22 Comments

1. Doug:

“One of the most chilling sights is the shot of the FARC security cordon around the Trojan Horse helicopter as the hostages were boarding and the Colombian Army was carrying out its impersonation.”
—
I tried to honestly answer how I would handle that scene, but it ranged from too embarassing to too scary to admit!

Jul 5, 2008 - 5:32 pm 2. NahnCee:

Boldness be my friend!
Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!
Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight;
Rather directly fly.

What an excellent description of Mohammad Atta moving briskly through America airports with his shark-like eyes, armed only with a neanderthal’s cutter blade and hatred.

Jul 5, 2008 - 5:59 pm 3. Lifeofthemind:

Very glad we did not see that brave Colombian officer killed for speaking up. Rather wishing there was a follow up visit 5 minutes later from some fighter bombers.

Jul 5, 2008 - 5:59 pm 4. DJB Rizalist:

$20 million buys a lot of boldness. better wait to see if FARC implodes, or explodes in renewed kidnappings and drug enterprises. I’m skeptical of the colombian military’s story, even as I’m glad betancourt et al are free. but like the most recent hostages of the abu sayyaf, who are nobodies compared to news personality ces drilon, what happens now to the 700 or more still in FARC hands?

Jul 5, 2008 - 6:22 pm 5. Utopia Parkway:

Colombia hostage rescue: the Israeli angle

Jul 5, 2008 - 8:13 pm 6. Charles:

McCain was told of what happened by columbia’s president as he flew out of columbia. likely the pilot and navagator of McCain’s plane were in their 40-50-s. Likely the pilots of the helicopter mission were under 30. but that’s just my wag.

when I was in my teens and twenties I used to love to ride roller coasters. I discovered the secret of surviving and even enjoying roller coasters you see. when you’re at the top of the roller coaster–you stare at the place at the bottom where you know your guts are going to fall out–and you stay focused on that spot all the way down. that way nothing is unexpected. the unknown is known and expected all the way down. but there is this. I had faith that i would pull out at the last and roll up into the wild blue upstairs.

nice parable.

however, a couple summers ago after I had crossed 50– I went on a tame ride at disneyland expecting to enjoy a taste of the old adreneline. I didn’t. In fact, I thought it was pure torture. I was ready to confess.

when McCain was young he was tortured and now he is opposed to all torture including water boarding. I wonder about that. because water boarding is terrifying but its not fatal and its not disfiguring. I’m not even sure it is painful–but rather suffocating.

no matter. mccain’s word on the matter is far more weighty than anything I could utter.

people mis underestimate how physically tough young people are. real warriors are especially tough. they are meant for physically tough adrenalin soaked situations. (I used to joke that adrenaline was good way to dilute the testosterone–and I was no warrior)

older men are best engaged in something else because the true bushido doesn’t carry into old age–any more than the system’s tolerance for adrenaline. the guy who was head of security in his 50’s at the world trade center on 9/11 was known from his youth as the greatest of great warriors. he complained to his friend that it is not the way of warriors to get old. he felt honor bound to go up into the world trade center to try to pull out the last of his people. but it was also a good death for a warrior. the beautiful thing mentioned by the spartans in the recent movie about thermopolye. these are the extreme exceptions where men get a chance to have their deaths mean something as virile as their lives.

My dad was no great warrior. he drove an ambulance in WWII in the pacific war. He did his bit. when my dad died at 86 his grave was surrounded by his middle aged children (and their children) the 21 gun salute reminded us of the virility and vigor of the old man’s youth. none of his children will ever live as full a life as he did.

leadership for which old men are admired has something to do with creating a path toward life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that others can follow and not just the warriors but everyone.

however some warriors do make the change. in fact most do. the wars in iraq and afghanistan will produce some interesting and maybe even great leaders.

The Peter Principle is the principle that “In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.” There is a hierarchy of ideas. I have scaled from a side which I am unfamiliar with. I have just pushed my thoughts to my own level of incompetance.

Except there is this. Christians are constantly exhorted to live in such a way that if God calls us home we will be fully prepared to meet our maker in any situation.

Most Christians barely grasp how bold and bushido warlike and beautiful this is. Yuck. I feel like an ugly duck.

Jul 5, 2008 - 9:15 pm 7. Charles:

from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
The Peter Principle is a special case of a ubiquitous observation: anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails. This is “The Generalized Peter Principle.” It was observed by Dr. William R. Corcoran in his work on Corrective Action Programs at nuclear power plants. He observed it applied to hardware, e.g., vacuum cleaners as aspirators, and administrative devices such as the “Safety Evaluations” used for managing change. There is much temptation to use what has worked before, even when it may exceed its effective scope. Dr. Peter observed this about humans.
//////////////
Its also the case that things get tried again and again until they succeed. the commentators mentioned at
faustasblog that this outcome was better than blackhawk down.

a crucial element in any success is the ability to get up again after failure, learn from your mistakes and go at it again.

It is the commen lot of men and animals to go down to the earth and stay there. It is the great mystery where this other soul comes from that gets back up. men of old have said this soul comes from God. Jesus returned to God in the flesh from the grave. at our best those who believe in Jesus–we will go to God in spirit and only be reunited with our glorified bodies when Jesus returns and walks the earth again.

Jul 5, 2008 - 10:37 pm 8. Doug:

I was thinking of the age thing too, Charles.
Just about everything is a LOT different now than when we were young, isn’t it?.
One thing that adds a nice extra bit of adrenaline here, is the knowledge that not only do you have to perfectly stuff all unwanted reactions away, but also that if any of your buddies fail by just a hair, you’re all dead meat.
—
Martin posted these amazing Eurotakes of the affair a few threads back.

Jul 5, 2008 - 10:49 pm 9. Nomenklatura:

We should note that the stunt Obama is trying to pull on all of us is just as audacious.

Not every audacity is admirable.

Jul 6, 2008 - 2:08 am 10. Doug:

An uncommonly elegant thief
Smooth and well-spoken, Doris Payne recalls a five-decade career as an international jewel thief.

Payne said she stole her first diamond at age 27, hoping to raise money to help her mother leave an abusive husband. She remembers her mother’s reaction: “She said,
‘Doris, don’t you know that’s stealing?’ ”

“I’m not stealing, because I’m just going to keep what they let me have,”
she replied.

Jul 6, 2008 - 4:24 am 11. Insufficiently Sensitive:

What an excellent description of Mohammad Atta moving briskly through America airports with his shark-like eyes, armed only with a neanderthal’s cutter blade and hatred.

I call bullshit. Atta was protected by the organized disbelief of FBI and CIA, reinforced by Jamie Gorelick’s wall against sharing of information, and his savage intrusion of civilization for the purpose of terrorizing it took next to no precautions to pull off. Those shark-like eyes, you might remember, were in search of floozies for the ‘night before’.

Admitted, that the Colombians were able to cash in on a general third-world confidence that an NGO would be an ally of the left wing of the world. But the impersonation of the supposed commander of the whole remaining FARC took more cojones than Atta ever owned – he was cashing in on the politically correct confidence that no foreigner would likely be confronted in America for moping around airports. Remember that the order of the day was, do what the hijackers ask, so that innocent lives might be saved.

Jul 6, 2008 - 6:17 am 12. NahnCee:

Insufficient – so you’re saying that because America was really really stupid (not to mention deaf, dumb and blind), what Atta and his cohorts accomplished didn’t require any guts?

Doug – I read that in this morning’s LA Times. How pathetic is it when black people are so lacking in accomplished hero’s that “journalists” have to reach out into the prison population to find a black person to write about who was even semi-successful. I mean, what was the point of that article? To hold this unwed mother who abandoned her child up to the black community as being someone to emulate? And according to the article, she wasn’t even that good at it, getting caught repeatedly and living in a ticky-tacky apartment with a drug addict roommate.

Jul 6, 2008 - 9:05 am 13. RWE:

A friend of mine spent most of WWII in a German prison camp. The Germans discovered that one of the Polish officers interned there was a Mercedes Benz trained mechanic. So they informed that officer that his duties in the camp would be to maintain the camp commandant’s staff car.

He did indeed maintain the car, faithfully. And then one day he put on a stolen German officer’s uniform, got another prisoner to don a German enlisted man’s uniform to act as his driver. And, displaying the appropriate imperious attitude, they drove that staff car all the way to Switzerland.

Audacity works, if you are very well prepared.

Jul 6, 2008 - 9:07 am 14. TonyB:

Long time listener, first time caller.

Growing up in England in the 70s I was strongly influenced by a British TV history of WWII called “The World at War” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War – some of you may be familiar with it. It pretty much remains the definitive TV history of the war and was the springboard for some glittering UK broadcasting careers – Jeremy Issacs, future head of Channel 4 produced and one of the chief script-writers was the left wing but non the less distinguished newspaper columnist Neil Ascherson. Lawrence Olivier narrated and key players in the war such a Speer were still alive to be interviewed.

However, there was a glaring omission. The whole Bletchley Park/Enigma tale, crucial to victory, was still an official secret when the programme was made. Now, about 3,000 people worked at Bletchley Park during the war and the point is that a quarter of a century later no one, no-one, said a word.

Including, as it turned out, Ascherson’s own sister. Would we be capable of such discipline and restraint today? I like to think that, in the face of an equivalent threat, we would, but I don’t know.

Jul 6, 2008 - 9:34 am 15. Insufficiently Sensitive:

what Atta and his cohorts accomplished didn’t require any guts?

None whatever. He could be sure of success once on the plane, since his ‘audacious’ oh-so-ingenius carving up of stewardesses would elicit a gallant attempt from the cockpit to save them. He knew that he’d escape ever being held to account, via his choice of death for himself. And he’s still mooning the USA from his nest among the 72 virgins, while his acolytes worldwide sing his praises and rhapsodize about his courage.

Jul 6, 2008 - 10:36 am 16. sirius_sir:

Tony, I well remember watching “The World at War” but was totally unfamiliar with the Bletchley Park/Enigma ommission. Interesting stuff.

Would we be capable of such discipline and restraint today? Ask the editors of the NYTimes.

Jul 6, 2008 - 10:50 am 17. Grimmy:

Charles:

Well said, sir.

My first training, and primary love, as a USMC grunt, was anti-armor. At that time, the USMC had 2 primary strategic responsibilities. 1st was the Pacific AO in case of hostilities in Korea or from the PDRC. The 2nd was to reinforce Norway in case of hostilities with the USSR.

As a tank breaker, it was assumed from jump that we’d be outgunned, outnumbered and unable to successfully hold a solid line, regardless of which primary we faced.

We trained in the usual infantry skills, patrolling, urban warfare, infiltration, ex filtration, reforming after being over run, etc. But we also trained heavily in close assault anti-armor skills. This type of fight would require us to close with enemy armor while on foot and take out armored vehicles by whatever means at hand. It was assumed, by us, and by our trainers, that such tactics were not survivable so the mindset was to get as much payback as possible while still able.

It was assumed we’d be over-run and would not be able to conduct operations as organized units. Much of the training and barracks discussions revolved around what to do to cause most harm to the enemy as individual Marines or small groups after such an event. I don’t recall the idea of surrendering ever being brought up or even considered.

If the balloon went up, we were dead men and we knew it. That wasn’t something that caused fear or worry or concern. What did cause those things was the idea that we’d spend our lives prior to being able to inflict serious damage on our enemy.

I remember one case in particular. My outfit (2/4) was at Mt. Fuji for high altitude cold weather training. At the end of that training, an alert order was issued and we were all confined to camp. All our personal gear was packed up and stored in the armory. Weapons were issued and we kept them in our quonset huts. Ammo was issued to each company and kept under guard at the Co HQs. We were confined to our huts, fully dressed 24/7. We slept in our cammies.

We were told, while in company formation, that there were issues brewing with the USSR. Our mission was to join up with the Midway fleet for a possible assault on Vladivostok. I don’t know if this was a training event or a real deal but we all treated it as real.

After we’d been told what the deal was, we went back to our huts and did the usual. Played spades and talked about the near future. It was assumed that our ships wouldn’t make it to the landing site. It was assumed that there was no way in hell that we’d be able to land as organized units. The first round of discussions among us grunts was whether or not to stick with the ship as it sank. Some said it would make it easier to recover our bodies at a later date if we did that. But the winning argument was to do everything possible to get to shore. The reason for that was so that we’d still have some hope of harming the enemy.

After that, the discussions revolved around what sort of targets to go after once we made it to shore, as individual Marines or small groups. The idea of surrender never came up. I don’t remember being afraid so much at that time as angry. Not angry that I’d be sent out on such a hopeless mission, but that there was so much probability of going under prior to getting enough payback. I can not say what was in each Marine’s heart at that time, but there were plenty expressions of rage at our enemy, and a simmering hostility toward them that was palpable.

I look back at that time now, and wonder. There’s no way in hell I could muster that kind of iron now. Just thinking about going through something like that again can make my gut turn to water.

Jul 6, 2008 - 11:50 am 18. Thrasymachus:

What the 9/11 hijackers took advantage of was the “common strategy”, common that is to all US airlines. The common strategy was to cooperate patiently with the hijackers and wait for military or law enforcement to deal with the situation. There’s a lot to be said for this but the real reason for the common strategy was legal liability.

The common startegy only lasted for about an hour into the suicide era, as the passengers and crew of United 93 realized fighting back was the only chance they had. I don’t think hijacking an airplane would be possible anymore, even if you didn’t intend any kind of suicide mission, because you would be swarmed by enraged, terrified passengers.

The 9/11 hijackers knew very well they would be cooperated with and given access to the cockpit so that part of the operation didn’t require much bravery. As for the rest, it’s for others to debate whether committing suicide is a brave act or not.

Jul 6, 2008 - 12:34 pm 19. NahnCee:

I don’t think hijacking an airplane would be possible anymore …

Not in America, although the rest of the world remain quite happy to be sheep and go along obediently with hijackers. See Turkey (twice), Moscow, New Zealand and Sudan, and I’m remembering another one or two in the Middle East (Dubai?) but can’t find references right now.

Jul 6, 2008 - 1:53 pm 20. F451_2.0:

More than Enigma hid behind the Official Secrets Act

800 women kept the same secret for over fifty years.

If your Sunday night includes a video tour of CIA headquarters, a secret camp where Bill Donovan trained and the identity of James Bond…

http://www.trueintrepid.com/

Jul 6, 2008 - 4:13 pm 21. Charles:

http://www.theopedia.com/Millennial_Kingdom
Since the 1840’s or so I think that most evangelical theologins have been postmillennialist.

“The postmillennialist believes that the millennium is an era (not necessarily a literal thousand years) during which Christ will reign over the earth, not from a literal and earthly throne, but through the gradual increase of the Gospel and its power to change lives. After this gradual Christianization of the world, Christ will return and immediately usher the church into their eternal state after judging the wicked. This is called postmillennialism because, by its view, Christ will return after the millennium.”

Even so Lord come quickly.

Jul 7, 2008 - 5:02 pm 22. Ravalli County News » Blog Archive » A Wall of Disinformation:

[...] “All that stood between the Colombian rescue team and that large force of armed men, against w… [...]

Jul 9, 2008 - 12:58 pm

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