Stephen Kinzer:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_kinzer/2008/04/iraqs_gift_to_latin_america.html

"Trying to figure out who won the Iraq war is a challenging parlour game. Nearly every faction, group and nation has lost. The only evident victors are Iran, the Kurds and a handful of giant American corporations.

It is slowly becoming clear, however, that there is another winner: Latin America. With the United States so totally consumed by the Iraq conflict, it has no time, energy or political capital to crack down on challenges south of the Rio Grande. Sensing their historic chance, many Latin nations have embarked on experiments that the US would in past eras have instantly stepped in to crush.

The independence that many Latin American countries have shown in the last five years borders on outright defiance of US power. Yet to a degree unprecedented in modern history, Washington is allowing them to do as they please. ..."

For our current wars, in addition to the unmanned drones that Gates is criticizing the Air Force for not providing enough pilots and our airlift aircraft that are critical for moving cargo and people, we are flying the wings off two critical aging aircraft. The MC-130H Combat Talon II, used to drop commandos into hostile territory and then retrieve them, and the AC-130U, a hulking gunship that flies low to deliver firepower, are both in need of substantial overhauls.

That is so reminiscent of Vietnam where we had hundreds of fighters that did minimal damage and the AC-130 gunships that during every briefing I attended, did far more damage and provided far more effective close air support. There were hundreds of fighter pilots in PACAF headquarters and only three for the gunship program. It’s part of the misguided loyalty that hurts our military. When the top leader is a fighter pilot he favors fighters to the detriment of more effective mission accomplishment.

Air superiority or supremacy has always been the goal and without it you can't safely deploy those other platforms, like Spectre or Spooky, or the transport aircraft. The allies ended WWII on a high note in terms of air dominance but in Korea and later in Vietnam it didn't start out that way, unless I am mistaken. MANPADS make it even more difficult to achiieve and maintain air supremacy. They are far more likely to be deployed than nukes, don't you think? Proliferation of cheap and effective MANPADS would sure change the balance of power and procurement policies of any air supremacy super power.

Shooter... Here's a thought, rather being nags, the left could be positive about something for a change.

It's the reason why this blog will always be B-list. unrelenting negativity is not appreciated by the mainstream audience. People are funny that way, etc... lather, rinse, repeat...

I sounds familiar.

Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?

Barbara Bush on ABC's "Good Morning America" March 18, 2003

Shooter still believes there is a "free market".

If Shooter isn't Barbara Bush, he's helped us understand the New and Improved Modern Movement Consrvative Mantra might be and it has changed some from Buckley's Proscription:

Let's face it: Unlike Vienna, it seems altogether possible that did NATIONAL REVIEW not exist, no one would have invented it. The launching of a conservative weekly journal of opinion in a country widely assumed to be a bastion of conservatism at first glance looks like a work of supererogation, rather like publishing a royalist weekly within the walls of Buckingham Palace. It is not that, of course; if NATIONAL REVIEW is superfluous, it is so for very different reasons: It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

NATIONAL REVIEW is out of place, in the sense that the United Nations and the League of Women Voters and the New York Times and Henry Steele Commager are in place. It is out of place because, in its maturity, literate America rejected conservatism in favor of radical social experimentation. Instead of covetously consolidating its premises, the United States seems tormented by its tradition of fixed postulates having to do with the meaning of existence, with the relationship of the state to the individual, of the individual to his neighbor, so clearly enunciated in the enabling documents of our Republic.

http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/buckley200406290949.asp

I'm not exactly sure what that mantra might be but I think it's somewhere in the Dead Parrot Sketch.

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

What about Rye?

Bakers feeling pinch of short supplies

Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:44pm EDT

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Already feeling the pinch from soaring wheat and flour prices, U.S. bakers are now beginning to experience some supply shortages.

Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase, said Lee Sanders, senior vice president for government relations and public affairs at the American Bakers Association.

"Those that are purchasing it now are having to purchase it from Germany and the Netherlands, and that's very concerning," Sanders said.

She attributed the shortage to high demand for rye flour, which is used to make rye bread, and less acreage devoted to rye grain than in the past.

Grain prices have been soaring worldwide while stocks have been dwindling, causing riots in some poor countries.

In the United States concern is also growing over food costs. The chief executive of Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O: Quote, Profile, Research), James Sinegal, told Reuters that the company is seeing some unusual buying with consumers stocking up as they fret shortages.

For bakers, rye grain is not the only supply stock that is declining. In the past the market has typically had a three-month surplus of wheat stocks to serve as a cushion against supply interruptions, but now the surplus is down to less than 27 days worth of wheat, Sanders said...

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2232840220080422

Don't worry your beautiful mind. Someone will make a huge profit!