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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Another Hot Spot we're not hearing much about. Wonder if former President Clinton would care to go broker a deal? The 35th Division, an ARNG unit regional to the Castle, is in the middle of this. Kosovo in the news again... and it's made the papers locally, too. Here's hoping our NATO allies are up the challenge, should a challenge come. There is still time for statesmen to make an appearance. Here's hoping they do.

Staying in Europe, but moving to Scotland...

THEY were once outlawed for being used as seditious weapons of war. Now, bagpipes have been blasted as an environmental menace.

Bagpipes. Enviro-menace. Obviously, I blame Bush. H/t Kevin the tobacconist for those two bits.

Chuck Simmins of America's North Shore Journal with updated graphic analysis of casualty trends in Iraq.

Chuck makes the following observation:

You’ll also note the drop in terrorist deaths. In many places our troops are just not having to fight any longer. Many of the people choosing to attack the Coalition in January have either decided to join our efforts or remain on the sideline and not fight.

This is a remarkable change. It does not take very many terrorists to wage an IED war. The lack of actual combat suggests that most of those we were fighting are no longer in the battle.

I'll just add two things... for the first time ever, the casualty notifications that pop into my inbox involve more accidents and "non-combat" deaths than combat deaths. That's a good thing.

The second? The Shia-dominated Iraqi government needs to find the Statesmen to meet with Statesmen from the Sunni minority to break through the legislative logjam, to use this breather brought to them by American and Iraqi soldiers, to make the Time of the Soldier in Iraq something in the history books, and not the day-to-day experience of Achmed and Afifa. Let this be the stuff of legend, not life. You owe it to your people. And you need to take the step to define people as something larger than... tribe, sept, clan, sect. Let those be social constructs, not political. I know it won't be easy... that's why it takes Statesmen. -the Amorer

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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."