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.
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Pentagon to alert National Guard troops.
If their assignment to Iraq is ultimately approved by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, it would be the first time full Guard combat brigades were sent back to Iraq for a second tour.
Whatever you think of what happened with the Brits the Iranians snatched - here's a bit of journalistic decision-making I can support:
Britain insisted the crew was on a routine operation when seized — but Sky News reported Thursday that Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air said in an interview days before his capture that his crew was gathering intelligence on Iran during their patrols. Sky said it held the interview because it thought it could hamper the crew's release.
Heh. Here's some tortured speaking from the FBI regarding their slain agent yesterday:
"Preliminarily, information suggests the agent may have been fatally wounded as a result of the accidental discharge of another agent's weapon during a dynamic arrest situation," the FBI said in a statement Thursday night.
Do official spokespeople go to class to learn to speak in that stilted a fashion?
A little video gun pr0n, via Strategy Page - the Battle of Haifa street. I just hope the guy firing the Barrett inside a building was wearing hearing protection.
Also from Strategy Page - a little old fashioned tactical intel work regarding the 'flak traps' that were scoring our helos:
American troops in Iraq figured out how Iraqi terrorists had managed to ambush American helicopters with heavy machine-guns and get away with it. The Iraqis had used trucks with the machine-gun mounted in the back, and a tarp over metal supports (a common feature of military trucks) to conceal the weapon. The tarp was rigged so it could be quickly pulled aside, as well as the metal supports for the tarp. This enabled the heavy machine-gun to immediately open fire. There were four of these trucks, and they roamed around areas that American helicopters were operating above. One of these trucks was spotted, with its machine-gun revealed, by a UAV, after informants indicated that this was probably the weapon responsible. U.S. intelligence then analyzed video and other data they had, and put more UAVs over areas believed frequented by the trucks. On the ground, intelligence operatives began beating the bushes for information on these mobile flak traps. Soon the four trucks were identified and, one by one, destroyed with smart bombs.
Lastly, Denizen Jim B of the fedora and Scoresby fame - takes on Congressman Dennis Moore (D, Kansas).
Okay I am banging a drum so sue meCongressman Dennis Moore
He provided aid and comfort to terrorists by voting for the pork loaded supplemental bill for military spending. You know the one that the President warned them he would veto. The one that put a date certain on the pullout from Iraq and the one that gives hope to terrorists? Yea that one.
Well tonight he held a “Listening meeting on ‘No Child Left Behind’” because he definitely does NOT want to listen to questions on his vote on that junk bill. But that’s exactly why I was there. Ma was there too just in case I needed bail.
This would be where I note Jim has a son who's a soldier. Jim was a Marine. He has a son-in-law in the Army. Jim is also an educator and a Democrat. Jim's got some square shoulders in a round hole, don't he? Read the whole thing here. Just do it. It's fun.
Lastly, there's this:
Top-secret data on an advanced US military system was leaked because Japanese officers were swapping porn files at work, a newspaper said Thursday.
Snerk. Really, you can't make this up. -the Armorer.
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Because I miss football, have never cared for Baseball, and am currently appalled by whats going on down here in "Hawg Country" I present to you
Hog-Gate Part 1 and Hog-Gate Part 2
Will this be the end of Houston Nutt? Will Frank Boyles actually leave? Will the Hawgs actually do something besides the same play over and over next season? Did Nutt really have unauthorized *ahem* "workouts' with a local TV Anchorwoman? Find out on the next edition of "As the Hog Turns" (Sounds like a bad BBQ advertisement)
-BS
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Thought for the day:
"When I'm not on active duty, I dream about it." - Army Dr. (Col.) Everett Spees, 73, who treated Soldiers on the battlefields of Vietnam and is now back on active duty as a cardiothoracic surgeon in Landstuhl, Germany.
Word. -the Armorer
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Men in Black in Afghanistan
Who do you trust? Media or Military or none of the above?
For the conspiracist in you: Haliburton and KBR Split
You may remember this soldier from blackfive. Blackfive and many blogs pushed a fund raiser for this soldier to get his house built through "homes for our troops". It didn't help him adjust. Nothing did. In fact, his whole situation seems to have been compounded by living someplace that had never been good for him in the first place. And, I am not certain what story the NYT was trying to push because, in the end, it seemed this was about personal self-destruction, not about a failure of any part of the system. It did mention Rep. Murtha several times and that this young man's story is what made him "change his mind" about the war so long ago.
From that, with no disrespect, I often wonder if old war fighters are the best at determining our national security? As a recent post here said, how do you make appropriate national security decisions based on your feelings of guilt and regret? Particularly, for a war you fought a long time ago? While I've had harsh words for Rep. Murtha, I've also felt my own guilt because I feel like his decision making processes have been impaired by this previous experience. I am supposed to comprehend and have empathy for how it would shape his decision making. Yet, because I feel his actions are so egregious, I have a lot of difficulty feeling any empathy for his previous experience. And, maybe because I feel that way about Rep. Murtha, I may not have felt the sympathy I should have for this young man in the story. We are complicated beings, are we not?- Kat
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Here's a good rant for a Friday - Chuck suggests some ways to properly fund Military Healthcare.
- Barb
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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 (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's 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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