H&I* Fires 26 Aug 2006

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...

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If you live for chances to dis Cindy Sheehan, The Right Place Caption Contest is your venue for today...

Heh. The UN Peacekeeping Force for Lebanon starts to take shape. The headline on Yahoo for this article is what caught my attention: "Europe Provides the Backbone for UN Peacekeeping Force". Heh. The "backbone" is a robust mission, robust ROE to support the mission, and the will to carry it out. Otherwise, it's just another feckless exercise in window-dressing.

Howard McFarland Fish - just what were you thinking, boyo? A stick of dynamite? On an airplane? Dolt. I don't even try to bring home inerted ordnance I get on my travels, I just ship it. -the Armorer

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A University of Chicago law professor attempts to defend Ann Diggs Taylor's recent NSA ruling. It's almost beyond parody, but deeply disturbing because the writer is actually serious and displays an attitude that prefers outcome over law. Frightening. - FbL

And in more good news, "negotiating" with Iran has obviously been very productive. Not. - 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".