As you know, I love "intellectual" arguments. I particularly like them if there is not a real war to fight somewhere.
Nevertheless, I find this "briefing" now circulating in the armed forces to be worrisome. In the "bad old days" we had a lot of "younger sons," and members of the heredity military caste (like me) in the officer corps of our armed forces. They were a lot less concerned with "solemnity" and more concerned with "seriousness."
Now a "sea change" has occurred and officers are more solemn about eschatology and such like that than the the leaders of our beloved "ruffians" of yesteryear were likely to be. Such things as this briefing seem to be more likely to be thought of as a challenge these days than intelligence on the eccentricities of the enemy.
We have too many now in our armed forces who are looking for this challenge. They will find deep satisfaction in it.
So far as I can see, this document is in the public domain. If this is not so, I will withdraw it.
Pat Lang
COL Lang,
That briefing was the most frightening thing I have read in quite a while.
Do you believe the Coalition forces in Iraq could wisthstand a coordinated attack by the kind of combined, multi-national Islamic force described in the briefing?
Uhh, how does Junior maintain control in Syria if his army is gallivanting* around in Iraq?
* Assuming that they have managed to avoid becoming target practice for the USAF.
He seems like a religious nut to me. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were similar nuts in the military.
A million Iranian troops on the border?
Here’s the home page of his company. Pretty vague.
http://www.viiinc.com/home.html
The official biography:
http://www.viiinc.com/VII_CVollmerII_Bio.html
Seems to run a lot of enterprises.
Quasar Group, the “investment company” which this nut runs leaves a pretty small footprint. The only mention seems to be another Mickey Mouse operation (Sequiam) giving away stocks in return for services. The 2 companies seem interlocked.
There seems to be only one mention of this guys grand thesis on the net.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:GrhEVsnSjh4J:theamericanprowler.com/article.asp%3Fart_id%3D2002_6_3_20_29_47+%22vollmer%22+eschatology+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2
Richard
If such an operation could be organized the situation would be grave, especially if the ground line of communication and supply were interdicted. pl
Colonel,
one has to wonder if in the writing of their ‘Eschatology’ (which is commonly phrased as the ‘end of the world’ readings/rantings [religious & secular]) if they didn’t have in their other hand ‘revelations’. it is interesting how so many confuse their greek, or more to the point don’t understand that there is a difference between ‘end of age’ and ‘end of world’, which is the misguided greek translations that so many in the westernized religious communities espouse and wrap themselves around.
hmmm…….
Well, at least the graphics were better than the Powerpoint on the metastising caliphate.
I, for one, am totally over briefed at this point.
Wonder what this one cost.
psychological shock and awe, but who is the target, us or the Iranians?
Not only what did it cost but who paid for it?
Also does Chuck speak Farsi or is he another Holy Ghost grifter who makes shit up.
rjj
I’ll bet he doesn’t but probably hired a few acadmic types who may. pl
Eric
Probably a lot. no more of this stuff? pl
Keep it coming. Please.
No. There are avenues here for all of us together to make a lot of money.
Writing briefing papers.
But first, we must study the genre more intensively.
exactly.
parody would be another possibility, but alas….
COL Lang,
I assume officers like this gentleman would be the key audience for this sort of thing? How prevalent do you feel such views are in the ranks of our officer corps?
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/146/story_14608_1.html
tequila
All too often they is an often encountered reminder of the “lobsterbacks.” pl
All that stuff must be in the Super-Duper King James Bible of Former-Day Saints with the extra apocryphal texts. Funny…I can’t find mention of Russia anywhere in my copies of the Bible or Qur’an.
what are lobsterbacks?
Sir,
The power point presentation about “Islamic Eschatology” is disturbing on two levels: first, as tequila points out, the briefing appears to have a target audience within the military; second; it is the second “danger Will Robinson” briefing you have posted recently. I can remember doubting the prospect of invading Iraq while in Afghanistan during the summer of 2002. It just didn’t make sense. How close are we to pulling the trigger on Iran?
John
John
Too close. pl
RJJ
I should have said “lobsters.” Apologies to Ali. Ther reference is to Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads. pl
Gozer,
Have you found the Gatekeeper yet. I heard he was last seen in Canada, eh? pl
we are too many years & a few Presidents out of sync to effectively act upon the national security implications of rampant “end times” political psychology. increasingly, we have leaders on the world stage who can’t distinguish between the end of THE world & the end of THEIR world. the rest of us (mostly the kids) get to pay for that delusion. {not to mention the corruption of God, but if religous institutions don’t care, why should we?} the Great Disappointment (of 1844) morphs into the Really Big Disappointment, in deadly style. we seem to be trapped in a phase where there is no reason to change the course of things. future generations will wonder… wtf?
ked
Ah!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment
For my crowd the great disappointment was probably in 1000 AD. When nothing of note happened and it continued to be that the only way one could distinguish the nobles was that they “did not have S—all over them” then disappointment became general with the usual corrolaries of molestation of choir boys, sale of indulgences, etc.
Ah, well, “yastamir ad-dunya” as our Saracen friends would say. pl
Nobody seems to know who was the audience for this brief or how/why it was received. Any clues? Has anybody called Vollmer to ask him?
Thanks for posting this in PDF…much easier to read/open than the powerpoint.
I see it as alarmist crap intended to indoctrinate and preclude rational thought.