H&I Fires 29 FEB 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.

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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A study in contrasts: Al Doura (Dora), Iraq. First up, Rolling Stone offers "The Myth of the Surge." Actually, a title more accurate to the author's apparent intention would probably be "The Myth of COIN," but their choice is revealing. Up next, "A Neighborhood, Reborn," in which a platoon leader returns to the neighborhood he once patrolled. Both articles discuss the same neighborhood, both were published this week. I don't know how to reconcile the contradiction. [h/t Blackfive, who has been on fire lately] - FbL

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Does Obama know how to laugh at himself? I'd say evidence is: no. Perhaps a riposte such as, "No, thanks. I'm sure Hillary's been using it for the last 10 years, and I prefer mine new," would've been more appropriate? - FbL

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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."