Fallen comrades, the newest form of link-whoring, well, that and *other* stuff!

I usually leave things like this alone, but since SGT Devore is sharing it, so will I. This is the downside to the Band of Brothers. Raw stuff. All I have to say to SGT Devore, after generations of soldiering in the family - at the core, it's a crap shoot. Great training and equipment and fellow soldiers reduce the odds, but in the retail end, little tiny things make up the difference, and who lives, and who dies. You lived, Sergeant, it's just not your fault. Drink Duplantier home. But don't climb in the bottle and join him. Your buddies, and your subordinates, much less your family and the nation, need you.

H/t to Bloodspite and Doc in the Box.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.

Moving on...

Some people take their re-enacting seriously...

There is good news in the Castle Argghhh! family, but it is not mine to announce... simply know that life is, *good*. No, I'm not involved, though I hope to leverage it for my own personal, petty gain.

The troops didn't keep interrupting the President's speech? 'Round here, we call that discipline.

Baldilocks has her take on left-wing response to the President's speech. As I was reading her post and others, I realized how much hyperbole just kills history. Trivializes it. And then, in the back of the mind, changes it - especially for those who didn't live through the events or those whose sense and knowledge of history is no deeper than reading my "this day in history" kinds of things. There is a reason that I almost always find links to those little tid-bits - yer supposed to follow them, and get some more depth, and maybe (heh) it will tickle enough interest to examine something deeper. Of course, here at Argghhh! we have our grognards - near as I can tell, all JTG *does* is sit around and read! But having no sense of history, of perspective, allows shallow and/or manipulative politicians/agenda pushers to completely distort reality. (Fair and balanced: Idiot politicians know no political boundary...)

Uptick in Insurgency=Tet for example. From a purely military perspective, we only *wish* they would come out like the VC and NVA did for Tet. Tet *destroyed* the VC, and savagely mauled the NVA. What's happening in Iraq is background noise in comparison. But there is one parallel. The leading lights of the Press are trying to make the political fallout be equal...

The same thing goes for Guantanamo=Gulag. Bush=Hitler. US troops=Einsatzgruppen. To even make the suggestion is to be either venally craven (assuming you know the true extent of the comparison) or just displaying your relatively profound ignorance. Or both. Sigh.

Blackfive points out one potential uptick of the GWOT - over time, the relative combat experience of Congress will increase.

What Dean sez.

Heh. The newest form of link-whoring. May have to try that here, too. Nothing exceeds like excess!

And, speaking of Jawa Report - this one is fun just for the comments!

Aw, what the heck - what Dean said... again. Though, dude - I *wasn't* making a slippery slope argument in my Kelo post... death by erosion isn't exactly the same thing... though they may be functionally identical.

The military actually spends a fair amount of time trying to be careful when naming operations (which is why it always tickled me that the Prince of Darkness, General Wesley Clark, let Operation Allied Force (OAF!) slip by...) Churchill famously admonished his generals on it.

"Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives ought not to be decided by code-words that imply a boastful and over-confident sentiment, such as 'Triumphant,' or conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as 'Woebetide' and 'Flimsy.' They ought not to be names of a frivolous character, such as 'Bunnyhug' and 'Ballyhoo.' They should not be ordinary words often used in other connections, such as 'Flood,' 'Sudden,' and 'Supreme.' Names of living people‹ministers or commanders‹should be avoided. Intelligent thought will already supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names that do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called 'Bunnyhug' or 'Ballyhoo.' Proper names are good in this field. The heroes of antiquity, figures from Greek and Roman mythology, the constellations and stars, famous racehorses, names of British and American war heroes, could be used, provided they fall within the rules above."

Names matter, like it or no. And Triggerfinger wonders if the Administration didn't slip a gear on this one...

The Armorer wants one of these for yard work... and, wouldn't SWWBO and the Armorer look good stylin' down the avenue in this BMW?

And, while this is *true*, the Armorer doesn't work in IT for his firm... but he does still like his firm a lot. Some people's mileage varies on that... (inside joke, those who know, know).

And how about that steadiness, and long term stability in editorial outlook? "Huh?" you say? See what Bad Cat Robot found in her walls...

Teresa has a Redneck Engineering Exam for your consideration. The South (Bloodspite) has taken it, as has the Far North (CAPT H of Her Majesty's Canadian Forces). Given that we have suburban 'possums living at the Castle, we had an interest in the first question...

Banter in Atlanter points out - Home Depot is offering a military discount this weekend... (hmm, why not *every* weekend? Why do they wait until the weekend after I spend over $100...? - Oh, wait - that's why!) 8^D Fair and balanced requires me to note that Lowe's is doing it, too. (Check the lower right corner of the page) Ahhh, that competition thing!