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).

Don't mean to suddenly re-appear and take over the blog, but, upon posting my Christmas AAR and checking the email, I discovered a report apropos the WWI Christmas Truce story.

J. Russell Coffey, the oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, has died.

The two remaining U.S. veterans are Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, W.Va.; and Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center, Fla., according to the Veterans Affairs Department. In addition, John Babcock, 107, of Spokane, Wash., served in the Canadian army and is the last known Canadian veteran of the war.

-Kat

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Not good news, on several levels... Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and 20 others, were murdered by an apparent suicide bomber at a rally in Rawalpindi. Leave aside the politics - *nobody* needs unrest of this nature in a nuclear-armed nation. -the Armorer

FbL sez: if what Powerline reports is true, it's even worse--another opposition candidate (different party) was assassinated in a separate incident. Either the terrorists didn't like elections, or Musharraf had other plans when he called for them. Bad, bad news.

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Good thing I checked in. I was about to post the above news. Of course, I would have trampled on the Armorer, but I think he's getting used to the dings in his helmet.

However, possibly good news, US captures two Iraqis believed to be involved in the kidnapping of two soldiers from a check point last May.-Kat
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Appropos Benazir Bhutto's death, a brief bio.

Speaking of wealth people with bad reputations, Grandpa Hilton has had enough and plans to donate his wealth to charity upon his death. Of course, it's very likely that Paris has had access to vast portions of her "inheritance" already in a trust fund and that Grandpa Hilton is simply trying to buy his way into heaven (camel through the eye of a needle v. rich man into heaven and all that).

How many severed heads can you fit in a banana box? A look back at Iraq from a departing BBC reporter?
-Kat

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."