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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In their rush last week to "celebrate" a particular anniversary by using military funding legislation to try to embarrass President Bush, the Congress overlooked an anniversary of actual import in the greater scheme of things:
Last week marked the anniversary of shame in U.S. foreign policy, as Congress cut off military funding to Cambodia, beginning a genocidal blood bath of nearly 3 million innocents. The Communists brought their style of reforms and "social justice" to the people.
Something about repetition springs to mind... - FbL
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Ya just don't appreciate an "always on" cable connection until it isn't on, like this morning. So let's do a little catch-up.
Jules with "Another Grunt's rant on Iraq."
Patrick Lasswell with " Not All a Bunch of Clowns Smoking Dope, But..."
I'm getting ready for the Milblog Conference this week - and much is going on behind the scenes, especially with the new OPSEC guidance published by the Army. Blogging will be episodic, but worth the check-in, I think! -the Armorer
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I always have a problem with these ‘but the number isn’t high enough’ type arguments against The Long War/GWOT. There’s so many angles on which they’re wrong.
Was Theseus wrong to kill the Minotaur and upend Minos’ rule---the cost was only 9 virgins and 9 youths? Was Suzano-san wrong to slay Orochi? Saint George should’ve just let the Dragon accept its ransom then too, huh? Evil is evil, regardless of body counts.
That’s what we say about racists and homophobes with their violence, right? One attack is too many; one injured or maimed in this fashion is too many, even if the aggregate number is miniscule. One is too many and a blight on the world that we can’t let stand. As is the current conflagration in Darfur, right? One is too many even if the costs of change are far in excess of the costs of letting it stand(Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc…)So too is radical and ideological terrorism in its current levels of organization and form an evil whose eradication is something that is far more worth than the immediate costs incurred during the effort. The cost, the suffering induced on the many, to stamp them out is miniscule in proportion to the good gained thereby, right?
I have a problem with these because they’re rationalizations that the cost of living with evil is acceptable, and poor ones at that. They never say at what level it becomes something to go agro over with relation to transnational terrorism or why less than some theoretical number is tolerable---just that we’re over reacting--- while even one event is too high for instances of racism or homophobia. I’m just asking for a little consistency in application of utilitarianism on the issue of confronting evil, ‘yo.
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I’m waiting for the continuation of the Phil Carter of Info Dump and Col. Austin Bay debate over at the LATimes that started with this piece. That looks like it’s going to be an interesting exchange.
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‘Don’t bogart all the heavy Helium, yankee!’
--ry
*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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