Author: Patrick Lang

by Pat Lang

Acceptance of the charter won’t open any magic doors, but it would demonstrate that the government won’t be moved by violence,” Jonathan Lindley, head of the Middle East unit at the Royal Services Institute, a London-based research organization, said in an Oct. 7 interview. “If it fails, it will be a setback.”

Shiite Muslim and Kurdish negotiators said Oct. 12 they had reached an agreement with Sunni politicians on the constitution, ending months of wrangling and ensuring the charter’s passage. ” (Bloomberg)

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold.

Full results of the referendum won’t be known for days.

They won’t yield to violence? Are we to believe that the “Shiite Muslim and Kurdish negotiators” reached this agreement with some of the Sunni Arabs on the constitutional draft because their hearts were filled with the milk of human kindness?

Something caused the ruling ethno-religious coalition to decide to, at least theoretically, give up something of value to the Sunni Arabs. There is no free lunch, not in America and not in Iraq.

Think Hegel! Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis. That is called dialectic, and not the marxist kind either.

• Thesis (constitutional draft rogering the Sunni Arabs)

• Antithesis (Sunni Arab-backed guerrilla war of great ferocity and persistance)

• Synthesis (deal on the constitution).

Now if one were a Sunni Arab Baatho/nationalist insurgent, would one not believe that one’s antithesis was the cause of the subsequent synthesis?

Therefore — The government has ALREADY yielded to the pressure of violence, and one might think that further politically targeted violence would yield yet more and BETTER syntheses.

As if, in demonstration of this hypothesis, we have learned Friday night of a massively effective strike against the power grid in the Baghdad area.

The spinners are spinning. The official and un-official spokesmen for the adminstration are minimizing, but the fact is that the insurgents were able to analyze this target system (partly through previous experimentation) and then strike a node that blacked out the city on the eve of the referendum, thus promising more and better antitheses.

I predict that the constitution will pass the referendum and then, after a few days of giddy talk, the war will go on.

Think Hegel.

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by Col. Patrick Lang (Ret.)

In this column, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post — who once had a claim to be considered something other than

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold.

the usual self-absorbed member of the coastal press corps — tells us that Patrick Fitzgerald of Brooklyn and Chicago should go away quietly.

He opines that destruction of people’s reputation by the Washington political machines in government or out of “K” Street is OK because that is how ” the game is played.”

He further opines that illegal release of classified information by government official to the press in pursuit of the above is acceptable and should be tolerated because, if it is not, then journalists, in Washington, will not be able to ply their trade in marketplace of information. Why? It is because the leakers in government will be afraid to leak and Mr. Cohen will not then be able to take advantage of this porosity and frailty in our government.

For shame.

See also: “Why Patrick Fitzgerald Gets It,” Larry Johnson’s take on Cohen. Johnson often posts on my blog (URL below).

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By Col. W. Patrick Lang (Ret.)

Even CNN is shocked by this cynical manipulation of American soldiers.

Let’s see, how did they do this?

First, we go looking for National Guard soldiers who are stiil basically civilians and probably less inclined to the kinds of suicidal and nihilistic behavior which make Regulars unreliable in political matters (generals excepted).

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold.

Then you go through the available population looking for sycophants and Bush loyalists like the sergeant who pled for recognition as having been in New York when the president told Bin Laden that his days were numbered.

Then you have various colonels and generals stand around to make sure no one misbehaves.

Then you have some “wag the dog” creature coach them.

Most of these brave souls believe in the holiness of their mission. God Bless Them.

This is wrong. The American citizen soldier should not be treated this way.

Watch “Rome” on HBO and you will see where we are headed.

– Pat Lang

Crooks & Liars has the video and image.

Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005
Bio || CV
Recommended Books || More BooTrib <a href="Posts

Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver
(download free by chapter, PDF format)


“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2

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by Patrick Lang (Bio)

Ghazi Kanaan [PHOTO left] killed himself in his Damascus office today.

He was Minister of the Interior in Bashar Assad’s government there. In Syria, as in most countries, the Minister of the Interior is the Police Minister. He is not concerned with national parks.

This man was Syrian proconsul in Lebanon for a decade. He was effectively “governor” of an occupied and co-opted Lebanon which he ran through a combination of intimidation and “pay-offs.”

He was the ultimate authority there until he was “promoted” to the Interior Ministry in Damascus. When he was promoted in the Syrian police to “liwa'” (Major General) a few years ago the Lebanese nomenklatura (Muslim and Christian alike) lined up in their hundreds outside his office door to kow-tow and “gift” him with the odd Mercedes, jewelry, etc.

His power was manifest throughout the land. On various occasions he would simply inform the Lebanese parliament of desired legislation, and they would pass it. Street demonstrations in Beirut were child’s play for him. He could arrange them for the next day in however many thousands were desired (complete with photograph laden placards).

Now he is gone and little lamented. Why is he gone? Smart money has always been wagered that Rafik Hariri’s assassination was the result of a cabal among Lebanese and Syrian security officials who feared Hariri’s return to power by election, this time as a “reform” candidate with the full backing of the Bush Administration and, of course, of Chirac’s France. In previous iterations of Hariri as PM, Rafik was not a “reform” figure. The circumstances in which downtown Beirut was re-built under Hariri’s supervision by the company “Solidere” would not bear close inspection. A lot of money was made by Rafik and his associates in this and other business enterprises.

Kanaan made a “farewell” call to a Lebanese Radio station before he died today. In that interview he said that it was true that Rafik Hariri had been paying him off when both had ruled in Lebanon, but at the same time he said that he, Kanaan, had not been “responsible” for the bad things that had happened in Beirut over the years. I suppose that was a reference to the ultimate culpability of the late Hafez al-Assad.

Was Kanaan’s death a case of “assisted suicide?” … Continued BELOW:

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by Patrick Lang

Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold.

There are going to be some new categories on this blog (Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005). Film (reviews), prose and poetry will be among them.

I am lucky enough to know a lot of gifted people and have asked them to contribute their gifts to this site.

This story is the work of Brigadier General Alan Farrell who is a distinguished professor of French at my alma mater [West Point]. Dr. Farrell served as a sergeant in USMACVSOG in Vietnam after receiving his doctorate from the Sorbonne. His mastery of the Montagnard French spoken by the hill people of SE Asia is remarkable.

I am not Major Greunwald.

Download The Major Won the Croix de Guerre. (16 pages, PDF format). An excerpt:

“Putain dgieu de merde de bordel de dgieu de merde de bordel de dgieu de merde de merde et merde!”

Nhiao-A, the montagnard platoon sergeant, lets loose his best string of genuine strung-together French invective, then punctuates it with a Vietnamese: “dix mille fois!”

This singing indictment of divine justice, Nhiao has picked up from some tirailleur colonial in the 50’s: the savory art of expletive, wherein all the dark terror and somber joy of a soldier’s life commingle brutally: God, shit, whore. … Continued below:

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