Art La Flamme

CNN is just now starting to talk about a 1.5 meter by 1 meter hole under the railbed, and Russian assertions that — gasp! — this tragic accident may not be an accident but indeed the work of (dum, dum, DUM!) terrorists.

Well, of course it’s terrorism. Investigators have shown up and have begun to ask questions of the locals — have there been strangers in the area recently? Maybe Chechens? Or some other terrorists from the North Caucasus region?

I have no doubt that it’s terrorism, and would not be surprised in the least if it turns out to be tied to Grozny or Russia’s own internal Muslim conflict. Basayev may be dead, but the conflict rages on, the issues remain unresolved.

And it will be interesting, in these next couple of days, to see how the US responds to Russian cries about the threat she faces from Muslim terrorists. Sometimes, Russia and others like the US see eye to eye on the subject, but not always. I wonder how it will play out this time.

Darkness in the neighborhood

This was the view of my world, an hour before the start of 30 June. Dark, quite, not much moon. Alone. Many people, I suspect, fear darkness because of the great unknown. I have come to embrace it, for all the potential it holds. It’s fitting, then, that this was my image heading into 30 June.
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I haven’t really talked much about the Long War recently. Been kind of busy with it.

A few pieces have been in the press recently. I am not going to try and sum them up, but am going to recommend going and making the time to read them.

Read this, then this, and then this. Below, there’s a letter from the Director of National Intelligence — so yes, this is kind of serious stuff going on.

Don’t be the one, twenty years from now, who remembers that there was talk of interrogation and torture. Be the one who read up on it, developed and informed opinion, and who can talk about what it means to you and how you view the US.

Need more information? Here’s the Taguba Report entry on Wikipedia, and info on Abu Zubaydah and KSM.

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The United States of America mismanaged detainees during the initial phases of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) because it did not understand its own history. The American administration failed to capitalize on its own lessons learning during the establishment of Prisoner of War (POW) procedures during World War II (WWII), and the legal precedents established in Johnson v. Eisentr?ger (1950). This is important because civil rights groups and others are legally challenging the US Government on its detention policy.

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Oh, did you have plans for this weekend?

They just changed. Go see Eagle Eye.

It is the best film I have seen this summer. Seriously. Is it playing at the IMAX near you? OMG, go see that!

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Don’t mock me.

This movie is like mashed potatoes for me. It’s total comfort food. See if you can follow along:

It’s got John Landis directing. Same guy who directed Blues Brothers. Ditto for Animal House. The list keeps on going from there. The script for this is great, and Landis does a great job bringing it to life.

It’s got Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase working as a team. And Spies Like Us was made back in ’85, back when they were at the height of their game. They are top performers in this. It’s not laugh-so-hard-you-can’t-breath kind of funny; it’s on par with Stripes.

Add to that the timeframe for this film, and you’ve got magic. It’s classic 80′s cold war, Reagan war mongering. It’s chock full of Soviet fears, Star Wars, and intelligence blunders.

Oh, and Donna Dixon. Hubba, Hubba.

The gist of this story is that the US military / secret cabal has a new space-based laser weapon system that they want to actually test. The plan is to insert two teams — one real, one decoys — into the Soviet Union to grab hold of and launch a nuclear missile at America. The American secret squirrel guys can then test their new toy, save the day, and validate their new toy.

Aykroyd and Chase get sent to Intelligence Operative Training, which is like Satan’s Basic Training program. They get subjected to the worst things the military would ever do to someone — like dragging them behind a boat, radical vertical impact simulation, and putting them in sire resistant suits and hitting them with flamethrowers. Watch this.

The whole thing is filled with one-liners and awesome quotes that, twenty plus years later, still show up in my vernacular. Boys, it’s be a shame to have to kill you now.

There’s a ton of military humor in this that cracks me up, but it’s the intelligence / espionage humor that gets me every time. The humor ranges from the bungling spy jokes, to jokes just about the intelligence profession on the whole. All of that comes out as Aykroyd and Chase make their way through training, on into Pakistan, and across the border into the Soviet Union. I love the collect phone call from Pakistan. Watch this — it’s a classic.

Along the way, they learn the truth — they’re the decoys. They run into the other team – the one with Donna Dixon on it. In coming to terms with their being the decoys, and in seeing Dixon’s partner killed, they realize that they must see the mission through, even if no one expects them to be able to succeed.

The long and the short of it is that they make it into the Soviet Union, they take control of the launcher, and they launch the missile. They realize the seriousness of what they have done, and they jury-rig a way to recall the missile and abort its flight. The secret cabal and American military nuts are exposed, they save the day, and they get the girls.

I saw this in the theater, and I have bought it on DVD a few times – it makes for a great gift. I watch this movie at least once a year, and I use some of these quotes — “Doctor. Doctor. Doctor!” — waaaaaay too often. I love looking for the cameo performances — Frank Oz, BB King, and the like.

And I love Donna Dixon. Hubba hubba.

Georgia and the separatists in South Ossetia came to blows a couple of days ago, ending the de facto stalemate in the war there. Russia has had “peace keepers” there for some time, and this re-introduction of combat operations has dragged Mother Russia back into the fighting.

Russia and the Republic of Georgia are at war.

I realize that, for most of America, this is not a big deal. For me, this is news, with a capital N.

For Russia, this is a win-win situation.

Russia wins in exerting influence over South Ossetia when it comes at the expense of the Republic of Georgia. Russia comes out on top be re-exerting its control over what had been Soviet territories, and what is now territory in a pro-Western, US-leaning country like Georgia.

Russia wins because they can use this as justification for rolling in massive amounts of troops. and not just into South Ossetia, but also in Abkhazia, another break-away region in Georgia.

They win, because they might be able to influence the oil coming out of Azerbaijan en route to Turkey or the oil ports on the Georgia’s Black Sea ports, by right or by might.

And what can Georgia do? Call for US assistance? US troops? Repel the Russians themselves?

They’re going to bleed. They’re going to take as much of a beating as the Russians choose to give them. And there’s not a damn thing else they can do.

The Russians in South Ossetia win. More support, more autonomy, more business with Russia will only improve their lives. They aren’t viable as a state, but they can gain here with some more autonomy and more support from Mother Russia.

And Abkhazia will gain, the same way.

Russia wins. South Ossetia wins. Abkhazia wins.

Georgia loses. America is going to lose. And other western countries will lose, if the oil flow is disrupted or the price goes up.

This, by the way, is worth watching.