H&I* FIRES 23 JAN 2008
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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Haven't set one of these posts up yet, so here's hoping I didn't mess it up too badly...
I have to wonder what would happen to a U.S. officer who tried to pull this sort of a stunt with protecting the constitution: meet Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, which is Gaelic for "career Captain."
A bit of a bleg: The Torch is up for Best Military Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards. It's an awfully small pond, but I wouldn't mind being the big fish in it, so if you're so inclined, a vote for us would be most appreciated.
On a more serious note, up here north of the 49th, we're trying to decide what to do when our current mandate in Kandahar province in Afghanistan runs out in February 2009. Prime Minister Stephen Harper commissioned a panel to look at exactly that problem, a panel chaired by a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (roughly analogous to your SecState) for a previous government and an archrival political party. John Manley's report can be found at this link. One of my co-writers at The Torch covers off the highlights, as he sees them, here and here. I'm still chewing through my copy, and if I have time, I'll add my thoughts later.
I'd think this issue would be fairly important to many readers here, because if Canadians troops leave Kandahar in 2009, it's a good bet they'd have to be replaced by American ones. - Damian
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Since Damian brings up the Canadian Afghanistan mission - now is perhaps a good time to plug a book (that I've not yet read, admittedly) on the subject: "Outside the Wire" with the tagline of "The War in Afghanistan in the words of it's participants." H/t, The Torch via CAPT H. -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."
