Some interesting sites

Looking around on Tumblr which I just joined after saw a follow through to my blog on site stats from interesting one (not linked below :-)

This has some very good local new inside turkey
http://ianbach2007.tumblr.com/
"Late last month, for instance, the Turkish police raided a home near the large border city of Gaziantep. Inside, they found a cache of weapons and suicide vests. The week before, the police had found in the same area an even bigger arsenal, including 330 pounds of C4 explosives and 20 suicide vests. The arsenals, Turkish authorities say, belonged to ISIS.

These raids are relatively new. For two years, analysts say the Turkish government looked the other way as jihadis built a human smuggling pipeline running from the airports of Istanbul to the bus stations in the country’s south along the Syrian frontier. Not long ago, it was common to see young men from Western and Arab countries sporting the long hair and bushy beards favored by jihadis wandering openly around bus stations and budget hotels in Turkey’s border areas."

ianbach, ian bach, ianbach2007, coin, counterinsurgency, tumblr, turkey, turkish, kurdish, kurds, kobani, ayn al arab, kobane

'The Accidental Guerrilla': Dr David Kilcullen at ANU, June 09

Uploaded on Mar 14, 2010

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - recorded at The Australian National University, 1 June 2009.

In the first few years of the post-9/11 era, the established models for fighting small wars proved distressingly ineffective against resilient insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the insurgents fought Western armies to a stalemate, it was clear that a new approach was necessary. Dr David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer, and one of the worlds most influential experts on guerrilla warfare, became a key architect of the Wests revamped military strategy. As the senior advisor to General David Patraeus in Iraq, Kilcullens revolutionary approach to counterinsurgency was an intellectual foundation for the Surge of 2007.

Kilcullen will uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the global challenge, the War on Terrorism, and small wars across the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, East Timor, and Pakistan. He will explain that todays conflicts are a complex hybrid of contrasting trends that America has tended to conflate, blurring the distinction between local and global struggles, and thereby enormously complicating our challenges. The West has continually misidentified insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances—accidental guerrillas—as members of a unified worldwide terror network. We must learn how to disentangle these strands, develop strategies that deal with global threats, avoid local conflicts where possible, and win them where necessary.

David Kilcullen is one of the worlds leading experts on guerrilla warfare and, rarely among his kind, has a PhD (UNSW) in political anthropology. He has served in every theatre of the War on Terror since 9/11 as special advisor for counterinsurgency to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, and chief counterterrorism strategist for the US State Department. He is a former Australian army officer with combat experience in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Presented by the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia).

Revisiting an old medium

I have been enjoying listening to a local radio station here in L.A. area for the past few weeks. The morning show has an interesting disc jockey (Joe Escalante, Esq.) who was in the 80's punk band "The Vandals". He is one of the few, from the scene in Orange County / Los Angeles punk scene, that did not get stuck in the muck that most bands, and band members back then fell into. Actually some of my favorite old bands from then are more popular now then they were back then. A few of the real great ones broke up as members went to college and put those careers ahead of the band.

Joe is one of those who went to college, and he became a Lawyer. Good choice for someone in the music business. But he has expanded his talents to many areas (wiki link here) (Joe's Escalante web site here). He has some great legal advice and insights for band members, writers, artists, producers, and documentary/independent films. On Fridays Joe hosts "the Barely Legal Radio Show" they take calls from people in bands etc. that have legal questions, on indie 103.1 (webcast here). Some of the other DJ's include Henry Rolands (from the band "Black Flag") and Steve Jones. ( I don't care much for those two musically)

Today I was listening to them talk about a Joe Strummer benefit concert and a limited edition poster. Got me thinking of all the artwork I use to do for bands and their flyers, logos, and much more. I miss that style of artwork. I got sorta anti-hippie, anti-political, and at times some in your face glimpses of history. The later was an attempt (that worked well) to attract attention and discussion. So I decided today to try and get back into doing some of the artwork that I enjoyed so much. My artwork has been very stagnant for the last few years. A couple years ago, I did start some excellent pieces that have multi dimensions (layers). One I like will cost me $500.00 just to create the original. I will post some updates on my progress next month.

Well I have been very busy with work lately and should have some free time soon. So I am very tired and will be signing off for now thanks all. - Ian Bach

Ian Bach - Dot Com - Ethical Reporting of War on Terrorism and World News

http://www.ianbach.com/index.html
My Main dot com. I will be updating it over the next couple months.

Ian bach's Yahoo 360 Blog

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-maffXBw4eqgt97WCgUjX
My Yahoo 360 Blog. I will be keeping it up to date till 360 is gone.

Ian Bach on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/panjshir07
Ian Bach's YouTube website

aka
Panjshir07

Afghanistan Blogs

http://afghanistan-analyst.org/blogs.aspx
Link for many information sources about Afghanistan

Various Pictures

Fun time sitting on the beach

Scenic, Sunsets, Boating, McLean, Rock Climbing, Me and my old girlfriends, my old cars, airplanes, Desert, Friends, Artwork, Everquest, Hazardous Waste

Fathers Day

Here is a picture from when I was a wee lad. I am on the left side of me Mum. My sister is sitting in the right of the picture. My dad is taking the picture. This is at the Grand Canyon. I was lucky my parents loved to travel.