODA loop forever....And #2 Zawahiri cannot dance & escape within that loop successfully for too much longer either......Variables and time were allies of theirs early on in this WOT.....Simple as that......But both are leaving them....
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