Weapons @ MindSay

Israel has far fewer restrictions

Over the last week, many are asking why India does not "do a Gaza" on Pakistan, referring, of course, to an emulation of Israel's use of force against Terrorists Hamas-run Palestine, a territory from which rockets rain down on Israeli soil with reliable frequency (if not reliable destructiveness ...).

The answer for this question comes always with a painful grip on reality, is simple: India does not because it cannot.

Here are five reasons why:

1. India is not a military goliath in relation to Pakistan in the way Israel is to the Palestinian territories. India does not have the immunity, the confidence and the military free hand that result from an overwhelming military superiority over an opponent. Israel's foe is a non-sovereign entity that enjoys the most precarious form of self-governance. Pakistan, for all its dysfunction, is a proper country with a proper army, superior by far to the tin-pot Arab forces that Israel has had to combat over time. Pakistan has nukes, to boot. Any assault on Pakistani territory carries with it an apocalyptic risk for India. This is, in fact, Pakistan's trump card. (This explains, also, why Israel is determined to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.)

2. Even if India could attack Pakistan without fear of nuclear retaliation, the rationale for "doing a Gaza" is, arguably, not fully present: Israel had been attacked consistently by the very force--Hamas--that was in political control of the territory from which the attacks occurred. By contrast, terrorist attacks on India, while originating in Pakistan, are not authored by the Pakistani government. India can-- and does--contend that Pakistan's government should shut down the terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil. (In this insistence, India has unequivocal support from Washington.) Yet only a consistent and demonstrable pattern of dereliction by Pakistani authorities-- which would need to be dereliction verging on complicity with the terrorists--would furnish India with sufficient grounds to hold the Pakistani state culpable.

3. Israel enjoys impressive support from many countries especially from the Americans, in contrast to the Palestinians. No other state--apart, perhaps, from Britain--evokes as much favor in American public opinion as does Israel. This is not merely the result of the much-vaunted "Israel lobby" (to use a label deployed by its detractors), but also because of the very real depth of cultural interpenetration between American and Israeli society. This fraternal feeling buys Israel an enviable immunity in the conduct of its strategic defense. India, by contrast--while considerably more admired and favored in American public opinion than Pakistan--enjoys scarcely a fraction of Israel's "pull" in Washington when it comes to questions of the use of force beyond its borders. 

4. Pakistan is strategically significant to the United States; the Palestinians are not. This gives Washington scant incentive to rein in the Israelis, but a major incentive to rein in any Indian impulse to strike at Pakistan. However justified the Indian anger against Pakistan over the recent invasion of Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists, the last thing that the U.S. wants right now is an attack--no matter how surgical--by India against Pakistan-based terror camps. This would almost certainly result in a wholesale shift of Pakistani troops away from their western, Afghan front toward the eastern boundary with India--and would leave the American Afghan campaign in some considerable disarray, at least in the short term. So Washington has asked for, and received, the gift of Indian patience. And although India recognizes that it is not wholly without options to mobilize quickly for punitive, surgical strikes in a "strategic space," it would--right now--settle for a trial of the accused terrorist leaders in U.S. courts. (Seven U.S Citizens were killed in Mumbai: Under U.S. law, those responsible--and this should include Pakistani intelligence masterminds--have to be brought to justice.)

5. Israel has the privilege of an international pariah to ignore international public opinion in its use of force against the Palestinians. A state with which few others have diplomatic relations can turn the tables on those that would anathematize it by saying, Hang diplomacy. India, by contrast, has no such luxury. It is a prisoner of its own global aspirations--and pretensions.

I purchased a pair of sai at the Renaissance Festival and I've been playing with them ever since.  I've been practicing the proper way to hold and flip the sai.  They aren't the best quality for real combat, but they are good to practice with.  Of course I'd be better off with a gun or a shank because it's highly unlikely that someone would attack me with a bo or a sword, however it does provide a good arm workout.

I'm getting pretty good at flipping them, and strangely enough, I'm better at flipping them in my left hand.  This surprises me because I do everything better on the right side.  I can do a right split, but not a left one and I could do more pirouette turns on my right side than I could on my left side.  For this reason, every time I did any physical activity I would practice more on my left side.  When I practiced throwing punches with my dad and my brother, I would practice south paw.

I'm going to ask my brother if he knows how to use the sai.  He's a brown belt in kung fu and even though his primary weapons were the bo and the saber, I wonder if he had any practice at all with the sai.  He was really a sight to see with the bo.  Every time he went to competition and performed the bo kata he'd place at least second.

Anyway, suffice it to say, the husband has been keeping a wide girth around me.

Many people of my generation have lived at least part of their lives with the dread of the detonation of a nuclear weapon in some world city. When I was born, no nation possessed nuclear weapons. When I was two, one nation possessed them and used them. Soon, two nations had them, then three, then four, five, eight, ten. Now the total number of such weapons is in the tens of thousands and nearly every nation without them wants them and seeks to possess them—and why not? The U.S. does not bomb, invade, and occupy nations with nuclear weapons. One day we will be shocked by the news that a major world city has been destroyed in a nuclear explosion, just as we were shocked by the news of the WTC attack. Will it be Tel Aviv, Tehran, Mecca, Beijing, Seoul, Paris, London, New York, Omaha? The men with guns will be incinerated right along with the men without guns. Men have always used the marvelous weapons they make against other men they consider enemies and threats. They've used nuclear weapons, and they will again. I don't tremble each day worrying about this inevitability, but not every fear of weapons is irrational.

As a drug enforcement officer/detective, working undercover (UC) is the grass roots of what we do. This can be as complex as interjecting yourself into an organization or as simple as pretending to be a drunk passed out of a bench in order to conduct some type of strategic surveillance. Either way you are pretending to be someone you are not and have to alter your tactical options accordingly. Due to operational security it would not be prudent for me to go into to much detail on this subject on an open website. But, there are a few things that that can be addressed that are relevant.

 

Obviously, as a UC you cannot go into operational situations with a gun belt containing all the tricks of the trade. At most your only weapon is going to be some type of firearm. What that weapon is and how you carry it could be the difference between life and death of the UC. With everything going on during a UC buy it is a challenge to stay in the UC mindset and remain as tactically sound as you can. Often, someone else dictates situations, positions and surprises are always around the corner.

READ ON

http://www.police-writers.com/narcs_weapons.html

Well here are the pictures from our testing on Saturday.  I have mentioned my cousin's boy Ryan who is also in the same Taekowndo Academy (now a black belt) and his Uncle and Aunt and all of his 4 cousins are in the same Academy.  My cousin Joe and his wife sat out this testing because they are preparing for their Black Belt (you have to skip a testing cycle to get your black belt) but their two older girls and their boy tested this past Saturday only in the afternoon compared to our morning testing time.

 

Joe my cousin is interested in maybe becoming an instructor also so he helped judge all day.  And now the start of the pictures:D

 

1.  Mr. Johnson and Coltin demenstrating weapons.

2.  Mr. Johnson and DeLaney demenstrating weapons

3.  Mr. Johnson and myself demenstrating weapons.

4.  Myself and the kids walking back from form testing.  (I still look chubby and sexy to you all but I have actually dropped a size and have toned up:D  I am slowly going from chubby and sexy back to just thick and sexy!:D)

5.  The Judge Table with two kids in front of them.  From Left to Right for the Judges:  My Cousin Joe, Mr. Johnson (owner and head instructor of our Academy) and Mr. Jones (Instructor Trainee)

6.  Joe belting Coltin and as you see the lil blonde hair peaking out from behind the pole:  Mr. Johnson belting DeLaney

7.  Our Yellow Belt Achievement Picture.  None of us really looked good for that one!

8.  A Family Affair!  My Cousin Joe, myself and the kids.  Can't tell Joe and I are releated can ya!:D  Both dark haired, similar facial features, and the same chubby build!:D