Comments for H&I Fires* 2 FEB 2008

H&I Fires* 2 FEB 2008

2008-02-03T05:43:18Z

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).

Your feel-good story for the day: What happens when a grenade lands in your Humvee?

The non-feel-good story? British educators now actively discourage teaching of patriotism and show their "sensitivity" to British Muslim schools by not inspecting them as they do other educational institutions. It may take a generation, but stick a fork in her, Britain is done.

The caves and tunnels of Najaf--history and happy memories.

This sounds like a good book for deploying personnel and their spouses. - 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."

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-02-03

2008-02-03T19:17:13Z

Heh. Inserting comments from the email causes me to not see all the comments before I insert my own. So, you two are wondering if Matt is InfoOp'ing us, eh? Well, it seems a rather tedious and retail approach to take - unless Mike is like a rash over all the blogs that brought up the topic. He's very good at it, if he *is* a gov't shill. Most of them sound like Public Affairs geeks. I think he's doing here what I do on foreign blogs... provide context where there is none, or it's hard to get.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-02-03

2008-02-03T19:11:51Z

Matt - thank you for the input... I suspect that your advice works well applied both directions, too!

Comment from FbL on 2008-02-03

2008-02-03T08:20:15Z

Heh. It occurred to me to wonder...

Comment from kat-missouri on 2008-02-03

2008-02-03T08:08:38Z

I just gotta ask...is Matt like the official British government agent for combating (mis)information on the internet?

Comment from FbL on 2008-02-02

2008-02-03T05:29:26Z

I didn't say anything about them taking over, I was thinking in terms of a disintegration of common values and a love of country. I'll go back and take a look to make sure I understood, but I read more than headlines. I clicked on the embedded links in the link I gave, and followed everything right back to original articles.

Comment from Matt W on 2008-02-02

2008-02-03T05:13:01Z

You must stop reading the headlines in UK right-wing blogs and newspapers. If only for the sake of your blood pressure. The UK government has authorised a new Inspectorate (which will be routinely vetted by OFSTED - the Office of Standards in Education). This new Inspectorate will cover about 110 private schools (roughly 50 private CHRISTIAN and 60 private Muslim schools. Please note that it's going to cover CHRISTIAN schools as well as Muslim The fact that it's still overseen by OFSTED is reassuring - 50% of private schools have an arrangement where they don't get vetted by the state. As for the "British educators now actively discourage teaching of patriotism". This is another ... um... possible misinterpretation. The UK government is about to introduce a new curriculum for British History which will promote patriotism via an examination of certain aspects of British history (including immigration, the Commomwealth, Empire, the extension of the vote and women's rights). One report - the one that generated this hysteria - has recommended against promoting UNQUESTIONING patriotism (repeat unquestioning) Muslims represent only 2.8% of the UK population (1.5 million). We're not very worried about them taking over.