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!]
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Two views on something you should get out your stress relief referee doll for.
One from Murdoc.
The other from Jason at COUNTERCOLUMN.
Just a taste to get you interested:
There is a saying that “if you do the crime, you do the time”. My response is that “If you do the war crimes, you will do time in hell, whether the hell of war trauma and shock, of diseases such as those caused by depleted uranium, the old-fashioned traditional hell, fire and brimstone assigned to malefactors…or the hell of sitting in a social justice class and discovering what the hell you are in hell for, or are about to be.
And people wonder why gollum wants out of The Ivory Tower?
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Because there’s more going on in the world other than the Long War. Russian journalist iterates why Russia opposes BMD in Central/Eastern Europe: it’ll add uncertainty to our war plans.
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Col(R) T.R. Fehrenbach: Too little, too late is the motto of too many wars.
Couldn't say it better myself, Colonel. Amen.
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Shloky, who I am grateful to TDAXP Dan for bringing to my attention (we’re praying for your dad, Dan), links to a story about Taliban using system disruption tactics using rockets, cheap ones. Show that the gov’t can’t provide and you have a somewhat amenable population to be the water in which the terrorist fish swim. It’s a classic, and it’s working.
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John Robb takes a real hard look at the networked nature of modern terrorism. Heavy on the theoretical, but an interesting read.
A taste:
When you apply the directional scale-free network model to al Qaeda, you see a fairly good fit, particularly when you assume that the al Qaeda of today is more of a movement than a cohesive organization (Mitch provides some historical analysis to back this up). Here's how it works. Al Qaeda's flow starts in connections from the feeder networks within the IN continent that instill a common animating narrative (Madrassa's, etc.). This common narrative drives social clusters to seek connections with the central core (bin Laden and associates) which will eventually transition them to become operational assets (terrorist cells) in the OUT continent.
ry
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NOT that I want to spread potentially erroneous information, but the AP is now reporting as a top headline that Al Masri has been captured. No confirmation from CENTCOM or any other US official as yet. I can't decide if the release of information on the potential capture is a good or bad thing. [I know, I know; it's been out and retracted a couple of times...but it is "headline" news this AM]
Just in time, Al Qaeda releases a new tape.
Herpetologists discover poisonous snakes in Washington.
-Kat
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Every time I even consider getting back into youth sports something like this comes up and reminds me why I got out: Stupid, angry, can't control their emotions parents. I'm glad this guy will never be able to coach again. He maligned the profession and ATTACKED A CHILD.
ry
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Over at The Torch today we were chatting about the desecration of war memorials, and Odie441 put a typically soldierly slant on the issue: "I was walking by the war memorial two weeks ago and noticed that someone had graciously left the unknown soldier an empty beer can. For gods sake, at least leave him a full one."
Cheers, Damian
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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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