Category Archives: Military
Putin’s Quagmire
Vladimir Putin is in Syria killing people and breaking things. He told the US to get out of the way. Putin’s the new cop in the Middle East. He says Russia is part of an alliance to stop ISIS, like the alliance to stop Hitler. But he seems more interested in stopping the revolt against his guy, Bashar Assad.
Quagmire
Barack Obama is flexible. He showed no sign of humiliation. He even welcomed Putin but warned him about be getting into a quagmire. Then he got out of the way.
Doctored Intelligence
Two weeks ago the NYT reported that intelligence analysts claim their superiors at Centcom doctored their reports to make ISIS appear more jv than varsity.
Daily Beast says more than “50 spies claim intelligence was cooked”.
Former CIA analyst, Fred Fleitz in National Review, wants to know where the rest of the intelligence community is. He thinks this is only a tip of the iceberg.
Russian Red Line
Having drawn a red line in Syria, President Obama was unwilling to take action after Bashar Assad gassed his own people. Putin stepped in to save Barack’s bacon by setting up an inspections regime to remove poison gas from Syria.
Russian Red Line
On Monday at the UN President Putin said Russia would step up its support for Syria. Secretary of State Kerry welcomed the idea hoping Putin would do some of the dirty work needed to beat ISIS. On Wednesday the Russians told the Americans to get out of the way and bombed near Homs. The US says ISIS isn’t in Homs but “moderate” Syrian rebels are.
Now, according to the Telegraph, our new best friends, Iran and Hezbollah, are joining the fight.
Speaking of that red line – in 2013 Obama denied ever setting it. On Tuesday Josh Ernest insisted the president does’t regret setting it.
Citizen Barack
In a 2008 campaign speech in Berlin Barack Obama called himself a “citizen of the world”. Whatever his path to citizenship, he hasn’t been a model citizen.
Since his humbling election to the presidency of just the United States, our Citizen of the World has been withdrawing America from the world. That’s left a big vacuum – if a vacuum can be big. Anyway, very bad guys have rushed in to fill the vacuum. The result has been a refugee crisis a WSJ editorial calls “the worst human catastrophe of the 21st century”.
Right on cue, enter Vladimir Putin. Russia is planning to send S-300 missiles to Iran.
During the Bush administration Putin complained about a planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The purpose of the system was to deter Iranian missiles. In 2009 President Obama withdrew the system.
USO Camp Trip
Welcome to Team Kuwait. I spent the dying days of August with the guys above drawing service men and women in Kuwait, Djibouti, and Incerlik Air Base in Turkey. The trip was sponsored by USO. The picture above was provided by our fearless leader Bruce Higdon. Bruce is a great punster, cartoonist, and former army colonel. Not that we would follow him into battle.
USO
Left to right: Illustrator and Disney animator Chad Frye, Eddie Pittman of Phinneas and Ferb fame, Paul Combs a fire fighting editorial cartoonist (he’s a real fireman), Sam Viviano art director of Mad Magazine and caretaker of Alfred E. Nueman and Spy vs. Spy, the guy in the middle is Col. Bruce, Rick Kirkman draws the comic strip Baby Blues and came up with the name Wanda for the lead character because he thought it was funny – that’s my mother’s name, Ed Steckley a Mad contributor and Mad Men advertising artist in New York City, Michael Ramirez a fire breathing 2 time Pulitzer winning IBD editorial cartoonist, in full battle dress for some reason, dork at the end – me.
The two happy guys at the top own all the oil.
The trip was a hit with the troops and their families and rewarding for us.
They shouldn’t have let us into the Chief Petty Officers Club. We drew on the walls (note Alfred E. Neuman’s head peering over the guy on the far right).
We like gallows humor but this is a real gallows outside the base in Djibouti.
