Middle East Geography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Q9xhnDXcA

914 Years Ago Today

Pope Urban II orders first Crusade

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of "Deus volt!" or "God wills it!"

Oldest Church

This looks interesting.

Teaser Graphs from the Telegraph:

"We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," Abdul Qader al-Husan, head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, said. . .

Inside the cave there are several stone seats which are believed to have been for the clergy and a circular shaped area, thought to be the apse.

There is also a deep tunnel which is believed to have led to a water source, the archaeologist added.

Soul Food - 3/27/8

(From today's reading: Numbers 33-36)

The LORD said to Moses, "Command the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries:

" 'Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end of the Salt Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea.

" 'Your western boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.

" 'For your northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.

" 'For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Kinnereth. Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea.

" 'This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.' "

- Numbers 34:1-12

Cruising - Via Bluetooth - In Saudi Arabia

I heard this article on the radio yesterday and thought it was interesting.

The Ark of the Covenant

I come across these ancient-artifact-found stories every now and then.

Most don't seem to hold water on the face of it but this kept my interest.

Teaser graph:

He experienced a major breakthrough in 1999 when he took DNA samples from 136 male members of the Lemba tribe. In a finding that drew worldwide publicity, a genetic analysis confirmed they were descendents of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

In 2001, Parfitt returned to the Dumghe Mountain cave, but he didn't find the ngoma. He was later told the ngoma had been moved, and he kept searching.

Finally, based on a tip about the transport of artifacts in war-ravaged areas and using a photo of the ngoma taken in the 1940s by a missionary scholar, Parfitt located the sacred object in a storeroom in the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe.

The wooden drum had a blackened hole in the bottom and the shattered remnants of wooden rings on each corner. Parfitt also noticed a carved, interlaced pattern described in the biblical Book of Exodus.

HT: World Net Daily

I Had No Idea Chicken Was So Bad for You

And by "you", I mean YOU!

You have been warned.

Order something else - everything else tastes like chicken anyway . . .

Except STEAK!. Mmmmmm . . . . I love steak . . .

HT: World Net Daily

The OODA Loop

I read this interesting article about John Boyd - aka "40 second Boyd". He was a military engineer who re-invented the American military's approach to warfare on some levels.

One of his contributions was the OODA Loop theory. In battle, you must Observe the enemy, Orient yourself in relation to the enemy, Decide which course of action to take, and then Act. All while the enemy is doing the same thing.

Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Over and over again. The OODA Loop.

What fascinated me was that Boyd postulated that the most important thing is cycling through the loop faster than the enemy. Speed is more important than accuracy.

Let's say that you Observe, Orient, Decide and Act - your enemy sees that action and begins their own Observe, Orient, Decide, Act loop. But if you can get through your next OODA loop before the enemy gets through theirs - they will be acting on a battle situation that no longer exists. You are now inside their loop.

As long as you can stay inside their loop, their decisions will become more and more irrelevant until they are defeated. Key graph discussing the application of the theory to the Iraq Invasion:

"They marched an entire armored column right through the heart of Baghdad so quickly and unexpectedly that their guns could be heard over Baghdad Bob’s televised assurances that the Americans had been held at the border hundreds of miles away. To the Iraqi command American armor seemed to materialize out of thin air, and to disappear as quickly. That is a terrifying quality for such a deadly foe.

"They went where they were least expected, where their presence threw the enemy commanders into a paralysis of confusion and fear. Gen. Tommy Franks, that old-school artilleryman who had taken in firepower and attrition with his mother’s milk, put on a show of precision fingertip control that will be studied throughout history. He got inside their decision loop. And the worst-case – 10,000 casualties we feared we might lose taking Baghdad – evaporated away in the mist of the following morning."

Good stuff.

The Final Salute

Yesterday, I received a chain e-mail at work that recounted excerpts of a fantastic article that I read BB (before blogging) about a year ago.

The article details how Major Steve Beck, United States Marine, approaches his task of notifying families that their son or daughter has been killed in action.

Here is one of the opening paragraphs:

"Each door is different.

"Some are ornately carved hardwood, some are hollow aluminum. Some are protected by elaborate security systems, some by loose screen doors.

"During the past year, the 40-year-old Marine major in the white gloves has stood at the front doors of homes in three states, preparing to deliver the message no family wants to hear.

"It is a job he never asked for and one for which he received no training. There are no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. It is a mission without weapons.

"Steve Beck trained to fight as a Marine, winning accolades as the most accomplished marksman of his class - a man who later earned two master's degrees in a quest to become a leader on the battlefield. He had hoped to deploy during the Persian Gulf War and definitely thought he would get his chance this time.

"Instead, he found himself faced with an assignment that starts with a long walk to a stranger's porch and an outstretched hand. It continues with a promise steeped in the history of the Corps that most people associate only with the battlefield:

"Never leave a Marine behind."

The story is astonishing.

Although the article was from the Rocky Mountain News, they seem to have archived it in a way that makes it hard to read. Their link is here.

I would suggest reading a reprint of the article over at the Font Man blog here.

And then taking a look at the photo gallery here.

My assistant at work served with the army in Iraq and she told me a little about life at one of the military camps there. She said that whenever someone at the camp is killed, all phone calls, e-mails and regular mail is shut down for 48 hours to give people like Major Beck the opportunity to get dressed, make the drive and the long walk up to the family's front door. That way the family hears the news in person - directly from the military and not through the "grapevine".

The chain e-mail I received was encouraging people to wear red on Fridays as a non-partisan show of support for our troops.

Snopes has some good info on the movement as does Wikipedia.

From what I can tell, the movement is best understood as being similar to people in your town or city donning sports jerseys for their local baseball or football team on game days. Your team is taking to the field and by sporting a sports-T you are acknowledging the game and hoping that your team wins.

Our troops are definitely in the field and we certainly hope they win. Wearing red seems like a good idea - as Snopes points out though, actually doing something tangible like sending the troops a Christmas card or other things they want or need would probably be better.

Imperial Grunts

I picked this book up while on my Thanksgiving vacation and I had a hard time putting it down and when I got to the end, I was disappointed it was over.

Robert Kaplan travels to Yemen, Columbia, Mongolia, The Philippines, Afghanistan, Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, the Horn of Africa and Iraq all the while embedding himself with the American Military.

You learn of the military's goals, objectives and strategies in each country and you get to meet the fighting men and women advancing US interests abroad.

It is a fascinating and sweeping look at our military culture, history and traditions.

I am eagerly anticipating the next book!

Attack on Syria a Warning to Iran?

Via Ocnus.net:

Key Graphs:

"'Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing,' he reports. 'No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, 'Do you think the Americans will attack us?' 'When will the Americans attack us?' 'Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly. The Iranians are in a state of total panic.'

"And that was before September 6. Since then, it's panic-squared in Tehran. The mullahs are freaking out in fear. Why? Because of the silence in Syria. On September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating attack on targets deep inside Syria near the city of Dayr az-Zawr. Israel's military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets. . .

"Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on their soil? The first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8/13): Syria's Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World. Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, 'considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology.' Syria now 'possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world,' with 'more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types,' some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria 'before being introduced into Russian operation service.' While you're digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria: Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th. Nothing.

"El blanko. Silence. The systems didn't even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so
completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded. Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought they were protected - at enormous expense - only to discover they are defenseless. As in naked. Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out - for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria.

"The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous. Something is going to blow and soon. The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within. But make no mistake: an all-out full regime take-out air assault upon Iran is coming if that hope doesn't materialize within the next 60 to 90 days. The Sept. 6 attack on Syria was the shot across Iran's bow."

HT: Instapundit

Another Reason Why We Are The Greatest

The Associated Press has this article about a mother in South Carolina who is fighting terrorism from her home computer.

Key Graphs:

"Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists.

"Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material, puts it together and sends her analysis via a subscription service to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and academics.

"Occasionally she comes across a gem, such as when she found a recent Osama bin Laden video — before al-Qaida had announced it.

"'I realized, oh my gosh, I'm sitting here, I'm a fat 50-year-old mom and I've managed to scoop al-Qaida,' said Mansfield, who uses that name as a pseudonym because she receives death threats. . .

"There have been times when an impending video release has kept her from a planned shopping trip with her daughter.

"'It gets really challenging when you're trying to do that and cook spaghetti at the same time,' she said."

HT: The Most Significant Thing

Exsqueeze Me? Baking Powder?

France is threatening to go around the UN and pre-emptively declare war on Iran.

From the San Diego Union Tribune: Key Graphs:

“France's foreign minister warned yesterday that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.

“’We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst,’ Kouchner said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kind of preparations that would entail.

“’We have decided, while negotiations are under way . . . to prepare for eventual sanctions outside the United Nations, which would be European sanctions,’ he said.”

President Bush’s response?;

“In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Bush administration is committed, for now, to using diplomatic and economic means to counter the potential nuclear threat from Iran.”

“’I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by far the preferable approach. That's the one we are using,’ Gates said.”

I’m sorry, I must have bumped my head . . . let me re-read that one . . .

Obviously this is all Bushitler's fault - just give me a while to figure out how . . . .

6 Years Ago Today

Don't waste your time reading this when you could be reading this.

Update: Or this.

On The Run, 09/11/07 - Doing My Part in the GWOT

5.01 miles / 50:15 min / 10:01 mpm

Wonderful Glorious Beautiful Rapture.

Not like the run-who-shall-not-be-named from three days ago. The difference? 10 FREAKING DEGREES.

Seems to me that for every 1 degree rise in temperature, you might as well put two pounds of sand in a bucket and carry the bucket on the back of your neck while you run.

But not today friends, no-siree-bob. The sky was dark, the air was crisp, the Itunes were peppy and we launched out. We watched the sky lighten and the sun come up - bouncing off the dew-covered grass like a million "spawkwing diamonds". Seriously - it did.

We were tearing it up this morning - even ran through a couple of sprinklers just because we can.

The dawg and I rounded the corner and came thundering through the plaza on wheels of fire. When the nano announced that the workout was completed, a recording of Lance Armstrong came on to congratulate me on a new personal record for the mile.

"Is that all you got?! I screamed into the headphones in reply. "I say, I say, IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!"

So take THAT you cave-dwelling-braying-bearded-goat-monkey.

Because no matter how badly we got thumped the last time we stepped out the door, every morning begins a new day. We step to the door, turn the knob and step out with a, "Thank you sir, may I have another?" And we get after it.

This is America - its what we do.

(okay, maybe I got a little carried away at the end there - I hear endorphins can do that to you)

Am I the Only One Who Finds This Odd?

Via National Review Online:

9/10 Revisited

Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit writes the following:

“SO WHAT WAS I WRITING ABOUT, six years ago on September 10, 2001? Ashcroft
and the press -- I was siding with the press; DC's for-profit parking enforcement -- I was siding with the parkers; how Bush didn't seem to be having fun as President -- little did he know; and cybersnooping on federal judges.

“Other posts around that time: The FBI's overlarge jurisdiction and the problems it caused; and casual -- and historically illiterate -- slams against the West and war. Little did I know . . . .”

Which got me thinking – what was I doing on 9/10 six years ago? It was a Monday and the wife and I were living in Seattle. I was a Real Estate Agent which means I was probably up and working by 7am but didn’t get out of my pajamas until noon. The wife was working at an eyewear store in Wallingford. We had two cats and shared a gold Honda Accord . . . and then Tuesday came . . .

Democrat Against the War Now Against Withdrawing Troops

Brian Baird is a Democratic Congressman from Washington State who voted against the Iraq war from the beginning. He has penned an Oped for the Seattle Times explaining why he is now against troop withdrawal.

Key graphs:

“The invasion of Iraq may be one of the worst
foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. As tragic and costly as
that mistake has been, a precipitous or premature withdrawal of our forces now
has the potential to turn the initial errors into an even greater problem just
as success looks possible. . .

“Despite the enormous challenges, the fact is, the
situation on the ground in Iraq is improving in multiple and
important ways.

“Regardless of one's politics or position on the
invasion, this must be recognized and welcomed as good
news.

“. . . to walk away now from the recent gains would
be to lose all the progress that has been purchased at such a dear price in
lives and dollars.

“From a strategic perspective, if we leave now, Iraq is likely to break into even worse
sectarian conflict. The extremist regime in Iran will expand its influence in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.
Terrorist organizations, the people who cut off the heads of civilians, stone
women to death, and preach hatred and intolerance, will be emboldened by our
departure. In the ensuing chaos, the courageous Iraqi civilians, soldiers and
political leaders who have counted on us will be left to the slaughter. No
American who cares about human rights, security and our moral standing in the
world can be comfortable letting these things happen.

“Our citizens should know that this belief is shared
by virtually every national leader in the Middle
East. There is also near-unanimity among Iraq's neighbors and regional leaders that
partition of Iraq is not an
option.

"You may think you can walk away from Iraq," I was told by one leader. "We
cannot. We live here and have to deal with the consequences of what your nation
has done. So will you eventually, if the Iraq conflict spreads and extremists
bring us down as well."

“Progress is being made and there is real reason for
hope. It would be a tragic waste and lasting strategic blunder to let the
hard-fought and important gains slip away, leaving chaos behind to haunt us and
our allies for many years to come.”

Read the whole thing

HT: http://www.instapundit.com/

Shalom Brah

This may be one of the only things left that hasn’t been tried: Middle-East Peace by way of a drop-in, face carve and a gnarly floater:

“Dorian Paskowitz, a retired doctor who has
been surfing for 75 years, donated 12 surfboards to Gaza's small
surfing community on Tuesday in a novel gesture to promote peace between
Israelis and Palestinians.”

"God will surf with the
devil if the waves are good," Paskowitz said.”

Well maybe not, but it’s a nice gesture anyway.

Build The Fence

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell confirms that Iraqi terrorists have been caught illegally crossing the Mexico / US border.

Woe to the politicians who have opposed or slowed the construction of the border fence if / when a terrorist who illegally crossed the border kills innocent Americans.