You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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Don't bring a Range Rover to a tank fight. It would have been over quicker had they been able to use their MG's.
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Today, in 1863, in a fight overshadowed by Gettysburg and the fact that it was unsuccessful - the 54th Massachusetts Infantry did answer one question - though it would be asked again and again in later wars until we finally settled it for good in Korea. -the Armorer
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I was reading this bit by Jim Dunnigan this morning... two key 'graphs:
The main problem with this is that you cannot win a war with IEDs. In Vietnam, IEDs were used, but as a minor, secondary weapon. The Vietnamese communists knew they had to drive the Americans out before they could take over. When that effort failed, North Vietnam made peace, and once the American troops left, the communists launched two conventional invasions across the border. The first one, in 1972, failed, but the second one, in 1975, succeeded. The Sunni Arab terrorists have no such invasion option. They have to drive the U.S. troops out and then, vastly outnumbered, take over the government. Many Iraqi Sunni Arabs believe they can do it, with the help of a media campaign that convinces the world that the elected government of Iraq, and their American allies, are the bad guys. This is all absurd, but the Sunni Arabs are spending over two million dollars month to build and place IEDs, just to inflict casualties on American troops, in an attempt to achieve their impossible dream.
With this as the concluding paragraph:
The U.S. is spending over four billion dollars a year to develop new technologies for thwarting roadside bombs. This is revolutionizing warfare, because the electronic devices, sensors and reconnaissance systems developed have many other uses in combat. So while the Iraqi IEDs are useless as a war-winning weapon, the countermeasures are very valuable, and the impact of this new tech will be highly visible in any future wars.
There is much of interest in his analysis, and you should (as ever) read Dunnigan's whole thing, not just my excerpts.
Still, as I read it, something else niggled at the back of my brain... from Harry Summers, in his book "On Strategy," where he recalls an exchange between himself and a former NVA officer some years after the war. It went something like this: Summers: "You never defeated us in the field." NVA Officer: "That is true. It is also irrelevant."
Heh. -the Armorer
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Oh - and yesterday we added two mechanical steeds to the Castle motor pool. An F150 and a Polaris Ranger XP700. Heh. The truck is *mine* but, in a cruel twist of fate... SWWBO is driving it today, not me. Sigh. Pics to follow. -the Armorer
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Hmmmmm. Mebbe I'll go get a few more flags....
And then there's Hitchens, with bite, as usual. -the Armorer
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More on the doctor-terrorists. - FbL
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From Pakistan: "Take back your ban on suicide bombings... or we'll suicide bomb you." - FbL
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Saw this headline on Drudge: PAPER: Is Michael Moore the new Orson Welles?...
Perhaps. In rotundity, but not profundity. -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 (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 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".