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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A new, self-employed "embed" heads to Iraq. Bob Calvert, of Talking With Heroes:
Back to Iraq to Talk with HeroesFor those who are hearing about the Talking with Heroes Internet talk show for the very first time I am Bob Calvert, the host. What we do is not about politics. It is all about supporting our men and women in uniform, and their families.
This one is unique - among his sponsors...in fact his *major* sponsor: Soldier's Angels.
A special thanks to Patti and Jeff Bader and Soldiers Angels for being the main sponsor of this upcoming trip to Iraq. And thank you to all those who have been supportive of this project, some for short periods of time and others from the very beginnning back in 2005.
No - not one thin dime of your Project Valour-IT money is involved with this. That money goes to the cause you gave it for. And not surprising, to me - is the Castle's Own Denizenne Fuzzybear Lioness is up to her furry chin in this... [and we mean the furry chin comment in the *best* way, of course] -the Armorer
Oh, and the comments on yesterday's H&I have gotten toothsome and fun, you should go check 'em out. Heck, they're even endorsed by Maggie!
I am still lost in the comments below......my mind trailed off at "Uh, oh - I see Damian demands I erect the Octagon..."-the Armorer
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Dammit. Sometimes life just isn't fair. -the Armorer
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Featured YouTube Smackdown video for August 17:
I.E.D. Attacks in Iraq - Panterapete187
Note: If you aren't familiar with the YouTube Smackdown, please visit the first link above before taking a look at the second. Thanks. - Rickbert
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Update: Forgot to mention, Soldiers Angels is in the KC Star.
Killer Robots and 20 kilowatt lasers that make mortars go "boom"
22. In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon [ed..but Josephine and Chirac are still open]8. In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.[ed...and you would conceal that...where?]
Putin Announces Warsaw Pact 2 (minus Warsaw; he must still be pining for the "good ol' days"). While some folks disavow a new Cold War because they know what Cold War was about:
Both sides know there will be no new Cold War because money binds them so closely, Eduard Radzinsky believes.[snip]Margot Light also believes there cannot be another Cold War.
"You only have to look at how the supply of oil and gas has divided Europe to understand that there isn't that same kind of solidarity on the Western side while Russia has no real allies," she says.
"Nor is there any ideological divide. There is probably more belief in socialism in the West now than there is in Russia."
I always love when people dismiss the economic reasons for war, by far the most prevalent reason that nations have gone to war, for the barely concealing "ideological" reasons. Which, now that that ideology is gone, the reasoning goes, so does the cause for war. That's right after she notes the economic and resource issues. For instance, Putin believes strongly that Russia should be a super power. It has resources, people, land and money. He does long for the good ol' days when the Cold War meant Mother Russia was an economic, military and political power house. Maybe, he's not interested in direct nuclear brinkmanship, but he is certainly interested in creating security tensions with Iranian nuclear plants, arms sells and a proxy, proxy war. It keeps the Caucuses firmly within his grasp and thus, their oil, their money and their territory through which more Russian oil and natural gas can flow. Ergo, money.
Why do people always have to bring ideology into a perfectly good war? Frankly, I think its a good thing. Might remind some folks about how they want to live and who they want to associate with: Freedom or autocracy? Maybe all these nations pine for the good ol' days, too. Might explain, soul stealing, brain eating, Zombie Democracies.
-kat
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A shocking new study shows that Iraq is set to disintegrate!. You know, because all those studies before that said it was about to disintegrate were wrong and this report is right! Particularly because it was done in Berlin and those Berliners know things!
Okay...I don't know how much more sarcasm I can generate. They are basically advocating "federalism" for Iraq. As if that were new, too. Hey! Maybe next week they'll write a new song and call it, "Duetscheland Uber Alas!"
-Kat
*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"
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