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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Not much time of late for much of anything of late (haven't forgotten that you exist, Trias), but this crossed my desk and proved to be a bit chewy.
--ry
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Unlike Ry's piece, this is short and to the point ;) Up Close with the Counter Insurgency

Also, Michael Totten has part II: Final Mission in Fallujah

And our favorite 9th circuit court in San Francisco rules that the Navy is not exempt from the Environmental Act that prohibits the use of sonar in the area. Even after the president signed an executive order to exempt the Navy from the act. In other words, any enemy submarine like, you know, Iranian, North Korean, Chinese, Russian, etc, etc, etc could set in this 12 mile area (which is huge in terms of sea searches) waiting to bomb the crud out of the United States and the Navy is prohibited from using sonar to detect them in that space in order to protect the whales.

-Kat

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Describing his unit's first experience under fire, LT G demonstrates once again why he's my favorite deployed milblogger in "Movement to Contact." Here's a sample: "If I vouch for Embracing the Suck during my pseudo-philosopher moments, we were now Cuddling with Chaos." - FbL

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I see the MSM has caught up with the blogs, finally. -the Armorer

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BCR (Bad Cat Robot) has a great round-up of the candidates still in the presidential primary race. Hey, you gotta laugh 'cause if you don't you'll just cry...

The Cod Liver Oil Election

By which I mean, nobody is really looking forward to it. The rational know a) someone *will* be elected and b) it behooves us to pick the least of the manifold evils, but you just know even if you hold your nose and get the dose down in one gulp you'll still be burping Essence of Fish Entrails longer than you would think possible.

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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."