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Oy - On The Unbearable Lightness Of.... Clueless.
JTG Sends:
"Ma'am, please get out of the vehicle.""Do you mind? I'm on the phone."
God bless the police officer with the patience to carry on that conversation for 90 seconds without tazing the individual in question and dragging her out of the car in a semi-conscious state.
Not only do you want to click *this link* you want to click the link in the linked post. And watch the video. Be careful with them cell phones, kiddles. They do *baaaaaad things* to your attention span. I feel most sorry for the Engineer, all things considered.
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Kevin sends:
Damned surge is putting these folks outa work! Where is the compassion? The job training? Heck, what about job security? What's Pelosi gonna do about this outrage?! I'm sure there is an aid bill being crafted somewhere...
Darn those unintended consequences, anyway. There is no news from Iraq that cannot be twisted negatively, if you try hard enough. This one is worthy of the NYT, though it's from McClatchy.
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I first saw this video last week, when Mike D sent it along. Being focused on the targets - I missed the aspect of "The Luckiest Dog In Iraq." I guess from puppykind's POV, al-Qaeda dislike of dogs (resulting in dogs not rushing up to say hello and get in a little friendly sniffing) has a definite upside. Situation Awareness Warning - while it's black and white thermal imaging, it's combat video and not for the squeamish, or places where there are people who might be offended. Turn your volume down, too. H/t, Military.com so that I didn't have to host the video, too.
UPDATE: The truth will out --
Heh. --Bill
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The Navy published the new Maritime Strategy this week. Ustabe I'd slap that thing up here and bloviate in an uninformed-but-interested way. When I realized that was equivalent to the NYT editorial approach, I decided I'd let experts do it and just link to them. Now that we have a resident sailor on staff, and we're buds with CDR Salamander, we'll let them take it away... The Haircut sez...
Phib,Concur exactly. Read it last night with a single malt and a stogie.
I am not impressed. Lots of happy talk and references to transnationalists and stateless actors. (Sounds like an episode of "24")
Not worthy of our nation. Not worthy indeed. No recognition of a threat only "oppportunity". Worthless drivel. No direction and more with less.
Got to the meat at the end. NECC, Brownwater Navy, MCAG and ASW was my take away.
Will direct fire on the blog next week.
Thanks for the peek up the dress.
Haircut
Get the 'Phibian's take here - and perhaps the Haircut will share views with us, and not just fiddle around at 'Phibian's place...
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Ah, being in a TOC again, spider in the web, playing Battle Captain and Effects Guy. Of course, blogging suffers. I've had to forgo a bunch of conference calls on veteran's issues. But then there is some compensation, like driving back to the hotel, motoring past the range where the Strykers are sending rounds downrange with a mortar carrier right next to them hanging and dropping. All that was missing was some popcorn! Speaking of TOCs, I'd better head that way. -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"
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