Notes for Thursday – September 15, 2016

On this day in 1944, the U.S. 1st Marine Division lands on the island of Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands in the Pacific, as part of a larger operation to provide support for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who was preparing to invade the Philippines. Within one week of the invasion, the Marines lost 4,000 men. By the time it was all over, that number would surpass 9,000. The Japanese lost more than 13,000 men. Flamethrowers and bombs finally subdued the island for the Americans, but it all proved pointless. MacArthur invaded the Philippines without need of Army or Marine protection from either Peleliu or Morotai.

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Due to an error in our Editorial Calendar, SurvivalBlog did not post part 2 of one of the contest entries. Today, we present the second part of this entry for Round 66 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 66 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.



Quick Reference Manual Regarding Disaster Survival and Recovery on the Road- Part 2, by J.P.R.

C. MASSIVE EMP (ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PULSE) ELECTRICAL FAILURE

Identify Level of Failure

  • The power grid is down
  • Your cell phone is dead
  • Your land line may not work
  • Most electronic devices do not work or are impaired
  • Your car will not start or stopped running
  • Airplanes are falling from the sky
  • Small fires or explosions may be observed

This is a different event than a regular power failure. In this case, the power grid and many electronic devices have been permanently damaged. This is more serious than a power grid failure, depending on whether it is in a small or large area. If this is in a large region, say a prayer and know that your way of life is going to change for a very long time to come. You need to begin thinking in terms of surviving in a world of extremely limited resources, #1 of which is going to be clean drinking water. Be aware that if you are in a region with a nuclear power plant, you will need to also go to Disaster Plan #3 to learn how to respond.

IF IT HAPPENS ON A TRIP:

  • If you are on a trip, your primary goal is to get home or to a safe long-term location. If your car stops running but you still have dash power or lights, try the following:
    • Open the hood and unhook the battery cables. You may need a wrench or pliers for this. Wait five or ten minutes, then hook them back up and try the ignition. If it works, your next challenge is fuel.
    • Unless you find a gas station with a working generator for the pumps, there will be no gas available from gas stations. You will need to aggressively seek it elsewhere, preferably before the rest of the population realizes what’s going on. You have about 48 hours until panic time.
    • If your car runs, you will need to buy gas from whatever source will sell it, be it another car owner, a gas can in someone’s garage, or even from a lawnmower. Offer a lot, if you have it. Offer to drive someone home in return for all of their gas. You can puncture a plastic gas tank under a car with a large screwdriver and collect it for transfer. DON’T HESITATE TO TRY IT! If you are near an auto parts store, immediately purchase a siphon pump!
  • DO NOT STOP for people flagging you down. Keep moving! Look down the road to anticipate blockages. After about six to eight hours, do not get anywhere near or stop for blockades. Turn around and drive away before getting close to them. As soon as people figure it out, they may want to commandeer (STEAL) your car from you. Avoid using the air conditioning, if you think your fuel will run low before arriving home.
  • Your best gas mileage is under the speed of 63 miles per hour.
  • You need to get water and food immediately. Stock up as much as you can, as soon as you can, and then keep going until you get home.
  • If you won’t make it and know somewhere else to go, go there to wait it out. Otherwise, check into a hotel, fire, or police station, and wait it out. Just know that if the power does not come back on, the world will become crazier by the day after supplies run out.
  • Remain extra cautious if you plan to travel at night. You must have sufficient fuel, food, and water. Understand that emergency response services will be strained already if you had a problem, and things are not what they usually are without traffic signals. Traveling at night, in the winter raises the odds against you.
  • As soon as the power comes on, gas up and get home. Plan for additional interruptions on the way home. Keep your tank half full or more, and keep your family well supplied.

My car won’t start. No battery power. . . it’s all dead! What now?

  • To begin, if it is winter and the weather is cold or unreliable, you will need to locate warm shelter and negotiate heated lodging as soon as possible. Next, you need to pursue clean water to carry and food.
  • The car will probably not be fixed anytime soon, because every car has the same problem. While you are waiting to see if there is any hope, you will want to be pursuing the things below as soon as possible. It might already be too late. If you can’t find a store, go up to safe-looking homes and start making generous offers immediately. Do not worry if they don’t get it. They soon will! Feel free to offer your entire car for something.
  • Stock up on water and food. Buy as much water (gallon jugs) as you can carry back to your car. Buy all the lightweight, storable food you can. The only canned goods carried should be canned meat, like spam. While at the store, if they sell anything with wheels, buy it! Start with a bicycle for everyone, bicycle trailer, or a toddler wagon with a handle, or even a wheelbarrow. Buy or barter for anything you need to prepare you for living out in the elements. You are going to be living like a refugee until you make it home. Don’t forget a big bicycle lock and a roadmap too!
  • Buy pepper spray for protection, sun screen, blister pads and band-aids, ponchos baby wipes, toilet paper, a good hunting knife, lighters, a small pot for cooking, and a tarp or small tent. Be prepared to not find a hotel room available.
  • Bring these things back to the car, because they will most likely be getting you home soon. You now must decide when to abandon your vehicle and move on toward home. The longer you wait, the more brutal life will get, so don’t wait too long.
  • Make your first goal to find shelter and rest up for the first day’s journey.
  • Know that as you travel, the supplies of food and water will become increasingly scarce by the hour. If your trip is long, clean water will be the most difficult thing to find. Do the best you can to keep the food and water out of view from others.
  • There will be sources of clean drinking water many people will be unaware of, such as hot water heaters, full toilet tanks, and clean objects that fill with rainwater immediately after it falls. (Avoid old standing water.)
  • Many farms or rural homes have generators on wells to pump clean water.
  • Old windmills pump clean water for cattle.
  • As you go, cut open a gallon water jug to make into a funnel. You will want to collect rainwater whenever it rains. If you have a clean tarp, use it to collect water!
  • Keep all of your gallon jugs for when you find a clean water supply. Keep your smaller water bottles too. Do not collect surface run-off water or standing pond water. Only collect lake or stream water if you have to and if the lake has fish or frogs in it.
  • To sterilize water, you have to rapid boil for one minute.
  • Travel in early morning hours, when many are still asleep.
  • While sleeping, have one person keep watch if possible.
  • After several days, begin to avoid populated areas whenever you can.
  • If you come across a running vehicle, no matter what it is, consider making an offer if you can, but know you will need fuel also.
  • If you sense danger, go away from the source as quickly as possible.
  • If you see a roadblock or guarded barricade, do not approach it. You may lose all of your belongings.
  • As time progresses, you need to become less and less visible to stay safe.
  • If you make it into an area with power or running vehicles, spend whatever it takes to get home or to a safe and supplied location.
  • Know that if you are traveling downwind from any nuclear plants, that within days there is a high risk of meltdown, radiation exposure, and fallout. See Nuclear Catastrophe or Attack response below.

#3 Disaster Response: Nuclear Catastrophe or Attack

A national alert is issued over the emergency broadcast system or you hear the take cover sirens, and they aren’t stopping. If they warn you that a nuclear attack is imminent for your area, you will most likely have less than 10-20 minutes at best to seek shelter. You will know by the wavering siren (up and down sound).

  • If you are in a building, you need to get to the lowest level and find an area that is covered with at least 6-12 inches of concrete or several feet of dirt. Be careful about choosing a boiler room. Many public buildings have shelters in them.
  • If you are on the road, you will need to seek a low shelter ASAP!
  • If you sense the flash, do not look at it! Seek cover at once. Begin counting slowly to 200.
  • If you are driving and see a flash, even if far away, drive the car into a culvert or ditch. If you can get out and flatten yourself in a ditch or pipe, do so. You may experience extremely high winds within seconds that could lift, toss, or crush the vehicle (200-2000 mph wind burst). Duck away from windows!
  • If the blast wave does not hit you by the count of 200, look for a shelter quickly, bring enough water for at least a three-day stay and plastic bags for waste. You probably have under an hour before fallout radiation exposure. Around one gallon per adult per day is best to aim for.
  • To survive fallout and radiation sickness, you need to stay in a shelter that has walls thick enough to repel a bullet slug from a deer hunting rifle from any direction. Anything less allows radioactive particles to penetrate. A full waterbed mattress on the floor above you can block it as well.
  • Stay inside the entire time. A formula for radiation sickness is below:
    • 4 teaspoons salt
    • 2 teaspoons baking soda
    • 1 small package of jello
    • 1 gallon of water
  • If you have access to Potassium Iodide tablets, this is the time to use them. They protect or block radiation from getting to your thyroid.
  • Keep radioactive fallout dust out of the shelter. Breathe clean air or wear a dust mask. Stay at least three days or up to a week. You may need to stay up to two weeks or more, if large fallout areas that are coming your way are downwind, until they pass. This might be the case with Chicago fallout reaching the Detroit area in about eight to twelve hours. Most deadly radiation is blown downwind within 36 hours, unless more is incoming.

Nuclear Fallout Exposure Time

If you need to go out of a fallout shelter, below is an exposure guide for typical fallout.

  • Complete isolation from 2 to 4 days following the last explosion.
  • You could go to get water on the third day, but keep it under 30 minutes.
  • One exposure of less than 30 minutes on the seventh day.
  • One exposure of less than 1 hour on the eighth day.
  • It’s okay to be exposed 2 to 4 hours between the ninth and twelfth day.
  • Resume life, followed by rest in a protected shelter, from the thirteenth day on.
  • Always be sure your exposures are as brief as possible. Only go out for life sustaining, valid reasons. Decontaminate at every stop or exposure.

Using a crank weather radio or shortwave radio will enable you to find out when to shelter, evacuate, or leave

Fallout Info from: www.ki4u.com



Letter Re: Offensive Against ISIS

Hugh,

Regarding ysterday’s posted story:

Another potential mass shooter at the Oregon Clackamas Mall turned the long gun on himself, after killing two, when confronted by one civilian armed with a pistol.

With a new administration, if we can stop subsidizing those of the do-nothing immigrants with undeserved and costly welfare, many of them will self-deport. Also, fewer of that type would come in the first place. They have no reason to assimilate if they don’t have to work. Why are you and I financing this?

Syrian refugees are not only potentially very dangerous, but our government is purposely not approving Christians from Syria and also deporting illegal Christian immigrants though not deporting illegal Muslims.

The next mass casualty attack might very well be similar to and build on the unfortunate success of the hijackings of 9/11/01 except using easy to train, steal, and fly Cessnas, which can be quickly fueled up and stuffed with gasoline cans and propane bottles and flown into stadiums full of 90,000 people by the dozen airplanes. Unfortunately, very hard to stop. The training could occur way in advance anywhere in the world.

We must immediately and completely defeat this 1,500 year old violent hating aggressive ideology, whether ISIS or not, and stop the immigration Jihad.

L.F.P.



Economics and Investing:

Here’s a great example of how they’ll default on Social Security

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The Gold To Housing Ratio As A Valuation Indicator

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Venezuela’s “Death Spiral” – B.B.

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Forget Alpha: Billionaires Deliver Bedlam Warnings Instead! – B.H.

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CRUSH THE STREET: SRSrocco, Will We See A 10/1 Gold-Silver Price Ratio?

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.



Odds ‘n Sods:

You know that Facebook holds to much power over your life when you have to sue your parents to get them to remove embarrassing childhood photographs of you – all 500 of them. Woman sues parents for sharing embarrassing childhood photos – DSV

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FBI Director says to cover up your webcam – P.S.

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State Dept: ‘Senate must ratify UN Arms Trade Treaty for it to be legal.’ – H.L.

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If Islamic terrorists don’t scare you, Tuberculosis should! – B.B.

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Gun Rights Group Sues Veteran Journalist Katie Couric for ‘Disregarding the Truth’ in Documentary – DSV





Notes for Wednesday – September 14, 2016

Today is the birthday of actor Clayton Moore (1914–1999). His name is almost synonymous with Lone Ranger. It is also the birthday of James Wilson, a lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (1742 – 1798).

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Today, we present another entry for Round 66 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 66 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.



Taking the Offensive Against ISIS: A Historical View- Part 2, by S.G. in Florida

Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal recently identified political beliefs that are endangering Europe.iii Mr. Stephens should have broadened his view to the West in general. Piggybacking on his ideas, the first thing that the West must do is recognize that there is something in the West worth preserving. It requires a great unlearning of the political mythologies on which modern society is ingesting. Among those mythologies: that the relative peace of the post-World War II world is the result of a postwar moral commitment to peace rather than a Paz-Americana; that Christianity is of merely historical importance rather than central to Western identity; “that there’s no such thing as a military solution; that one’s country isn’t worth fighting for; that honor is atavistic and tolerance is the supreme value. People who believe in nothing, including themselves, will ultimately submit to anything.” Ultimately, identity is the “great preserver of liberty, and that free societies cannot survive through progressive accommodations to barbarians.” Western Civilization should not only be taught but followed and defended by its beneficiaries.

Some have argued that World War III is already upon us and that this war pits the Islamic world against everyone else. To the extent that a person believes this, and if the fight is to be joined, the means to be employed can be escalated depending on the severity of the threat. Using history as a guide, there are several strategies that exist that are not currently being employed (at least as far as the general public knows). Other people argue that we are not at war with “Islam” but that only a minority of that religion are Jihadists. That may or may not be true, however, I think we can all agree that a certain segment of Islam is at war with us, and that portion, whatever the percentage may be, is the part that believes in global Islamic domination, violence, slavery and murder or subjugation of non-Islamic people. This self-identifying group is the one that would be targeted. Those imams who advocate violence, slavery, and conquest make themselves the enemy. If we are truly at war with them, then they are legitimate targets for the retributive acts. They are clearly at war with us. Given that traditional war models fail when dealing with this threat, unconventional means are an alternative response that may be effective in the long run.

One strategy is targeted assassination of Jihadist propagandists and leaders by secret agents who are “licenced to kill” and afforded diplomatic immunity by the sanctioning state in the case of capture. This is done to a limited extent by the Obama administration that employs targeted killing drone strikes throughout the world. Unfortunately, these actions are only weakly employed so as to deflect political criticism that no action is being taken. For this strategy to be effective, Islamic leaders who advocate Jihad and celebrate Islamic terrorism must be systematically targeted.

A second action that can be taken is the denial of safe operating bases worldwide for the training and recruitment of Islamic Jihadists by use of conventional military forces. This was the rationalization for the initial occupation of Iraq by the United States (since abandoned and filled by ISIS). This is the current justification for the current U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. This strategy requires at a minimum the destruction and occupation of ISIS-held areas of Iraq, Syria, and Libya by non-Jihadist forces.

Another area that could be explored to prevent future mass casualty attacks are symbolic psychological acts designed to deprive Islamic Jihadists of ideological victories. For example, Osama Bin Laden was given respect and an Islamic burial. Many critics have derided this decision, instead advocating for the disposal of dead Islamic Jihadist bodies in ways designed to deny glory or heavenly escape. Push back against symbols of Muslim conquest should also be considered. Hindus accomplished such an act by destroying the Babri Masjid in 1992. While such an act is clearly provocative, in the long term the non-Islamists must demonstrate that Allah is not with the Jihadists. Only through a symbolic war can such a message be delivered to the Muhammadan masses.

A policy of summary execution of out of uniform, non-state enemy combatants could be reinitiate. This policy was carried out by the United States in a limited way during World War II under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and it was used much more widely by Nazi Germany, particularly in Crete. This idea could be expanded to include all imam leaders preaching Jihadi ideology to Jihadi foot soldiers and out of uniform fighters planning to execute mass casualty attacks. In the World War II example, eight out-of-uniform Nazi saboteurs were captured and executed by the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld the authority of the U.S. to summarily execute the spies, citing their non-conformity with the Geneva Convention and laws of war. The Jihadi attacker is entitled to even less protection than the Nazi spies, since they are not even protected by the laws of nation states. The Nazi experience in Crete also demonstrates the extreme limits of warfare that can be exercised by a Western power. Summary executions of civilian populations in order to pacify the un-uniformed partisan resistance was found to be an authorized act of war. For example, Commander Kurt Student was not charged for his actions against the civilian populations in Crete but only for actions taken against uniformed prisoners of war at the Nuremberg trials.v While this is at the extreme end of what might be contemplated, it must be understood what acts are within the realm of possibility.

In pursuit of a conventional war solution, some military strategists have advocated that the Western militaries play into ISIS mythology by designing a set piece battle in Dabiq, Northern Syria designed to destroy and humiliate Islamic Jihadists who have bought into ISIS propaganda.vi To ISIS, Dabiq is where they will battle and defeat the armies of Rome, bringing about the Apocalypse. Such a set piece battle would be an irresistible attraction to Jihadists and would essentially call the bluff of the Jihadi propagandists. This “flypaper strategy” would pit the Jihadist against our best soldiers and would result in annihilation of all attackers. By defeating the incoming masses of Jihadists, the West would demonstrate the falsity of the claims of blessings by ISIS propagandists.

Utilizing World War II as a model, many have compared the current Jihadist Islamists to the Japanese Kamikaze. After the Battle of Okinawa, the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified as the only way to prevent mass national suicide on the part of the Japanese. Along these lines, a more limited but symbolic act may be necessary. For example, the West could insure the utter destruction of Al-Raqqah, Syria– the home base of ISIS. Note that Syrian dictator Assad determined that this type of act was necessary when battling the Moslem Brotherhood when he authorized the destruction of Hama, Syria in 1982.vii An ancient example is the destruction of Carthage by the Roman Republic in the Third Punic War. Cato the Elder understood that allowing Carthage to continue to exist as a symbol of Roman resistance was dangerous to Rome and its citizens. In furtherance of this idea, Cato the Elder would end all of his Roman Senate speeches, no matter what the subject, with the phrase “Carthago delenda est” meaning “and in addition, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.” Eventually, despite weak casus belli and a prostrate Carthage, Rome famously sacked its ancient enemy, even systematically destroying the city and walls to render the site uninhabitable. Whatever target chosen, it must be demonstrably destroyed in order to send the message of defeat to the ideology of Jihad.

Most importantly for the long term survival of humanity, the denial of nuclear technology and capability to State actors who support Islamic Jihad is essential towards preventing the conflict from becoming a generalized nuclear war.viii As Richard Fernandez of the Belmont Club has shown in his frightening “Three Conjectures”, such a war would inevitably end in the complete destruction of all Muhammadan populations on earth, with the non-Muslim world suffering some blowback.

Note that I am not advocating any of these particular strategies, and it would be very hard to identify or rank the effectiveness of any of them. It is also possible that none of these strategies can be politically sustained given the demonstrated lack of American and Western commitment to a long fight. Even bi-partisan agreement on a strategy (for example, Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 passed after 9-11) is quickly betrayed for narrow partisan advantage. If this is so, then Fernandez’s nightmare scenario may be inevitable. However, it is important to take a historical view of the options mankind has opted for in the past, when dealing with death cults.

References


[1]Nedivi, Lior, “Gun Control And Mass-Casualty Shootings: Comparing Israel and the United States” SWAT Magazine. Retrieved on July 15, 2016 from http://www.swatvault.com/special-reports/gun-control-and-mass-casualty-shootings-comparing-israel-and-the-united-states/


[2]Goldberg, J. (2016) “The Obama Doctrine” The Atlantic, April Issue. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/


[3]Stephens, B. (2016) “Is Europe Helpless” The Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-europe-helpless-1469488738


[4]Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942).


[5]Case No. 24 Trial of Kurt Student. British Military Courtm Luneberg, Germany 1946. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-4.pdf


[6]Wood, Graeme (2015). “What ISIS Really Wants”. The Atlantic, March Issue. Retrieved July 15, 2016.


[7]Friedman, T. (1998). From Beirut to Jerusalem. London: HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 0-00-653070-2. Chapter 4: “Hama Rules”.


[8]Fernandez, R. (2012). Three Conjectures. Kindle Edition. Retrieved from Amazon Digital Services LLC.



Letter Re: Fireproof Safes

Hugh:

I did some consulting for a well-known gun safe manufacturer. They make a premium product, and their clients never suffered loss due to either break-in or fire damage. The only heat resistant insulation they used was common sheetrock. They used multiple layers with offset corners and edges, similar to the wall between living space and garage in a modern home. They did not tape or use any mud, just a snug fit. It seems reasonable that the heat resistance of an ordinary inexpensive safe could be enhanced by fabricating a welded enclosure insulated with sheetrock and inserting the safe inside this outer shell. Remember: most safes are not water resistant! If you have a raging house fire, your valuables may not get burned up, but they may be water damaged during firefighting. – +P+



Economics and Investing:

Buffett Loses $1.4 Billion as Wells Fargo Tumbles on Scandal – DSV

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U.S. credit card balances may soon top $1 trillion – B.B.

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Census Bureau: 118,395,000 on ‘Government Health Insurance’ in 2015; 28,966,000 Uninsured for Entire Year – B.B.

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Video: Why I Bought Silver NOW – Mike Maloney

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Odds ‘n Sods:

EPA Proposes New Water Rules for Nuclear Emergencies. In the wake of a nuclear emergency, the Environmental Protection Agency thinks it would be acceptable for the public to temporarily drink water containing radioactive contamination at up to thousands of times normal federal safety limits. Note to self. Never live too close to a nuclear facility. – P.S.

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Germany arrests three ISIS suspects with ‘links’ to Paris attackers – A.S.

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More Akin To Goebbles – B.B.

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Ky Gov Talks Revolution, Shedding Blood, If Hillary Wins – B.L.

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‘Got Water?’ Riots in India over water rights dispute – M.H.