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. [Hey - trackbacks work again!]
You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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"Madam Secretary, please," Boxer said. "I know you feel terrible about it. That's not the point. I was making the case as to who pays the price for your decisions."
You might want to be careful with that rhetorical blade there, Senator. It cuts both ways, seeing that 'keeping Saddam Hussein contained' had an annual toll of 50k and going to places like the Sudan is likely to cost lives resulting in heartache and pain in the families of the military community, like Ginsu knives of old. Who does pay for your decisions, Senator? (I can do that as I'm still, technically, based on my permanent mailing address being in Southern California, a constituent of hers.)
Wretchard over at Belmont has something interesting about the IEDs being supplied by Iran. Well, TROPHY is the answer to that too, innit' Keith Olberman?
Just a reminder of what problems come with the three state break up of Iraq ideas pushed by some. Turkey doesn't like how the Kurds turn a blind eye to the PKK. Just something to think about. .
The Guardian(UK) on how the insurgency has morphed over time. Now there's room to talk to some who've become tired of the violence and overcome their reflexive US hatred. The rest, the bloody minded rest, well, there's a solution to them too---a damned expensive one.
ry
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Jules Crittenden as a great round-up of Iraq news and posts (scroll down).
And the NY Times is again delving into government secrets that are being used to track down terrorists. I don't know enough to make a judgment yet, but it sounds a lot like the terrorist surveillance story. Crittenden has some pointed comments on the subject.
And finally, Lex points us to a new milblogger worthy of a bookmark--Acute Politics:
Before now poetry has taken notice
Of wars, and what are wars but politics
Transformed from chronic to acute and bloody?
from "Build Soil," Robert Frost
He's been blogging since September but doesn't have a ton of posts, so go ahead and start at the beginning. - FbL
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We've upgraded the back office, and made some tweaks and improvements in the reception area, too. So - as you poke and prod and find things that don't work quite right (for example, at the moment, it doesn't remember my name data in the comment box) leave a comment or drop us an email and I'll have the gnome work on it. Thanks! -the Armorer
[Update: I know there are some Firefox issues. Comments *are* working, they are going into moderation, and have to be approved. How fast they show up depends on how often I'm checking my email.]
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Based on the standards of AP and al-Reuters journalism, I have fixed the picture from yesterday's post to better tell tell a better story. Funnier, anyway. That isn't wrong. If it was wrong, they wouldn't do it.
-the Armorer
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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. 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".
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