Soldier of Africa
I am a Military Officer. My work as an infantry major at 6 SA Infantry Battalion (Air Assault) includes work as an AU/UN military observer and peacekeeper. My work has taken me from the rain forests of Burundi and the DRC to the deserts of Sudan and Chad helping to create sustainable peace. This is my world and I cannot imagine doing anything else.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
A Philosophy on Warfare
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." — Sun Tzu.
No human being in his or her right mind wants war. The point of it all is to not look for war, but to be ready for when war comes looking for you. Whatever those reasons might be: economical, religious or political.
To live one's life thinking that by ignoring the problem it will not come your way is also a mistake and an opening sought by those who would like to gain a military victory against you. Therefore one needs to be prepared for war, but not looking forward to it. When that day does arrive a total onslaught against your enemy is needed.
Better said than done when one has not been engaged in any armed conflict and your enemy has. Of course such a setback can be greatly diminished with a "we train as we fight" philosophy. The more realistic the training the smaller will be the initiative the enemy has on you. His initiative may also be further diminished by having applied the Principles of War as stated in your doctrine, but any above average commander will also have studied Von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Napoleon, Saladin, etc.
One's preparedness for and ability to fight a war I think can best be illustrated by a pyramid. The base of the pyramid and the most crucial factor is "Willingness to fight", followed by "Training", then above that is "Morale" and right at the top and constituting the smallest, yet still an important part is "Equipment".
Lastly, the primary aim of the military should not be to neutralise or to destroy the enemy, but rather to gain the initiative and then to maintain it, because for as long as you have the initiative you have a much easier task killing your enemy. Killing the enemy is left to the soldiers on the lowest level, who have already trained to do that. One also finds this thought process in the "Cycle for winning of the battle" as proposed by Colonel Roland de Vries.
So, to sum it all up, this is the philosophy I propose for commanders from Combat Team and Battalion level and up:
"Maintain a professional and dynamic military focused on supremely realistic training with the aim of obtaining and maintaining the initiative on the enemy."
Such a philosophy should ensure that you do not even have to fight a war in the first place.
Any comments are welcome.
Any comments are welcome.
Monday, December 26, 2011
The Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration gave Palestine to the Zionists in 1917 in order for the US to enter World War 1 to save Britain and France. Even today, does nobody find it strange that there is a Jewish State slap bang in the middle of a Muslim Region of the world. Nowhere else does this occur. If you want conflict and war, do this kind of thing. How many people, children and mothers have not died due to this decision and how many are still destined to die?
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Has America lost the Plot?
This was one of the greatest countries in the world who now has growing joblessness, growing foreclosure rates and the violent treatment and arresting of peaceful protestors of the Occupy Movement. I have not seen one single protestor being violent so why this attitude towards them? Not only that, but with the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) the USA's people will have lost all control over their government and they can be picked up and locked up for no reason. The excuse used is "National Security", but the same excuse was used by many previous fascist police states, just before they came to a fall. If the USA is becoming a Police State do those in power not see this is leading nowhere?
In the Senate there seems to be a lack of integrity and/or ignorance with only people like Ron Paul seemingly having any idea what they are doing. The way Americans are being treated now only shows "The War on Terror" was lost on 11 September 2001. Terrorists cannot begin to be happier about the way Americans are treated. What will be the end to all this? I truely hope I am wrong, but if I am right I wish the American Public the best of luck for what is lying ahead. Things will probably get a lot worse before it gets better, but when it does get better I can guarantee you it will get a lot better. That is just the way life works.
I would like to see a real Superpower. One where people are important and money is not everything. One in which all people can believe in again, not just the filthy rich. I want to see people with jobs, houses and a real democracy, which they control. One that follows its own constitution to the letter. Where children can grow up with pride and hope. Not a perfect one as that does not exist, but at the very least one where people can engage in the pursuit of happiness and where most of those in government have some integrity. One day when we look back at the history of the USA what will we say about it? Did they lose the plot or did they as a people become happy and content? Only time will tell.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." — Abraham Lincoln.
God bless us all.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Contributionism - Paradigm Shift to a new Socio-Political System
Michael Tellinger is a South African author and the driving force behind what he terms Contributionism. A system, which will fundamentally change our world if we can implement it or de-implement the current system. I think he has a very good point.
Contributionism's greatest paradigm shift comes from the principle of doing away with money and -bartering. What Tellinger proposes is a system where people's natural talents and dreams are what drives the system. The whole motivation provided by money is taken away and from a system where most must work like slaves for a few who control or have money, the new system proposes everybody does a little for the benefit of everybody else. If all people do what they love and the process of hoarding is eliminated because there is no money the system will grow exponentially. The result would be an abundance of that which we really need: food, shelter, health and education, which also happen to be the four cornerstones of Contributionism. Money was never a natural part of our evolutionary process so it is expendable, therefore we do not need money.
If you propose a society cannot run without money, how then did people live without money thousands of years ago before money was "introduced"? If they all died why then are we still here? What rather seems to kill us is a system driven by a need for profit and that need for profit is because we all think little green pieces of paper makes us happy. Douglas Adams put it as follows: "This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."
The small pieces of green paper were introduced and can be removed. Money does not create abundance, it creates lack because Capitalism cannot grow unless there is a lack of those things we think we need. This is a consumer society and we all know what that means - let's create items, which are as expensive as possible for as much money as possible, while ensuring these items break down at some stage. In a Contributionist Society anything we need to create will be created with the motivation of it being free and lasting as long as possible because the person creating it will put love and effort into what he/she is doing. Suddenly there are no shortages.
Crime will just about vanish overnight as most crimes are created for our need to hoard as much money and stuff as possible. Some crimes will take longer to go as we have grown them in a dysfunctional society. Get rid of all money-related matters and people will be healthier, happier and much more connected with others. One of the other problems with the shortages that we need for capitalism to thrive is we need to feel separate from one another so that we can fill that emptiness with stuff, pleasure and drugs. It is interesting to note that making money stimulates the same part of the human brain as is stimulated by cocaine ... and all you needed was a hug.
The matter of money being removed from society may not even be up to us. With the way things are going now I seriously doubt we will have a choice in the matter. The world economy may suddenly collapse as there is not enough money to go around due to debt. Once money loses all value and we have to go without it or at the very least realise only our thinking gives it value we will also realise we do not need it. I suppose Contributionism will probably largely be the system we end up with anyway.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Fractional Reserve Farse
Ask yourself what is the one thing all or most people would wish for if they found a magic lamp. Most people would wish for money because with money you would be able to buy anything. Why? Because those who have the money have the power. They control the world.
In the USA all money is issued by the Federal Reserve and everybody knows by now that this institution is privately-owned. Yes, private citizens issue money to the US Government, which of course gives you an idea as to who really controls the United States. What makes this so interesting is that this money does not exist until through a bit of clever trickery it is created. It works as follows:
1. The US needs money and prints what is called government bonds (official-looking paper) for the value of let's say $1 Billion.
2. These are given to the Federal Reserve Bank and the Fed authorises the US Mint to print money to the value of $1 Billion or a simple electronic transaction is made with no cash even printed.
3. The amount of $1 Billion is now available for use by the US Congress, but they have to pay it back - at interest so for 10% the US Government would have to pay back $10100000, an extra $100 Million, which never existed anywhere in the world.
4. Now with the fractional reserve system the Federal Reserve and most other banks are authorised to create ten times as much money out of thin air ontop of the original $1 Billion. This money only exists as ledger entries.
5. Banks can now lend this money to people at interest again.
6. In this way debt is continually created and guess who must pay back the debt and the interest - the US Taxpayer of course.
History shows us that this is not the only system used. At one point for hundreds of years England used "Tally Sticks" for money. These simple sticks with grooves cut into them were issued by the authorities of the day debt- and interest-free. In US history we find that at one point the US used their own debt-free money as well called the Colonial Scrip. This currency was issued by the government debt- and interest free. Later during the American Civil War Lincoln issued the Greenback, also debt-free. He was later assassinated and with him died the Greenback. In 1963 Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110, which authorised the printing of an independent money-source also debt-free by the US Government. He was also assassinated.
In fact throughout its history the US managed to escape the power of the bankers six times, but the bankers always managed to come back and the Federal Reserve has now been in power of the US since 1913. These central bankers also are responsible for creating depressions and recessions by tightening the money supply. This is done by calling in loans and not issuing new loans. In this way the money-supply is lessened and thus there is not enough to go around. All this is done in order to create a situation where they can benefit from lower stock-market prices. As people die of hunger these fat cats roll in the dough.
The world needs to get rid of all privately-owned Central Banks and governments should print their own debt-free money. Any currency declared "good to pay taxes with" by the government is given value. The little island of Gournsey in the English Channel does this without problems and in the days of the Talley Stick, Colonial Scrip and Greenback there were also no problems with the exception of a period during the American Revolutionary War when the Scrip lost value due to the fact that England also printed and distributed it and thus as there was too much going around it lost its value.
Many people suggest going back to the Gold Standard, but that would also be a mistake. There is not enough gold going around in the world and most gold is owned by these bankers anyway. Without actual gold in your pocket all you would have would be promissory notes, which would place you back to square one where there would be more paper money than the actual gold going around. In such a case the bankers could control the system again. Most important here is a system where the government not only issues the money, but controls the quantity as well ensuring there is not too little to cause depressions and not too much to cause it to lose value.
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Greatness of South Africans
South Africans carry their greatness in their hearts. We see problems because we know what the opposite to those problems are. We want better and that is what we carry in us. How big are the problems though? Let's make some comparisons.
Crime is the big worry we seem to have. One can rarely go anywhere without it being shoved in your face. Is it worse than in Bogota, Colombia which has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world with car bombings, kidnappings and armed drug gangs on the streets? Is it as bad as Baghdad or Kabul? How about Juarez, Mexico, which is known as the most violent place in the world outside of the war zones. Not convinced? How about St Louis, Missouri known as America's most dangerous city? We can talk about Florence, Italy or Port-Au-Prince, Haiti or Mogadishu, Somalia or Grozny, Russia. Crime is everywhere so deal with it, but please do not wallow in it. Anyway, our most recent statistics show crime is down. Our best efforts at carrying on about crime may even be worsening the situation as fear creates more crime.
But we wallow because we see so much more for this country. Last year we hosted the most successful Soccer World Cup ever, only beaten by the USA in the amount of money generated. In the Eastern Cape a young school boy had a Minor Planet named after him for developing a ground-breaking new rocket fuel endorsed by NASA's Lincoln Laboratories. The Minor Planet Siyaxuza is named after Siyabulela Xuza. He talks about dreaming about building rockets from a young age. "Watching Mark Shuttleworth going into space motivated me even more and when the US stopped shipping rocket fuel post-9/11, it became a catalyst for the development of my idea," he says.
South Africa has won two Rugby World Cups, has won the African Cup of Nations, has won great golf tournaments. We have people like Nelson Mandela who symbolises freedom and caring. Steven Biko who gave people pride and hope. Koos Delarey who opposed the the English in their costliest war ever and Shaka, seen as one of the greatest military strategists of his time. The Kommandos were such brilliant fighting forces Winston Churchill decided to call all elite forces Commandos and still today only the elite are called Commandos. At Isandlwana the Zulus gave the British their greatest military loss ever by a native force. We have one of the best road networks in the world. We have enough food, we have comedians, film stars and kids who will grow up into the greatness we bestow upon them by our thinking. Let's not teach them negativity. Let's just teach them balance and objectivity.
The Rainbow Nation was expected to crash and burn after Madiba was released, but we proved them wrong. We were expected to fail economically, but they were wrong. We are once again facing problems, but they are probably blown out of proportion again. We are still around and we will be around for a long time. One day our kids will remember how their parents continually battled for what was right and that is why they are in the country they find themselves in. A country where even now we have one of the best constitutions in the world promising full equality for all people who live here. A country built upon the ideals of great men and women with documents such as "The Freedom Charter".
No, South Africa, we hurt because we care and we can only fail when we give up or fall victim to fears. Forget your petty differences and turn a blind ear to hatred and fear. We are brought together by our love for our country, our sport, our flag and the knowledge that whatever happens we will still be South Africans and will emerge stronger on the other side as is summed up so well in the final verse of our national anthem.
Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom
In South Africa our land.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Gerson Therapy - A Cure for Cancer since 1928
After watching The Gerson Miracle and a couple of other documentaries I have come to the conclusion that the Gerson Therapy far outweighs anything modern medicine has to offer when it comes to any degenerative disease and even more.
Patient after patient has given testimony as to their complete healing from all types of cancers and many other degenerative types of diseases, including Multiple Schlerosis and Diabetes. After listening to happy people tell their stories I know what therapy I will be following.
The Therapy basically uses the natural nutritional power of fruits and vegetables after juiced for maximum absorption into the blood stream as well as organic coffee administered rectally. The link to "The Gerson Miracle" takes you to the documentary, which gives you the complete story and more details about this revolutionary therapy. Watch it; it may change your life.
White Phosphourus used in Gaza
This photo during Operation Cast Lead shows White Phosphourus (WP) air-burst artillery being used in Gaza. On Al Jazeera I have also seen children turn the remainder of these over in the streets to see them burst into flame again, which is what WP does when it comes into contact with air.
WP leaves terrible bone-deep burns on people and should not be used in an area as densely populated as Gaza, especially with air-burst artillery, which burns a wide area indiscriminately like fire raining from the sky. Any responsible government who would not want to see women, children and even innocent men badly burned and who claims to want peace, would never use WP in this way.
This reminds me of the ousted South African Apartheid Regime, but on a much worse level.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Military Rules - Courtsey of AmyOops.com
Marine Corps Rules:
1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a '4.'
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.
Navy SEAL's Rules:
1. Look very cool in sunglasses.
2. Kill every living thing within view.
3. Adjust Speedo.
4. Check hair in mirror.
US Army Rangers Rules:
1. Walk in 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.
2. Locate individuals requiring killing.
3. Request permission via radio from 'Higher' to perform killing.
4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving.
US Army Rules:
1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.
2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.
3. Curse bitterly.
4. Curse bitterly.
5. Do not listen to 2nd LTs; they can get you killed.
6. Curse bitterly.
US Air Force Rules:
1. Have a cocktail.
2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner.
3. See what's on HBO.
4. Ask 'What is a gunfight'?
5. Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' Power Point presentation.
6. Wine & dine ''key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.
7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.
8. Declare the assets 'strategic' and never deploy them operationally.
9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.
10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.
US Navy Rules:
1. Go to Sea.
2. Drink Coffee.
3. Deploy Marines
1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a '4.'
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.
Navy SEAL's Rules:
1. Look very cool in sunglasses.
2. Kill every living thing within view.
3. Adjust Speedo.
4. Check hair in mirror.
US Army Rangers Rules:
1. Walk in 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.
2. Locate individuals requiring killing.
3. Request permission via radio from 'Higher' to perform killing.
4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving.
US Army Rules:
1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.
2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.
3. Curse bitterly.
4. Curse bitterly.
5. Do not listen to 2nd LTs; they can get you killed.
6. Curse bitterly.
US Air Force Rules:
1. Have a cocktail.
2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner.
3. See what's on HBO.
4. Ask 'What is a gunfight'?
5. Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' Power Point presentation.
6. Wine & dine ''key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.
7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.
8. Declare the assets 'strategic' and never deploy them operationally.
9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.
10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.
US Navy Rules:
1. Go to Sea.
2. Drink Coffee.
3. Deploy Marines
Direct Democracy is the Only Way
There are no true democracies in the world as people in traditionally democratic countries only have the power to decide which political party is the less corrupt and some countries have the choice of only two political parties. True direct democracy is needed to allow people of a country to decide on the daily running of a country by means of regular online referendums. The decisions of the people should only be carried out as the people voted on them.
This system is possible with the growth of the internet and any proposed problems can be overcome. What we need is a world where the man and woman on the street has the ability to decide if proposed legislation or policy is necessary. With such a system where you and I can go to a computer, verify our identities and vote on whether the media should be limited in its powers or whether a country should be invaded will end decisions based on personal enrichment of corporations and officials.
Idiotic legislation and policies over which we do not have a real say will cease to be tabled, money will not disappear into the pockets of corrupt politicians as these politicians will not be necessary anymore. Why would need senators and ministers to represent us if we have the power? Imagine how much we would save on the costs of luxury cars and aircraft for these fat cats who are only elected on how popular they are in the first place. Money also goes where the power is and much of our poverty problems will be solved. The list of solutions to problems simply goes on and on.
With a system of Direct Democracy the power will truely be with the people, where it belongs. The word "Democracy" does after all mean "People Power", not "Representative Corruption".
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