ICTChris
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Posts posted by ICTChris
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there is no doubt that this commander had many enemies and there are plenty across the region who wont be shedding tears for his passing. Israel have to be the prime suspects in this though, given the circumstances and history. Politically this will cause some breakage between Israel and its European allies but I think this will end up marked unsolved.
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I had a baked potato with tuna mayo last night and have just had a bowl of porridge, four slice of toast, cup of black coffee and glass of apple juice for breakfast.
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Wihle I think the McCann's were clearly negligent I don't think they killed their child.
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Heavy snow in Edinburgh.
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Why are Scott's Oats called "Scott's Porage Oats"?
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I had kedgeree for lunch today. I haven't had it since I was a kid, and it didn't disappoint. The only thing I'd change would be a to increase the ammount of smoked haddock - the canteen at work added prawns, which were nice but I'd have preferred all the fish to be made up of smoked haddock. The hard boiled eggs were especially nice.
My fiancee is cooking me salmon at the moment, bit of a fishy day. I am trying to eat healthily and am going to try and include more fish in my diet. Canned tuna, here we come!
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Feel free to deliver your snow to snow drought stricken areas in the west. It's better than a 1cm thick sheet of ice.
I don't mind snow either, but the iced over pavements are a bugger.
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Should have made a move tonight but didn't as I was too busy being blandly anti-Semitic to a randomer when under the influence.
Such as is life.
That is the worst post in the history of the human race.
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Snowing in Edinburgh again.
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I'm currently working my way through Generation Kill by Evan Wright. It's an account of the invasion of Iraq by Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist embedded with the First Recon Marines.
Finished this.
An excellent journalistic account of the invasion of Iraq. Evan Wright went in with a platoon of Recon Marines, the 'shock troops' of the Marine Corps. Effectively what they were asked to do during the invasion was drive on ahead of the bulk of the USMC forces and draw out ambushes from Iraqi soldiers and Fedayeen militias. Wright details the characters of the Marines in the platoon well, highlighting the diversity of class, race and views among the men. One thing that I found interesting was the attitudes of the men towards the invasion and towards what they were doing in Iraq - many of them supported the war but just as many voiced cynicism for the motives of the operation and at points were horrified by what was happening.
Another remarkable aspect of the book for me was the utter incompetence of some of the commanding officers. One particular character, only named as 'Captain America', sounds like thelast person you'd want with you in a war zone. In one incident Captain America attempts to bayonet a restrained prisoner, for which he is reported. He also takes a far more gung-ho attitude towards the invasion than the other marines, practically whooping with delight when he discovers that the platoon has been fighting Syrians who he considers 'terrorists'. Other commanders call in artillery strikes when there are friendly forces within the blast range of the shells and order the strafing of areas where civilians have been observed. This all adds to the cynicism among the 'grunts', who are the ones dealing with dead and brutally injured civilians on the ground.
Towards the end of the book a theme emerges that could be considered the story of how a relatively quick victory for the coalition in terms of the invasion of Iraq turned into the long lasting and bloody insurgency. The architects of the invasion emphasised manouverability and speed over large levels of firepower, meaning that they valued units like First Recon taking the battle to the enemy and smashing through the relatively demoralised Iraqi army. What this meant was that after contact with enemy forces the Marines would race through towns and villages onto the next engagemetn, to keep the targets on the run. While this approach saw success in the invasion stage it was planting a terrible seed in terms of a long-term occupation - Wright points out after one large engagement in a town that the Marines have effectively bombed a town, overthrown the Ba'ath leaders and then left. Most Ba'athist irregulars didn't engage the US forces directly, they got rid of their uniforms and disappeared. Thsi means that after destroying infrastructre the invasion forces didn't actually occupy many places in Iraq. Later, in Baghdad, the Marines of First Recon are told they will be establishing control over areas of Sadr City by setting up a base and conducting patrols. This sounds all well and good but the platoon is moved several times to other areas, meaing no effective controlor US presence can be established. As violence escalates the Marines are told not to go out after dark, due to the violence between Shia militias and former Ba'athists. There are even reports of some Marine commanders giving weapons from captured arms dumps to Shia militants as they are seeking to destroy Ba'ath Party members. Of course, with hindsight the militias became a huge security issue, only really resolved in the last 18 months with the improved performance of the Iraqi security forces. Also, the lack of US presence in much of the country left a vacuum quickly filled with insurgents and jihadi militants, which quickly turned parts of Iraq into a charnel house.
I'd heartily recommend this book to anyone and am looking forward to watching the DVD box set, which I also received for Christmas.
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Confessions of a Highland hero - Steve Paterson.
Autobiography of former Elgin City, Huntley, Inverness Caley Thistle, Aberdeen, Forres and Peterhead manager Steve Paterson. He is a real hero for our fans due to his absolutely fantastic job managing our club but the book is really lays bare the addictions which have blighted his life. Pele always had a reputation as a boozer but reading the book it's the gambling that really destroyed many aspects of his life. The book is honest, to the point of being painful as he recounts the gambling splurges that lead to him losing over a millin quid (he estimates) in his lifetime. Some of it is really close the bone - Pele losing his daughters holiday money or blowing over £100,000 he had planned to use to open a hotel with spring to mind.
The book does give an insight into Pele's managerial successes at Elgin, Caley Thistle and Huntly though. He really did create tight-knit squads with great team spirit who played for each other - he also had a good eye for a player and made some astute signings. Sadly, by the time he'd got to Aberdeen his demon's were starting to overcome him and, as he says in the book, he should never have taken the job. Fundamentally, I think Pele comes across as a decent guy - his working life outside football has been dedicated to helping others and despite his failings he seems to have a loyal set of family and friends, testimony to his true character.
I'd recommend the book to anyone that would normally read football autobiogrphies, mainly because it's a far better read than most of them every will be. I'd imagine that ever Caley or Huntly fan will have already bought it.
I'm currently working my way through Generation Kill by Evan Wright. It's an account of the invasion of Iraq by Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist embedded with the First Recon Marines.
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Traffic chaos in Edinburgh!
It also snowed a few inches, deeper than I've ever seen it here.
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I was tempted to say "Charlie" in place of "the baby", but I thought "Nah, P&B are above that sort of thing. Especially that ICTChris. He's a sensible chap, him".
I was trying to match up the Yeti - abominable wages joke further up. However, it was like Dion Dublin v Jamie Theakston in a wang-size competition.
Back OT, it's snowing here, pavements are ice.
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I took the baby out to the back door to see it earlier. He looked up at the sky and stuck his tongue out to catch the snow flakes.
While that's cute, isn't Adam a bit old for that sort of thing.
Yes, yes, I know.
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Aliens - 9/10
Alien 3 - 6/10
Alien Resurrection - 3.5/10
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Fife yesterday was the proverbial white hell.
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Satellite city of Dallas called Irving. At the moment she/we stays/stay in an apartment in not-quite-a-ghetto area. Just the right side of the tracks. It's actually a very nice place to live. An estate agent would call it "vibrant", meaning white minority, but this suits me fine. Other than problems with the air conditioning at times (a concern when it's 41 C outside) the flat itself is very well-appointed and spacious. All of our neighbours, bar one, have been absolutely brand new, and there's a cinema, supermarket (OK, Wal-Mart) etc. within walking distance.
When we start buying property we have our eye on various yuppie property further north of Dallas, or between Dallas and Fort Worth, but that's a way down the road yet. Either way it will have a garden as we shall be acquiring dogs.
What do you do for a living, if you don't mind me asking? Don't worry, I don't plan on turning up at your work dressed as one of themonsters from that pish film The Village and trying to cuddle you.
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I see what you did there.
Clever aren't I?
Of course, being a foum Billy Big-Baws I know the difference between your Republican links and the Republican party. When you start posting Bill O'Reilly links, we'll start worrying.
Texas nice? Do you live in town, city, countryside? I'm not planning on coming round, breaking into your trailer, smelling your clothes and then holding you hostage. Don't worry about that.
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Yes, I did say that, and it was (and remains) the truth.
p.s. Texas is a state, not a region. Texas is part of a region, but not one itself.
Clearly you are fitting in - already you are espousing Repubican views.
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Only twenty F Word diners pay for Chop Chop dumplings? Dickheads.
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Fantastic display. Have a ticket for the France game at next years Six nations.
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The Fourth Kind
3/10. Crap, uneven film. None of it is based on real events btw - I don't know why that annoyed me but it did.
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Israel And The Palestinians (now with added Iran)
in The General Nonsense Forum
Posted
There are a few interesting points in this. There have actually been several arrests made, with three Palestinians being held. Two were extradited to Dubai from Jordan - it is claimed that they are Fatah intelligence operatives, who fled the Gaza Strip following the 2007 conflict between Fatah and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority are denying this and saying that the two detained men are actually members of Hamas' milita. The third man was arrested in Syria and is widely reported to be a Hamas security official. This information could point to several different outcomes - the killing was part of an internal Hamas feud; the killing was carried out by Fatah to weaken their rival; or, the Israeli's had infiltrated Hamas and used high level moles to plan the operation. Another option is that the arrested men have nothing to do with this and their detention is simply the result of a frenzied search by Hamas for double agents, real or perceived.
One other thing I've read - the French and German passports used were entirely fake but the British ones were 'stolen' or 'cloned' from actual people, all British citizens living in Israel. It's all very strange - as I said above I don't think that there will ever be a satisfactory outcome to this. It'll be marked down as 'unsolved'.