H&I Fires* 10 SEP 2007

September 10, 2007 | | Comments (7)

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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So you thought Osama's speech sound like it could've been written by an American ultra-leftist? You were very close.

Speaking of ... Hot Air and Ace of Spades both look at oddities in the bin Laden video, though with very different questions raised.

And speaking of terrorists... Captain's Quarters reads between the lines of the terrorist cell in Germany

The NY Times conducted a poll of American attitudes about Iraq and the "surge." It's got some good news and some bad, but the analysis seems incomprehensible. I guess that's what happens when you try make poll numbers fit your ideological template...

And in the Weird Science files: Computerized face scans can spot genetic defects/diseases. One can often notice Down Syndrome and Autism by facial structure, but this is a whole 'nother level of subtlety in detecting a variety of conditions. - FbL

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To pile on to Fuzzy's stuff about the Osama video - Gateway Pundit asks the question - which came first? Osama or the Democrats? If you look at it like that... some of the far lefty desire to see us fail becomes plausible. They see a fellow-traveler, in philosophy, if not quite perhaps in detail. Well, the Stalinist Wing probably doesn't mind his methods too much, either... H/t, Stop the ACLU. -the Armorer

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Still a sight to make an Infantryman's knees a little weak. This is a video of the early model Tiger I in the hands of the Brit tank museum at Bovington. IIRC, this tank was captured in North Africa, towards the end of the campaigns there.

-the Armorer

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Something to warm an Armorer's heart (once he stops laughing)... - FbL

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An anonymous Senator supposedly told the Politico website that the Democrats don't want to call GEN Petraeus a liar on national TV, so they're going to let their surrogates (MoveOn.org?) do it for them. Apparently somebody didn't get the message...

Senator Harry Reid, on the topic of GEN Petraeus:

He has made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual...

UPDATE: Roundup of the smearing of Petraeus by a number of Democrat leaders.
 - FbL

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One of the best overviews of the currrent situation in Iraq and the effects of various options moving forward that I've seen so far, courtesy of Senators McCain and Lieberman.

CLICK HERE to watch the Petraeus/Crocker testimony on Capitol Hill (Senators still bloviating as of 1:18 Eastern). - 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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7 Comments

By MajMike on September 10, 2007 8:35 AM
ah, the squeak and clatter of the track, and the hum of the diesels... like a heavenly song.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on September 10, 2007 10:18 AM
Diesel? Cheers
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 10, 2007 11:58 AM
Oh, give the man a break, CAPT H. He's lost in reverie and engaged in some poetic license...
 
By Justthisguy on September 10, 2007 12:28 PM
The Muttering of the Maybach... Ja, ze English soon vill tremble from the beating of ze screws of our Zeppelin cruisers.
 
By MajMike on September 10, 2007 1:57 PM
{still lost in reverie} {opens one eye long enough to ignore the technical snarkage} {goes back to dreaming} ;-P
 
By kat-missouri on September 10, 2007 8:35 PM
I think the Osama videos are faked up old videos, frankly. I keep looking at the side by side comparisons and it looks like the one that was already released is really the same video that has had the color and contrast changed with some image editing to darken the beard and shorten it (in one of close ups of the stills, you can see phantom images of the original beard). Opening remarks look like a cut that didn't make it in the original 2004 video. Then it freeze frames and all we hear is Osama's voice which may or may not be him or may not be his original voice. Frankly, you could get the same quality from a speech recognition program. As for his remarks, people are pointing to Adam Gadahn or whatever he calls himself. I understand he is a bit of a computer geek as well. My bet is that the first video is faked up from the 2004. If, by any chance, it is bin Laden's voice, it is only a recording over a faked up video. But, I'm betting on fake all the way around. The next video, they are purporting to have the "last will and testament" of one of the hi-jackers. So What? Anyone could put together some old video and act like its new. This is the terrorists trying to stay relevant. Wouldn't due to have 9/11 go by without some jack-leg Islamist making a statement would it? My thoughts are that we are *ahem* assisting with operations in the Waziristan hinterlands and these guys can't do anything new because, even in a whack-a-mole game, the moles get hit as often as they don't. Mole might be better off keeping its head down.
 
By Justthisguy on September 11, 2007 1:14 AM
As is, or should be, widely known, there are all sorts of ways to interfere with tanks which are un-accompanied by infantry. Why, not 200 yards from me as I type, is some kinda M4 Sherman in the county museum. I betcha that my wussy old self could do a mobility kill on it with nothing more than my bedside pistol, shooting into its radiator at zero range. Those armor-louvres don't work if you stick the pistol right up in there. Oh, and black spray paint is good if one can actually climb up upon the tank. Spray it upon the places where the tankers look out. One tank, alone, with no infantry accompaniment, is susceptible to all sorts of dirty tricks, if they be done by brave people. But everybody knows that.