Counting Rifles: Iran Re-arming Hamas Via Sudan

This year, while we were paying attention to vital issues such as Rep. Akin's somewhat antiquated views on gynecology, and listening to an eavesdropped presentation by candidate Romney, and the latest adventures of Snookie (is that how it's spelled?), and NFL replacement referees, other people in other parts of the world were, well, a bit more focused on other things.

Like the Iranians, for instance....

 From the Jerusalem Post:

Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other materiel believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, The Sunday Times reported citing Israeli officials. According to the report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated cease-fire understandings late last week.

Sweet...turns out they've been busily arming Hamas with sophisticated missiles (and, naturally one would assume, trained people to operate and keep track of them, as did the Soviets in their day).

The shipment is said to include Iranian-made Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired into the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas during Operation Pillar of Defense, the Times reported.
Last month, following an air attack on a weapons plant near Khartoum, the Defense Ministry's director of policy and political-military affairs accused Sudan of acting as a transit point for weapons shipments to Gaza.

OS does note that the Iranians/Hamas types did wait until after November 6 to begin firing their missiles at Israel--wouldn't want to, you know, disrupt TheObamaNarrative about how wonderfully well Himself has been able to restrain the Iranians and the Islamist crazies. That would have been impolite.


And, simultaneously, it was convenient for the whole Petraeus affair to wait until after November 6 as well. And that silly thing in Libya--well, Hillary was otherwise occupied in Australia at a wine-tasting, just couldn't work in a conversation with Congress.

So, Iran/Hamas politely waited for the official Obama victory lap to Burma (huh? Burma?) to begin setting off its own roman candles in celebration.

They are, after all, polite about this sort of thing. We will serve no mayhem before its time.

OS was walking one of the dogs yesterday, and an old movie came to mind; title forgotten, movie forgettable, but not this scene: A British contingent found itself holed up in a fort somewhere in Southern Africa, surrounded by more pissed-off Zulu tribes than one could count. The Zulu chiefs lined up their troops and staged a frontal assault in broad daylight against a well-prepared defense. The outcome was predictable--hundreds upon hundreds of dead tribesmen, no British losses, general good cheer amongst the troops.

A younger officer exclaims breathlessly to the grizzled veteran about what a great day they had had, and the grizzled old gent in his best stiff-upper-lip counseled him, 'You don't understand what happened here. They were just counting how many rifles we have.'  The movie became a much grimmer affair for the Brits from that point. The lives of several hundred warriors were meaningless to the Zulu chiefs, so long as they got their rifle count.

OS contends we have just witnessed Iran/Hamas counting Israeli and American rifles. Let's fire this many of this kind of missile from these spots, and see how well the air defenses work, and gauge the reaction from the IDF. Sure, they'll bomb the bejeezus out of us, but since we're set up in neighborhoods, all the press will report are images of bombed-out apartment buildings and dead children. Small price to pay to count rifles.

So, they found out that Israel does have good air defenses, so long as the US resupplies them, and they can mobilize 70K reservists in short order (now, where and how did they deploy?), and Miss Hillary will come scurrying from the Burma Victory Tour to make certain the Israelis don't do anything rash like flood Gaza with seventy thousand troops and tear them from limb from limb. After all, they reason, with that Muslim Botherhood sistah' at her side, we're good, and we've got access to every conversation anyway. No worries.

All of this feels so....Spanish Civil War...presented to the world as an epic struggle between the forces of light and dark, with its American brigade, and Picasso paintings and Hemingway and even Kim Philby lurking about, on the English payroll while working for Moscow. The stuff of novel and film and Pulitzer Prizes.

Actually, it was a dress rehearsal for the horrors to come, as the Nazis and the Bolshies tested weapons and tactics, using Spanish cities and civilians as live targets. The outcome didn't much matter, vis-a-vis who ended up in power in Madrid. The bigger question from Berlin was, 'Are we good to go?', and the answer came back a resounding 'Javohl!'.

And so on to the Sudetenland. And Poland.

Sitting here in his small town in the southern United States, there is damned little OS can do about this, except note that it is happening, and contend we have just witnessed a rehearsal.

In the meantime, every day is precious. Mrs. OS is wrapping presents, and there is a grandson to ogle today, and coffee to drink, and music to enjoy. It is a glorious clear chilly day, and the oaks are shedding their leaves.

And, for today, OS will remember the tale of Joseph from Genesis. All those evil people played into Jehovah's hands, and Israel was preserved thereby.

Thanksgiving Weekend, 2012

Life has been busy since OS last greeted his loyal army of readers. Eventful, blessed, productive, frightening at a few moments. 

OS's first grandson was welcomed into the world. If the events of his arrival serve as a portent, this young man is in for some real adventures. Those events (details don't really matter) also helped OS gain a bit of perspective in the process, about what is important, what is less important, and that which matters not at all. OS also learned that his first instincts regarding 'what-I-would-do-in-such-a-situation' were likely not the wisest course of action. He also learned that his daughter is one tough,  smart cookie, level-headed in the worst of crises, and that his son-in-law may be a more capable husband than first suspected.

That was just one episode since 6 November. The election just flew into the slipstream of life, and OS missed out on all the gnashing of GOP teeth in the aftermath.

OS regretted the outcome, but was not shocked by it. And given some days to ruminate, and a bit of newly-earned perspective. he finally has something to say.

Perhaps he has been wrong all along. He thought Obama and crew were an anomalous event, a case of a hustler who dupes his victims until all eventually unravels. He would be found out, moved out, and some semblance of sanity could be regained. This was an incorrect assumption.

Obama and his circle are not an anomalous event, and they are not the major problem we face as a nation (although they are problematic). Obama and Company are not the problem; they are the symptom, the natural product of a culture that has lost its sense of itself, its history, its values. 

Do Obama and Company lie about most everything, daily? Why, yes. The Petraeus Affair is just one example. This is serious stuff, ya'll. Hundreds upon hundreds of young people from the military of both the US and the UK arriving home either dead or maimed in body and spirit from Afghanistan, and we find out that their happily married commander is enthusiastically shagging his biographer, and a Washington Post staffer is serving as a ghost-writer for the biographer who is enthusiastically shagging the happily married commander in Afghanistan, the place from which hundreds upon hundreds of young people serving in the military arrive home to the US or UK either dead or maimed in body and spirit.

The standard Clintonian response is to claim, 'Well, that's just his private business, and does not impact his performance as an officer.' No harm/no foul.

OS dares anyone to try telling that to the bereaved families, or the wounded and their families. 

Go ahead, give it a try...let all of us know how you fare.

But the true moral of the story is, that for the vast majority of the citizens of the country, this stuff just doesn't matter. Truth, untruth/untruth, truth...ni modo, as the Mexicans say with a shrug.

The government runs guns to Mexican gangs, and hundreds of innocents are killed with them, and cabinet officers lie shamelessy about it? No matter.

Reports of no inflation when the price of fuel, milk and corn double? No response.

8.9% percent unemployment stats that really may be closer to 18.9%? No objection here. 

For poor souls like OS and his ilk, who believe we live in a created order, in a universe into which morality is woven, this is maddening. We rage and splutter and protest. But for the other half of the country, many of those assumptions simply do not hold sway. It isn't that they were considered and rejected, it's as if they never existed anyway. They never emerge above the intellectual radar horizon of their lives. It's not about race or income level, lest anyone be tempted toward that assumption. These folks live in all our neighborhoods, rich or poor, white or non-white.

For folks such as these, Obama is comforting, inspiring even. He can tell them WhatTheyWishToHear: That life is about them, their desires, their perceived needs, their fears, their stuff or lack thereof, their resentments, their perception of 'fairness'. That money really does grow on trees, that He Himself will look after them and smite the evil prosperous ones, and go to war against those nasty MiddleClassValues they so disdain.

Some claim, as did Romney and Limbaugh, that the vote was, in effect, bought by government largesse. This really is much too simplistic an answer.

So, given this, what next to do?

That question to be covered in subsequent posts. What to do, how to live in this strange, unfamiliar time?

In the meantime, OS is thoroughly enjoying his weekend with Mrs. OS, tidying up around the house, making soup, watching the Bond movies on the tube, talking with the kids.

And of course, googling at his grandson. For whom he is so grateful...