72 virgins, no waiting.

It seems the Hamas leaders in Gaza are running scared. They've ordered Palestinian security forces to oppose Israeli troops inside Gaza.

Now the Palestinian security guys aren't exactly friendly to Israel, but they aren't card-carrying members of Hamas and they aren't stupid. If past incidents are any guide the Palestinian security forces will allow the militant martyr candidates to take out the Israeli tanks with mark 1 rocks.

Most of the members of the Palestinian security forces are members of the Fatah party that was soundly trounced in the last election when the Palestinians suffered a mass brain fart and elected a known terrorist group to lead them. I wouldn't expect them to be first in line for the latest in clothing that goes "BOOM"!

Now their entire population is suffering for the asinine decisions made by their elected leaders. No electricity? Blame Hamas. No Food? Blame Hamas. No Water? Blame Hamas. It's come to this point...The Palestinians have forced Israel and the world to face the possibility that peace may not be possible and is clearly impossible given the Palestinian taste in "elected" officials.

It's time for the Palestinians to face up to their history as losers in every significant military campaign they have ever fought. Hell, you couldn't win when you had 16 foot giants and the Israelis had slingshots, what makes you think you stand a chance now? (Yes I know the bible says Goliath was a Philistine...Check out the word origin though; it really amounts to the same thing).

Suck up that unearned pride of yours and start working to make your lives better; maybe you can earn a country for yourselves if you can act responsibly. Start by working with the Israelis and kick the terrorist assholes out (or better yet, send 'em off to get their virgins). Stop encouraging your sons to throw their lives away and start showing them how they can build a better life peacefully.

Over the top used to have a different meaning...

Ninety years ago today, the allied Armies on the Western front launched a combined offensive against the entrenched Imperial German Army. Soldiers from more than 20 nations took part in the 1916 Summer Offensive, but to the soldiers of the United Kingdom it will always be known as The Battle of the Somme.

On July 1st, 1916 one hundred thousand men climbed from their trenches along a twenty mile front and walked through No Man's Land towards the waiting Germans. Each man carried thirty to seventy pounds of equipment and had orders to advance slowly to avoid losing contact with flanking units. German artillery, machine guns, rifles and grenades bled them white with every step.

On the first day of the assault U.K. forces suffered more than 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. By the end of the battle, four months later, the Allied forces had suffered more than 600,000 casualties. Her Majesty's forces had been decimated for a gain of only six miles over part of the front.

Well over a million casualties were suffered by both sides during the four months of battle. More than the entire population of Detroit Michigan or San Jose California.

The Battle of the Somme defined a generation...a mostly missing generation.