Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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  1. I assume there are battle plans against just about everybody, including England, France, and the Dominican Republic.

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    But I don’t like the Iran talk in the news — I think the administration is leaking to its friends in the press, like Fox. Are they really contemplating a strike? I hope not. They may just want to look tough.

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    • Any plan that calls the Iraqi insurgency “increasingly under control” is starting with a credibility defecit.   Seriously, though, in the 1930s, the Department of Defense had developed War Plan Red, its textbook for invading Canada.  The invasion called for blockades of Halifax and Vancouver, and attacks on Montreal and Toronto.  Though this was drawn up partially in case the Canadian government ended up in the Axis, it didn't have a lot of operational detail.

      In the 1990s, Jean-Francois Lisee obtained American plans for war with a newly independent Quebec (!).  It's the nature of the army to have a plan to invade anyone.  I imagine in a desk drawer or computer somewhere are plans to pacify a seceding and hostile Massachusetts.  Part of this is so that nobody feels “picked on” that there's an invasion plan for some countries, and not others — though I'm not sure how much worse the “Axis of Evil” can be made to feel. 

    • Contemplate every possiblity and plan for the worst, which includes a possible strike.  This is one of the most unsuprising news stories ever. 

    • There's a lot of evidence that the Bush Administration is considering some sort of action against Iran.

      • I expect that there are strong elements within the Bush administration that want to attack Iran, though it would condemn the Republican Party, American goodwill, and American military to ruin for a good decade or so.

        If the order to invade is given, I hope that Congress and the military will obey their oaths, and belay it.

        • v.  be·layed, be·lay·ing, be·lays

          v.tr.1. Nautical  To secure or make fast (a rope, for example) by winding on a cleat or pin.2. To secure (a mountain climber, for example) at the end of a length of rope.3. To cause to stop.

          v.intr.1. To be made secure.2. Used in the imperative as an order to stop: Belay there!

          n.1. The securing of a rope on a rock or other projection during mountain climbing.2. An object, such as a rock, to which a mountain climber's rope can be secured.

          • In maritime and rockclimbing speak, it can mean to stop or hold fast.  Anytime something was about to happen on Star Trek TNG, and Captain Picard on the bridge wanted to reconsider, I remember he would say saying “Belay that order, Number One” so I thought it was used that way as well.  I mean, that is, when I was in the Navy SEALS and we were going to….ah, screw it.

             

        • …it is evident that your petulent child pResident GWBush is using Iran to divert attention from his misadventures in Iraq.  Just as he used his misadventures in Iraq to divert attention from his misadventures in Afghanistan. 

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          The pattern should be obvious.

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          I know what you mean by “belay,” but the unfortunate fact is that Congress doesn’t have the power to “belay” anything that the pResident wants to do with the military, unless it refuses to fund the entire military budget in the next budgetary cycle.  Which, of course, it won’t do.  Too many people in the USofA are making too much money off the military budget.

    • I assume there are battle plans against just about everybody, including England, France, and the Dominican Republic.

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      Quite frankly, the management at the Pentagon would be remiss if not incompetent if it did not have contingency plans for battle against any country.  The presence of contingency plans does not mean that the US was intending to go to war against any other country, but it just means that, if the US is threatened by another country, it would have a plan to try to deal with the threat.

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      That does not mean, however, that the US should initiate the threat, as it did with Iraq, and apparently now with Iran.

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