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H&I Fires* 20 NOV 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...

Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

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David of The Thunder Run wants you to meet someone. After those deserters from yesterday... let's meet what David terms "The Epitome of a Soldier""


While anti-military thugs "protest" in Olympia, Washington a soldier assigned to Fort Lewis re-enlisted. That in itself is not remarkable, we all know that the members of our military are not the uneducated and poor that the left portrays them as such. What is remarkable is that this soldier re-enlisted hours after being wounded by an IED near Zaganiyah, Iraq, Nov. 13. Not the first time this has occured, but you won't read about them in the NYT or WaPo either.

Ladies and gentlemen allow me to introduce you to another hero that will be ignored by the mainstream media; Spc. Christopher Hoyt with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, WA.

David also just got himself into the Denizen blogroll, and will have Denizen posting access shortly.

Now, a little help for our friends from the Middle East Times: The acronym stands for Ground Based Operational Surveillance System, or GBOSS.

A well-written bit from an in-country milblogger, Army of Dude.

The Armchair Generalist notes neo-Luddites with NIMBY attitudes. -the Armorer

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More from the bulging files of "Classy Canadian Media": an online poll at Canoe.ca (Sun Media Group) that takes the pulse of a nation by asking the one question burning in all our minds - "How high will the final Canadian death toll be in Afghanistan?"

No, I am not sh*tting you.

(Note also some significant innumeracy issues among those barren souls who actually responded to the poll.) - Damian

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Damian crashed me.


Everything is not about money. According to this report, the Saudis are leading the way with relief to Bangladesh with a donation of $100 million. While the US has only pledged $2 million. Except, of course, millions of dollars worth of navy ships, military personnel and already packaged "health kits" are on station and being delivered today. We are, of course, also using our equipment and fuel to deliver the other goods and donations of other nations. Who leads the way?

Over at Michelle Malkin's place, a report that MTV started a satellite station in the Mid-East over the weekend. Michelle thinks there's something wrong with MTV sacrificing some of their lewdness for these viewers when they wouldn't respond to conservative critics in the US. I think she's looking at it the wrong way. Think about it. MTV in the Middle East. Osama must be spinning in his cave.

-Kat

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He might be spinning in his grave, but Osama's happy with the New York DMV license plate people. -the Armorer

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Be afraid, be very afraid. On both sides of the issue. I'm surprised. I figured the Court would duck this one [goes to show what a bad court-watcher I am]. Get ready for an onslaught of emotional and bogus data, from both sides of the issue, that will make it hard to sort through for the nuggets. There's a *lot* riding on this one. The Supreme Court is going to hear the DC Gun Ban case. The political silly season is about to get sillier. If the Supremes rule in favor of DC - McCarthy's bill will move out of committee before the ink is dry. If they rule in favor of the citizens of DC... oh my the howls from our betters. -the Armorer

*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"

11 Comments

My apologies, Kat. It would be nice if we had a sign we could post on the door of the blog that said "Occupied - do not disturb" so we wouldn't tread on each others toes like that. Someone who actually understands more about computers than how to hit the "Post" button - which rules me out, btw - should really figure out how to do that. :)
 
heh...something like "users on line" maybe?
 
I wonder if MTV Middle East will be showing the classic episodes of "MTV Pimp my Camel", MTV Spring Hadj", "MTV Cribs, the Cave edition" and the up and coming "MTV Ugly Mustafa" and lastly "Jack Bin Ladin" Now if we can just get them to buy into a CSI....
 
something like "users on line" maybe? Was that a cluebat that just hit me?
 
No, Damian. It wasn't. There is no functionality in the current install that will do that. And I just checked the activity log (which you guys currently don't have access to) to see if that would help... and it doesn't.
 
With regard to the DC gun ban case that is going before the SC, I realize that logic is not always a component of court decisions but wouldn't it be logical that, in order to have a "well regulated militia" you would have to have citizens who are proficient in their use of a gun? And therefore wouldn't it thus be necessary to allow citizens to OWN their own guns in order to become (and remain) proficient with them? If we take the 2nd Amendment to mean that firearms should be maintained by the states in the event that a militia should need them, is that wise? I mean, Louisiana couldn't get their citizens food and water following hurricane Katrina yet we're going to rely on them to distribute firearms in the event that a militia needs to be formed? Let me know how that works out for you all. Me? I'll keep my Beretta within arm's reach - thankyouverymuch.
 
And another thing... The claim that banningthe ownership of handguns in the D.C. area resulted in a decrease in the crime and murder rates over the past decade+ is ridiculous. Unless, of course, you truly believe that criminals and thugs own legal and registered handguns.
 
Well, if their law is actually working for them... golleee just imagine what the death toll would be without their law! Which one could then use to infer... that they are perhaps the most imcompetent local government constituted in the United States.
 
I hadn't thought about that. If the law is working so well, it must mean that their citizens - the ones that own their weapons legally - are criminals as well and their police force isn't doing it's job very well.
 
Having resided for 15-years in the D.C. Metro Region, I was glad to be just outside its gun-fearing paranoia. Not to say that either Prince Georges' and Montgomery Counties in The People's Republic of Suburban Maryland was much of an improvement either.
 
On the militia and RTKBA thing: I'm sure I've mentioned here, and other places, many times, that The Founders got it right the first time on that subject. That is, volunteers only for foreign wars, the Army has to justify its existence every two years, and everybody shows up for militia drill, with weapon, boots, acouterments etc., or he doesn't get to vote. The Navy was treated differently.
 
© 2008 John Donovan
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