Camerone

Camerone 1863

How do you convince drunks, thieves, brawlers, romantics and escapists from failed love affairs, failed businesses and failed revolutions who may not speak your language to fight for your country to the death?

KAU

Colonel Khan’s private warlord army or Interior Ministry Highway Patrol?

There seems to be some confusion on that point.

ADF plays down warlord’s role on crucial supply chain

“Defence is aware the Kandak Amniante Uruzgan commanded by Colonel Matiullah Khan works for the Afghan Ministry of Interior to provide security on key routes within Uruzgan,” an ADF spokeswoman told The Australian yesterday. “Colonel Matiullah Khan is commander of the KAU, an organisation officially recognised and funded by the MOI to provide security along the key routes in Uruzgan province.

“The KAU performs that function in co-operation with the Afghan National Police.”

Long road to Tarin Kowt

For Kandahar-Tarin Kowt, the convoy is secured not by bribing the Taliban but by paying a hefty toll to the policeman in charge of the road.

Matiullah Khan is ostensibly responsible for Oruzgan’s highways and he is paid at least $US1700 ($2385) a truck to ensure each convoy arrives at its destination safely. With about 200 trucks a month heading to Tarin Kowt, it’s a profitable sideline.

He’s not the police chief of Oruzgan but he may as well be. He commands about 300 uniformed police and has a militia of at least 1700 more, mainly protecting the road from Kandahar, the artery for the entire province. When you control the road, you control a lot. Since he took over the operation, no tankers have been lost and there have been only occasional Kalashnikov rounds to deal with.

From the front gate of Camp Holland, it’s only 200m or so to Matiullah’s compound. His brother agrees to drive us to his command post in the Tarin Kowt bazaar. There is a picture of Matiullah on the windscreen. His image, in a well-pressed police uniform, has been superimposed on a lush, Switzerland-like backdrop. Once we get through rigorous security checks – which includes demonstrating that our cameras work, to prove they contain no bombs – we meet Matiullah, who is dressed in the ubiquitous shalwar kameez, a black waistcoat and black turban.

At 36, he’s quite young for a commander, but his family ties are strong. He is the nephew of former Oruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan and a key leader of the Popalzai tribe, led by President Hamid Karzai and his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai. (The latter is accused by White House officials of being a leading player in the booming opium trade.) Matiullah, a father of 10, says he’s vehemently opposed to drugs, which threaten to “finish off” the country’s youth.

Matiullah is guarded on the profits he is reaping from securing the convoys. “Sometimes more, sometimes less,” he says, unwilling to give a figure. Right now, it’s easy money. The Taliban is on holiday. “For the moment they have gone to Pakistan because it is cold. But now they will start regrouping and will come again.”

He says 400 to 500 of his men have been killed or wounded on the road, but keeping it open is vital for the province. And as well as making him rich, the road is making him popular.

“If he was not in Oruzgan, the Taliban would have captured the province a long time ago,” says head of the provincial shura, or council, Maulvi Hamidullah. “I have no link with him but he is a very good person for Oruzgan. The people love him and he loves the people.”

The Dutch aren’t confused.

Answering questions from the members Peters, Van Bommel and Poppe on the number of Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan , translated from Dutch.

The Kandak Amniante Urugzan or Highway Police Uruzgan, Colonel Matiullah Khan is responsible for the security of the route between Kandahar and tarine Kowt. This unit is not covered by the Provincial Governor, but directly to the police chief of the entire southern region. In addition, Matti Ullah about troops who paid private security.

Question 7
Is it true that Matiullah Khan for the security of convoys for ISAF mainly militia from a tribe, the Popalzai tribe of President Karzai and Jan Mohammad Khan, commitment? Is it true that at the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) complained that the Popalzai strain this disproportionate advantage and that they have offered the lower amount for convoys to protect? If yes, what is this done?

The Kau of Matiullah Khan is indeed mainly Popolzai tribe members, but also a substantial part Popolzai non-members, as Barakzai, Achakzai and Tokhi. In a tribal society is that safety is regulated along tribal lines. The PRT is no complaints from other strains on the composition of the Kau.

Question 8
Are the militia Matiullah Khan legal? They fall under Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) program for disarming illegal militias?

The Kau is not a militia but part of the Afghan security structure and as such included in the payroll of the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

The Kau is therefore not covered by the DIAG program. The Kau However, from a unit of the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) that the Disarmament demobilization Reintegration (DDR) program has passed, and then is transformed into Afghan Higway Police.

The Highway Police is gradually integrated into the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP). In most provinces that process is completed, in Uruzgan yet. As stated above, in the national review of the police occupation ambiguity about the status of Kau. Netherlands urges Afghan authorities to this uncertainty is cleared up soon.

Question 9
Do you share the view that commitment and (indirect) payment of the troop and Matiullah Khan a negative impact on good governance and stability in the South? If not, why not?

The Kau is currently more than any other police organization, to a considerable extent to ensure the security of the route to Kandahar and the physical security of convoys on the road traveling. The (safe) passage of persons and goods to and from Uruzgan is an essence le condition for reconstruction and economic development of the province of Uruzgan.

Kandahar dam contract comes with security clause

Canada has invested millions of dollars in programs to disarm and disband the militias that roam Afghanistan’s countryside. But most illegal armed groups had only a small fraction of their arsenals confiscated, according to a recent study by Antonio Giustozzi, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He cites the example of a militia commander in Uruzgan province named Matiullah, who handed in 264 weapons as part of the disbandment program but then continued to operate his band of armed men.

The Matiullah militia is believed to have renamed itself the KAU and now plays an important role enforcing security on the highway between Kandahar city and Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan. The KAU’s pickup trucks full of armed men frequently patrol the road that passes near the planned dam project and a Canadian military base that overlooks the highway.

I thought I recognized Matiullah’s name. We’ve mentioned him before.

UPDATE: Ran up on this old comment by Tim from Panjwayi
July 12th, 2009 at 8:59 am

It was Afghan SF elements that killed Gen Matiullah. Based out of Gecko in Kandahar City. An Expat PSC eye-witness backs this up. Initially locals believed that it was US SF that were involved, then later on the truth came out the no ISAF elements were present when this occurred. Local opinion still believes the Afghan SF were acting on “orders from the Americans” however.

Mass Media Motivated Murder

Two good entries at Strategy Page worth passing on:

Adolph Hitler Fan Club

Mass murder has long been a grisly feature of human history. But the speed and extent of such massacres accelerated in the 20th century, with the spread of electronic mass media. First radio, then television and now the Internet, made it possible to more quickly spread and intensify the hatred and dehumanization of the victims necessary to get mass killings started.

As I was reading this I thought of the push to shut down talk radio. The programs I listen to would have to be shut down before the Politically Incorrect could be successfully dehumanized, demonized, rounded up and purged.

Penetrating Palestinian Propaganda Ploys

Israel found that over two-thirds of the Palestinian dead were men of military age (18-35). They also found that most of the “children” were teenage males, and some have been found memorialized in Palestinian web sites as “martyred fighters.” That means they were armed and on the payroll. Moreover, Hamas openly uses younger kids as lookouts and messengers. Lots of these “fighters” got killed simply because they deliberately placed themselves in the combat zone, or were sent there by their adult commanders. Thus over 70 percent of the Palestinian dead were working for Hamas, and most of them were armed.

Much bogus BS was put out during the last Gaza War. I’ve been rooting for the Israelis since 1967, but there seems to be a whole lot of Americans who have been mindfu

Taliban 2, Nirkh Jezailchis 0

But the game is young.

If the AP is to be believed, the new Afghan Public Protection Force has suffered their first KIA’s. 

As the APPF is supposed to be a district force, either the Jalrez PPF was patrolling in Nirkh district or there is a Nirkh PPF that  trained, graduated and commenced operations beneath the media radar.

We did love our guns.

Havis’s Battery by Stan Strickland

“We were ordered down to Greensboro, N. C. Soon after getting there, rumors that Gen. Johnston was going to surrender and consternation filled our hearts. We were surrendered on the 26th of April 1865 in Greensboro, N. C. Our Capt. one morning, I think it was the 27th of April, had the bugle to blow the assembly call as if we were to march. The cannoneers of each gun fell in just in front of the horses and the roll was called as usual. Then the Capt. stepped in front and read the order of surrender. Then he address(ed) us about like this “Men, at the sound of the bugle, I will give the usual order ‘By piece from the right forward march’ but first ‘Cannoneers to your post march’ you cannoneers will take your positions at your guns and at the command of march you will get to the wheels and as usual help the horses to start and then stand to your position and let the guns go on to town.” The command to your post march and we boys marched to our posts the last time. The command “By piece from the right forward march”. I saw the 1st piece go and the cannoneers stand in their places. It looked terrible. The 2nd piece went, then the 3rd piece, then the 4th, my gun. We pushed and away the gun went and we stood in our places. That was the first time in three years that our gun had gone and I was not to go with it and as I watched that gun roll away I felt a loneliness and grief down in my heart and the tears streamed from my eyes. I was sad and sorrowed as if I had lost a loved one. We did love our guns. They had been our companions for three years and we would have died in their defense. ‘ Twas a sad day in our camp that day.” — William Ralston Talley, Pvt, Co. A, 14th B^attn Ga. L. Art^y

The Orphan, 3-inch Parrott

Rainmaker, 10-Pdr Parrott

Old Thunder, 12-pdr Napoleon

The gun is the rallying point of the detachment, its point of honor, its flag, its banner. It is that to which the men look, by which they stand, with and for which they fight, by and for which they fall. As long as the gun is theirs, they are unconquered, victorious; when the gun is lost, all is lost. It is their religion to fight it until the enemy is out of range, or until the gun itself is withdrawn, or until both it and the detachment are in the hands of the foe. An infantryman in flight often flings away his musket. I do not recall ever having heard of a Confederate artillery detachment abandoning its gun without orders. 
Robert Stiles Major of Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia

Remember

1775

1861

1951

1961

1989

1993

1995

1775

PSYOP Preparation of the Battlespace — Setting Up Scapegoats to be Blamed for the Next False Flag Human Caused Disaster

The Oklahoma City Bombing saved Bill Clinton’s Presidency.  He was a lame duck, having led his party to defeat in the mid-term elections.  OKC gave him the crisis he needed to turn his fortunes around.  Everybody who thought he sucked suddenly became practioners of the politics of personal destruction.  Everybody who thought the Assault Weapons Ban sucked became a member of the Militia of Montana.  Everybody who listened to conservative talk radio became partially responsible for Timothy McVeigh.

History is repeating itself.

Some kid shoots cops and Glenn Beck and all conservatives “own” that, so the Obamanoids tell us.

If you have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on your car, the Missouri State Highway Patrolman who stops you for speeding on a deserted road in the middle of the night has already been filled with propaganda about you guaranteed to fill him with adrenaline.  You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t stick his pistol in your ear when he asks for your license.

Now our federal Department of Homeland Security is identifying the usual suspects for future demonization should a crisis arise.  And we all know a crisis is too good to waste.

Read DHS, ‘Rightwing Extremism’ and Information Warfare

This is part of a more widespread ongoing information campaign to plant and reinforce critical themes into the American official, and broader public psyche, a continuation of the “clinging to guns and religion” message so frequently found in the rhetoric of President Obama and his acolytes.  Watch for reinforcing messages from other venues and other government organizations.  It will be used by talking heads, journalists and administration officials to make agenda-driven analysis sound rational as they work to delegitimize, marginalize and divide Americans, precisely when it is apparent that significant grass roots opposition movements are gaining steam.

The Tea Party Movement represents the same kind of resistance to Obama that the Militia Movement posed to Bill Clinton. Don’t be surprised if it is discredited in similar fashion.

In the information battle we live through, every media story and every government report is suspect. Experts, universities, think tanks, non-profits and interest groups are all tools for the spin masters and propagandists whose ethics are defined by “the ends justifies the means” of Saul Alinsky’s model. The DHS Rightwing Extremism paper is merely a recent example of how the American people and their law enforcement agrencies are manipulated . When those who excel at information manipulation and media control also sit in government the price of truth becomes eternal skepticism.

We who will be scapegoated need to start educating the public about the decade they slept through, lest they fall for it again. Preemptive counterpropaganda.

UPDATE 03272010:  TEA Partiers will be the designated scapegoats this time around, and just like last time, when all armed Patriots were successfully conflated in the public memory with the Covenant, Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, responsibility for every broken window must be laid at the feet of the most vocal opponents of The Regime. Rush Limbaugh was around to be scapegoated last time. Since then he has been joined by several effective pro-liberty/free enterprise/entreprenuerialism/capitalism/limited government/Constitutionalist anti-Statist advocates.

MORE EXTREMIST ELIMINATIONIST HATE RHETORIC

Lib Talker Malloy Calls for Deaths of Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly

Well, keep it up boys, just keep it up, um except for one thing: you rat bastards are going to cause another Murrah federal building explosion, you are. And then – what is Beck – maybe at that point Beck will do the honorable thing and blow his brains out.

What would such as he know about doing the honorable thing?

UPDATE 04182010:
How Clinton exploited Oklahoma City for political gain

It was a political strategy crafted while rescue and recovery efforts were still underway in Oklahoma City. And it worked better than Clinton or Morris could have predicted. In the months after the bombing, Clinton regained the upper hand over Republicans, eventually winning battles over issues far removed from the attack. The next year, 1996, he went on to re-election. None of that might have happened had Clinton, along with Morris, not found a way to wring as much political advantage as possible out of the deaths in Oklahoma City. And that is the story you’re not hearing in all the anniversary discussions

No Zayawalat Jezailchis

Ex-Taliban headmen in one of the main villages of Jalrez District, Wardak Province, fighting the Afghan Public Protection Program.

In Recruiting Afghan Militias, U.S. Faces Test .

All those NGO Euroweenies who were fussing and whining about arming Pashtun militias should be happy.

Time for the Pashtuns to decide which Armed Groups they want to fall in with. Supportive or Opposition? Choose wisely, Mirwais. Your life depends on it.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Payback has an Oedipus complex.  Do unto others as they have done unto you.  Learn from defeat, and analyze the TTP’s of the victors.  Adopt what works and become even more skillful and effective practioners than those you learned it from.

From the author of Liberal Fascism via Der Waffenmeister von Argghhh!:

Dear Jonah,

Below is the DNC/MSM/Hollywood/Academia 8 year, massive, coordinated, and unrelenting war room strategy against Pres Bush and the Republicans:

Create doubt. Question his judgment. Support his opponents. Ridicule his errors. Mitigate his successes with suggestion of unintended consequences. Refuse to praise his work. Challenge his advocates when they advocate; don’t let them own the conversation.

AND IT WORKED BEAUTIFULLY.

And why are we “snarky” when expecting the same from “our side”?

Why aren’t you saying that Obama has created more pirates now? Americans obviously believe the snark from the left, why not the right?

Does rightwing media not know how to do propaganda?

You all should learn, quick.

Winners do what it takes to win.    Even if it’s distasteful.  Even if it seems “unsportsmanlike.”  I have little patience for anybody who wants me to be a good loser.   A fish rots from the head.  I intend to point out the stench of BO with all the sweetness and kindness those people showed the previous C-in-C.  Dissent is patriotic, right?  I don’t want to sink to their level.  I want to surpass them.

Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment

MIAC was just the tip of the iceburg.  Selected excerpts:

(U//FOUO) This product is one of a series of intelligence assessments published by the Extremism and Radicalization Branch to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States. The information is to federal, state, local, and tribal counterterrorism and law enforcement officials so they may effectively deter, prevent, preempt, or respond to terrorist attacks against the United States. Federal efforts to influence domestic public opinion must be conducted in an overt and transparent manner, clearly identifying United States Government sponsorship.

Influencing domestic public opinion is different from psychological operations in what way?

(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

— (U) After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military veterans—including Timothy McVeigh—joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups.

— (U) A prominent civil rights organization reported in 2006 that “large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads, and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the [U.S.] armed forces.”

— (U//LES) The FBI noted in a 2008 report on the white supremacist movement that some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups.

 

This disgruntles the hell out of me.   Comparing everybody who served in Iraq or Afghanistan to Timothy McVeigh is like comparing everybody who qualified with the rifle to Lee Harvey Oswald.

That “prominent civil rights organization” is the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Their gravy train is flogging the ghost of Timothy McVeigh.  And HLS buys their BS.  Pity the poor Coast Guard that has to belong to such a Charlie Foxtrot.

Read the whole thing @ http://www.thelibertypapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/hsa-rightwing-extremism-09-04-07.pdf

UPDATE:   Apparently the above url is oopso, ottishee.  Try http://www.gordonunleashed.com/HSA%20-%20Rightwing%20Extremism%20-%2009%2004%2007.pdf, courtesy of The Liberty Papers blog.  If that one goes down try http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

Wear Red Shirts to the Tea Party

The visual impact of large groups in bright uniforms messes with the heads of witnesses.  Seeing all the other people wearing the same shirt as you are makes you feel solidarity with the group.  You are not alone.  We surround them. 

And it scares the bejesus out of the Other Side.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary, made the Camicie rosse famous

The Mississippi Rifles, Buena Vista, Mexico -- February 23, 1847

Firefighters attack a fire at Murray and Church streets, Manhattan, on Sept. 9, 1861. Firemen made the red bib front shirt popular

National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) (แนวร่วมประชาธิปไตยต่อต้านเผด็จการแห่งชาติ)

UPDATE 20090428: Red shirt Fridays

Another Sub-national Paramilitary Organization

Austin, Texas Police Department Civil Defense Battalion.

Sounds like basic resilient communities stuff.   I wonder what coordination APD’s Civil Defense Battalion does with the City of Austin Office of Emergency Management and the Texas State Guard?

As recruitment for the regime’s Civilian National Security Force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as our military ramps up cities and counties better start enticing their own indigenous talent to join local forces before ACORN signs them up for fedgov organizations.

Jalrez Jezailchis Off To Rough Start

The Economist  is not impressed:

This week, in driving sleet, the first force on the ground, 183 men deployed in the picturesque district of Jalrez, were occupying a series of checkpoints. The force commander, Sayed Abbas, said local villagers were supportive, but US forces were less so. And he complained that their issued AK-47s were malfunctioning Czech imitations and his men had to rely on locals for food and shelter. The fear is that the AP3 groups, if not closely watched, may swiftly become criminalised and prey to existing local factional disputes. In Wardak these include rifts dating back to the civil war of the 1990s, and a feud between ethnic Hazaras and Kuchi nomads over grazing rights.

As a first step, the force in Jalrez is not a hugely cheering model. It includes only 30 Pushtuns, although they are the main ethnic group in the area. Commander Abbas says they failed to offer their sons and, consequently, their areas of the district will not be defended. The provincial governor, Mohammad Halim Fidai, counters that the local Pushtuns were initially intimidated by the Taliban, an overwhelmingly Pushtun group, into not contributing, but have since promised another 50 men. He describes the Taliban as “very frightened” by the new force.

Lack of Pashtun buy – in is not good.

Whoever provided their Basic Rifle Marksmanship training failed to demonstrate the superiority of the Samopal over the Kalashnikov.

You may take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged.

You may take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection.

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.

General Robert E. Lee

Who whipped whom?

As the Confederates were taking leave of Appomattox, and about to begin their long and dreary tramp homeward, many of the Union men bade them cordial farewell. One of Grant’s men said good-naturedly to one of Lee’s veterans:
“Well, Johnny, I guess you fellows will go home now to stay.”
The tired and tried Confederate, who did not clearly understand the spirit in which these playful words were spoken, and who was not at the moment in the best mood for badinage, replied:
“Look here, Yank; you guess, do you, that we fellows are going home to stay? Maybe we are. But don’t be giving us any of your impudence. If you do, we’ll come back and lick you again.” — Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon, CS

Three Years of Voluntary Blogitude

If you check out the Archives down near the bottom on the right side of your screen you might notice a big gap between March 2005 and April 2006, between my last attempt to blog about my deployment to Afghanistan and my first effort on this one.  I migrated the old blog posts over here.  I gave up on that one.  Leisure time, sleep deprivation, brain power, give a shit level and internet access limits killed The Kandahar Contract, and constantly threaten this one.  I’m an Infinitesimally Insignificant Microbe in the TTLB Ecosystem with little desire to do what I have to do to evolve further up the evolutionary food chain.  I’m really not cut out to be a blogger.  I’m  not the great writer Cannonette thinks I am. 

I keep at it because I’m hard headed. 

Remember back in 2005 when Newsweek’s agitprop  about fictional flushed Korans fomented fatal riots?  I lived through that.  KAF went Force Protection batshit.  Our Nationals couldn’t come to work.  We got pretty bowed up trying to Charlie Mike without them.  It was already very hot that spring on the edge of the Registan Desert.  Blood – Hold.  Sweat – Check.  Tears – Check.  That event clarified my thinking about Old Media.  When I came home I started this blog.  And I haven’t quit.  And my tiny but elite readership hasn’t quit on me.

I may be the first self-tutored wannabe amateur PSYOP’er on the internet.

Post I Am Most Proud Of:  The Regulars’ RFI On USIA

Top Post According To WordPress:  “Ad Triarios Redisse!”  That was Grimmy’s idea.

Cannonette’s Best Post:  Live From Iraq it’s Indirect Fire!

This coming year you can expect more Afghan Public Protection Force, Logistics, Right to Keep and Bear Arms,  Politically Incorrect Politics, Irregular Warfare, Resilient Community Defense, Military Support to Civil Authorities and less cheer leading for what have now become merely Overseas Contingency Operations. 

I intend to fight The Program.

eResistance in Moldova

What lessons can We Who Surround Them learn from Moldova that can be applied to the Tea Parties?

Moldova’s Twitter Revolution

Ever since yesterday’s announcement that Moldova’s communists have won enough votes to form a government in Sunday’s elections, Moldova’s progressive youth took to the streets in angry protests. As behooves any political protest by young people today, they also turned to Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness about the planned protests and flashmobs. Led by youth NGOs like HydePark and ThinkMoldova, the protests began very peacefully – as a flashmob, where young people were simply supposed to hold lit candles in the vicinity of the square.

However, this morning things got out of hand – and, with or without Twitter’s help, the crowd got much larger, reaching as many as 10,000 people, who first picketed Election Commission headquarters, the president’s residence (windows are reported to be broken – and there are also reports that this building has been stormed), and other government buildings before storming the building of the Moldovan Parliament, which happens to be just across the road. 

Technology is playing an important role in facilitating these protests. In addition to huge mobilization eforts both on Twitter and Facebook, Moldova’s angry youth – especially those who are currently abroad (roughly a quarter of Moldova’s population are working abroad due to dire economic conditions back at home) – could follow the events on this livestream provided by a Romanian TV station – directly from the square.

Self-mobilization of the population in support of The War Formerly Global On Terror has been a recurring theme on this blog the last three years.   Had Twitter been available on 9/11 President Bush’s call for Americans to go shopping would have been ignored and The Militia of Flight 93 would have gone viral.  There would have been flash mobs at the Saudi Embassy.  Self-herding cats would have heckled the peaceniks off the streets.  The whole course of the GWOT from then until now would have been different.

Self-mobilization of  individual entrepreneurial frontiersmen, Cultural Revolutionaries, American Exceptionalists, libertarians, people who want to be left the hell alone, Gulchers, Constitutionalists, Appleseeds, bitter clingers, Christians, Patriots, Oath Keepers, blue collar men, married women, Crabgrass Jacksonians, small business owners, independent professionals and anybody else who wants to oppose Statism and retard the progress of Transnational Progressivism is now more technologically feasible than ever before.   The great advantage Collectivists have always had over Individualists isn’t so great any more.

I’m still trying to figure out social media.  I’m old and rather anti-social, but you can   on Twitter and explain it to me.