Sunday, April 13, 2014
10 Bold Battlefield Deceptions That Actually Worked
We’ve previously discussed some of those tactics so crazy and unconventional that they had to work. Now, let’s train the limelight on some of the most daring deceptions that succeeded in the battlefield, and (of course) marvel at the people with the sheer audacity and ingenuity to pull them off.
As we can see throughout their history, the Knights Hospitallers were clearly no pushovers, preferring to fight to the last man if need be. That scenario almost happened when the Mamluks besieged the formidable Hospitaller castle Krak des Chevaliers in March 1271. Led by Sultan Baybars, the Muslim forces slowly took the castle and gradually pushed the knights into the interior by the end of the month.
Knowing full well that the cornered knights would fight to the bitter end, the sultan cleverly forged a letter under the name of the Hospitaller Grand Master and had it sent to the knights. The letter contained instructions and permission for the defenders to surrender. The knights fell for the ruse and surrendered; subsequently, the sultan spared their lives and allowed them to travel to Tripoli safely under the condition that they didn’t return. By April 1271, the Mamluks had fully occupied the castle and converted it into their own garrison.
Quaker guns are logs or other similar materials painted black and made to resemble real artillery pieces. Named after the pacifist Society of Friends, or Quakers, these fake guns have been used in a variety of wars to frighten or fool the enemy. One rare instance of a Quaker gun actually effecting a surrender came during Colonel William Washington’s campaign in South Carolina on December 4, 1780.
The colonel—who also happened to be George Washington’s second cousin—had found 115 Loyalists holed up in a fortified barn. In a show of quick wit, Washington secretly had a pine log painted to look like a cannon and threatened to open fire if the defenders did not yield. His efforts paid off with the unconditional surrender of Colonel Rowland Rugeley and all his men. To add insult to injury, the defeated men later discovered that the cannon was a fake.
Before Benedict Arnold became known as one of history’s most notorious traitors, he was a resourceful and capable American general who proved more than a match for the well-armed British. His ingenuity especially manifested itself during the critical Battle of Valcour Island in October 1776. At Lake Champlain, Arnold’s makeshift navy of 15 ships met a powerful British fleet composed of 25 ships. As one would expect, the British fleet tore through Arnold’s ships with little effort and forced the latter to retreat.
Although the British won an overwhelming tactical victory, it later proved to be Arnold’s strategic victory: The mere presence of the American ships spurred the British to squander a considerable amount of time building their own fleet. By the time they had finished making the ships and winning the victory, winter had almost set in, forcing them to retreat back to Canada and reschedule their invasion of New York for the next year. That allowed the Americans ample time to prepare their defenses, ultimately culminating in the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777.
In April 1941, Fritz Klingenberg, an SS officer, was engaged in a friendly race with crack units of the German army to capture Belgrade. During their race, Klingenberg reached a Danube River made swollen by frequent rains. Despite the danger, Klingenberg and 10 of his men managed to cross the river using a rickety old motorboat. They then marched unopposed into Belgrade and garrisoned the German embassy.
Knowing that German forces were still miles away, Klingenberg tried a bluff: He told the mayor that he would have the city bombed by German planes if the mayor didn’t submit. Fortunately, the threat worked and the mayor hastily surrendered Belgrade to Klingenberg. When the German army finally arrived, they were incensed to learn that Klingenberg not only beat them to the city, but had single-handedly captured it as well. News of his bold accomplishment earned Klingenberg lavish praise from the rest of the SS, and he was awarded a Knight’s Cross for the successful siege.
In this World War II operation that lasted for almost a year, the Soviets coerced several German prisoners—including Heinrich Scherhorn—to play the part of 2,500 German soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Eastern Europe. Masquerading as the soldiers, the Soviets then contacted German headquarters in Berlin and asked for supplies to help them break out and return home. Of course, this was just a sham to divert precious German resources, and it worked like a charm: From August 1944 until the war’s end, the Germans continuously airdropped men and supplies to aid the non-existent group.
In the course of the operation, the Soviets captured a sizable amount of supplies along with about 25 German officers, whom they also forced into deceiving their compatriots. The Germans back home never found out about the deception; at one point, commando Otto Skorzeny himself had been ordered to conduct a rescue of the beleaguered troops. Hitler also believed the whole thing, and even had Scherhorn and his fictitious soldiers promoted and awarded.
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10 The Fake Letter That Made An Entire Castle Surrender
As we can see throughout their history, the Knights Hospitallers were clearly no pushovers, preferring to fight to the last man if need be. That scenario almost happened when the Mamluks besieged the formidable Hospitaller castle Krak des Chevaliers in March 1271. Led by Sultan Baybars, the Muslim forces slowly took the castle and gradually pushed the knights into the interior by the end of the month.
Knowing full well that the cornered knights would fight to the bitter end, the sultan cleverly forged a letter under the name of the Hospitaller Grand Master and had it sent to the knights. The letter contained instructions and permission for the defenders to surrender. The knights fell for the ruse and surrendered; subsequently, the sultan spared their lives and allowed them to travel to Tripoli safely under the condition that they didn’t return. By April 1271, the Mamluks had fully occupied the castle and converted it into their own garrison.
9A Counterfeit Cannon Convinced The Enemy To Give Up
Quaker guns are logs or other similar materials painted black and made to resemble real artillery pieces. Named after the pacifist Society of Friends, or Quakers, these fake guns have been used in a variety of wars to frighten or fool the enemy. One rare instance of a Quaker gun actually effecting a surrender came during Colonel William Washington’s campaign in South Carolina on December 4, 1780.
The colonel—who also happened to be George Washington’s second cousin—had found 115 Loyalists holed up in a fortified barn. In a show of quick wit, Washington secretly had a pine log painted to look like a cannon and threatened to open fire if the defenders did not yield. His efforts paid off with the unconditional surrender of Colonel Rowland Rugeley and all his men. To add insult to injury, the defeated men later discovered that the cannon was a fake.
8Benedict Arnold’s “Navy” Delayed A British Invasion
Before Benedict Arnold became known as one of history’s most notorious traitors, he was a resourceful and capable American general who proved more than a match for the well-armed British. His ingenuity especially manifested itself during the critical Battle of Valcour Island in October 1776. At Lake Champlain, Arnold’s makeshift navy of 15 ships met a powerful British fleet composed of 25 ships. As one would expect, the British fleet tore through Arnold’s ships with little effort and forced the latter to retreat.
Although the British won an overwhelming tactical victory, it later proved to be Arnold’s strategic victory: The mere presence of the American ships spurred the British to squander a considerable amount of time building their own fleet. By the time they had finished making the ships and winning the victory, winter had almost set in, forcing them to retreat back to Canada and reschedule their invasion of New York for the next year. That allowed the Americans ample time to prepare their defenses, ultimately culminating in the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777.
7The SS Officer Who Single-Handedly Captured Belgrade
In April 1941, Fritz Klingenberg, an SS officer, was engaged in a friendly race with crack units of the German army to capture Belgrade. During their race, Klingenberg reached a Danube River made swollen by frequent rains. Despite the danger, Klingenberg and 10 of his men managed to cross the river using a rickety old motorboat. They then marched unopposed into Belgrade and garrisoned the German embassy.
Knowing that German forces were still miles away, Klingenberg tried a bluff: He told the mayor that he would have the city bombed by German planes if the mayor didn’t submit. Fortunately, the threat worked and the mayor hastily surrendered Belgrade to Klingenberg. When the German army finally arrived, they were incensed to learn that Klingenberg not only beat them to the city, but had single-handedly captured it as well. News of his bold accomplishment earned Klingenberg lavish praise from the rest of the SS, and he was awarded a Knight’s Cross for the successful siege.
6Operation Scherhorn
In this World War II operation that lasted for almost a year, the Soviets coerced several German prisoners—including Heinrich Scherhorn—to play the part of 2,500 German soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Eastern Europe. Masquerading as the soldiers, the Soviets then contacted German headquarters in Berlin and asked for supplies to help them break out and return home. Of course, this was just a sham to divert precious German resources, and it worked like a charm: From August 1944 until the war’s end, the Germans continuously airdropped men and supplies to aid the non-existent group.
In the course of the operation, the Soviets captured a sizable amount of supplies along with about 25 German officers, whom they also forced into deceiving their compatriots. The Germans back home never found out about the deception; at one point, commando Otto Skorzeny himself had been ordered to conduct a rescue of the beleaguered troops. Hitler also believed the whole thing, and even had Scherhorn and his fictitious soldiers promoted and awarded.
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5The Confederate General Who Made A Jackass Out Of The Union
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Voter Fraud: The Left's Tool For Social Justice
We on the right have a hard time understanding the left's zeal for voter fraud or at least at the minimum their unconcern for the likelihood of it. We have strong convictions of fair play and for the concept of one person one vote. This makes it hard for us to understand the lack of concern on the left when legitimate voters are disenfranchised.
Matthew Vadum aptly describes the left's mindset and acceptance of voter fraud here:
Why did Democrats applaud the loathsome community organizer Melowese Richardson, a freshly released, unrepentant voter fraud felon, at a recent "voting rights" rally in Ohio?
Because, like Richardson, they believe they are entitled to vote more than once against a system they see as unjust. Some serial voters do what they do in order to exact revenge against a society they feel did them or their ancestors wrong. Richardson is far from alone. Double-voting is distressingly common.
Many leftists have contempt for the electoral process because they don’t believe in the electoral system as it is constituted in capitalist America. To them, elections are already a fraud – an instrument of the rich, or as Saul Alinsky prefers to call them, the Haves. If the electoral system doesn't serve “the people,” but is only an instrument of the Haves, then election fraud is justified as the path to a future that will serve the Have-Nots, as David Horowitz has explained.
This belief helps Democrats and the rest of the left rationalize their habitual efforts to suppress and cancel out lawfully cast votes. It helps to explain the strenuous efforts of leftists like former Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), now federal prisoner number 32451-016, to assure the public that voter registration fraud is no big deal and that fraudulent registrations almost never turn into fraudulent votes.
This is why liberal fascists inside and outside government routinely excuse electoral fraud – in all its manifestations – arguing in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary that such fraud is merely a Republican invention created to keep minorities and the poor down.
This is why these enemies of democracy tried with fanatical zeal to silence the heroic Catherine Engelbrecht and her good government group True the Vote.
This is why grandstanding Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) – as we just learned – apparently conspired with former IRS mandarin Lois Lerner to sabotage Engelbrecht's organization, which is America's leading grassroots electoral integrity group.
This is why the 58-year-old Richardson bragged about voting twice for President Obama in 2012. The well-spoken, seemingly intelligent poll worker clearly knew what she was doing. She didn't think it was wrong.
When charged, Richardson was indignant as she vowed to battle the accusations in court. "Absolutely, absolutely, I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States."
Richardson told Tom McKee of WCPO-TV on camera that she repeatedly voted in the names of others. Her unlawfully cast ballots canceled out lawfully voted ballots and effectively deprived other citizens of their right to vote. In the past, Ku Klux Klansmen and other Democratic Party operatives accomplished the same results by using the threat of violence to prevent votes from being cast.
Nowadays the Democratic Party outsources its voter fraud business to community organizers like Richardson.
At the rally in Cincinnati, Richardson was called to the stage to be honored after Al Sharpton's National Action Network campaigned to free her. The community organizing group helped to win her early release from her five-year prison term by arguing that she received an inappropriately harsh sentence because she was black.
Democrat Sharpton energetically lunged at Republicans, theoretically the party victimized by Richardson's crimes. Sharpton, recently outed as an FBI informant (he claims his life was threatened by fellow gangsters from a different crime family), accused Republicans of trying to suppress the vote, saying it "is all a scheme to disempower and disenfranchise the vote in Ohio."
Displaying his characteristically tortured diction, the tinfoil hat-wearing Obama confidant and racial arsonist said, "Nobody gave us the right to vote and nobody is going to give it to us now. We fought for it and we're going to fight for our right to keep it."
Sharpton received standing ovations from the crowd of close to 500, who shared his paranoid delusion that someone out there was actually trying to take the right to vote away from American citizens. If my friend Andrew Breitbart were still among the living, there is a good chance he would offer a sizable reward to anyone who could identify an American trying to deprive citizens of their voting rights.
Like Sharpton and the other socialists, President Obama himself no doubt shares the belief that election fraud is justifiable because in a sense it compensates the poor for (allegedly) having little political power.
Left-wingers commit these distressingly common atrocities daily because they believe it is their moral right – perhaps even their duty – to commit voter fraud and to facilitate its commission by their comrades and community organizations.
They care about one thing and one thing only – power – because without power, they cannot bring about a fundamental transformation of America.
It is no coincidence that Obama's role model, the small-c communist Saul Alinsky, used the word power 191 times in his fairly slim magnum opus, Rules for Radicals. (In case you were wondering, the figure of 191 excludes variants of the word power, such as powerful.)
Again, power is everything to these people. Groups like ACORN and Sharpton's National Action Network help them get it.
Alinsky saw his mission as redeeming America by creating “mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people,” as if the people did not already rule America. And it was certainly an odd choice of words for Alinsky, a holier-than-thou, self-professed champion of democracy, to say that these organizations must “seize power.”
Such groups, which he called “People’s Organizations,” must be dedicated "to an eternal war ... against poverty, misery, delinquency, disease, injustice, hopelessness, despair, and unhappiness.”
Alinsky intoned ominously that failing to use “power for a more equitable distribution of the means of life for all people signals the end of the revolution and the start of the counterrevolution.”
No tactic is beyond the pale, Alinsky wrote. In this war “against the social menaces of mankind there can be no compromise. It is life or death.”
This antisocial, Machiavellian attitude dominated the leadership of the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a group that in 2011 was convicted in Nevada in a massive electoral fraud conspiracy.
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