WN Blog Day 17: The Swampy Smell of Econ

The War Nerd / April 6, 2011

By Gary Brecher

Ouattara: Whattarya, A Muslim Militant…

Things are popping on the comment front.

First I got an email from Mark Watson, letting me know that this magazine ChangeObserver, which seems to be for people who like cool designs, has an article on what a great design the RPG-7 is. They mention its “simplicity, functionalism, durability and ease of use and maintenance” and even give yers truly a little mention for a column I did in praise of the RPG.

The only trouble with letting peace-oriented types in on the beauty of weaponry—and don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends, if I had any friends, would probably be peace-loving people—but the thing is, they can’t help contaminating a holy weapon like the RPG-7 with a lot of dirty stuff, like this commenter in ChangeObserver who wants to turn the RPG-7 into a sex toy. He comes up with a new weapon—I guess you couldn’t call it a “weapon,” so call it a device, the RKG-11…well, I’ll let him describe it:

“RKG-11: Accelerated Kiss Giver, 2011. Would shower 200-1000 people with in less than 45 seconds with 5x6cm kisses from 2-100 meters. Wow!”

I try to be broadminded, but like my dad used to say when he’d come through the living room while the TV was on, “Some people just have their minds in the gutter.”

Let’s move on to something more elevating. A lot of the comments on yesterday’s blog (“One Homme, One Panga”) served up theories on why the French are backing the Northern/Muslim leader Ouattara, even though his guys have admitted committing massacres on their way to Abidjan. One commenter reminded me of something I should’ve remembered: way back in November 2010, the Ivory Coast Air Force, fighting for Laurent Gbagbo at the time, bombed a French “peacekeeping” force in a Ouattara stronghold. Nine French soldiers were killed along with an American missionary. (One less missionary is sort of the opposite of “collateral damage”; I guess you could call it “collateral Yay!”)

In retaliation the French blasted what was left of Gbagbo’s air force, the one effective force he had against Ouattara. When I read that I started getting a little wary of this story as pure righteous anger over dead soldiers. For one thing, old Europe powers like Britain and France only get sentimental about dead soldiers when it serves the state’s purpose. The rest of the time, it’s more like Napoleon’s attitude looking over his KIA: “Ah, what the Hell, one night in the brothels of Paris will replace them.”

I got even warier when I looked over the story carefully. First obvious question: What were these French troops doing guarding Ouattara’s forces? You have to remember, the only real, combat-effective troops in Ivory Coast are the French and the UN. So it’s more likely these French troops were protecting Outtara’s men than keeping them peaceful. If they weren’t protecting them from attack, they were preventing Outtara’s machete-men from chopping up civilians, which frankly is all his troops are good for. They don’t actually fight; they leave that to the French or UN. That’s pretty standard in West Africa: “troops” aren’t for battle, they’re for killing and scaring civilians.

So you end up where you started: Why are the French siding with Outtara in the first place? And I got another comment that really queased me out about that. Here it is, complete:

“Propaganda. You’re writing propaganda without intending to. Why? Because every last English language journalist writes laughable lies about CIV.
Good guys vs bad guys—that’s the main problem with most stories. But if CIV has a bad guy it’s the French. And if Gbagbo isn’t a good guy, he’s the closest thing in West Africa.
One massacre? Ha, more like #185, only it’s hard for even the AFP propajournalists to ignore hundreds dead. The rebels have a non-stop history of rape, torture, and execution, month by month. Google for it in French, because you won’t find one word in the English-speaking world about it. Yeah right, the noble FN slip up by committing their first ever completely out of character machete massacre—and go for a 1000+ high score. The rebels are carrying AKs, RPGs, and machetes because…uh machetes are a backup tool for clearing unarmed weeds?
Are the French waging online propaganda war? There are pictures and videos of the real war, almost all in French. Weirdly these images seem to keep going down, 404s, redirects, whole websites vanished.
One video can refute a lot of bullshit. The “rapid rebel advance” is lead by UN APCs.
Quick responses to the media bullshit you’ve read:
1. The vote. The vote was comically rigged. The UN’s “official results” came from Ouattara’s hotel. Hunting challenge for you: find the actual detailed election numbers.
2. Gbagbo called for a recount. UN disallows. wonder why? The media lies by omission: no mention of a recount or fraud.
3. Remember this news? “United Nations accused Belarus of defying an arms embargo against Ivory Coast by delivering three attack helicopters” Interesting psywar BS. Because it was actually the UN importing Hinds: “Ukraine has sent to Ivory Coast Mi-24 helicopters.”
O: Employed by the IMF to implement austerity, privatized government assets for sale to French corporations.
G: Nationalized healthcare, education, French banks, and part of the cocoa industry. Ended all IMF programs and refused to pay the foreign debt.”

Daaaaaaaamn! This is the kind of comment that sends me reaching for the Maalox, because it’s obviously from somebody who knows the situation in his bones and is pissed-off and maybe crazy but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. In fact, it’s such a creepy, depressing analysis of the whole Ivory Coast deal that I suspect he’s right.

And that makes me all defensive. What’s he mean, I’m writing “propaganda”? I thought I was the only guy in the world taking Gbagbo’s side. I thought I said the French were the bad guys here, along with the UN. I thought I said the UN was doing Outtara’s fighting for him. Why these lefties always gotta be so rude ta people? No manners, that’s why everybody hates’em.

Like they say: Tough crowd.

Some of what he says I can shrug off as leftie paranoid stoner stuff. Like those disappearing online vids—they get pulled for a lot of reasons, sometimes it’s just schoolmarmy squeamishness, not a big conspiracy. And hey, if you Ivorians wanted to get your message out, whyncha getchaselves colonized by somebody had the sense to speak English like normal people?

But other things he says have the depressing, miserable, disgusting smell of truth about them. I’ve learned to sniff it from far off, like a dead skunk on an offramp. You can develop a nose for truth easy enough: just think about the difference between mystery novels and true-crime books, or detective shows vs. real crime shows like my favorite, The First 48 Hours. The made-up stories are all about brilliant handsome rich suave people who almost get away with it; the real stories are about stupid, mean pigs who confess the minute they get brought into the interrogation room. Just scum killing scum, for some dumb reason or no reason at all. That’s the smell of truth.

…Or IMF Stooge?

So when this commenter says that Ouattara’s the man the French picked because he’s willing to sell out his own country to the big bankers, I get that depressed feeling that I’m hearing something true. So I looked it up and it checks out completely. Ouattara’s own official bio lists him as “former deputy managing director, IMF.” Muslim militant my ass. Muslim front man for the bankers, more like.

Gbagbo as “good guy”? That’s not so clear to me. There isn’t usually a good guy in world news stories…not even when they’re datelined stateside. Some people are arguing that Gbagbo’s not a good guy but not as obvious an IMF stooge as Ouattara.

From what I can see, it does seem to be true that Gbagbo threatened to nationalize French banks a couple of months ago, which would account for the way the French hate him.

I’ll tell you what’s happening here, guys. We’re coming up against that swamp none of us want to go into, the one marked “Economics.” Hell, if we wanted to live in that stinking place we’d never have become war nerds. Any decent war nerd gets bored and antsy when he hits the chapter about “economic causes” of whatever war he’s researching. But I s’pose you have to face it sooner or later, there’s usually some damn econ reason behind even the coolest wars, and has been ever since those mangy Greeks decided to break the Trojans’ monopoly on the Black Sea trade.

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56 Comments

Add your own

1. il furioso | April 6th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Ivory Coast 2004-05 – Destroyed Ivorian Air Force.
http://www.kepi.cncplusplus.com/Ivory_Coast_2004/IC_2004_Air_Force.htm
2. il furioso | April 6th, 2011 at 11:35 am
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14686871/ns/nightly_news-nbc_news_investigates/
also an interesting link on anti rpg system-blocked by the us army
3. hahaohwow | April 6th, 2011 at 11:41 am
speak english like normal people?
vous voulez dire parler français comme tout le monde peut-être?
4. Victorvalley Villain | April 6th, 2011 at 11:48 am
If you blockquote that one reader comment from yesterday, it will go a long way to making the formatting work better. [Feel free to delete this, or publish it, whatever.]
5. abc123 | April 6th, 2011 at 11:50 am
All rebels and insurgents change to the Carl Gustav when available. It’s simpler (single stage recoilless rifle, compared to a two stage rocket design) and more accurate (especially the heavier versions, since more inertia means more accuracy).
If you look at the firing sequence of the RPG and the CG you will see that RPG isn’t that simple, it’s just that all the complexity is in the rockets.
The first rocket engine ignite, then turn of before the rocket leaves the barrel (sometimes this fails and the results are face melting), fins unfold (sometimes this fails and the rocket can go anywhere), second rocket engine ignites (or sometimes explodes).
The CG just detonates the drive charge inside the weapon, the projectile spin in groves and then on it’s way to the target.
6. freeman | April 6th, 2011 at 11:59 am
“Any decent war nerd gets bored and antsy when he hits the chapter about “economic causes” of whatever war he’s researching. But I s’pose you have to face it sooner or later, there’s usually some damn econ reason behind even the coolest wars, and has been ever since those mangy Greeks decided to break the Trojans’ monopoly on the Black Sea trade.”
Yea, wars cost money. When someone starts a war, someone’s making money and joe average’s taxes are being used to pay for it. Someone’s going to get rich over arms contracts and -assuming they win- someone’s going to get the deals with whoever ends up in power in the “defeated” country. (In the old days, they made no bones about it…conquest paid directly..it’s what “empire” was all about…now it’s all “business concessions” (or at least arms contracts) but amounts to about the same thing). Butler got it right: “war is a racket”.
7. OftenBored | April 6th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
It’s been a while, but it seems I remember that France was pretty much the only country in the world that backed the Igbos when Biafra attempted to separate from Nigeria. I don’t think French support amounted to much, since the starving Igbos got overrun by government forces who had the support of nobler nations like Britain and the Soviet Union.
Still, this was your standard case of Christian coastal people against backwoods Muslims. Maybe the French have a different attitude about somebody else’s former colony.
8. Burnhollywood | April 6th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
“Ouattara’s own official bio lists him as “former deputy managing director, IMF.””
You’re on the right track to finding the real reason for the latest French/UN/etc Ivorian crackdown, my Nerdy friend. Dear ol’ Wikipedia also lists Outtara as an IMF stooge, in addition to identifying Gbagbo’s party as “Centre-Left” and members of the Socialist International until they toed the official international line and turned their backs on them after the recent election crisis that positively reeks of external interference (lame…Trotsky would’ve puked).
Just another example (like Libya) of an imperial power baring its teeth to protect its stake in a former colony. As also exemplified by Haiti, France is surprisingly adept at pushing its old minions around…
9. Evilcor | April 6th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
The IMF? Is that still a thing? Well shit, I guess I know which side I’m against.
This might be interesting — a calibration of whether the IMF can still kick ass when the chips are down, or whether power has shifted away from the US Treasury.
Honestly though, I don’t see Garbanzo pulling through this one.
10. Ganryu | April 6th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Sounds straight out of John Perkins’ “Economic Hitmen” book. Anyone who tries to break free of the chains of econo-slavery will be turned, blackmailed, or killed. It is eternally depressing, but methinks that the current system will not sustain itself much longer (like a 1000lb man who can no longer reach that bag of Cheetos).
11. FaneFlugt | April 6th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Bonus info:
Alassane Ouattara got his scholarship in the US, based on a certificate stating he was born in Burkino Faso. Which makes it impossible for him to run for office…
Source: Danmarks state radio:
http://www.dr.dk/P1/orientering/indslag/2011/04/04/04162337_1_1_2_1_1_1_1_1.htm
12. former | April 6th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Well Gary, No Duh on the econ!
Think a 700 Billion dollar a year military budget was only a jobs program?
How bout viewing it as the credit worthiness behind the USD as the reserve currency of the world.
You can’t just print these QE 1,2, and 3’s if your a bannana republic.
Saddam shoulda never tried to trade oil in Euros back in the day. Look that one up-It’s not even in French.
Now we’ve got these blow back food riots in Northern Africa as a result of exported inflation.
I am interested in your take on how the local Fresno Gentry will behave once Krispy Kremes or Cinnebuns start costing a bit too much for their liking.
My guess is that Oils gonna drop big in the not too distant future if those Sauds want peace and quiet.
13. tomvanwinkle | April 6th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Glad to see Gar suck it up and admit he missed something. Not done w/ complete lack of pettiness, but all-in-all, pretty strong mea culpa.
14. Ivan | April 6th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
What you say is true, except the bit about France backing Ouattara.
France is not so much backing Ouattara as kicking the arse out of anything and anyone who attacks French nationals or force in Côte d’Ivoire.
I’m an English-speaking Euro living in France, and I haven’t seen any attempt, no matter how small, to sell the pro-Ouattara line to the French people. I have seen, on the other hand, something Gary Brecher would enjoy. Full front-page photos of French soldiers tooled up in NVGs and cammies entering Abidjan airport in the dead of night.
Even though it may look like France is backing Ouattara from the other side of the pond, it’s more likely that France wants to bomb everything to shit before pulling out fast. French citizens in the Ivory Coast are the tall-thin-lefty-with-black-wife type, the ones who think that anyone who quotes Molière and drinks red wine is French to the core. No one gives a shit about them – not the French government, still less the French public. But the army relishes any opportunity for a real-life EVAC exercise. And this is precisely what this is.
Which is why France got involved in Libya. It knows that its real geostrategic interests lie in Europe and the Med, not in the network of Collèges français in that shithole called Africa.
15. Ruthless Canadian | April 6th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Gary,
“One commenter reminded me of something I should’ve remembered: way back in November 2010, the Ivory Coast Air Force, fighting for Laurent Gbagbo at the time, bombed a French “peacekeeping” force in a Ouattara stronghold.”
Gbagbo attacked the French in November 2004, not November 2010. And I’m pretty sure that the leader of the FN at that time was Soro, not Ouattara.
16. Yoh Xi Hung | April 6th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Would love to see a War Nerd article on the Gustav vs the RPG…. 🙂
17. Diet Koch | April 6th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Back in the thirty years’ war, ruling French minister of state Cardinal Richelieu backed the protestant side against the catholics.
That’s about all you need to know about French foreign policy.
18. Off Course | April 6th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I don’t think the article you linked about Gbagbo threatening to nationalize foreign banks doesn’t make sense in your timeline. Maybe I just don’t get it, but he made the threat after the election and the supposed backing of Ouattara had already taken place. Therefore it can’t be reason why the French hate him; it appears more likely to be a response to his lack of support.
19. Dejo | April 6th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
At least wealth is practical. I’d hate the idea that war is waged for prestige, or some other non-existent bullshit.
20. PT Barnum | April 6th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
France is not so much backing Ouattara as kicking the arse out of anything and anyone who attacks French nationals or force in Côte d’Ivoire.
“France” how funny. And Obama’s decision to bomb Libya means that American’s want to bomb Libya.
That earth-shattering less-than-fifty percent support for bombing, less-than-twenty five percent for giving the rebels armes, and less-than-ten percent for sending in ground troops shows America’s undying support for the Libyan rebels.
How much do you think he gets paid per post?
21. Pierre | April 6th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
“Gbagbo wanted to nationalise the french banks, which would account for the way the French hate him.”
Oh man. Please tell me you’re kidding.
NAh, it’s another sign big G has lost his marbles, here’s why
For starters, big G ain’t president anymore. Kinda means “No authority to nationalize shit”. Second, he has no control over the ivorian central bank since january. Would have been hard to nationalise a foreign bank. On top of that, the UN is certainly watching every dollar going in and out, because of financial sanctions.
Banks don’t store money or gold bars in their vaults anymore, everything is numbers that run thru swift, wire transfers and the like. So big G’s essentially financially shut from the outside, starved of funds, and fucked good and proper if you ask me.
In big G’s position and in the age of internet banking, nationalising two tiny french banks subsidiaries essentially gets you a dozen cubicles, a couple of phones and maybe a router or two. Big deal. Would have had as much impact on the french economy as you farting from fresno.
22. The Cosmist | April 6th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
I know many readers here like to play armchair warrior and celebrate our great human heritage of femur club tribal fighting by cheering on third world wars, but this is all a fantasy. The reality is that we’re in the last days of this kind of primitive conflict for one simple reason: the rise of the machines. Military robotics is on an exponential trajectory worldwide, driven by simple Darwinian competitive imperatives, and before long we can expect very lethal fighting machines to be commonplace on the battlefield. These are machines that shoot with superhuman accuracy, have no fear, possess autonomous intelligence and can be powered and controlled remotely. So we will see wars turned into video games for the militaries of the first world, and they will simply be slaughters. It’s not difficult to imagine a day when third world governments will be overthrown remotely by “soldiers” sitting in front of computers in the Nevada desert or the suburbs of Beijing. My point being, these vicarious fantasies of the good old days of war that some of you still cling to are about to be made totally obsolete by technology, and good fucking riddance to them!
23. Michal | April 6th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Y’ know, I don’t believe it. A lot of wars make little sense from economic point of view (what was the Austro-Hungarian economic interest in waging war on Serbia? What was Hitler’s economic interesting conquering Poland, of all places? What’s the economic sense in endless squabbles over Kashmere? Where was the economic utility in Iran-Iraq war?).
I find it hard to believe there’s a grand IMF conspiracy scheme going on.
Gbagbo wanted to nationalize French banks? I can believe that.
I can believe that threat of nationalisation is enough to make the French dislike him. Now were those banks the only ones he wanted to supposedly nationalise? And is the France only country that’s part of the IMF? Probably not. So why isn’t anyone else bombarding Gbagbo? Where’s all the other IMF stooges?
Look at the timeline in the articles you linked Gary, it says Gbagbo threatened nationalisation only AFTER the UN already started pressuring him through sanctions and the like, and AFTER there was a run on the bank by concerned customers.
The idea that Gbagbo is being forced out by the UN because he wanted to nationalise the banks just doesn’t hold. That idea came into his head only after he already came under pressure.
24. Michal | April 6th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Also I’m not sure if French are actually literally bombarding Gbagbo, but you get the idea.
25. RanDomino | April 6th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
War is politics by other means; but politics is economics by other means. The South’s military in the American Civil War was tougher, smarter, and better in every real way… and they lost because all their ports were blockaded and the North turned its industrial capacity and huge population into an infinite number of guns and expendable grunts. If you’re not looking at the economics, you’re missing the whole war.
26. Soj | April 6th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
War Nerd, mistakes and all, just wanted to say you’re kicking ass with this daily blogging thing!
27. Xenophon's Mama | April 6th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
@20. (PTBarnum) -what the shit are you talking about? Have you sand in the ears?
@21. Gbagbo’s crime wasn’t nationalizing the banks. His crime was ceasing payment to the IMF.
@22. You a sucka and imma ride u like a slut.
Seriously, what’s with the shit comments today?
28. Eric Blair | April 6th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Hey GB
Since you’re clearly peeping the comments, and also changing your mind in response to them, I wanted to know what you though about the following piece in light of your opinion re: Qaddafi was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/susan-lindauer/35211/libyas-blood-for-oil-the-vampire-war
You actually swallow that tripe about the Libyans having been responsible for Lockebie? I’m not saying this Susan Lindauer lady is to be trusted necessarily (though she seems fairly credible, IMO) but you can’t deny that the whole prosecution-witnesses-at-Megrahi’s-trial-having-been-bribed should cast a whole lotta doubt on the official narrative of the tragedy…
Can you address ‘alternative explanations’ of Lockerbie in one of your upcoming blog posts?
Respect!
29. CensusLouie | April 6th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
This article is almost 20 hours old. Where is Postman and why hasn’t he shown up in the comments with his daily KKK rant?
30. dustbunny | April 7th, 2011 at 1:29 am
“Where was the economic utility in Iran-Iraq war?”
That one is easy: oil, and fucktons of it. Iraq wanted Iran’s oil, and Iran really didn’t want to lose it.
As for the rest, those are land squabbles. Land conveys economic advantages, though not as great or immediate as raw resources. It’s a long term investment to use banker-speak, though one that’s worth it. More land = more farms = more food = more people = more soldiers and tax payers. Bonus points if you can wipe out the natives and start over with some of your own people!
Even if a particular parcel of land looks worthless to you, most governments operate under the “never give up a scrap” rule. Once you start losing bits and pieces it sets a bad precedent. That patch of swamp today; the homeland tomorrow.
31. Borat | April 7th, 2011 at 1:56 am
it is all cause of dem jews
32. giongulas | April 7th, 2011 at 2:34 am
#29 His Greater Hungary conference must’ve run overtime
33. Matt Payne | April 7th, 2011 at 2:40 am
Thanks Mr. War Nerd for bringing us more of your insight into international affairs. I love that you’re doing this daily now. Nobody else has the mental bravery or the insight to deal with these violent acts which often define international relations.
34. abc123 | April 7th, 2011 at 2:53 am
Yoh Xi Hung: He doesn’t know enough about either weapon system. He even brought up the half-truth that the auto destruct RPG-7 can be used as a proximity fuse against helicopters.
In reality, if you fire a large number of RPG’s towards a helicopter at the right angle (angle determines at what altitude the rocket auto-destruct, so you need to determine at what altitude the helicopter is flying prior to shooting) one rocket might auto-destruct near the helicopter if you are lucky, though this happens so rarely you are essentially you wasting rockets.
But the RPG-7 would win such a comparison simply because it has been built and sold in so many places. Even if it’s worse in every way, it still available.
inb4: There are rockets that you insert in the front of the Carl Gustav, so no, the RPG cannot take larger projectiles. The CG also can launch heavier projectiles, or same weight projectiles at much larger distance (1000 meter effective range).
35. James | April 7th, 2011 at 2:59 am
As a side note can anyone identify this weapon?
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/4/6/1302124150666/Libya-rebels-007.jpg
36. JackMeohf | April 7th, 2011 at 3:09 am
The Nerd need not take any shit. he’s got credentials.
37. observer | April 7th, 2011 at 4:41 am
Well, if you can’t understand the economics of war, I don’t think you can understand war period, except for the physical action and visual aspects and I suppose battlefield tactics. Same for the logistics. That would be an interesting thing to write about- military logisitics. And no, most wars are not fought for the simplistic and simple-minded economic reasons most of you folks subscribe to.
38. Rex | April 7th, 2011 at 6:34 am
The Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre – (Landinfo)has a good report (in English) about the background for the ethnic part of the conflict.
Côte d’Ivoire: Ethnicity, Ivoirité and
Conflict:
http://www.landinfo.no/asset/514/1/514_1.pdf
39. PanTardovski | April 7th, 2011 at 6:36 am
Kinda a shit article, but maybe worth looking into this Cargill/ADM/agricorp angle? http://www.thenation.com/article/159707/roots-cote-divoire-crisis If nothing else, I expect they’ve got some pull with IMF et al. Maybe could explain why the UN start leaning on Gbagbo in the first place?
40. Jack Boot | April 7th, 2011 at 6:46 am
The Quai d’Orsay (not for the first time) might have outsmarted itself.
Perhaps Outtara is just a nominal Muslim; but what of his followers?
I have a sneakin’ hunch that this will literally blow up in Sarkozy’s face…
41. cog | April 7th, 2011 at 7:37 am
to #7
Portugal also supported Biafra in a covert way… arms were smugled through Lisboa and there was a help base in S. Tomé e Principe…
42. Nick Nolan | April 7th, 2011 at 8:25 am
Other poster was right. Carl Gustav is much better than RPG-7. RPG-7 is just more available.
Against moving targets less than 300 m, shooting with GC is like shooting with massive rifle. It’s surprising accurate in that range and gives nice big explosion. In some ways shooting with it is better than sex.
Shooting with bigger guns like Finnish M/58 (95 mm) or US made M40 (105 mm) is clearly better than sex, no competition. Imagine the feeling of hitting moving target (even person or squad) from 500 – 600 meters away with pinpoint accuracy using big HEAP round, or stationary targets over kilometer away. Helicopter approaching, no problem.
43. postman | April 7th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Postman is sorry for being 20 horus late, had a bit of pogrom, I mean program.
Postman says: “Go, Gagbo, I’d vote for you!”
I mean, Gagbo, our Afro-African new best mate actually gave the finger to the IMF jews, and told them to fuck off? Rispekt to da colored mann!
Do you know how long I am waiting for a Hungarian Government with cojones to tell the IMF juden: Hungary paid her debts back a thousanfold, interest on the interest of interest we will not continue pay, you can go screw, IMF bignoses? Since 1989! 20 long years! Still waiting!
Gagbo, if you read this: I earn USD 500 a month, after tax which my government automatically transfers to the IMF jews, so if you offer the same plus raping and looting rights,I’ll join your heroic fight, not the least because of Trianon 1920, fuck the Frogs!
On the other hand, I bet the French Foreign Legion is in the forefront of the fights. I wanted to join at age 18 myself, but my Ma figured out and forced me to take the final exams in the school instead.
I simply can not understand why the white man gave up his African and Asian colonies in the last century. I blame the leftist bolshevik jews myself, corrupting the thinking of Western Europe. And deserting Rodhesia and South Africa in battle is the mother of all race traitoring! And the massacres of the Zimbabwean white farmers and the SA Boers, today, at this moment, is nowhere in the news, although going strong 24/7.
But was there a more glorious life than the French Foregin Legionnaire’s in the colonial wars, “pacifying” the colonial territories? Can not imagine bigger adventure, should have been born a 100 years ago…And back then, the Hungarian Kingdom was its normal size still…
44. Jesse the Scout | April 7th, 2011 at 9:49 am
HEY WAR NERD. I want to know about the French Foreign Legion. Get on it.
45. Karel | April 7th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Lot in common between Obama and Quattara then – that Burkino Faso spoiler
46. Aaron | April 7th, 2011 at 11:38 am
James — it looks like a mutant paintball gun, see the CO2 tank above the barrel there? It probably shoots balls of tear gas or pepper spray.
47. dr kaposi | April 7th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
the exiled has been steadily moving to the left in the last couple of yrs, whereas the war nerd just stayed the same procapitalist rightwinger.
when these two will clash, i wonder
48. floodingupeconomics | April 7th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Along time ago, I learned… its all about the $$. That’s why I study/blog about economics.
Its interesting, and a bit unsettling, to think these economic policies may be one explanation for the French support of Ouattara. If so, it puts the U.N.’s military presence in an extremely bad light. The armed wing of the IMF? I’d like to hear what the official U.N. standpoint on the conflict is.
49. Xenophon's Mama | April 8th, 2011 at 1:36 am
The UN peacekeepers are sluts for the highest Security Council bidder. Also, the IMF works for banksters and does not discriminate based on nationality. The reason France and a French-lobbied UN armed mission are fighting rather than another IMF participating country is the debt is ultimately owed to France as the colonial enforcer. This is the main thing to understand about Haiti, another French punching bag. Dolan wrote a good article about Haiti and his conclusions are good predictors of French intervention elsewhere.
Another reader Jack Boot said this might blow up in Sarkozy’s face. At home it already has blown up. French media is largely against him and some of them are seriously rabid (“are we now replacing the US as world pariah?” dream on!). Conservative French know Sarkozy is out and they need to keep intervention up and military expenses up so the Socialists don’t fuck up the empire when they saunter into office.
50. fajensen | April 8th, 2011 at 1:53 am
@22: A former collegue and I are considering getting in on that drone scam, democratize it a bit, starting with a cheap, simple device that will just go to GPS coordinate, hugging the ground all the way, avoiding pylons and airport and simply drop something or land and then fly back at the users leisure. I think must be a very large market for discrete cross-border deliveries of various high-value products … or grief to various competitors in that market.
But – sexing a low-cost drone up with maybe 6 RPG-39’s or a PKM would maybe be cool too.
Why should Obummah be the only bloke permitted to send a combat robot to a country that we are not even at war with to kill a bunch of civilians.
51. John Hughes | April 8th, 2011 at 3:48 am
So, War nerd gets suckered again, this time by a loser Gbagbo appologist.
1. The vote. The vote was comically rigged. The UN’s “official results” came from Ouattara’s hotel. Hunting challenge for you: find the actual detailed election numbers.
This is simply untrue. The election result was announced from the Golf hotel, true, but only after Gbabo’s supporters prevented the results being announced by force – live, On the TV. For all to see.
The numbers had already been announced.
Gbagbo’s side accepts the numbers. They just dropped the results from a few places they claim voted too much for Ouatarra.
(The constitution doesn’t let them do this, the only power they had was to annul the elections and hold a re-vote, but when you’ve served 10 years of a 5 year term who cares about little points like that).
If you want to see the results go to http://www.abidjan.net/elections2010/Resultats/2emetour/
(I know, you don’t care, but if you did…)
52. super390 | April 9th, 2011 at 6:25 am
The Nerd Became A Christer –
The problem here is that Gbagbo the IMF Fighter may have been replaced by Gbagbo the Christian Zombie, if this editorial by one of his former supporters is true:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/08konan.html?_r=2&scp=8&sq=gbagbo&st=cse
What it says is that recently Gbagbo became an evangelical Christian, which means in practice a tool of the same far-right American missionary networks who taught the Ugandans that the solution to all their problems was to exterminate gays. So when he had to face the music, he got overwhelmed by calls from local Bible-thumpers telling him that God’s will overrules democratic procedure and he must resist at all costs.
The fact that Gbagbo suddenly is getting loud support from ultra-freak Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe pretty much seals the deal. Gbagbo is being initiated into the entire suite of far-right beliefs controlled from Redneck America. That doesn’t make Outtara good, it just means that this isn’t a left vs right fight. So now the question is, which guy is more of a fascist?
53. Stephen | April 10th, 2011 at 7:35 am
Just why would a recoilless weapon require a stock/butt. Trust an American wrapons company to needlessly gold-plate an effective weapon.
54. Dromihetes | April 11th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
“1. The vote. The vote was comically rigged. The UN’s “official results” came from Ouattara’s hotel. Hunting challenge for you: find the actual detailed election numbers.
2. Gbagbo called for a recount. UN disallows. wonder why? The media lies by omission: no mention of a recount or fraud.”
Now these comments are pulled out the conspiracy theories bin. Either that or some other deep dark place.
Not even mentioning the UN, the EU and the AU had electoral observation missions, the EU having an especially strong one in the country. Everyone agreed on the validity of the results. Everyone saw on live TV how Gbagbo’s goons stole the results from the hands of the announcer.
Link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11887004
Gbagbo called for a recount, which he did by himself, in three days, declaring himself the winner, ignoring all constitutional and legal provisions for the electoral process.
Frankly, I don’t even care if the big bad French moved against him. The guy lost an election deemed by a majority of international observers (and no, they weren’t all French, in fact the EU mission was headed by a Romanian) as fair and free and then he wouldn’t go.
Legally the civil war in IC ain’t even a war – it’s the arrest of a criminal.
55. Anonymous | January 24th, 2014 at 9:40 pm
Superb post however I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject?
I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further.
Kudos!
56. daily positive quotes | May 21st, 2014 at 1:26 am
I don’t leave a response, but after browsing through a few of the remarks
here WN Blog Day 17: The Swampy Smell of Econ – By Gary Brecher – The eXiled.
I actually do have some questions for you if you don’t mind.
Could it be just me or does it look like like some of the responses look as if they
are coming from brain dead visitors? 😛 And,
if you are writing on other online social sites, I would like to follow you.
Could you list of every one of your social community pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook
page or twitter feed?