International Zionist Web
This article introduces what could become a harbinger of a drastic change in the life (or its abrupt termination) of an infantry soldier.
Sandia National Laboratories has brought that a bit closer to the real world. Researchers Red Jones, Brian Kast and their colleagues invented a self-guided bullet that can hit targets more than a mile away.But don't worry, infantry grunts: the darn thing was proved so far only on this target:
Why doesn't it ever happen when I am around?
I guess there was a spike in Swiss cops' offers to volunteer for duty on that day...
Introduction
I do shun the "what if" genre, so popular recently in the literature. This post, however, is not exactly about a "what if" situation, as you will see. It talks about an imaginary Russian school pupil, writing an imaginary essay on the above mentioned subject. Since some of the terms or situations may appear unfamiliar to Western reader, I have added a few remarks at the end.
The whole thing was intended as a (barbed) joke, but the outcome is a satirical piece too good to miss. And of course, it's hardly about the WW II, so relax.
What if Germany had won World War 2?
The composition topic given by the teacher was unusual, even bizarre: "What if the Germans had won that war?".
Little Johnny strained his imagination playing with his stylus. Unfortunately, so far the result was a list of absurdities. Such things could not possibly have happened in Russia. Besides, in the end Germans lost.
1. There will not remain virtually any industry in the country, the occupiers will be concerned only with plundering natural resources of the country.
2. At each exit from a big city police will be checking those who plan to leave or arrive. Each resident will be required to register with the police at the place of his residence.
3. All the "aristocrats" will ride only in black German cars with sirens. Ordinary people overtaken by the bosses will have to stop on the side of the road and wait till they pass.
4. To maintain the atmosphere of fear "they" will create gangs of mountain tribal people. The gangs will occasionally attack the local population, rob and kill.
5. The rulers will be chosen out of particularly heinous local citizens. Children and wives of governors will live abroad for safety reasons. And the bosses will take turns at the helm on rotation basis.
6. Instead of the people's militia, police, selected from the worst scum, will be organized, there will be a lot of them and people will fear them more than they fear bandits.
7. Fascism will eventually become the most popular ideology, thriving on total despair. Only - in its Russian version.
8. German goods will be deemed the best and most desirable.
9. President will speak German much better than Russian.
10. Instead of vodka, beer will be promoted and sold, like in Germany.
11. Those who fought against the Germans, will receive a pittance as pension, and meager food packages as holidays presents.
12. Russians killed in the war are buried in mass graves, just to be enable relatives to name the place of burial.
13. Most of the male population will pass through camps. To break the will to resist.
14. Teachers and doctors in the occupied territories will receive minimal salaries, just to keep the rate of population decrease not too high.
15. On the distant outskirts of Russia's Primorye some small partisan groups may remain. They will attack the policemen, but the intimidated population will be too afraid to help them.
16. Roads will not be built and gasoline will be made more expensive, to make people stay at home.
17. It will be forbidden to own weapons, lest people decide to revolt suddenly.
18. Cheap barracks with low ceilings will be built for accommodations, based on 8 square meters per person standard.
19. The most agile and intelligent will be allowed to emigrate and live abroad, it will be considered by others a great success.
20. America and the Jews will be declared the main enemy of Russia.
Vera Pavlovna pondered the composition for a long time. And in the end marked it 3 - for good fantasy.
Comments.
3. The Russian party chieftains, oligarchs and other "upper class" characters have indeed the blue light blinkers and sirens installed in their limousines. To make sure you know who is being motored.
6. The accepted name of "people's militia" was changed about a year ago to "police". In fact, nothing much changed, the new police being as corrupt and inefficient as the old militia.
9. Putin's KGB career was made in Germany.
15. Primorye - the Russian Pacific coastal area around Vladivostok .
Vera Pavlovna - obviously the teacher. 3 - passing grade in school (out of 5).
This becomes serious:
CARSON CITY, Nev., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Prostitutes working at a Nevada brothel said they are planning to show their support for Republican presidential contender Ron Paul during the Nevada caucuses.With such grassroots support the man can't lose.
In December, 2010, UK police officers, actually members of a specialist, undercover, anti-terrorist unit, arrested 9 men suspected of planning terrorist attacks on targets mainly, but probably not only, in London. Today (1 February), four of them pleaded guilty to various charges and, along with the other 5 who pleaded guilty earlier, they will be sentenced either later this week or next week. The Community Security Trust (CST) of the Board of Deputies of British Jews has a fascinating article on these men. They note that, from the various reports on them, that:
It emerged that those who admitted planning to target the London Stock Exchange wanted to send five mail bombs to various targets during the run up to Christmas 2010 and discussed launching a “Mumbai-style” atrocity."It gets even more interesting: within the article by the CST is a link to a Home Office document which lists all the proscribed (i.e., banned as terrorist) organisations in the UK. It says that there are 47 of them. I counted 37 of them as being Islamist/Jihadi. By my arithmetic, that makes over 3/4 of of banned organisations Islamist/Jihadi in a country in which, at most, 2.0% of the population are Moslem. In turn, most of those will just want to get on with their lives and will not to create a Moslem UK, let alone elevate sharia law above all other law.
Beyond that, a "hand-written target list discovered at the home of one of the radical Islamists listed the names and addresses of London Mayor Boris Johnson, two rabbis, the US embassy and the Stock Exchange.The conspiracy was stopped by undercover anti-terror police before firm dates could be set for attacks.
I do like the Turkish daily Hürriyet, at least its English website. Not a single day passes without an interesting piece, and Hürriyet is not too provincial or too narrowly focused on Turkish internal affairs, unlike some of our newspapers. And the writers do not necessary toe the government line, as you shall see further.
As we all know only too well, since Erdogan storming out of Davos' conference after a somewhat psychotic verbal attack at Shimon Peres, the Israel-Turkey relationships soured quite quickly, being further shot to pieces by the Mavi Marmara incident.
But Turkey is a large and powerful country, and Israeli-Turkish links are not at the top of the list for its government, obviously. However, Mr Erdogan, whom a lot of people now call "the neighborhood bully" is lately throwing his weight about way above Turkey's real station in life. Turkey's deteriorating relationships with many of its neighbors, with EU, the recent dust-up with France etc. bother Turks as well, as you could see in the following remark:
Pragmatism bordering on opportunism, coupled with the shallowness of full submission to the contractor and over-confidence produced by the apparently strong economy and the electoral support from close to one in two citizens, has transformed this country into an adamant and arrogant state.And this sentiment is echoed in another piece:
And the only relations that are not at a worse position, are those with Israel; it is still as bad as a year ago.Both articles are a worthy read.
The number of imprisoned journalists in Turkey rose to 105, according to a written statement issued yesterday by the Platform of Solidarity with Imprisoned Journalists.The situation is causing some responses abroad, like this one:
...
The group also reminded Turkey’s step backwards in press freedom rankings losing 10 places to rank 148th out of 178 countries in the Reporters without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index for 2011.
Renowned U.S. author Paul Auster said he refused to visit Turkey because of the number of journalists and writers that have been jailed in the country.By itself, the event is not that significant, maybe, but the touchy Turkish leader has already responded - in public:
Speaking to daily Hürriyet’s Buket Şahin, Auster said he had protested the Turkish and Chinese governments for their treatment of journalists.
Writer Paul Auster told a newspaper over the weekend that he wouldn't come to countries that lack democratic laws," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said. "What difference does it make if you come to Turkey, or if you don't?The neighborhood bully seems to be too easily disturbed, answering his own question: he obviously cares if he found time and opportunity to talk about this. But hot temper is not a good trade-off for brains, Mr Erdogan...
Allegedly, Erdogan and his wife are crypto-Jews, secretly working for the New World Order.Might cause the bully some exquisite heartburn, that one... I wouldn't wonder.
According to this.
Now, instead of the usual Blue Screen of Death the operators could expect hearing something like "Gee, boss, I am not in the mood for flying anymore today... let's knock it off for now, what say?"
How else do you call a discovery of human excrement in a storm drain that is supposed to contain only rainwater run-offs? Anyway, watch this:
And read this:
City workers who had been cleaning the area noticed toilet paper on top of a storm water grate that drains into a nearby creek. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and city officials believe some protesters have been using the drain as a toilet. "We're looking at the environmental impact on the stream down there with the wildlife, and things like that," said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Dulin.I wonder whether the above mentioned unfortunates who drunk the contaminated water will become occupiers as a result?
"Plus the water goes downstream for other people to drink further down. But again, we're just trying to cover all our bases, and make sure that if there is any type of environment impact, that we're able to identify that and then correct that and make sure there is no further environmental impact downstream," he added.
I do hope you realise that the question is a rhetorical one. The article linked to below has a great (mocked-up) picture of Ahmanedinejad blowing out a mushroom-shaped smoke "ring". We almost don't need the article that follows. Still, Henry Kopel (who is a counter-terrorism prosecutor with the US Department of Justice in Connecticut) does a good job of explaining why the question really is a rhetorical, not to say stupid, one in the first place. He convincingly shows why sanctions are needed and why the rest of the world should not hold back from calling Iran to account not to say its bluff. He pulls together the threads that numerous other commentators have provided, to reach that conclusion.
It's a two page article, and well worth your time and trouble. You'll find it here.
By Brian Goldfarb.
