An economist at New York University predicts that over the next year the euro will continue to decline against the dollar, even descending below parity, and that this may save the Eurozone by helping the PIIGS countries become more competitive. He also suggests that Germany should expand spending and raise wages to stimulate demand within the Eurozone.
In other news, according to a recent survey, the majority of Britons associate Islam with terrorism. The foundation that commissioned the study is hoping to promote a better understanding within the UK of the peaceful nature of Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.
Thanks to 4symbols, Amil Imani, Anestos Canelides, C. Cantoni, CSP, Fjordman, Henrik, Insubria, JD, KGS, MB, Reinhard, TB, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.
[This post is a stub — nothing further here!]
Note: Interesting reading ahead!
Caroline Glick: The Plain Truth About Israel
[From the full article]
Cordesman grudgingly allowed that Israel provides intelligence to the US. But he refused to acknowledge how important Israel’s intelligence has been for the US. Since Sept. 11, 2001, US military and intelligence officials have repeatedly admitted that Israeli intelligence has been worth its weight in gold for US security operations in the region and around the world.
Cordesman also noted that Israeli technology has contributed to US defense, but again, he undervalued its significance. The very fact that pilotless aircraft – first developed by Israel – are the lead force in the US campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan gives lie to his tepid admission of Israel’s technological contribution to US security.
According to an Old Crow that I once knew, one of Israel’s first uses of drone technology was in taking out Soviet made SAM (Surface Air Missile) batteries in Southern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley:
After three years of frenzied shelling and countershelling, the IDF launched the long-planned, often-delayed invasion Operation Peace for Galilee. Its goal was to destroy the infrastructure and bases of the PLO in southern Lebanon and remove the artillery threat to northern Israel. Although Israel proclaimed a desire to avoid any unpleasantries with Syrian forces in Lebanon, Damascus decided to reinforce its Lebanon contingent, including the 19 Syrian SAM batteries now deployed in the Bekaa. Though Syria intended this action as a deterrent gesture, the Israelis decided that the batteries must be destroyed …
Reports of what happened next vary. It is generally accepted that in the course of the first attack against the Bekaa an 9 June 1982, the IAF destroyed 17 of the 19 Syrian SAM batteries and their radar sites, as well as 29 Syrian Air Force (SAF) fighters, without loss. The following day, the IAF destroyed the remaining two missile batteries. The SAF once more challenged the Israelis and lost approximately 35 more aircraft, again without downing an Israeli aircraft. By the end of July, Syria had lost at least 87 aircraft, while Israeli losses amounted to a few helicopters, one RF-4E, and an A-4 Skyhawk downed by a PLO SA-7. [emphasis added]
Even the linked article does not describe Israel’s brilliant use of their drone technology.
Radar guided anti-aircraft fire control is a potentially lethal combat tool. Percision steering of the guns can take place in conditions of poor visibility and even inclement weather when the performance of human operators is at a distinct deficit. The scanning frequencies of these radar installations must be individually keyed to avoid signal overlap and return aliasing that might interfere with accurate aiming.
To neutralize these installations, Israel first flew drones into the Bekaa and used on board telemetry to send back frequency intercepts of the various radar signatures. The ECM (Electronic Counter-Measure) suites of arriving Israeli jets were preprogrammed with these various radar frequencies so that they could not only jam them in advance but use source guided missiles to home in on these anti-aircraft sites.
Even if the Syrians had wanted to, they could not have re-keyed the radar systems in the short interval that separated those first drone flight intercepts and the IDF air squadron’s subsequent arrival. As noted in the article: “the IAF destroyed 17 of the 19 Syrian SAM batteries and their radar sites, as well as 29 Syrian Air Force (SAF) fighters, without loss”.
This is widely regarded as one of the first uses of advanced drone technology. America had experimented with drones in Viet Nam but Israel brought their combat role to an entirely new level.
Recep the Arab Erdoclown has finally used its (not his) habitual one-liner to describe the interception of the terrorist flotilla, “a crime against humanity”, just as that dirtbag always does to refer to anything it dislikes.
And, defiant as a bedouin thinking it has found a lone and vulnerable woman wandering through the desert (I’d hope that its aggressive stance towards Israel will eventually give its arab rear end what it has been asking for), it has gone on to say that its native Anatolian Arabia will supply Hamas with “everything it needs” (especially weaponry.)
All in all, though, I’d still feel more confident about a repeat of the Six Day War if it weren’t for Buraq Hussein being US president.
Here is a strange story:
Virgina adds bust of Stalin to WWII memorial
Residents of Bedford, VA, were equally appalled when they found out about the statue, but now the fallout has now reached official Washington
[…]
“I’m shocked as a European citizen and as a European diplomat,” one embassy official said. “It’s shocking because this person was responsible for the deaths of millions of people.”
Does anyone know who is behind adding the statue and what the motivation for it is?
Here’s some enrichment news for you, financed by the the good old Dhimmi government of the U.K. Mohammed was, and continues to be, all things to all people View the video for yourself.
Dazed and Confused, I’ve had a quick look at two of the links on that “inspired by mahound” webpage, the one about what (not who) mahound was and the one about animal welfare.
There’s no mention of cruelty of any kind in mahound’s biography; which, given its (not his) endless thirst for blood, goes without saying.
On animal welfare, where do we start? Lord Cromer’s observation on how ayrabs were (and are) extremely unkind to animals? The nonsense about how mahoundians are said to have built drinking fountains for dogs in Cairo? On the latter, I’ve never been to the Egyptian capital myself (and hopefully I’ll never have to go there because my boss or my wife’s has ordered us to go); but I have a friend who has, and animal cruelty simply abounds at any souk where the only living creatures around aren’t mahoundians. As an example of such cruelty, he told me that he saw turtles intended to be sold as pets crammed into a bird cage, one on top of the other, with little or no space at all to move, since the only thing that the dirtbag that put them there seemed to have cared about was the number of animals that could fit into it.
The main problem for infidels with that inspired-by-mahound campaign in Britain will be, as usual, the danger of being sued into bankruptcy for “racism” or “hurting mahoundian feelings” if anyone dares to raise a critical voice in order to try to alert the ignorant and/or gullible about how deceiving and fallacious the whole thing is. But, on second thought, an ad campaign will do nothing to curb the savagery and violence in mahoundianism, and that might ultimately prevent too many people from blindly falling into the trap of believing that it has anything to do with peace, or with the lies peddled on that website.
If reality all around them tells a different story, they would have to be just too stupid to refuse to see things for what they truly are.