H&I Fires* 03 Sep 2007
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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From Bob Owens, who reads these things so that I don't have to... another fabulist, this time at Daily Kos.
Funny thing about those "smaller [helicopter] carriers": they can handle Harrier jump jets, but there is no way in hell they can land an F18 Hornet.The Kossacks just TNR'd.
Lex takes it down better than I would have. Something about that "professional knowledge" thing.
Franklin Foer is cringing at that "TNR'd" thing, I'm guessing. Nothing like the magazine you edit being "verbed" into shorthand for fabulism. Give Moulitsas credit - he jumped in early and threw Maccabee under the bus.
Maccabee blames her source (or executes her imaginary friend, whichever), deletes the post, and consoles herself with all the props she's getting from her fellow travelers... several of whom firmly believe that it *could* be true, and that's all that matters, anyway. Why get wrapped up in the details? -the Armorer
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George Will's column is worth a read today... on the fact that sometimes, war is indeed the answer - or, at least, that out of war can come some good. That, and there's this, Kansas connection.
Such heartbreaking stories are written into Normandy's lovely landscape. At the American Cemetery overlooking this beach, amid the many rows of white marble gravestones, are two, side by side, marking the burial places of Ollie Reed and Ollie Reed Jr., a father and his son. The son, an Army first lieutenant, died in Italy on July 6. His father, an Army colonel, was killed July 30 in Normandy. Two telegrams notified the father's wife, the son's mother. The telegrams arrived in Manhattan, Kan., 45 minutes apart.
Worth reading the whole thing, here, in the WashPo. -the Armorer
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Eagle1 chronicles the history of the USS Finback, which 63 years ago yesterday completed a task that many Kossacks wish had gone badly. -the Armorer
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BTW, NYT (reference that Duranty Pulitzer you keep but shouldn't)... it's never too late to acknowledge you were wrong... good on you, Pete Seeger. -the Armorer
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Yesterday, I smacked Katie Couric around a bit. Today, I tip my hat to her: Katie gets a clue. - FbL
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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"
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