Maggie's Farm

NJ,

To add to your pride of the Lebanese I'm sure you'd enjoy this one. The first jet to jet fighter pilot "Ace" (minimum 5 kills) was one USAF Colonel James Jabara. Although born in Oklahoma, his parents and his ancestry were Lebanese.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jabara.htm

I have fought a good fight
I have finished my course
I have kept the faith.

Timothy 2:4:7

Here's a dogfight true story that is also a small world story.

I had a fraternity brother a few years my senior at UF back in the 60's .His name was Al Guarino and he was a leader, tough as a old piece of jerky and an AFROTC man.
Another brother at the same time was one Kevin Cheney, also tough and AFROTC.

Well Guarinos father, an AF Colonel got shot down in June 1965 and carted off to the Hanoi Hilton. It gave Al, my fraternity brother an extra edge and since I had seen my mother visit the wives of downed Marine Aviators over a dozen times to tell them they were now widows I knew the feeling.

Well time passes and Kevin Cheney graduates, gets his wings and goes off to war. Shot down in July 1972 he's carted off to the Hanoi Hilton where he is put in the same cell as ..... AL Gaurino's father, Larry. Needless to say they had a few things to talk about. The story made Life magazine.
I'm happy to say both men got out OK. Al went on to fighter planes and scored a few victories just to settle up some things. Small world.

Guarino:
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/c/c156.htm

Cheney:
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/c/c156.htm

Ok, Iread the entire Sex Tips for older women...
Not one word, one word on Hermes scarves and ice picks...what's that all about?

I also very much got a chuckle out of the juxaposition of the WizBang article immediately prior to the sex advice ...Wizbang ...

Eleanor and Hillary

We are all familiar with the high esteem in which Hillary Rodham Clinton holds Eleanor Roosevelt. So much so that Hillary admits to "talking" to Eleanor. The topics weren't the china pattern for the WH but just how Hillary could coordinate Saul Alinsky, Marx,Lenin, and just a dash of Stalin inot America.

I said just yesterday theat FDR & Eleanor were socialists and fellow travlers.

Now NJ through the Coyote has provided us withmore grist for the socialist mill. Here is a part of the article, which if given the due it deserves will explain FDR & Eleanor selling out ....aside from there monumental egos as to "knowing" what was right for all us poor citizens.

During the 1930s, the wish of the world's politicians to "plan" other men's lives was strong and, by unhappy coincidence, so was their power to do so. The urge to "educate and uplift" their fellow (if lesser) man into a state more agreeable to their theories beat brightly in every progressive heart from Moscow and Berlin to London and Washington D.C

The Communist Manifesto had vastly more influence on the intellectual mind than it does today, and its exhortation for "combination(s) of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country" was taken seriously as a workable idea and, more important, as a morally correct idea. Writings such as the Manifesto undoubtedly contributed to the birth of the Back to the Land movement, an intellectual fad that swept through the brains of many 1930s Western politicians

Weak Horse Fading Fast .... That would be us folks

Rising powers have the US in their sights

No superpower in modern times has maintained its supremacy for more than several generations. And however exceptional its leaders may have thought themselves, the United States, already clearly past its zenith, has no chance of becoming an exception to this age-old pattern of history


With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States stood tall - militarily invincible, economically unrivaled, diplomatically uncontestable. and the dominating force on information channels worldwide. The next century was to be the true "American century", with the rest of the world molding itself in the image of the sole superpower.

Yet with not even a decade of this century behind us, we are already witnessing the rise of a multipolar world in which new powers are challenging different aspects of US supremacy - Russia and China in the forefront, with regional powers Venezuela and Iran forming the second rank. These emergent powers are primed to erode US hegemony, not confront it, singly or jointly.

Major-General Alexandr Vladimirov told the mass-circulation newspaper Komsolskya Pravda that war with the United States is a "possibility" in the next 10-15 years.

Chavez rides high

After his re-election, Chavez vigorously pursued the concept of forming an anti-imperialist alliance in Latin America as well as globally. He strengthened Venezuela's ties not only with such Latin countries as Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and debt-ridden Argentina, but also with Iran and Belarus

China on a stratospheric trajectory

Late last year, as the host of a China-Africa Forum in Beijing attended by leaders of 48 of 53 African nations, China left the US woefully behind in the diplomatic race for that continent (and its hydrocarbon and other resources). In return for Africa's oil, iron ore, copper and cotton, China sold low-priced goods to Africans, and assisted African counties in building or improving roads, railways, ports, hydroelectric dams, telecommunications systems and schools. "The Western approach of imposing its values and political system on other countries is not acceptable to China," said Africa specialist Wang Hongyi of the China Institute of International Studies. "We focus on mutual development."

Article: http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH22Ak02.html

Habu note:
If we started today rebuilding a 600 ship Navy, requiring compulsory service to the country in some form for at least one year for our high school graduates (ciirriculum to include US History and the Study of War) we might be able to turn things around. As it stands now the George Kennan "Containment policy" is being worked to perfection on the USA.

And if we lose Iraq who will the fence sitting nations of the world trust? The strong horse or the weak horse?

THE PRICE WE PAY

Iraqi dead are now over 3,000. Each death a tragedy, a torn family. But we have payed before. Keep this in mind as you ponder the Iraqi dead.

Cold Harbor

At 4:30 am on the 3rd June General Grant ordered a general assault along the entire line, there was a severe struggle, General Winfield Scott Hancock lost nearly 3000 men, and other divisions of the army were hotly engaged at the same time. The battle was sharp, quick and decisive….The Union Army was repulsed at nearly every point with great slaughter. It is estimated that in the space of 20 minutes 10,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded , while the Confederate forces had been sheltered behind their works suffered about 1500 casualties. At 1 o’clock in the afternoon of June 3rd the Battle of Cold Harbor was over, the Union loss of 13,153 was reported

I didn't break but there must have been something in the air that day cause as I crossed the field where Pickett made his sacrifice I had my tear ducts go bad on me ... it was the same when I visited Guadalcanal and Tarawa and many others.

It is never overworked to remind others that the currency we use for liberty is blood. And to cite one of my favorite quotes.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf

George Orwell

I third that.

One of the interesting things that is just beginning to shake out of limn into solid form is the global realignment firming up.
We've got several of the old Soviets in our corner as well as those capitols that fell behind the Iron Curtain. while Russia is messing with Syria and Venezuela and some others.

That's the reason we just can not end up the weak horse in perception, and certainly not in reality.....of course I have no fear if Hillary is elected, cause we'll be in the Kentucky Donkey Derby at best.

Hugo and Vladimir and Huck Finn

Putin just sold some hot fighter planes to Hugo. The Suchoi Su-30, "Flanker-C"..They're still developing a very very hot fighter the Su-37 with vectored thrust. I understand it can do a flip in place..

So when do we turn one of his pilots and get one to look at?

I was a youngish CIA operative who was in the right place at the right time when Viktor Belenko defected to Japan (9-6-76) with THE hottest aircraft the Soviets had at the time, the MiG-25 Foxbat..I was on the Ginza enjoying life when I got the word to get up to the civilian airport up north at Hakodate to simply "let then know the Company is here" until the heavyweights could get there. One of the things that turned Belenko was the book Huck Finn among others, but how strange. It was definitely one of the high points in my life.

Once we debriefed him, gave him a home and a crate of money, a new car etc he was astonished we just let him drive whereever he wanted to go.

Initially he had been taken to DC Mall to get some clothes and kit but he thought it was just a CIA operation to show him how good the West was ... I heard some great stories about him from friends who were in on the deal..my part lasted about three hours up at Hakodate.

THE HANOI HILTON

Here's a dogfight true story that is also a small world story.

I had a fraternity brother a few years my senior at UF back in the 60's .His name was Al Guarino and he was a leader, tough as a old piece of jerky and an AFROTC man.
Another brother at the same time was one Kevin Cheney, also tough and AFROTC.

Well Guarinos father, an AF Colonel got shot down in June 1965 and carted off to the Hanoi Hilton. It gave Al, my fraternity brother an extra edge and since I had seen my mother visit the wives of downed Marine Aviators over a dozen times to tell them they were now widows I knew the feeling.

Well time passes and Kevin Cheney graduates, gets his wings and goes off to war. Shot down in July 1972 he's carted off to the Hanoi Hilton where he is put in the same cell as ..... AL Gaurino's father, Larry. Needless to say they had a few things to talk about. The story made Life magazine.
I'm happy to say both men got out OK. Al went on to fighter planes and scored a few victories just to settle up some things. Small world.

Guarino:
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/c/c156.htm

Cheney:
http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/c/c156.htm

Yea, Buddy, you bet..... Larry Guarino was one of the first to get locked up. I never had the pleasure of meeting him but his son and I were some of the very few at UF who went to anti war rallies to help the other side understand, and Al was almost as tough as a Marine. We use to give each other the devil ( a good devil he was this one) about AF vs. USMC and since both our dads were fighter jocks and Colonels, I always got to get in licks about AF 10,000 foot runways vs. jeep carrier decks and the bent wing Corsair landings.
I might have mentioned to you before but when they retired the Corsair from the Marine Corps my father had more aircraft carrier landings than any Marine ever in that bird.
Before Top Gun, way before Top Gun there was the Naval Air Weapons Meet at El Centro ,CA. Navy and Marine squadrons. Strafing,bombing, rockets,dogfighting...it was always an honor to represent your branch and my father's squadron did it two years running. He took top bombing and strafing. A great guy. But I salute them all. It's all volunteer now and you've gotta have some moxie to git'r done.

Servicemen and women .. eternal thanks
Marines
Semper Fi

Commie pinkos ....#@!!*+##