A Chronicle of Toppling the Taliban

The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime – Brian Glyn Williams, PhD (Chicago Review Press)

Tales of military victory often center around public displays of heavy machinery and legends surrounding high technology. In reality it is more often than not it is the warrior that gets the short end of the story, while playing the major role.

Such is the case in the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan; where a relatively small number of U.S. Special Forces soldiers, somewhere around three or four hundred, played an instrumental role in toppling the hard line regime. Those highly trained forces were aided, guided and abetted by powerful Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and his band of warriors.

It is the tale of the strongman Dostum (pronounced dohs-tuum) that is detailed in Brian Glyn Williams, PhD, latest book The Last Warlord: The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior Who Led US Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime. Williams, a professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, had an amazing level of access to Dostum, his family and those that work and travel in the same circles with him.

 

It is from that insider point of view that Williams delivers a chillingly detailed chronicle of the role Dostum played in the 2001 defeat of the Taliban. This story often runs contrary to that espoused by the mainstream media who often portray Dostum as a brutal, murderous thug, they claim is responsible for the senseless slaughter of Taliban prisoners.

Williams portrait is one of a very hard man, who grew into power in a desperate time and location, with Soviet military forces battling for control of Afghanistan.  By the mid-1980s the forces under Dostum’s command had grown to a militia of 20,000 strong. The strongman’s forces would play a critical role in defeating the forces arrayed against them in the north on numerous occasions; not only the Soviets, but also the Mujahadeen and later the Taliban.

Instead of understanding the role Dostum and his men played in defeating the Taliban, the U.S. chose to marginalize him due to the public perception of his brutality. This approach seems to once again underestimate the role that these often brutal warlords play in a land that is the equivalent to the wild west on steroids. As the U.S. forces continue to downsize and withdraw, Williams makes it clear that Dostum and his Northern Alliance allies are gearing up for battle with a resurgent Taliban force.

Williams offers an intimate portrait not only of the warrior, but of the Afghan nation that so many have tried and failed to get their arms around.

 

Government Shutdown…grab a six pack and relax!

As the mainstream media and the uninformed populace that they under serve continue to gnash their teeth over the so-called government shut down, I can’t help but hear the classic line from radio reporter Herbert Morrison’s broadcast of the Hindenburg crash, “oh the humanity.”

Yes…how will we ever muddle through without access to the webcam of the cute little pandas at the National Zoo? It will be a true struggle for train nerds to get by, without a visit to the Steamtown National Train Museum in Scranton, PA. Not to mention that boating and recreation will apparently come to a complete halt in Harry Reid’s Nevada, with the lockdown of Lake Mead National Park. Sorry I must have missed that part of the Constitution where our Founding Father’s covered the forced housing of wildlife.

 

I love the now all too common phrases that private sector businesses use with more and more regularity, things like;  “the new normal” “wearing multiple hats” and my personal favorite “do more with less”. I don’t know about things where you work, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that there isn’t one “non-essential” worker where I work because we fully embrace not only the multiple hats concept, but the doing more with less as well.

If so many of the folks employed by the Federal Government are “non-essential” then way haven’t we released them to pursue their higher purpose? Not surprisingly the masters of spin in the Democrat party have quickly realized the error of their ways and re-labeled these folks furloughed and non-furloughed workers.

To borrow a bit of classic advice from the late Democrat, Mayor of Buffalo, New York, Jimmy Griffin during a snow storm “grab a six-pack, sit back, relax and we’ll make it through.”

Obamacare is a Train Wreck

I have a pretty basic question for all of the folks who think that Obamacare is great: Exactly how does it improve healthcare? It seems like forever that we have heard that there are 30 million or more uninsured...which has nothing to do with healthCARE. HealthCARE was fine; it's how we pay for healthcare coverage that is the problem. The Obamacare "fix" is to make healthcare more expensive for everybody...great fix!

This train wreck is having a negative impact on the economy, business and jobs...great fix! It really has not done one thing to address the shortages of doctors and nurses and how they will help provide care to all of the new people in the system?

In order to explain Obamacare, the Kaiser Family Foundation (hardly a conservative group) put together a cartoon...yes a cartoon!  It‘s actually very well done and might even help Nancy Pelosi to understand "what's in it." This clip concludes by proclaiming that after all is said and done after Obamacare kicks in, that about 30 million Americans will still be without healthcare coverage! Ever feel like you are chasing your own tail? These people are bozos and if you think that this Obamacare train wreck will fix anything then you are a bozo too!

 

Chris Matthews Is A Liberal Jizz

Chris Matthews is a liberal JIZZ and he doesn't speak for me!



Who gave this dumb ass the testicular fortitude transplant that led him to think that he speaks on behalf of all white people? probably the same clowns who are under misguided belief that race pimps like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speak for all black people.

The Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll…Not So Much

Bruce Springsteen Rocking the Wall: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World – By Erik Kirschbaum (Berlinica Publishing)

I want to be clear up front; believe in the power of rock ‘n’ roll. It is a musical form that has moved generations, caused notable cultural, and world seismic shifts. But being equally clear; I find Erik Kirschbaum’s hypothesis, in the book Bruce Springsteen Rocking the Wall: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World, that Springsteen’s concert was the catalyst for bringing down the Berlin Wall absurd at best.

Kirschbaum, a U.S. born, Reuters correspondent based in Germany for more than two decades seems all too willing to ignore the world political tide at the time Springsteen’s historic, July 19, 1988 concert. Kirschbaum’s liberal panties show when he makes snide comments about conservatives and the impact they had on bringing about the end of the Cold War.

To discount the impact of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and even Pope John Paul II in bringing about a global change in Communist dominated countries from Russia to East Germany and Poland is to ignore reality. Springsteen’s record breaking concert crowd, with estimates of upwards of 300,000 East German’s, was not the cause of freedom, but a symbol of what freedom could bring.

Anyone who has ever been involved in organizing a huge, outdoor, event knows all of the details involved in pulling together so many moving parts that it often seems an insurmountable task. Kirschbaum’s book does offer interesting insight into what had to be a monolithic effort that went into pulling off this historic concert.

The History of America: A True Story of Guns

American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms – Chris Kyle (William Morrow)

Chris Kyle was the top sniper in U.S. Military history, having served for combat tours in Iraq, earning a chest full of military hours for his bravery in battle. His sacrifice and dedication to the United States of America is unmatched by anything with the exception of his love for family. Running a close second would be his knowledge of the tools he used to ply his trade;  it is with that background combined with his desire to tell the true story of the impact of firearms on our nation’s history, that he set out to tell the story of American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms.

 

With the same pride that he brought to his craft as a sniper, Kyle paints a in depth portrait detailing not only the history of the ten weapons and their development, evolution and implementation, but the impact that they had on this nations in varying points in our history and in many cases are still having to this day.

 I hesitate to say that Kyle has a love of guns, because knucklehead gun controller types will try to portray him as some sort of gun-loving nutcase, but the truth is Kyle brought a healthy respect for and an incredible knowledge of these weapons combined with a desire to teach others about the safe use of them. He doesn’t glorify weapons, merely places them in their proper and impactful place in our history. The information he imparts will make any who try to ignore or warp the impact of firearms on history come off as laughable at best.

There is a “been there, fired that” quality to many of the ten varying firearms detailed in the book. That experience brings a level of trust to the statements Kyle makes about each of these weapons. He doesn’t attempt to paint a glorified picture of each weapon, noting the negatives of the weapons where appropriate as they went through the various stages of design and development.

While guns certainly are the focal point and the perspective from which this book is directed, it is much more than simply another book about guns; it is as much a book for history buffs, placing each of the weapons in their rightful place in our history.

 

Finally! The Truth About Guns

Glenn Beck – Control: Exposing The Truth About Guns (Mercury Radio Arts/Threshold Editions)

I remember the conversation vividly. The national director of one of the nation’s largest gun control advocacy groups was in town for a second straight year to appear on at a local college campus to preach the need for gun control.

It was at a time when guns were a hot issue, with a spate of school shootings ranging from Pearl, Mississippi to West Paducah, Kentucky and Jonesboro, Arkansas had hit home with the shooting death of local Edinboro teacher John Gillette. As with all high profile incidents, the push was on for new, allegedly tougher, gun control measures to be put in place to “prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.” You never want to let a good crisis go to waste.

I had desperately tried to get the gun controller to appear on my show to debate the issue. On his first pass through town I got no returned phone call from his DC based office or from the local folks at the college. I had debated a wide range of folks on the issue of gun-control; capped I thought by a discussion with children’s book author Stan Berenstain, who had authored one of his Berenstain Bears books entitled No Guns Allowed; during which my responses to his silly points so enraged the author that he gutlessly slammed down the phone, leaving me to finish the debate with a dial tone.

On his second trip through Erie, the gun controller choose a different venue, where I had better contacts and while I still got the cold shoulder on him appearing on my show, I did manage to get in the same room with him prior to his appearance. When I asked him why he would appear on my show, he took my arm and took me to an empty corner and quietly said to me, “I’ve heard you debate the issue and I know I can’t win, so I won’t do [the show] it.”

And that is truly the cornerstone of the debate over gun control for me and the basis of Glenn Beck’s new bestselling book; Control: Exposing The Truth About Guns. Beck cites example after example after example of how gun controllers frame their case for more laws and more control based on fiction, half-truths and outright lies. It’s as if they borrowed a page from Joseph Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

I can see the impact that the repetition of the lies has had on family and friends. At a holiday gathering shortly after the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, the inevitable discussion of “doing something to put a stop to this” came up. While I try to keep things on the lighter side with family, the hockey lockout was still in full effect so I could avoid the discussion. I may have let my blood pressure slip just a bit when I heard the standard lines about “assault weapons” and the need for background checks; I calmly (or so I thought) asked exactly what my family member thought an assault weapon was? Like most clueless members of the media, I received a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders and a limp, “like the kid used in Newtown.”

I’d like to personally thank Glenn and his team for saving my familial relationships and my blood pressure! Now instead of trying (!!) to remain calm and explaining the where my family and friends have been mislead, I simply visit the truck of my car, take out another copy of Control: Exposing The Truth About Guns, hand it to the misguided individual with the promise that I will gladly discuss guns and gun control with them after they have finished reading the book. If I ever have the opportunity to cross paths with the likes of sniveling Piers Morgan or Rachel Maddow (that guy really pisses me off!) I plan to slug them in the nose for all the money they have cost me for these books!

One little addition I would make for those who end up arguing with idiots on gun control that truly stops these gun control nitwits in their tracks; ask them if they truly are so set against guns if they would be willing to post a small sign outside their home stating “NO GUNS ON PREMISIS.” It would show how strong their beliefs truly are and act as an open invitation for bad things to happen.