H&I Fires* 21 May

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite. You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

From CAPT H comes this anecdote from W.F. Deedes, writing in The Telegraph:

A locket found in the wreck of the Titanic has just been sold for £58,000. I don't altogether like the idea of snuffling, like pigs seeking truffles, for treasures in what in reality is a gigantic graveyard. But then again, as some readers of this column will know, I am prejudiced.

I was born a year after that disaster and I grew up with legendary tales of what went on that terrible night on the north Atlantic. It spanned the range of human behaviour - courage, cowardice, stupidity, carelessness and sacrifice. At the age of about eight, I can remember pulling a book about it off one of my father's shelves.

"Put it back," he said sternly. "The man who wrote that book jumped into a lifeboat while women drowned."

I grew up, too, with the psychological consequences of the Titanic disaster. We had been on top of the world, inventive, enterprising and learning how to conquer the air, inspiring Swinburne's line, "Glory to Man in the highest, for he is the master of things". The Titanic disaster made many wonder if that was true.

Indeed. Put that back. The residents of New Orleans should have considered that before re-electing the Empty Suit to the Mayoralty.

If retiring Representative Murtha is your jones for this election cycle, Diana Irey has been suggested as a replacement. (Since she's the only candidate opposing hm, that's rather a d-uh statement). It's not my direct fight (which isn't to say I won't contribute, but I'm pretty sure I'd be annoyed about a lot of out-of-district money suddenly trying to buy my local elections - yeah, I know, it happens anyway and we just don't see it. I'm a naif, I admit it.). However, I find it mildly distasteful that nowhere on her website does she mention her party affiliation. I know, I know, it's obvious enough - it's just a trend in politics that perturbs me. And should *really* perturb the parties. But I say - send some new blood to Congress. Of course, I think we should send new right-wing blood to Congress, too. Knock out the extremists (hey, define that how you like) in the primaries, especially in relatively safe seats. It's not like they aren't already the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Keep the Right in power, but change the hands on the levers. -The Armorer

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Heh. Doc Russia makes his opinion of Representative Murtha clear. -The Armorer.

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My first gig as guest blogger... So sad to see Cassandra losing her judgement like that.

And an update on the Mayor of Tal Afar who wrote that beautiful thank you letter to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He's visiting the U.S. now and his gratitude hasn't faded. He expresses it in typical Iraqi fashion:

Al Jibouri, dressed in a black suit with a lavender tie, said he was glad to be back among them.

"Are you truly my friends?" he asked through a translator. "Yes. I walk a happier man because you are my friends. You are the world to me. I smell the sweet perfume that emanates from your flower of your strength, honor and greatness in every corner of Tal Afar. The nightmares of terror fled when the lion of your bravery entered our city."

Greyhawk has an excellent report on Tal Afar, too.

The Italian Embassy hosts a Friday night dinner for the wounded. They really rolled out the red carpet. More here, including a link to lots of pictures. [h/t Greyhawk on Milblogs] - FbL

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".