May 2007 Archives

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Gate Guard

By John

Lex:

So if you couldn’t be overflown, and you couldn’t develop a plan for alert fighters because you couldn’t rely on having the sea space necessary to turn into the wind to launch ‘em, what you could do was launch a gate guard of CAP before entering territorial waters and then tank the hell out of ‘em until the ship entered the harbor.

That two ship was us.

At first we were kind of excited, my wingman and I, entrusted as we were with protecting a $5 billion national treasure and the 5,000-odd souls embarked upon her from the Soviet Menace. But while a twenty mile cap leg takes not quite three minutes to run in a fighter moving at 420 knots ground speed, it takes a great deal longer for an 80,000 aircraft carrier picking its ginger way past the shoal waters approaching the outer roads to the harbor. Time has a way of dragging on CAP, especially when the Red Horde chose that particular day to take a sabbatical from harassment.

The ship gave us an S-3 tanker to help us while away the hours and replenish the fuel tanks while he was at it. Those of you who have been lucky enough to fly the War Hoover have no doubt a fuller comprehension of its “performance” envelope, but it was an unwelcome surprise to your correspondent to discover - after a tactical, comm-out trail, rendezvous - that the damn thing flies at a mere 150 knots or so when they are holding at max endurance airspeed.

Now the Hornet flies that fast in the landing configuration with the flaps down full and the rollers in the breeze, so when we snuck up on ‘em unawares, we also ended up by racing right past ‘em, claws scrabbling disgracefully like a pair of great danes trying to stop for supper on waxed linoleum floor. Oh, we had the throttles on the idle stops, speedbrakes out, maneuvering flaps deployed and we were just that close to opening the canopies too since leading a two-ship formation of strike fighters into an under-run - in the plain view of an S-3 crew, the great, gabbling gossips that they were, just plain looks bad.

And - as long time readers know - it is better to die than look bad.

You really should read the whole thing. There's a lot more. There's always alot more. Fighter pilots, y'know?

PS- it feels kind of dirty to categorize this under "sea stories," when it really isn't an OPFOR sea story. But Lex's handle, "Tales of Sea Service," is just so darn obtuse. Oh well.

Picture of the Day: Force Projection Regular Old Deployment

By John

It walks like force-projection....it talks like force projection.... but our resident swabbie assures us that it's most definitely not force projection.

Carriers certainly do send a statement though, don't they?

05/22/07 - FROM LEFT, USS Higgins (DDG 76), USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), USS Antietam (CG 54), USS Denver (LPD 9), USS O'Kane (DDG 77) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) steam through the Gulf of Oman May 22, 2007. The ships are part of three different strike groups, the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, that are on regularly scheduled deployments.

See? Just your regularly scheduled programing. Lesson learned: trust our intrepid Navy Commander.

Because They Stand on a Wall....

By John

...and say "nothing's going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch."

Yeah, that's pretty much what we're doing over there.

There's frustration and then there's hair-yanking frustation. The latter is what my mood ring flashes when I hear anti-war activists scream "Peace Now! US Out of Iraq!"

Peace for who? Not the Iraqi people, that's for sure. Peace activists don't really want peace. They want peace of mind. The US pulls out of Iraq and the whole thing becomes an Iraqi problem. C'mon, you don't really think MoveOn and International Answer would organize mass rallies against Al Qaeda and Iran if we pulled out, right?

Hotel Tango: Prosebeforehos via Uncle Jimbo

Brits Lament Sub Cuts

By John

I've long argued that in this new war, the line between the military and the media must be blurred by soldiers who are more accustomed to the strong, silent, stoic traditions of the Armed Forces. Here's an exception (ugh, sorry for all the excessive alliteration this 'morn):

Sub Crews' Cost Cutting Criticism:

BBC Radio 4's File On 4 has heard sailors' complaints that the condition of these and the rest of the navy's submarines are being affected by government cost-cutting.

Indeed one sailor serving on a Trident submarine claims they are "just about" seaworthy, with crews scouring other subs for spare parts in a massive "make do and mend" operation.

The senior rating said crews frequently experienced problems with oxygen production equipment on board as well as with the batteries on the craft.

"Our subs are nuclear powered but if for any reason we can't use the nuclear power we would use the battery," he said.

"If it was in an escape situation, the reactor would be shut down and you would need the battery.

"There's so many things that seem to go wrong that the guys do an unbelievable job fixing it, and how they keep going is beyond me."

This type of dissent is best kept within the confines of proper military channels. Britain doesn't have a triad like we do, those subs are their first and only line of nuclear defense. Or offense, I suppose...depending on how you look at it.

Still, a key tenet of a sound nuclear strategy is proving to your enemies that you have the ability to employ atomic weapons anywhere, anytime. When that capability is lost, like say....your subs are all broken, deterrence fails and your strategy fails.

So, if there's a weakness in a nation's nuclear weapon platforms, that weakness is best kept classified and quietly fixed. I can guarentee that this story was read with great interest in the halls of multiple foreign intelligence services, if they didn't know already.

And a final thought. Yes, Great Britain could easily survive under America's protective nuclear umbrella. But if they do choose to maintain nuclear independence, this does not seem to be the most effective way to do it.

Another Hotel Tango to The Tank.

Russia's Fancy New ICBM

By John

Ruskies claim ICBM can beat any system:

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Oh. Well in that case, they have no reason to fear a missile defense base in Eastern Europe.

Aside: there's no such thing as a "tactical cruise missile." Not when the payload is nuclear. Now I'm no fancy big city repoter, but I'm pretty sure that bumps you up into some sort of "strategic" category.

Hotel Tango: The Tank

New Market Day 2007

By John

Anyone know why VMI is the only corps of cadets in the nation afforded the high honor of fixing bayonets during parade? Here's a small video taste:

New Market, Virginia. 1864. The only time in US history that a student body has fought in combat as a military unit. We lost 10 "boys" that day, after Union forces opened a gaping hole in confederate lines:

Breckenridge knew he must quickly fill the 350-foot gap in the center of his line or abandon the field. One of his staff suggested sending in the untried cadets. "I will not do it," Breckinridge replied. "General, you have no choice," responded the desperate officer. "Send the cadets in," Breckinridge ordered, "and may God forgive me ..."

The parade, seen above, usually masses a crowd of several thousand parents, friends, relatives, VMI supporters, and civil war buffs. Looks like the corps kept it sharp this year, although the Regimental XO (I think? Reg CO would be planting the wreath, right VMI men?) "bounced" after his about face. Phenomenal command voice though, highly motivating.

The real winners, in this clip at least, was the integrated regimental band and pipe band. Pay close attention to the two drum majors, side by side, executing a very, very difficult "eyes-right." Gives new meaning to the term "military precision." The song that they're playing, Shenandoah, is a beautiful old Virginia folk song that is a VMI anthem of sorts.

Call it one of those few good things to sprout out of this politically correct atmosphere from which even a spartan school like VMI is not immune. For decades, the band played Dixie as they passed the graves of the fallen 10. PC sensitivities axed that tradition some while ago, but I've got to be honest....I prefer Shenandoah. The VMI band/pipe compilation has been known to dampen a crowd full of eyes during those gorgeous Lexington fall parades, and y'know....when you think about it...

Shenandoah is more appropriate for us VMI types anyway.

Update: Mike Roark, a graduate of the VMI of the north, suggests I do some fact-checking into the whole "fix bayonets" thing, referencing a bayonet induced scar on the back of his head from his cadet days. Well, here's one reference:

On May 15, 1864, VMI cadets fought as an independent unit at the Battle of New Market.[6] VMI is the only military college or military academy in the nation that holds this distinction and is therefore the only school authorized to "fix bayonets" during parades.

Gasp! Lied to by Wikipedia? Say it ain't so!

Obviously I'd take Mike's bayonet wound over the much-touted online encyclopedia any day of the week. But, I do remember that line being announced during VMI parades as well, on how the right to fix bayonets is only granted to military units that have seen combat. There is a difference between fixing bayonets in drill and fixing bayonets in formal parade. I can't think of any battles that West Point fought in as a corps of cadets.

Am I wrong here?

Memorial Day 2007

By John

Freedom isn't free. Never forget its cost in blood.



If you'd like to help this year, please visit our Support the Troops page for a full list of military charities.

Hotel Tango: @WR.

Gun-Day Sunday: Defensive Handgun Skills

By Lt Col P

Spent yesterday and today at a great short handgun course, put on by John Murphy of FPF Training. I posted a scratch hotwash at Rule 308, with a more detailed AAR to follow.

Based on this experience I can give John's courses a strong "go." If you live anywhere within a couple hours' drive of Quantico and can only grab a couple days to polish up your shooting skills, this is the course for you. It's structured just right to get the max training value out of the time available.

MTF. Stayed tuned.

Fleet Week

By Bull Nav

070524-N-3235P-631 NEW YORK (May 24, 2007) - Sailors assigned to amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) pose for a photograph in Times Square while on liberty. The 20th annual Fleet Week New York is an opportunity for New Yorkers to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen and thank them for their service. Fleet Week honors the service and sacrifice of all Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as the city of New York, in the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael W. Pendergrass (RELEASED)

FLEET WEEK: WHOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, you have to love it when you pull into a place like New York City for Fleet Week. They roll out the red carpet, have a bunch of parties, and you get to do it in whites.

Never did NYC, but in March 97, we pulled into Ft. Lauderdale with the USS HARRY S TRUMAN, and a cruiser whose name escapes me. We moored next to Burt and Jack's and what a blast. Even though we were preparing for our Tactical Readiness Exercise (TRE: submarine weapons/warfighting certification due annually), it was a great time.
The Navy League had a reception and then we went into town.

In whites.

Highly recommended.

Arkin Redux

By John

He's baaaaack. And hitting the milbloggers. Hard.

I've been wanting to write about the 2nd Annual MilBlog conference (I wasn't invited), and did write earlier about the brouhaha over the Pentagon's supposed new restrictions regarding blogging.

FYI, the journalists who covered the conference (NPR, CNN, WaPo, Fox News, etc) attended on their own initiative. No one was "invited," which makes me wonder why Arkin felt he merited a special invitation.

The MilBloggers got an extra boost of attention after the news about the Army's "crackdown" on blogs, with the overheated claim that the new operations security (OPSEC) and bandwidth rules cut off soldiers from their families and restricting people's freedoms. An extra boost from whom, you ask? From the mainstream media they so seemingly despise -- with various noterati of the MilBlog world being interviewed and quoted regarding the impact of the military's new rules.

As I see it, beyond the social networking and communications functions, the Milblogs have set themselves up as an anti-news media squad. The conference included many discussions of the deficiencies of mainstream press coverage of Iraq. In fact, some people actually believe that, with the availability of worldwide news on the Web and the emergence of military blogs, the Pentagon press corps and even the mainstream news media is obsolete.

No. Milbloggers have focused grievances. Like when certain papers run Abu Ghraib 50 times above the fold without running a single story on our Medal of Honor recipients. Or when they publish the details of a classified program designed to monitor and terminate the funding of terrorists who kill our troops in Iraq. Or when they use doctored photos, stringers with questionable integrity, and axe stories that are "too positive."

We don't simply "despise" the media like bunch of uneducated racists. Or like Arkin despises the military. We back-slap when the MSM gets it right, we criticize when they get it wrong. It's that simple.

But thank you to Arkin for providing us with a clear example of the type of drivel that we so forcefully counteract. Arkin was the only established MSM type to write on the conference without actually attending. It's easy to have such an uninformed opinion when you're too lazy to do the legwork, I suppose.

And even easier when your highest form of commentary is lame similes:

Which brings me back to the Red Sox game -- specifically, Section 15, where I was sitting. I couldn't help but notice that the baseball aficionados felt quite confident about their knowledge and views. Everyone had an opinion on the game; everyone was an expert.

Yeah, it was a pretty dumb analogy. Surely Arkin realizes that milbloggers aren't "fans with opinions," but rather the players on the field. Milbloggers are the one who prosecute the war, we're not in the bleachers watching like Arkin.

So I guess the only pertinent question here is: why does the Washington Post have this guy on their payroll? He's not a very effective writer, his opinions are poorly constructed, his analogies suck, and he seems like....well, kind of an idiot. He's proven that he has very little tangible knowledge of the military and national security (zero knowledge of milbloggers), he's best known for leaking sensitive information and calling our grunts "pampered," and doesn't seem to do much outside of embarrassing his parent newspaper.

Perhaps it's time for the WaPo to consider a National and Homeland Security correspondent who actually knows something about National and Homeland Security?

Other Milbloggers covering:

Badgers Forward
Blackfive and Uncle Jimbo: "We don't despise the MSM Arkin, we just despise you."
Mrs. Greyhawk
Chap

Picture of the Day: Learn English

By John

A naughty language warning, so the pic is below the fold.

Read More »

Slander

By Bull Nav

OK, I have accepted the fact that the press will report that every time we put another carrier in the Arabian Gulf that it is a "show of force," or an "impending attack." I get it. They can speculate. I don't necessarily agree that news should be speculative, but sure, you can go ahead and speculate.
Which is why I was OK when I started to read this AP article:

Navy Stages Show of Force Off Iran Coast
By BARBARA SURK
Associated Press Writer
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

No problem. Lots of strike aircraft, lots of marines, lots of ships...exercises? sure...
I do, however, have a serious problem with the last line in the article:

U.S. warships have frequently collided with merchant ships in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf.

This makes it sound like we are a bunch of incompetent ship drivers, which we are not.
I have but one question for Ms. Surk:
- Where is the data to support your claim of "frequent" collisions between the US Navy and merchant shipping?
A quick search of the Global Integrated Shipping Information System shows that since January 2005, there has been exactly one collision between a US Navy warship and a merchant ship. This was the USS NEWPORT NEWS' collision with the Japanese tanker Mogamigawa in January of this year.
Based on this quick analysis, I believe it was improper to use the word "frequent" in describing US Navy collisions in the Arabian Gulf.
It took me 20 minutes to find the website and search their database. I would think someone who makes their living as a reporter would show more due diligence in researching their report.

Update: Thanks go to reader Mark who noticed that the AP article had been updated, and that the line that got my blood pressure up was removed. Interesting how that happens.
We will see what makes it in print once I get home tonight and read my local paper.

Update 2: Well I guess this wasn't big news after all. Neither of the newpapers I get carried this article, or any others about our big-decks in the Gulf.

The Sunset Parade

By Lt Col P

While riding through Rosslyn, VA the other day on the way to work, I shot past the Iwo Jima Memorial and saw the Marines from 8th & I hard at work on parade practice.

Many of you will know-- or should know-- that during the summer the Marines stationed at the oldest post in the Corps stage an unforgettable military show on Friday nights, the famed Evening Parade. Now, this is a premier event, standing room only. It's not really the sort of thing one does on the spur of the moment, as one needs to reserve tickets some weeks (or months in advance). Yet it is worth all the trouble. Single gents pay heed, if you're trying to impress a young lady or two. The wait is long but at the first note of the bugle she'll be all a-quiver. (I've seen ladies get so overcome by events there that the Marines had to put down sawdust and newspaper... But I digress.)

Fortunately there is another, less formal event by the 8th & I Marines-- the Tuesday Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial. This has the great advantages of starting earlier, being a more open affair, and being close to two Metro stops, Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn.

If you're in DC and have never seen these sights, I urge you to adjust your plans. A Tuesday Sunset Parade is the perfect free event on a warm summer evening. The attractions of Georgetown are close by, and the monuments are just across the river.

Yet more truth about Dragon Skin

By Slab

Recent comments on this site and others continue to show that people are unable to comprehend what they are being told about body armor. They continue to believe Murray Neal, Pinnacle, SFTT, and the rest who have hyped body armor that is heavier and less capable than the issue gear. I have trusted my life to the issue body armor, and I will do it yet again later this year.

By the way, those who trouble themselves with a little factual research will discover that the Army testers get paid the same amount whether the Army adopts Dragon Skin or not. I'll let the readers surmise as to how Murray Neal would be affected if the Army bought large quantities of body armor from his company. Why people still continue to believe that Mr. Neal is the one with unquestionable integrity is beyond me.

From WaPo:

The U.S. Army, in a rare move Monday, released a barrage of test results showing that a privately-sold flexible body armor that some families have sought for their soldiers failed extensive military testing.

Here, BG Brown gets to the heart of the matter. Bold emphasis is mine:

Holding up an armor-piercing bullet, Brown showed video of the tests, including footage of officials peering into the bullet hole in the Dragon Skin armor. "At the end of the day, this one disc has to stop this round. It didn't. Thirteen times," he said.

In response, Murray Neal, president of Pinnacle Armor which produces Dragon Skin, suggested that the Army lied about some of the testing, and he questioned why the Army was counting shots that "were fired into the non-rifle defeating areas."

Here's some actual statistics for you:

Brown described "catastrophic failures" by the Dragon Skin armor, and said that in 13 of 48 shots, lethal armor-piercing rounds either shattered the discs that make up the armor, or completely penetrated the vest.

"Zero failures is the correct answer," he said. "One failure is sudden death and you lose the game."

Brown added that the armor failed to endure required temperatures shifts _ from minus 20 degrees to 120 above zero _ which weakened the adhesive holding the discs together. And he said that the Dragon Skin's heavy weight was also a problem for soldiers who need to carry a lot of gear.

The Dragon Skin, he said, weighs 47.5 pounds, compared to the Army-issued Interceptor armor, which weighs 28 pounds.

Add ammo, water, radios, batteries, NVGs, and all of the other essential items, and from that 28 pound vest you end up with an 80 pound combat load at the least. Like my grunts used to say, "Ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain." 19.5 extra pounds equal a lot of extra pain. No thank you.

I will nit-pick one quote by BG Brown, however. From a DOD news article:

“Force protection is the No. 1 priority of the U.S. Army."

Um, I don't doubt that it is the No.1 priority, but with all due respect sir, I believe that is one of the fundamental problems with our tactics in Iraq. The number one priority should be winning the war, not protecting the force. It's the old "mission vs. Marines" debate, writ large, and we're getting it wrong.

Update: This was posted in the comments section at Defense Tech by Allan Bain of Evolution Armor.

Dear Patriot,

That was a very nice explaination of force and impact. Here are a few additional points to consider:

1) All the tiles sit at an angle when flat or when wrapped around the body as they are overlapped by adjoining tiles. It's called an imbricated pattern or better known as scalar armor. These tiles open a bit as they flex around the body by the tiles pivoting off each other to make the curve.

2) The tiles are true discuses, where the center is the thickest part, and they have a uniform downward slope of radius co-extensive with a radius or a segment. This is an Independant claim. All other claims are basic public domain concepts dependant upon the first claim. That is they have all entered the market well before the Dragon Skin patents.

3) The weakest point here is the point between successor tiles offset from the center, whereby you angle the test barrel receiver so that you get a perpendicular shot on the thinnest spot not supported by an overlapping disk. This is the definition of your perpendicular impact discussion.

4) Currently the armor is not tested this way in respect to the NIJ protocol or in the German lab that recently conducted side by side testing for the NBC Dateline news show. It is tested flat.

5) For scalar armor to be tested correctly it MUST be set around a fixed target around a test fixture designed to mimick the true wearing of the vest, and then impacted as set forth above so that the weakest point is attacked in a true 90 degree angle and also attacked at an angle to try and take advantage of the slight opening of the tiles as they make the bend around the body.

6) From what I gather the army did this, and the German laboratory didn't, as well as any other testing entity that has reported results on Dragon Skin.

While interceptor plates certainly possess less repeat capability as shown at the German laboratory in what appeared to be true independant testing; remember the uniform thick plannular plates represented by the Interceptor system doesn't change it's poition at all while wearing, but the scalar armor does, and that's why the NIJ has devised a different test for scalar armor. The military has simply taken it two step further; true wearing placement while testing, and extreme environmental conditioning testing. I remember very clearly giving armor to the military to train with, the boys play rough! The armor comes back looking like crap in a short period of time unless it's built tough.

The environmental testing is designed to accelerate the aging process. In service life testing and maintenance has become quite common with military body armor world wide.

Regards,

Al

By the way, if you haven't heard the name Allan Bain before, here's a little primer.

The fact is most of Pinnacle Armor's systems were invented by Allan D. Bain formally of Armor Technology Corp.. Pinnacle Armor started manufacturing after we educated Mr. Neal how to make armor by contract executed in October of 2000 that was fair and honestly fulfilled. Pinnacle Armor and Mr. Neal never manufactured any body armor prior to this date. So if you hear about Pinnacle Armor or the "Dragon Skin" armor being manufactured since 1995 your talking about armor that Pinnacle Armor never made or developed. In fact Murray Neal was a sales representative for Armor Technology from 1997 - October of 2000 a company owned entirely by Allan D. Bain, the true inventor of Dragon Skin.

Sounds About Right

By John

Apparently the Air Force is collecting butterflies in LA. I'm serious, read the contract.

Actually Vandenberg AFB....Vandyland, where said collection is to take place...is about 2 hours north of Los Angeles. It's also a wildlife habitat of sorts, I used to spot all kinds of game on their wooded jogging trails when I was stationed there.

Still, Vandy's primary mission is spacelift....other wise known as the launching of giant, polluting rockets that slip the surly bonds of earth and stick equally giant NRO spy birds into polar orbit.

The mission is NOT entomology. What is this hippy crap?

Hotel Tango: The Dew Line via Danger Room.

The Little Victories....

By John

Are often right in front of our noses.

For example...

Downtown Jerusalem thriving:

JERUSALEM - When Jacky Ben Sheetrit opened a gourmet Belgian chocolate shop in downtown Jerusalem, he gave little thought to the suicide bombings down the block a few years earlier that had threatened to turn the area into a ghost town.

Instead, he took his cue from the five new cafes across the street, the crowds of pedestrians and a multimillion dollar city plan to turn the rundown neighborhood into a vibrant center of commerce and culture.

"What was in the past, was in the past," Ben Sheetrit said. "I know that this area has a lot of potential."

Other business owners have also bet on a Jerusalem renaissance. In recent months a flood of new stores — clothing chains, shops selling art and pottery, designer glasses and handbags — have opened along Jaffa Street and the adjacent Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall.

While moneychangers, T-shirt stores and dollar shops still line the streets, city officials say new businesses such as Ben Sheetrit's are restoring the area's prestige and speeding the transformation of the center of Israel's largest city into a leafy, peaceful, European-style downtown.

AP couldn't bear to call it "Israel's capital," I guess.

This is truly heartwarming news....though when I visited in 2003, when the fires from the Second Intafada were still cooling, downtown Jerusalem appeared exactly as it is described in the article. Malls were full (though you had to cross through a security checkpoint to enter), traffic bustling along, while Israelis sipped coffee at outdoor cafes.

All that commerce, mind you, existed despite the fact that Yasser Arafat had declared Jerusalem to be his killing ground of choice during the Intafada. The Israelis, those brave people, simply decided that they would not dignify with Arafat's bullying with a response outside of firm military action.

And one big honking security barrier. Which also happens to be the point where this article takes a nosedive:

But Jerusalem has more than one heart. Forty years ago next month, Israel captured the Arab sector in the June 1967 war. Today, in contrast to Jaffa Street and surroundings in Jewish west Jerusalem, the Arabs of east Jerusalem complain that things are getting worse.

They say many of their neighborhoods still lack paved roads or sewage, and that the separation barrier Israel built to shield the city from suicide bombers has cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank and forced many Palestinian cultural, commercial and social institutions to move 10 miles north to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Jerusalem is dying. Ramallah became the center of the West Bank," said Rami Nasrallah, head of the International Peace and Cooperation Center in Jerusalem.

Somehow, someway, it's always the Jews fault.

Let me tell you about walking into Arab East Jerusalem, through the fabled Lion's Gate. Transversing from the Jewish quarter to the Arab quarter is like stepping off of a Paris street and into downtown Mogadishu. The Israelis keep their Jerusalem neighborhoods spotless, simply immaculate. Not a spot of trash anywhere, not even the occasional stray cigarette butt. They treat the entire city with the same reverence as we Catholics treat our Churches. They treat it like a place of God.

The Arabs, despite all their rage, despite all of the innocent blood that they spill in the name of that holy swath of territory, treat the city like an old, filthy brothel. Apparently Jerusalem is worth to them the price of Israeli blood, but not worth the cost of basic waste management. Trash piled up on either side of the worn road leading in through the Lion's Gate. Palestinians stood around, doing nothing, some panhandling, the others idely watching our group -and their lives- pass by. And it smelled.

This was before the Wall was built, mind you. So forgive me if I point and call bullsh*t on any riduculous claim that the Palestinians' inability to maintain even the most basic of sanitation and public works is the fault of the Jews and their evil security barrier.

Oh, and final thought. That wonderful new terror-free environment in downtown Jerusalem? It was the direct result of Ariel Sharon's security barrier. To report on a flourishing Jerusalem while excluding that simple, incontrovertible fact is criminal.

**Update** Our friend Robert Averch points out that when the Israelis do provide basic services to the Palestinians, they are rewarded with rocket attacks.

Seraphic Secret has already pointed out that Gaza gets its electricity from Israel. In other words, Israel is supplying the terrorists with the power they need to continue their murderous attacks on Israel.

To the charge that shutting off the power to Gaza is collective punishment, we see no reason why the so-called Palestinian people should not be subject to retaliation for the actions of the government they have elected. That is what war is all about: punishing a people for the governments they have chosen. And no people deserve more punishment than the so-called Palestinians who have enthusiastically chosen one genocidal regime after another.

Indeed. No good deed goes unpunished. Especially if you happen to be Israeli.

Finally

By Slab

Democratic congressional leaders are backing down on their demands for a withdrawal timeline.

Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with the Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without setting a timeline for troop withdrawal.

Senator Reid wants to make clear that there is a limit to their concessions:

Despite the concession, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters that the legislation would be the first war-funding bill sent to Bush since the U.S. invasion of Iraq "where he won't get a blank check."

Reid and other Democrats pointed to a provision that would set standards for the Iraqi government in developing a more democratic society. U.S. reconstruction aid would be conditioned on progress toward meeting the goals, but Bush would have authority to order the money to be spent regardless of how the government in Baghdad performed.

Sounds like a bit of a Pyrrhic victory for the Democratic leadership in Congress. I try to avoid identifying myself along party lines; however, in this case, I believe the Democratic leadership simply made themselves look bad without accomplishing anything meaningful. President Bush will get the funding that he needs, without any new checks on his authority worthy of mention, and Congress simply looks like they were witholding funds from the troops downrange.

Yet Another Unscheduled COC

By Bull Nav

You knew it was coming:

By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 21, 2007 19:14:12 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — Cmdr. E.J. McClure, captain of the destroyer Arleigh Burke, was relieved of command Monday by Rear Adm. Dan Holloway, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, according to a Navy official.

Ship runs aground = CO relieved.
ESPECIALLY off Cape Henry. I have driven in and out of Norfolk many, many times and it is not difficult. The traffic patterns are well-known, the area is well-charted, and with today's navigation equipment, there is no excuse for this.
Reading further in the article, you find that her boss might be in trouble, too:

Destroyer Squadron 2 commodore Capt. Larry Tindal was aboard Burke at the time of the grounding. His status following the incident, “will come out in the investigation,” by CSG 12 officers, the official said.

It is never a good thing when the Commodore is onboard when a ship runs aground. A few years ago, USS HARTFORD (SSN768) ran aground near La Maddalena on the northern coast of Sardinia. Both the CO and the Commodore were relieved. Read the wikipedia article for a great synopsis of the event.
Another article on the ARLEIGH BURKE is located here.
I think we are up to 8 ship/squadron CO reliefs for the year...

Gun-Day Monday: The Enfield & The Mauser

By Lt Col P

I began this post last week, or somewhere thereabouts, but had to put it aside until I could find the photo I wanted. In the meantime, KduT had a good post on Great War Rifles, which is a fine but perhaps unintentional double entendre. It was one of his earlier posts combined with something I found that lead me here...

Let us extol the still-extant virtues of two of the world's great military rifles.

The first post, by way of a post by our favorite beefy Afrikaner, sings the praises of the Enfield No. 4 Mk 1, although in this case slightly shortened, which is probably not a bad thing in the practical sense. If what this fellow writes is true, and I have no doubt it is, he comes close to Cooper's approximation of a real rifleman as the man who can make his rifle do what it was designed to do, on demand. Good for him, I say. Note please that this is no eeeevil assault rifle but a real functioning battle rifle, even though it's found today in more museums than gunsafes. And note please that this is one of the great military rifles of the 20th Century, having armed the soldiers of the Empire and the Commonwealth for decade upon decade. (GM Fraser sang its praises in Quartered Safe Out Here.) I saw a captured one in Fallujah, in excellent condition, in April 2004. Talk about pearls before swine! An unadorned Enfield in the original .303 or better still in .308 is a fine choice for the serious marksman: it's dirt cheap, it attracts no attention, it works, and foolish people usually underestimate a man with a beat-up bolt-action rifle.

(And the author's comments on what do with the bayonet made me laugh out loud. "If found in lifeless perpetrator, please return via postal service to: [...]")

The second example is the Enfield's old foe, the Mauser 98K. The Mauser, with its super-strong action, is the progenitor of most military bolt-action rifles. It is to modern rifles as Pilsner Urquell is to golden-colored beer. Now here again is a rifle that a serious marksman should pick up, in its original caliber, or like the Enfield, better still in .308 if you can find a converted one. For the historically-minded, this firm offers two choices-- Serbian rifles made on German tooling, and in a fairly new development, real German WWII-era Mausers, in fully shootable condition. Some of them can be had with curious ordnance stamps, if that sort of thing strikes your fancy. The price, in any case, is right. And the Mauser shares many of the Enfield's attributes-- simplicity, reliability, accuracy. It was made under license in many many countries, and quality variants abound. Along with the Enfield mentioned above, I saw two captured Mausers in Fallujah back in '04-- one a shorty-- and they were in very good condition.

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Dragon Skin redux

By Slab

Now that NBC has bought into the Dragon Skin hype, from Professional Soldiers comes the best article I have seen yet. I've made a little noise in my attempts to disspell some of the myths surrounding Dragon Skin, but consider this the definitive response to NBC, Pinnacle, Soldiers For The Truth, and the rest.

This was posted today on Professional Soldiers by a gentleman who uses the handle The Reaper. He intentionally guards his identity on the internet, but I will submit to our readers that he is a very experienced Special Forces officer of unquestionable integrity. This comes to me from a friend who has met him, so it is secondhand information. Anyone who wishes to know more about him should ask him directly.

Also, the Army test results are available for public disemmination. A copy can be found here.

Dragon Skin?

There may be something better called Dragon Skin, but better than what?

Bottom line up front. From 16-19 May 2006, in Department of Defense (DoD) test protocols at HP White Labs, Pinnacle SOV 3000 Level IV Dragon Skin vests suffered 13 first or second shot complete penetrations, failing four of eight initial subtests with Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts (ESAPI) threat baseline 7.62 x 63mm M2 Armor Piercing (AP) ammunition. The Project Manager (PM) Soldier Equipment Briefing report is on line and is easily available.

More below...

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What Do These Guys Have in Common?

By Bull Nav

General George S. Patton
LTGEN Chesty Puller
RADM Richard E. Byrd

Answer after the jump.

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Terminal Ballistics Effects

By John

It just sounds so....cool.

Yeesh...as if there weren't enough reasons to behave yourself around Marines.....

Great logo placement for Ford, right Bull Nav?

The Mighty Hawkeye

By Bull Nav

I am dedicating this one to my two favorite Citadel alumni bloggers, Skippy-san and Steeljaw Scribe:

070509-N-8591H-229 MOUNT FUJI, Japan (May 9, 2007) - E-2C Hawkeyes assigned to the "Liberty Bells," of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 115 perform a formation flight in front of Mount Fuji. VAW-115 is one of the nine squadrons assigned Carrier Air Wing (CVW) Five, which is assigned to USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). Kitty Hawk operates out of Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jarod Hodge (RELEASED)

Question....

By John

Does anyone know the membership requirements for the Army-Navy Country Club? Fees? Do you have to be active duty or can reservists/national guard join? Is it worth the dough?

I played the Arlington course a few years ago, really enjoyed it.

Picture of the Day: That Other "22"

By John

I think that's pretty much the Air Force's entire Osprey inventory....

Air Force CV-22 Ospreys take off from a Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. May 1 for a training mission. The Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft that combines vertical takeoff, hover and landing qualities of a helicopter with the normal flight characteristics of a turboprop aircraft. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Markus Maier

Art Imitates Life...

By Lt Col P

... In the pages of Day By Day, yesterday and today. I feel Zed's pain.

That comic strip is a national asset. I only wish there was a password-protected version, if you know what I mean...

Two New Milblogs To Watch

By Lt Col P

I call to your attention two (2) new additions to the milblog world.

The first is Small Wars Journal, which has a blog but is much much more. The blog part attracts posts and comments from some real heavy hitters, like David Kilcullen and Bing West. Go sift through it all, bookmark it, make it a daily read. (Both editors are Marines; one, the unusually tall Bill Nagle, is a colleague (and then some) in my civilian job. I only found out the other day that he was doing this.)

The second is from the latest Marine Field Historian to go downrange, The Gunner's World, by CWO4 Mike Sears. Mike is the last of the Old Corps historians, and has been volunteering to somewheres East o' Suez for a long long time. He is en route even as we speak, so check him out in a few days. He has been doing great work in History Division, and I am eager to see what he finds out in Iraq.

Safety First, Mission Second

By John

So a couple of years back, an Air Force chief of staff declared that it was his intention to "reduce accidents by 50%." Every since, we've been the nanny service....where the Air Force's first and last line of defense against accidents is a cumbersome, poorly crafted "safety briefing."

Want to drive to the field? Get a safety brief. Climb a ladder? Safety brief. Take a weekend? Safety brief. We've even dedicated an entire season to this service-wide hand holding, awkwardly labeled "101 critical days of summer," where we get....even more safety briefs! (Last year, one of my fellow CGOs kept a broken thumb secret for a full six weeks because, in his words, "I just can't take another 101 critical days of summer briefing.")

So naturally the entire Air Force safety program has turned into one giant punchline. Por ejemplo....

Earlier today, I was watching some maintainers fix one of our broken toys. A staff sergeant, out of sight, slightly burned his hand, and let out a tremendous yelp. In comes a concerned looking Senior Airman, who sprints up to our wounded Sergeant and hollers "Sarge are you ok? DO YOU NEED A SAFETY BRIEF?"

I laughed so hard, I thought I was going to throw up.

VMI Cadet to be Commissioned by the President

By John

Every year, VMI commissions a superb crop of officers.....you can always bet on a sizable chunk of the commissioning class to make Colonel and/or General....it's a statistical certainty, kind of like the graduating classes at the Academies.

But every few years or so, we graduate one particularly outstanding cadet who is destined for the highest echelons of military leadership. The last one that I can remember was Captain Matt Thompson from the class of 2002. Remember the name, he'll be running the Army in 20 years. Seems like we've found another one:

VMI Cadet Jason LaCerda from Mahopac, NY, a 2007 graduate of Virginia Military Institute, is one of 23 Army ROTC Cadets selected to participate in an historic event in Washington D.C.

Photo Courtesy of the Rockbridge Weekly

For the first time in our nation’s history, on May 17th, President George W. Bush will host a joint commissioning ceremony for 55 ROTC Cadets and Midshipmen from all the military services representing every U.S. state, U.S. territory and the District of Columbia during an unprecedented White House ceremony. This will be the first time in our nation’s history that the President will play a personal role in a joint commissioning event involving participants from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Of the 55 men and women to be commissioned as officers by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, 23 are Army ROTC Cadets, representing the more than 28,000 young people who have decided to make Army ROTC a part of their total college experience.

“My experience in the ROTC program has equipped me to take on real world endeavors as a resourceful citizen and Soldier,” said Jason. “The challenges have been constant and I have learned to react and make decisions while gauging the long-term effects of my actions.”

"As the number one U.S. Army ROTC Cadet in the nation, Jason LaCerda is a man of many skills. The 21-year-old from Mahopac, N.Y., is fluent in four languages, was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist and a Division I NCAA lacrosse defenseman. His desire to take on so much today has provided him the necessary skills to lead tomorrow," Steve Johnson told the Rockbridge Weekly on behalf of the U.S. Army Cadet Command.

"While studying abroad at the University of Oxford, Jason helped to establish a training program for American Cadets with the Oxford University Officer Training Corps, the British Army’s ROTC-equivalent. The dynamic experience of training with an Allied Army unit broadened his leadership abilities despite differences in communication style and culture," he explained. "Upon receipt of an Olmsted Scholarship for foreign study, Jason traveled to Morocco where he learned about the intricacies of Arab and Islamic culture. These experiences inspired him to take on a double major of international studies and Arabic. He received his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Military Institute in the spring of 2007."

More here and here.

Also, according to the VMI press release, it seems that Cadet Colin Chung Ming Wu (Navy option) will be joining LaCerda in the ceremony.

Hotel Tango: VMI Alumni Message Boards.

Inbound

By John

Max Boot's The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.

I love Boot's writing on Iraq, so I'm looking forward cramming my nose into this one.

Hotel Tango: VDH, who also recommends Michael Oren's Six Days of War, which I read back when I was a VMI cadet, and actually had the chance to meet Oren when he lectured to our class at the University of Tel Aviv. Great guy, and the nonfic is an absolutely superb account of one of the most compelling "small wars" of the 20th century.

Oh and while we're on the topic, read Hanson's column The Return of Military History.

And here I thought the military history discipline was going to way of the dodo...

Picture of the Day: Air Supremacy

By John

And it ain't coming from the 18, either.

04/26/07 - A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet, right, from Strike Fighter Squadron Twenty Seven, and an Air Force F-22 Raptor conduct joint training over Kadena Air Base, Japan, April 26, 2007. The training focuses on the next generation fighter capabilities of the two services. DoD photo by Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Hurst, U.S. Navy.

That's one of the better looking angles on the Raptor, I think.

Major Zembiec's Funeral

By Lt Col P

Folks, you may have read about Major Doug Zembiec in the pages of Blackfive recently, with heartfelt and glowing praise from his Marines, especially his First Sergeant, now Sergeant Major Skiles, and the sniper's sniper, Sergeant Ethan Place. One of my fellow Marine field historians, Major Joe Winslow, had the chance to sit down with (then) Captain Zembiec and (then) First Sergeant Skiles in late summer 2004, when their battalion was headed out of Iraq. Today Joe attended Doug Zembiec's funeral and asked me to post this for him.

SgtMaj Skiles accomplished his final casualty evacuation today….

Except this time it was not under fire, or in Fallujah, or side by side with his commander Maj Doug Zembiec. Instead, today, SgtMaj Skiles ensured that body of his commander was solemnly borne into and out of the US Naval Academy Chapel. What probably very few know, is that SgtMaj Skiles, Maj Zembiec’s 1st Sgt in Fallujah, was single-handedly responsible for moving day-after-day under intense enemy fire and mortar attacks to evacuate the wounded and dead Marines of Echo Company who pushed deep into the heart of enemy held territory - enemy held territory smack in the middle of that sorrowful, small city on the Euphrates. This time he has come to the aide his “captain” and borne him from the battle.

I was at the funeral today - as I came to know Maj Zembiec and SgtMaj Skiles in Fallujah. I was recording their operations for the Marine Corps History Division. The accounts we gathered were emotional, heart-felt stories of physical strength and determination, of pride and humility, but also of grief and sorrow for those who did not return from the battle. Chief among these were the accounts of SgtMaj Skiles, who spent hours with me in a small room, recounting the actions of his Marines, his Corpsmen, his commander. Maj Zembiec did the same, spending hours recollecting the actions of his Marines, and never quite seeming to remember any details about himself, unless, of-course, it was showing me where he still had shrapnel in legs, and his flak jacket, which still had a huge chunk embedded, you guessed it, right in front of his crotch.… He was proud of this and laughed as he recalled it.

Today, on the grounds of the Naval Academy, I entered the Chapel. Soaring ceilings, the sun beaming down through the haze of incense and coming to rest on the pink granite walls, images of valor carved into every surface, enormous stained glass windows, flags, and anchors at every turn, it all rests on the bones of John Paul Jones… It was filled to capacity by Marines and Sailors, all friends to Doug Zembiec. Quiet - very, very quiet. Black mourning bands on uniforms, ushers, and the meeting of old friends, when, if met under different circumstances, would have been full of handshakes and friendly insults. Today, stiff upper lips where the order of the day, and a profound sorrow, often masked with reserved smiles and red eyes could be felt like a pall hanging over the funeral. All felt as though they were family, all were family indeed.

I was awed - for I’ve never encountered a more august group of warriors. …This was no endless legion of retired, old soldiers of another war with faded medals and rosettes hung on suits which have seen better days, but a battalion or two of strong, proud, physical men. Warriors, as evidenced by their row-upon row of medals and aquilletes, who have faced the enemy not in the halls of the CP, but on the uneven, unyielding fields of valor which have beckoned us forward. They’ve stepped into that dangerous clearing in the woods, fought it out and survived.

And so it is that this gathering represented what Doug Zembiec was a large part of, but most importantly, ensured grew and flowered. He brought together, through a dynamic spirit, brute physical strength, and his unyielding friendship, groups of warriors who pursued their mission with zeal and a deep belief in their cause. He, and the other warriors here today, helped foster this, our new generation of happy warriors, who will carry the colors forward. He was both a ruthless gardener and joyful planter on the blood soaked fields of valor which he tilled.

This was the family that gathered to honor this man, this was the family that grieved, but most importantly, this was the family that found strength through what Maj Zembiec brought to the world, and to our Corps.

And so, as SgtMaj Skiles performed his final mission in support of his commander, you could hear the tinkling of his medals it was so, so quiet. SgtMaj Skiles' sword was drawn as he led the procession out of the chapel, accompanied by a mournful Gregorian chant, sung by a lone baritone, in navy whites, somewhere in the distance.

Maj Joe Winslow, USMC

16 May 07

Another Unscheduled Change of Command

By Bull Nav

Well. Here we go again, this time a submarine:

Commodore of Submarine Squadron 11, Capt. Paul N. Jaenichen, relieved the commanding officer of USS Helena (SSN 725), Cmdr. William A. Schwalm, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command May 16.

HELENA is a San Diego boat.

I don't have much more to say.

Skippy's rules apply...

Top Aviation Movies of All Time

By John

Chic[k] Pilot laments the top ten list, as selected by 10k readers of Air Venture:

The champion is "Top Gun," the 1986 blockbuster that starred Tom Cruise (an EAA member), Kelly McGillis, Tom Skerritt, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and several other stars in a drama based at the U.S. Navy's "Top Gun" fighter training school. The movie, which was the biggest grossing film in the U.S. that year, will be shown during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007 at the event's Fly-In Theater, presented by Ford Motor Company and Eclipse Aviation. ....... The finalists were the 10 most-nominated films by EAA members earlier this year, who submitted more than 140 aviation movies. Others in the final poll included "Battle of Britain" (1969) with 11.8 percent; "Spirit of St. Louis" (1957) and "The Great Waldo Pepper" (1975), each with 8.6 percent; "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (1965) 7.1 percent; "The Flight of the Phoenix" (1965) 5.2 percent; "The High and the Mighty" (1954) with 4.0 percent and "The Blue Max" (1966) with 4.0 percent

CP posted the top five in list form, which probably wouldn't have killed Air Venture to do themselves:

1. Top Gun
2. Twelve O'Clock High
3. Memphis Belle
4. Battle of Britain
5. Spirit of St. Louis

Top Gun over Memphis Belle? I'm sure it had nothing to do with the screenplay: "She's a civilian, so you DO NOT salute her."

The Navy Can Have Hickam AFB....

By John

When they pry it from our cold, dead hands!

Defense officials are refereeing a control-and-culture clash between the Air Force and its sister services over a requirement to create 12 "joint bases" out of 25.

The 25 bases, it seems, already are run by their favorite service.

The mandate for joint bases is part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure plan, which became law in November 2005. The Air Force is to manage six joint base sites, the Navy four and the Army two.

But the Air Force, which for decades has spent more proportionally on quality-of-life programs and facilities, is wringing its hands and, critics contend, dragging its feet over the prospect of giving the Navy control of Hickam Air Force Base in Hawai'i, Bolling Air Force Base near Washington D.C., and Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. It also expected to give the Army control of McChord Air Force Base in Washington state.

Air Force officials argue that their bases alone are "fighting platforms" for their aircraft and thus must be maintained in top form as the Navy strives to maintain its ships and the Army and Marine Corps sustain deployed ground forces.

Lex on the ownership shift:

Every time I mentioned to an Air Force officer that it seemed just possible that they were being profligate with the national fisc, what with all the bells and whistles that were in it on base, he’d reply that is wasn’t his fault that the Navy had to buy ships. Ships were expensive.
Which, while that was undeniably true, didn’t quite seem to answer the objection: After all, it wasn’t like we got loaded on a three-day bender in Vegas and blew all of our money on a bunch of aircraft carriers before waking up sheepish with a CVN ring on our finger. We are the Navy, after all. Ships are what we do.
And airfields in Oahu, it soon seems.

So: Welcome aboard, shipmates! Officer’s Call at 0700, quarters at 0715, breakfast at 0730 and don’t be late, because cleaning stations are at 0800 - mops and foxtails are in the ready service locker. GQ is at 1000 (don’t forget your MOPP gear), lunch at 1200, sweepers at 1400 and liberty call at 1630 for all personnel not actually on watch.

Like you’re going to be.

I can't tell you how much that last paragraph creeped me out.

But let's examine, for a moment, how each force operates. The Navy, as discussed, runs wars from their ships. So that's where the money goes. The Army and Marines operate in the field, so their money goes into tanks, helicopters, artillery, and the infantry. The Air Force fights from their bases, so....where do you think we stick our cash?

Answer: the golf course. Eh, half kidding...I think. Anyone who has played Marshallia at Vandenberg or Eisenhower at the Air Force Academy probably thinks I'm serious. People like...say, Lex:

I’m guessing the base at Hickam - a “crown jewel of the Pacific”, and hard by the much dowdier Naval Base Pearl Harbor - is probably not one of their preferred first candidates for testing purposes. If only for the golf course alone.

For our golf course Lex? Excuse me, I've played the Navy course right next door...

...and I can tell you, the Navy's cup has already runneth over.

War Czar

By Bull Nav

Well, after much looking, we finally have one:

President Bush tapped Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute yesterday to serve as a new White House "war czar" overseeing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, choosing a low-key soldier who privately expressed skepticism about sending more troops to Iraq during last winter's strategy review.

I was not too sure about what purpose this position would serve, but that too, is explained.

In the newly created position, Lute will coordinate often disjointed military and civilian operations and manage the Washington side of the same troop increase he resisted before Bush announced the plan in January. Bush hopes an empowered aide working in the White House and answering directly to him will be able to cut through bureaucracy that has hindered efforts in Iraq.

The coordination part is what could be a good thing for the overall effort. However, this points to one question that has bothered me for some time.
Where is the State Department in our efforts in Iraq?
Well, apparently the new War Czar will be the "go-between" for DOD and the Department of State.

The new war czar will consult with generals and diplomats in the field each morning, then join Hadley in briefing Bush and spend the rest of the day talking with officials such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to resolve any issues.

I hope this helps the situation. Certainly, we need to have this type of coordination since what we are doing in Iraq is not (and should not be) a strictly military effort.
If we truly care about rebuilding Iraq (and Afghanistan) and getting these countries on their feet where they can self-govern in a free society, then we need our civilians involved. I would almost say they should have the lead for rebuilding, but I don't get that impression.
Time will tell if this part works...

Port Security and Priorities

By John

Eagle1 has an interesting post up on how we've got it wrong on Port Security:

A "Coast Guard expert" tells Congress it has its priorities for maritime security mixed up here:
Members of Congress should be more concerned about the threat of terrorists using mines and small boats to attack multiple U.S. ports and disrupt the economy, according to a U.S. Coast Guard expert.

Lawmakers should grant more funding to port surveillance to counter the threat, Guy Thomas, science and technology adviser for maritime domain awareness at the Coast Guard, said in an interview.

Instead, lawmakers are focusing port security spending on scanning shipping containers for a nuclear bomb, which most experts in the Coast Guard and intelligence community agree should be less of a priority than maritime domain awareness, he said.
***
Lawmakers have preferred to fund container scanning technology because “it’s visible and your congressman gets points for doing something” that is more dramatic and TV-friendly than installing cameras, radars and sensors, according to Thomas.

A scenario that greatly troubles him is that terrorists might use multiple small boats — carrying chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and coordinated via inexpensive satellite radio — to attack several U.S. ports at one time. Or the terrorists might use the boats to disperse anthrax all over a city, he said.

Terrorists “could also drop mines in the harbor as they entered to really slow seaborne relief operations to the port,” Thomas said.

He was reluctant to talk about a multiple port attack scenario until recently, when he found others openly discussing it.

Nuclear security for ports is the same as nuclear security for....well pretty much everywhere else. It starts and ends overseas, by ensuring nations like Iran don't develop a bomb, maintaining proper accountability of the Cold War arsenal, and enforcing rigorous restrictions on the trade and trafficing of technology that makes uranium enrichment possible. The best defense is a good offense and all that....

But nuclear security in our ports? It's just a phrase to keep you warm at night. By the time all those sophisticated sensors and the detection equipment with the seven figure price tag pick up a possible signature, the bomb is already in knifing range of the port in question.

Look I know that everyone hearts the container ship theory because Tom Clancy floated it (har) in The Sum of All Fears. And that it kinda makes sense. But at some point, you've got to start looking realistically at the threat. And at resources. Nuclear weapons may as well be found at the end of the rainbow, as far as mainstream terror organizations are concerned. But they do have an over-abundance of suicidal young men who have the technical knowledge and ideological will to hit us in ways that are equally, if not more, creative than the 9/11 attacks.

Is a multi-layered defense against asymmetrical nuclear warfare important? You betcha. But when the discussion centers around a purely defensive strategy, particularly with our ports, you have to evaluate which threat is more likely. And recognize that there's more than one way to skin a cat knock out a port.

Hey Jarhead, This Reg's for You

By John

A crisp salute to Marine Commandant General James Conway for this long overdue reg change:

When the commandant brings his sergeant major with him to visit, you know the drill. There are nine good questions about war, pay, the barracks and training.

Then “Pfc. Ten Percent” asks the questions that make everyone else wince. Why is admin so slow? Why don’t Hawaii Marines ever wear their cammie sleeves down? Why can’t 18-year-old Marines drink?

Finally, Pfc. Ten Percent delivers.

The Corps-wide drinking age has been lowered from 21 to 18 for Marines on liberty overseas and for leathernecks taking part in official on-base command functions — including the birthday ball.

The term "underage" should never be used to describe a warfighter.

Of course this would never happen in the Air Force, our nanny service....where leadership actually believes regulation can empower commanders to STOP PEOPLE FROM DYING.

No, seriously. They believe that crap.

So if I get in an accident on my motorcycle, it's my squadron commander's fault for not drilling me with enough motorcycle safety briefings. Authorized underage drinking in the Air Force? Don't make me laugh.

I remember at Air Force field training, a kind of lame ROTC boot camp and an absolutely magnificent waste of time for a VMI man, Cadet Ten pct. asked this forehead slapper: "Sir are Catholics authorized to consume the ceremonial wine used in the celebration of the Eucharist?" The captain had to go confer with a council of other officers to decide as to whether or not Catholic cadets could freely practice their religion. Yes, we're that lame sometimes.

Pressing...

Some Democrats want a draft. Not as a way to increase the size of our Army and Marines -which is necessary at this junction in history- but to make a political statement on the war. But let's pretend for a second that they want a draft because they believe we need more ground pounders to prosecute this war.

You want fresh bodies for the field? Pass legislation that allows an 18 year old to drink in a bar with his CAC card.

Hey, it's no less ethical than drafting unwilling conscripts into the Marines because you want to make some stupid anti-war statement. And if you can think of a more effective recruiting tool than teenage peer pressure, I'm all ears.

Hotel Tango: Goldfarb. Stole the keg pic from him too.

Superb Stupidity

By John

Because sometimes the nutroots hand it to you on a silver platter.

Well....Alright Then

By John

Certain ladies in the milblogging community have informed me that I simply must post this:

I think they got the story wrong though, that's a shot of my homecoming at the Denver Airport, not the bleacher section of a lacrosse game.

New Market Day 2007: Our Best Men

By Lt Col P

One of the best memoirs of World War II is the second volume of John Masters' autobiography titled, The Road Past Mandalay. In it, he describes his experience in command of a Chindit column operating deep behind enemy lines, far from friendly units. When the going was good, his column was lord of all it surveyed. But once they lost their mobility and started to get pinned down by the Japanese, their situation turned dire.

One of Masters' recurring themes is Send Your Best Man. He would instruct his subordinates to assign their best officers to tackle a particularly important task-- to take back a lost position, to hold a critical post-- and increasingly the best men were lost. The need to send the very best, despite the growing cost, weighed heavily on Masters and haunts his writings. It is the central tragedy not only of his book, but of war in general.

On 15 May every year, the great VMI family remembers the Corps of Cadets that marched forth to do battle in 1864 as part of the small Confederate army defending the Valley against the ever-stronger Union forces. Ten of those cadets paid the ultimate price at the Battle of New Market, and are honored each year by a special parade at which their names are called out, to be answered by cadets with, "Died on the field of honor, sir."

Masters-- who visited VMI in the 1930s-- may not have had the New Market cadets in mind when he wrote his memoirs, as he knew more than enough from his own experiences. Yet his words ring true. VMI has been sending forth its best since before the Civil War; today, our best men are found in every service and in every theater. And like their predecessors for over a century and a half, they go voluntarily, despite knowing the possible cost. The best men will always go, but not all will come back.

So this year, while we will not fail to remember the boys of 1864, let us also commit to memory the names of our best men who have fallen in this war, and honor those who still march out of the gates determined to win, whatever the cost.

Mr Gregory R. Wright, Jr, VMI Class of 1995

Capt. Lowell T. Miller II, VMI Class of 1993

Captain James C. Edge, VMI Class of 1996

Captain Luke C. Wullenwaber, VMI Class of 2002

Major Paul R. Syverson, III, VMI Class of 1993

Sergeant Ryan E. Doltz, VMI Class of 2000

Lieutenant Joshua C. Hurley, VMI Class of 2001

Captain John Robert Teal, VMI Class of 1994

Lieutenant Commander David Lucian Williams, VMI Class of 1991

Mr. Charles W. Mathers, VMI Class of 1962

Another Training Accident

By Bull Nav

This happened last week, but did not get any network airplay, I did not see it in my newspaper, and I do not remember seeing anything about it on any of the milblogs:

Release Date: 5/8/2007 8:55:00 AM
From Naval Air Station Fallon Public Affairs
AUSTIN, Nev. (NNS) -- All five crew members of a Navy SH-60F helicopter were killed May 7, in a crash approximately 10 miles west of Austin, Nev.
The crash site was initially located by military aircraft at 9:40 p.m. PDT, 15 minutes after the helicopter crashed. A Navy UH-1N search and rescue helicopter, dispatched from NAS Fallon, arrived at the scene at approximately 10:15 p.m.

Every time I hear about a Navy helicopter going down, I get that slightly sick feeling since I still have a couple of BR's who are pilots. I always hope it is not one of them.
At the same time, I pray for the families of those who did go:

...crew members identified were: Cmdr. Michael D. Sheahan, 40, of Augusta, Ga., also a pilot and the commanding officer of HS-7; Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class William Weatherford, 30, of Wichita, Kan.; Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Jared John Rossetto, 24, of Corralitos, Calif.; and Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Andrew Robert Bibbo, 22, of Clinton, Maine, according to a news release.

We train like we are going to fight, and that means hard training with lots of inherent risk. These guys were preparing for the fight and deserve as much recognition as if they were there.
The part I found interesting was that

Sheahan was piloting the helicopter when it struck a high-voltage power line and crashed about 10 miles west of Austin in central Nevada, the Navy said.

The squadron CO was piloting when they went down. I think that makes it even harder. Here is the guy with the most experience in the squadron...gone. I know the aviation community Mishap Investigation Reports leave no stone unturned so they will figure it out.
But let's go back to CDR Sheahan.
I thought that here is a guy my age and rank so he probably graduated from college about the same time. The first story I found (and I can't find it now) said CDR Sheahan graduated in 1989, same year as me (and LTCOL P for that matter).
Then I found out he joined the Navy

after graduating from The Citadel

VMI and The Citadel have a long relationship that is not always pleasant. Still, I have as much respect for Citadel grads as I do my fellow VMI alums. It takes a lot to sacrifice a normal college life for what we went through.
My thoughts and prayers are with CDR Sheahan's family and for his crew and their families.

Note from General Petraeus

By John

To our man Blackfive:

Matthew...I wanted to offer my thanks to the bloggers who have worked to provide accurate descriptions of the situation on the ground here in Iraq and elsewhere. Milbloggers have become increasingly important, of course, given the enormous growth in individuals who get their news online in the virtual world instead of through newspapers and television. So please extend my appreciation to them for performing this task -- and, of course, for doing it in ways that does not violate legitimate operational security guidelines. Best from Baghdad -- General Dave Petraeus

Matt read the note to the milblogging conference audience right before panel 1 kicked off.

Right after Admiral Fox spoke from Baghdad via live feed.

Which was right after the President spoke via video message.

Just sayin'.

Command Incest

By John

From former AF tactical air controller Jeff Emmanuel:

At a certain location, we had a commanding officer who first came into our unit as a Stan/Eval inspector. After excoriating our commander at the time for failing to comply with a littany of relatively obscure and arcane guidelines and regulations -- something pretty regularly done, generally out of expediency, by SOF units -- he set himself up to come in as our next commander, even though he had never served one day in SOF, on the promise that he would "clean up" our three-straight-year award-winning unit and ensure compliance with every reg he could get his hands on, while also attempting to eliminate any "possibly risky" training practices or events -- a fairly ridiculous goal at a unit whose day-to-day operations often consist of freefall parachuting, open-water and subsurface operations, and other "possibly risky" events.

Needless to say, this man was not only unloved, but was ineffective -- his policy-stickler attitude reduced the effectiveness of our teams, as, in order to operate effectively, SOF teams can't be held to the same "three-bags-full" standard of dotting i's, crossing t's, and making perfect hospital corners at all times -- in that atmosphere, not only morale but operational readiness and effectiveness are significantly degraded.

This commander committed the cardinal sins of (a)worrying more about his next promotion than the effectiveness of his unit, and (b) ignoring the primary mission of the men he was tasked with commanding. Instead, he focused on trying to remake the unit (SOF) into the type (conventional) with which he was most comfortable, and which he felt was superior in the sense that it was more willing and able to follow regulations, and was much more manageable by a career desk-sitter who found himself hopelessly out of his element when tasked with leading free-thinking, unconventional fighting men.

This is endemic in the Air Force, and endemic in the Armed Forces in general.

And it worries me. In many military communities, we've produced commanders who think that regulation is the highest form of effective leadership. Yet you get this "does not compute" stare back if you make the effort to explain that more regulation can actually harm your ability to fight and win wars.

And that's the real problem.

We need warriors, but we're breeding accountants.

NIX THE FORT DIX SIX

By Lt Col P

Terrorists or not, they ought to be hanged. They are poster children for military tribunals. Try them, convict them, hang them. And let that be a lesson to the others. The great Jeff Cooper (whose birthday was yesterday) was fond of noting, "We threw the Moors out of Spain in 1492, but apparently we didn't throw them far enough." Time for another heave-ho, I'd say.

We learned an(other) expensive, bloody lesson for cheap. How many more passes do we get before our luck runs out? A Beslan-aboard-base? I shudder to think of it.

One article I read in the WaPo ended with the usual comment from the neighbors of these six creatures, you know, he-seemed-like-such-nice-boy, etc. "They were just average Muslims," said one man. Yes sir, they probably are, but not in the sense you think.

TRY THEM. CONVICT THEM. HANG THEM. Terrorists, enemy soldiers, AQ operatives-- it doesn't matter. Their necks will snap the same way.

Fort Dix Six

By John

Not terrorists.

Yeah, you heard me.

I'm hearing the phrase a ton in the press. Probably because it's easier than defining these idiots in some new category, and for that, I can't really fault the MSM. But I think when we're analyzing the plot, it's important to include target selection in your verbal calculus.

Fort Dix is a military target....which by a strict definition, probably categorizes the six morons into some sort of guerilla fighter category. It's a stupid debate, and completely nit-picky on my part, but even with that in mind I guess I'm sticking to the belief that keeping the public fluent in the language of this new threat is in our best interests.

Yes they're still Islamists. Yes they're still employing low-level warfare. But attacking a military base is not the same as attacking a Wal-Mart, even if invoking a culture of fear on domestic bases is their primary objective.

DARPA's Homing Bomb

By John

Shachtman has such a great eye for this stuff:

Noah writes:

Precision mortars and artillery shells have the potential to change the battlefield just as much as satellite- and laser-guided bombs did -- maybe more. Those munitions are deep into testing. So Darpa, naturally, wants to take the next step, by developing a hand-held, steerable, flying mini-bomb that an infantryman can use to blow up just about anyone in a two kilometer range.

The project is called Close Combat Lethal Recon, or CCLR. And Darpa was kind enough to put together a handy promotional vid, to show us how it works. (Don't let the off-tempo, forced-cheery, robo-voiced narration creep you out too bad.)

So now the bad guys can look forward to our boys whupping their ass with a PSP.

Twice in one week?

By Bull Nav

The other day I saw this article:

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- Capt. Adam Levitt, Commodore, Destroyer Squadron (CDS) 23, relieved Cmdr. Jeffrey P. Menne, commanding officer, USS Higgins (DDG 76), due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command May 8

.
And I thought that here was yet another case of a deployed CO being relieved for something that happened on deployment. I don't know that for sure, but that was my assumption (based on what happened to USS NEWPORT NEWS).
Then today, I see this:

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Vice Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, Director Navy Staff, relieved Cmdr. Thomas C. Graves, Commanding Officer USS Constitution, due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command May 10.

Now, the USS CONSITITUTION never deploys (well, I guess it used to, a loooong time ago), so I figure that there is something else going on up in Boston.
Either way, it is always a sad day when a CO is relieved for a, "loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command."
Like any of the military services, those who enter the Navy as officers aspire to command (or should). It takes between 16-20 years before you get it and once you are there, it will be over in about 2 1/2 years. Provided nothing takes you out earlier.
The officer who is assigned to command has spent his or her entire Navy career honing skills in their particular warfare area, spending long periods deployed overseas, and invariably moving from one Navy base to another every 2-3 years. The Navy spends a lot of time and money preparing an individual for command, as well it should.
So, should an individual be relieved of command for something over which they have no control? After all, the Navy has spent a great deal of taxpayer dollars on the commanding officer and wouldn't it be a bad ROI if you don't get your money's worth?
Well...no.
The CO is the one guy who gets all the credit for what the ships does well and the one guy who takes the fall for when things go horribly wrong. Accountability. Something you don't find everywhere (especially outside the armed forces).
Yes, it is necessary to relieve a CO in order to uphold a standard of accountability and responsiblity.
It is not something which is used capriciously. While the system is very good for producing commanding officers, things happen and people change, and it does not catch every single character flaw which may manifest itself once the individual is in command. As the Commanding Officer, you are expected to do the right things to take care of your sailors and to ensure the ship (squadron, submarine, etc.) is capable of and ready to execute any mission assigned. Oh yeah, then to actually accomplish the mission.
If you can't do it, you need to go.
So...twice in one week? If that is what it takes, yes.
Hopefully, those ships will fix whatever is wrong and move on.
Especially for a deployed DDG...they have things to do.

Russian Raptor?

By John

Russian engine manufacturer NPO Saturn's website has provided what appears to be a first glimpse of Russia's fifth-generation fighter under development as part of the PAK FA project.

NPO Saturn has been selected to supply engines for the Sukhoi T-50, which won the Russian ministry of defence's tender over a rival submission from RSK MiG. The simplified image of the T-50 shows it to be a twin-engine design with a classic aerodynamic layout resembling the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor. However, its smaller horizontal and vertical control surfaces reflect the fact that the aircraft is expected to use vectored thrust for pitch, yaw and roll control.

And presumably an enclosed weapons bay? Uber-powerful radar? Sounds like they copied everything but the 200 million dollar price tag. In which case, hey...maybe we should buy some.

Still, I hope their fighter plagarizing goes as well as when the Ruskies ripped off our space shuttle design.

Inside VMI

By John

This video has been collecting dust on my laptop for almost two years, completely forgot that I had it. Course back then, the YouTube phenomena wasn't what it is today....so I never really thought to upload the damn thing.

One of my VMI buddies, who was still a cadet at the time, compiled some footage of the "Rat Mass" meeting the Rat Disciplinary Committee back in the fall of 2005. The RDC is a collection of the nasty cadets, usually members of the powerlifting club (heh), elected by their peers for sheer intimidation factor. The RDC polices up the bad rats, and enforces the many, many regulations of the ratline.

They also teach you how to strain. Which the Institute name for the awkward looking position of attention you see in the video. The first RDC meeting of the year marks the first time a Rat learns how to strain....the norm is for the RDC to select one bad rat who has distinguished himself during Hell Week and use him as a friendly learning aid (also seen in the video).

The second part of the footage is the rats "pounding pavement" up to the fourth stoop for showertime. Kind of an unpleasant experience as well....I'll never forget straining through the lines of upperclassman, blind from camera flashes and deaf from all the screaming, only to be rewarded with a 30 second shower and an infinite number of pushups.

Anyway, here's the vid:

And Speaking of Weird....

By John

It seems to be our word of the day. Check out Mike Goldfarb for some Russian American milblogger weirdness.

Doonesbury on Congress

By John

Sarcastic or authentic?

Sarcastic, I think.

Hotel Tango: Chap @ Milblogs, who says:

Doonesbury today actually sounded like it was on the same planet. If you read it without the sarcasm in the previous strips for this story arc, that is. There's another kind of weird because the Doonesbury site says it's got a milblog...

Yeah...weird.

Rattlesnake

By John

Mike Yon captures a dramatic night time raid in his latest dispatch:

Only the most confident commander would allow an outsider to go into combat carrying a video camera. The video was running. There could be no fudging. Like a boxing coach watching his fighter step into the ring, when the bell rings his fighters are either good or they are not. Just the day before I had been on an expertly run mission with 2 Rifles. I had been with 5 Platoon who had given me a bed, (which stank, but was comfortable, more or less), all of which confirmed for me that good enough for British soldiers is good enough for me. This was my second combat engagement with British forces in two days, and this was another moment of truth. Through the video, the world could see.

SGT Steve Harker fired the first British Javelin. Harker closed his track gates to isolate the thermal signature of the target. The cool night provided excellent thermal contrast and little clutter. By selecting top attack (instead of direct attack) his missile would dive into the target. LCPL Radford said, “Jav 1, fire when you’ve got a lock. Jav 2, fire when you’ve got a lock.”

Three unknown men, later joined by a fourth, had taken cover behind a building, apparently to initiate the blast they intended to kill us with. There was a high probability that these were the same unknown men who had killed British soldiers and their interpreter here only a week before, and then attacked the Challenger tank. SGT Harker’s crosshairs were flashing when he put his finger on the seeker button. His crosshairs were aimed at the base of the building at the feet of the men. The weapon got lock. The crosshairs stopped flashing.

So, yeah...the entire dispatch is pretty much awesome. Click through the pic to read the whole thing.

A Javelin leaves the tube.

Let's Focus on the Iraqi People

By John

I really can't emphasis enough how important it is to deliver a logical, effective, and grounded message on the potentially devastating consequences of withdrawing from Iraq prematurely. Jeff Emmanual, former Air Force combat controller and columnist at Red State, seems to feel the same way.

Americans can simply click off their television sets and forget about the situation in Iraq. For the families living there, that’s just not possible. They have to live forever with the consequences of our actions.

Lt. Colonel James Crider, Squadron commander of the 1-4 Cavalry (“Quarter Cav”) said to me, “I’ve had several Iraqis tell me that...[t]hey want us here -- not forever, but for now, until they can take care of themselves.” He added, they tell me, “It would be a disaster if you leave now.”

Iraqis’ opinions, actions, and welfare, should be front and center in this debate. I spoke with many Iraqis, as well as many soldiers about the Iraqis, during my recent trip to Baghdad. We talked about the current situation there and the effect of the American political debate on their lives and actions. Though the views of Iraqis , like those of Americans, span the spectrum of possible opinions, most of the people I met had one thing in common: a longing for freedom and safety, coupled with a knowledge that they need our help -- at least in the near term.

Read the whole thing.

On OPSEC

By John

...come two must-reads. The first from Phil Carter at Slate:

Soldiers' voices may also help our military machine function better, as well. To be sure, militaries require discipline, and they work most efficiently as ordered societies in which individuals work together as a team to accomplish a mission with minimal griping. But the squashing of dissent can go too far. In Iraq, where I served last year in the volatile Diyala province, I saw military hierarchy and culture conspire to spin or block negative or pessimistic reports from traveling up the chain of command, or to silence dissenting views before they could reach the generals in Baghdad. Headquarters did this because it saw its job as distilling and filtering information from the battlefield so senior officers could see "the big picture." Yet Iraq is a land that confounds national strategies and generalization; the devil is truly in the details. When organizational filters insulate top military leaders from these facts, their decisions suffer, as does the mission.

It's by circumventing organizational filters that blogs and soldiers' writings allow unconventional and controversial views to percolate up to senior leaders and the public. An important article in the Armed Forces Journal by Army Lt. Col. Paul Yingling illustrates the point. For years, the Army's general officer corps congratulated itself for its stewardship of the Army during America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yingling, who is one of the Army's "jedi knights" trained at its elite School of Advanced Military Studies, wrote that today's generals in Iraq failed to commit sufficient resources, failed to understand the dynamic situation on the ground after April 2003, failed to adapt to these changed circumstances, and then failed to tell their civilian political leaders about the risks of these choices. The article should have provoked self-examination among the Army's generals. (Though friends in the Pentagon tell me it has been met by deafening silence.)

On the last line, I'm sure that -instead of provoking the said self examination- the puzzle palace held an intense "how to deal" discussion regarding LTC Yingling.

Second piece comes from DJ Elliot at Roggio's place, who opines that the if the Pentagon is worried about OPSEC violations, they need to look inward:

Most people do not realize that Chris and I were bouncing Order of Battle [OOB] data between each other for a year before the OOBs were finally published. I started my collection of data as a hobby to see just what the real status of the Iraqi Security Forces was since the published press reports were far off base and contradictory in their own stories. My principle motivations for my involvement in publishing these OOBs are somewhat contradictory. First, I wanted to get the principle operational security [OPSEC] violators to tighten their OPSEC. Second, I want to further an understanding of the development of the Iraqi Security Forces and the Baghdad Security Plan. As a retired intelligence analyst, I could not believe that the Public Affairs Officers [PAOs] and Commanders were releasing this much operational data in a time of war.

Since we started to publish the Iraqi Security Forces OOB and the Baghdad OOB, Bill has received the occasional complaint about the reports being a violation of OPSEC. The complainers continually miss the point.

The Order of Battles we have published are not OPSEC violations, they are reports of OPSEC violations. All of the data contained within the OOBs is available with a simple word search on the Internet and any intelligence operation worthy of its name already has the data in far greater detail than what we publish in these OOBs. Most of the information used to compile the OOB comes from the PAOs and senior officer briefs. By far, these are the source of the greatest OPSEC violations in this war.

Also since we started publishing these OOBs, the reported unit IDs have dropped by more than half. Some of the previous OPSEC violators have either rethought what they were doing or been "counseled". Good. The harder it is for the OOB to be updated the better I feel.

The worst OPSEC violator in the senior staffs is the Pentagon. I get more advance notice from a Pentagon Press Brief of US movements from Kuwait into Iraq than I get from all other sources combined. The Pentagon acts as if it is not at war, and the leaks emanating from Arlington are enormous.

Hey so maybe the new regulation is working, in that it's revealing some systemic OPSEC risks that need to be terminated. Though I wouldn't hold your breath if you're waiting for an updated AR-530-1A specifying that the problem isn't the milbloggers.

Column does bring up an interesting point though, a conflict really, between the Public Affairs infastructure's obtuse bureaucratic culture and the new, decentralized, soldier-driven outreach via milblogging. Can't help but to wonder which is more effective.

Hotel Tango: Shachtman

Picture of the Day: Joint Choppers

By John

Attack birds on a SEAD mission? Money...

An Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk (lower left) from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., heads out to the Utah Test and Training Range with a formation of Army AH-64 Apaches during a combat search and rescue integration exercise held May 2 to 5 in Sandy, Utah. Members of the 34th Weapons Squadron from Nellis AFB led the search and recovery training. The objective of the exercise was to expand expertise and integration with Utah's 211th Aviation Group AH-64 Apache Joint Rotary Wing, 4th Fighter Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon Striker assets, special operations forces and conduct extensive joint CSAR operations against surface-to-air threats. Photo Courtesy of the US Air Force

Following us home

By Slab

Since the Civil War, America's servicemembers have been able to return home to relative safety and quietude. No matter what occurred on the battlefield, they were able to feel secure that the war was "over there". Some of us have known that this war is different, but recent arrests highlight this war can follow us home.

This morning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested six men involved in a plot to assault Fort Dix, N.J.

The arrests occurred last night in Cherry Hill, N.J., as suspects tried to buy three AK47 assault rifles and four semi-automatic M-16s from a confidential government witness. These apprehensions culminate a 16-month FBI investigation into the groups’ alleged plot to kill soldiers with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, according to a complaint filed in the Camden, N.J. Federal court.

“The philosophy that supports and encourages jihad around the world against Americans came to live here in New Jersey and threatened the lives of our citizens through these defendants. Fortunately, law enforcement in New Jersey was here to stop them,” Christopher Christie, U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey, told reporters outside the courthouse.

“We were able to do what American law enforcement is supposed to do in the post 9/11 era, and that is to be one step ahead of those who are attempting to do harm to American citizens,” he said.

The FBI first found out about these men when a video store clerk alerted them to a suspicious video that one of them wanted converted to DVD format. It showed several men shooting automatic weapons and shouting "Allahu Akbar". Good heads-up police work by the Feds.

The frightening thing is that their plot could have been more effective than one might think. Most Soldiers and Marines are not armed while on base, and they are not issued ammunition except on training ranges. Only the Military Police are armed, like their civilian counterparts. I hope that bases around the country are reviewing and updating their security policies to protect against this kind of threat. Then again, I'll admit that I don't know if the Provost Marshalls Office has a plan for such an eventuality, they just might be ahead of me on this one. However, it would be prudent for military personnel to review their local policies for carrying personally-owned weapons and ammunition on base. Never hurts to be prepared.

May 8, 2007 03:10 PM   Link    The Long War     Comments (18)     TrackBack (1)

The Recap

By John

I hate to say it, but I almost feel like I should open up with an apology. So many people to meet, so many times where conversation was cut short. Much danger in these recaps, too. You're bound to leave someone out. So....

If I leave you out.

Lo siento!

Anyway, has anyone told Andi what a great idea the pre-conference cocktail party was? Minus the fact that you had to buy carnival tickets for beer. I was in the reception area a good hour before folks started trickling in...had to get the milbloggies prepped. You'd be amazed how quickly the room filled. I think everyone had the same "fashionably late" time in mind. Met Slab for the first time, what a great dude. I was kinda ticked that I didn't get to chat with him more that evening, but it turns out we were able to hang out Saturday night. He's a sharp guy, we're lucky to have him on our side in this fight. And we're even luckier to have him at OPFOR.

Met Ward Carroll at last year's conference, but Charlie and I maybe got three words in with him before all three of us got pulled elsewhere. I'm not sure anyone took the time to thank him for filling in as MC of the event. What can I say? The guy is impressive. He wrote his speech down on a napkin at the local IHOP around 0730 on Saturday morning (thanks to Rich Lowe from Soldiers' Angels for buying Ward and I breakfast, btw).

Hung out with Ward and Noah Shachtman and Army Girl at Carpool on Friday night, where Chuck entertained us with his shotgun skillz (or lack thereof) at some Deer Hunter bar game. (Ward's roundup is here).

And that reminds me....Military.com, besides being our sponsor, has really been the leader in the field as far as promoting soldier journalism. Was most satisfied to see that they helped lead the way this year.

And USAA? Hell, could you have asked for better awards for the milbloggies? A digital camera, plaque, and a $1000 donation to Project Valour-IT? By the way, I made sure those donations all went under "Team Air Force" for the 2007 drive, so we're $9000 ahead of the rest of you chumps.

Okay and speaking of the milbloggies. You guys know I screwed that up right? Mary Ann was supposed to get an award for her work with Soldiers' Angels Germany, but for whatever reason I put the plaques behind the podium in a weird order and she was passed over.

I had a few back-slaps after the presentation....where I replied to the "great jobs" with "thanks, but I had to drink my way into it." Folks laughed, but seriously. I had to drink my way into it. I think I was 5 beers deep by the time I got up to the podium, just buzzed enough to think I'm charming, just sober enough not to slur my way through the presentation.

Not sober enough to get it right, alas.

So....SORRY MARYANN. Couldn't apologize enough to her afterwards, but she was very cool about it. Very cool about it. I get the feeling that Mary Ann doesn't do her incredible work for shiny plaques and digital cameras. But it's still nice to be recognized, y'know?

You know, for a fighter pilot...I don't think I heard Lex talk about how great he was once. Not once. Are you sure you're a flier Nep? Noteworthy though, he did trash the F14 on panel 3. I kinda gushed around him.....we're pretty much all huge fans of his blog....it probably came off as "omg you.are.SO.awesome!" but y'know: I can always blame the beerrrrr.

I didn't get enough time with Matt or Pinch, period. That sucked. We hung out quite a bit last year. I did get to meet Mrs. Pinch though, and heard the behind the scenes story on their much-publicized wedding.

Eagle1 of Eagle Speak was phenomenal. Both on the panel and in person. Very focused, smart fella. Someone wanted to meet him, forget who, and I couldn't find the old sea dog in the crowd. So my advice: "LOOK FOR THE DUDE FROM THE GORTON FISHSTICKS BOX!"

Yes, I'm teasing. But with that neatly trimmed white navy beard and his official title of "Captain"....

Am I wrong?

The ladies....ohs, there was alot of you there was. But y'all:

ya'll are pretty cool. Laurie and Maggie too, not sure where they ran off to.

Quick thought. How many DoD PAOs did we have show up? I know Deiss and the Pentagon Channell....and Kosovo Dad was supposed to show but couldn't...was that it?

Tomorrow or tonight I'll finish this up with the conference recap. I have to split this thing up....being home in Virginia is phenomenal, but I've been going full speed since I got here late Wednesday evening. So many people to see, so much beer to drink. So, part II tomorrow sometime.

Lots more to talk about.

May 8, 2007 01:49 PM   Link    General Interest     Comments (2)     TrackBack (0)

What fun it was

By Slab

Well, apparently some (*ahem* Noonan) are expecting a post mortem of this weekend. I'll keep it short and sweet, as I don't think I can add much to what is already out there. Lex, in particular, has a good account of the highlights. The man has a quite a way with words. Which, I suppose, he should, given his profession. You know how pilots like to talk. Mostly about themselves, of course, but it still tends to develop their vocabulary and locution.

I'm afraid I wasn't much fun on Friday night, as I had participated in a 12-mile hike that morning, followed by the 6-hour drive to NoVA. The dogs were barking, and I was a bit groggy from waking up at 4 AM. Neither would have stopped me when I was a 22-year old lieutenant in the Infantry Officer Course, but since years in the infantry seem to advance much like dog years (although maybe a bit faster), I am not as spry as I was six (normal) years ago. Anyway, that's my excuse. I did get the chance to meet my co-panelist Murdoc right off the bat, and made my way over to meet my other co-panelist Eagle1 and our esteemed moderator Donovan. John, of course, introduced me around to quite a few folks, not the least of which were Ward Carroll and Matt Burden. Matt apparently thinks I have the coolest job in the Marine Corps, since I get to control large amounts of high explosive falling from the sky. Or, in his words, "blow [manure] up!"

Saturday was very interesting, as everyone knows by now The Boss Man himself opened up the festivities with a taped address. I certainly appreciate the gesture, and it is an unmistakeable sign that the military blogging community is starting to be noticed. The first two panels were fantastic, although I would have liked to perhaps see different panels for embedded bloggers and servicemembers who blogged from in-theater. The first panel meandered a bit between issues affecting the two groups, and I think more would have come out of focusing on the groups separately instead of together. The speeches during lunch were great, and Chuck Ziegenfuss is an extremely funny guy, albeit a tad long-winded, as most "funny guys" are. While I greatly enjoyed his speech (if you can call it that), it ate quite a bit of our time for the third panel.

I didn't get to contribute much, since it was decided early on that Noah would get first crack at the MSM vs blogs issue, and we all knew it would be a firebrand. Sure enough, much of our time was spent with everyone's sights set squarely on Noah. Y'know what? Bravo to him for being unafraid to stand up and challenge the cherished notion that the MSM is an evil, biased, liberal mouthpiece. I chimed in ever-so briefly with my thoughts on unit blogging and trying to convince the military to empower young Soldiers and Marines to help write and distribute the stories that the MSM and PA types are missing, but was pretty much drowned out by the uproar over Noah's topic.

Of course that's not all, and I wish I had the time to write about all of the great people I met last weekend, but it would take me all night to do them justice, and I have predeployment classes to attend in the morning. I definitely hope that I am able to attend next year, and perhaps make a more meaningful contribution next time. Until then...

May 7, 2007 05:48 PM   Link    General Interest     Comments (2)     TrackBack (0)

Our Man John...

By Lt Col P

On Enn-Pee-Arr. (Along with Noah S. and Matt from B5.)

Good work!

May 7, 2007 04:19 PM   Link    General Interest ~ Supporting the Troops ~ Tech ~ Tech ~ The Long War     Comments (1)     TrackBack (0)

Jill Carroll's Kidnapper Dead?

By Lt Col P

That's what it looks like.

Couldn't happen to a nicer person. Nighty-night, scumbag.

May 7, 2007 03:55 PM   Link    The Long War     Comments (0)     TrackBack (0)

Where I'm At

By John

Home...in a sense....

I mortified my kid brother by showing up unannounced to his exam study group and promptly putting him in a headlock and giving him a mighty powerful noogie, right in front of his fellow cadets. This was the first time I'd seen him in his VMI uniform, haven't been here in 2+ years. He's turning into quite the "private," unshaven....unpressed pants...unshined shoes or brass. Ha, and no one would get why I think that's great. Interestingly enough, those are the dudes who run the barracks, due in part to VMI' strong class system. But that's another story for another time, methinks.

There's few outside the VMI family who really understand how important this place becomes to us after graduation. Course we hateses it, we does.... during our cadetships at least. But coming back, it's tough to describe this wave of wonderful memories that flood over you the second you step onto Post.

/sentimentality.

Anyway...

I've gotta do a milblogging conference round-up....but it might a few days while I do my grand Virginia tour. I'm hoping that Slab runs with his thoughts, he did a phenomenal job on Panel 3. His proposal on unit bloggers has real traction, I think. More later...

May 7, 2007 05:17 AM   Link    VMI     Comments (5)     TrackBack (0)

Live from the Milblogger Conference

By John

Pane 2 by the time I could get my laptop set up. The wives and moms are killing.....

Like AWTM: Blogging, it's cheaper than therapy.

hee.

I snuck up to bloggers' row uninvited, up here with a real all-star cast. Kevin Whalen from Pundit Review, Streiff from Red State, Bruce McQ from Qando, Mary Katharine Ham, Jim Hoft from Gateway Pundit, and Lorie Byrd from Wizbang.

Lots of media hanging around, mostly out back. Which is probably a good thing, since there's an awful lot of media bashing going on inside.

Big story of the morning was President Bush's video statement to the milbloggers, very cool stuff. Jim Hoft has the video, good on him for being so quick with the camera while the rest of us were mesmerized by the twin video screens.

Panel 1 was great, of course. Ardolino, Sg.t Hook, and Doc in the Box....two embeds and two soldiers. Sgt. Hook had the goosebumps moment of the conference with his "I'll come home when we win" liner.

Will update as things progress.

Update 1: Panel 3 is up, Lightning Slab is representing this fine blog on the panel.....I helped craft this panel with John Donovan, so I've been looking forward to this one.

Intros all around, Eagle, Murdoc, Shachtman, Lex, and Captain Anthony Deiss join Slab. Lex is trash talking the F-14, surprise surprise. Deiss is talking CENTCOM, and how they've spearheaded new media engagement program that are slowly becoming more popular DoD wide. Deiss on the effort: "Centcom really looks at blogs as being credibile media. Alot of folks in the media don't really agree with that and don't consider blogs to be credentialed media."

Noah talks mainstream media, would "appreciate not getting pelted with garbage and rocks." heh. Noah writes for Danger Room, Popular Mechanics, Wired....so he's career MSM.

"News stories have a bias towards the dramatic, a bias towards violence. It's not a bias against good news, it's not a bias about the war effort. I'd also like to knock the bias that reporters just sit in the green zone and do their reporting inside the wire. Iraq is the most dangerous war for reporters since this stuff started being reported."

Slab hits unit blogging again and again and again. I'm glad he is......he pointed out that a marine with a laptop and a camcorder can do the job of an MSM reporter.

Jack Holt, chief of the pentagon's new media engagement program spoke. Feels we need a change in the PAO apparatus. Hello? Unit bloggers.

May 5, 2007 07:26 AM   Link    General Interest     Comments (6)     TrackBack (0)

Commitment

By Bull Nav

Yeah, that.
You know, the USMC/USN core values: The part that comes after "Honor, Courage…COMMITMENT" Remember them?
Sometimes, when you you are young, folks tell you, "Honor your Commitments."
When you are older you realize that sometimes you need to, "courage honor your commitments."
Particularly when your commitments, those things which you said you were going to do or were going to support get hard, difficult, or unpopular.

Or perhaps those commitments get to a point where you can achieve personal gain by abandoning them. What to do, what to do…

Such a dilemma.

Well, actually it is not a dilemma. I don't have a problem with commitments. When I agree to do something, by God I am going to get it done.
I will put everything I have into completing the task. Once all the debate/compromise/collaboration is done, it is time to get down and dirty and get the job done. You put your best assets in and go do it. If it gets hard, guess what: you still have to do it. You made a COMMITMENT.

If you have the opportunity for debate, you use it. If you are not going to debate because it might hurt you, then don’t' complain later. Have some principles. Take a stand.

Have some respect for those you sent in harm's way. Those who have given their lives for your decision to send them there. Those who believe that their leaders have the country's best interests at heart and who believe that their elected leaders would not send them on a fool's errand. Those who believe that when the President said and the Congress said it was time to go, they went. And they will go until the job is done. Done right.

If someone is not getting the job done, the guy in charge needs to fire them and get someone who can get it done. Lincoln did. The American fighting man's life should not become a political football to be kicked around and thrown away.

DO NOT renege on your commitments to the men and women you sent to do God's work in the badlands.

We need...we MUST be ONE AMERICA.

Those who oppose us...WANT A DIVIDED AMERICA.

All for one, one for all...

May 4, 2007 06:12 PM   Link    Homeland Security ~ Leadership ~ The Long War     Comments (14)     TrackBack (0)

It's Flashman Day, Damn Your Eyes!

By Lt Col P

This weekend is not only the 2nd Annual MilBlog Conference and Son & Heir's second birthday, but it's also Harry Flashman's birthday. To those of you who are Flashman fans, he needs no introduction. However, to the uninitiated, he is the most magnificently vile, awful, lecherous, treacherous, cowardly scoundrel you could imagine. He is, in fact, the greatest soldier that never lived.

Who fled for his life during the retreat from Kabul, and was later hailed as the gallant sole survivor? Why, it's old Flash Harry! Who was that paleface seen valiantly cutting down the Sioux at Little Bighorn, or errr, rather trying to save himself from one of his own most despicable acts? It's Colonel Flashman, God Bless 'im! Who was it that toadied his betters from India to England, bullied his inferiors nearly from pole to pole, and never passed up a chance to debauch a lady of any race, creed or nationality? Why, it's the hero of Balaclava!

The genius of the Flashman books is their unimpeachable historical accuracy, save of course for Flashman himself, and he is a borrowed work of fictional genius. One can learn so much from them that they should be classed as faction instead of fiction. The Great Game, the American Civil War, the slave trade, the Opium Wars, the Indian Mutiny, and God knows what else. It's all there in great detail, told by one of history's greatest cads.

So to Flashman fans new and old, raise a glass this weekend to Sir Harry. Don't we all wish we could be him for a day!

Late addition... The "editor" of the Flashman Papers is none other than the author of Quartered Safe Out Here, one of the best memoirs of WWII.

May 4, 2007 03:34 AM   Link    History ~ Humor     Comments (11)     TrackBack (0)

I am speechless

By Bull Nav

As a general rule, I am not so politically inclined. My training (college, the Navy, my job) is engineering. I have not studied politics extensively, such as for a degree program, but I do my best to stay informed.
However, when a congressman or senator does something that...something that...well, words escape me.
I guess "incredulous" could best describe my reaction.

WASHINGTON, May 3 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 to invade Iraq, injecting presidential politics into the Congressional debate over financing the war.
Mrs. Clinton’s proposal brings her full circle on Iraq — she supported the war measure five years ago — and it sharpens her own political positioning at a time when Democrats are vying to confront the White House.

I mean, does she think this is transparent to the American people? Now, I realize who this is, who this reverse carpetbagger is, this person who changes positions with the wind. But is this really the type of person to lead this country? Is this the type of person to represent this great land to the rest of the world?
Or is it just to placate the radical fringe that appears to run the Democratic party?

Now, her advisers say, a vote to withdraw authorization would make plain to antiwar and liberal Democrats that she was repudiating her 2002 vote. The hope among her aides was that demands by antiwar voters for her to apologize for her vote would be rendered moot.

Yes, I am left speechless...

May 4, 2007 03:25 AM   Link    Moonbattery     Comments (6)     TrackBack (0)

Tragic negligence

By Slab

Weapons handling is something I take personally. This is the tool of my trade, and I get angry when I see Marines handling their weapons improperly. This naturally extends to the ammunition that you are feeding into your weapon.

Sgt Caleb Hohman is being charged with manslaughter after the shooting death of Sgt Seth Algrim during a training exercise in Camp Pendleton.

Sgt. Caleb P. Hohman is also charged with four counts of violating lawful general orders because he failed to unload and remove live 5.56mm frangible ammunition from his M4 carbine rifle after a live-fire training course he did the week before the shooting and because he failed to ensure that he had loaded blanks into his rifle for the non-live-fire raid exercise.
....
Hohman, a member of Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, shot then-Cpl. Sgt. Seth M. Algrim in the head and arm during a night raid package at the 25 Area combat town, an area of concrete buildings and walls Marines use for platoon- and company-sized patrols and maneuvers. No live ammunition was planned for the five-day training exercise, one of a series of predeployment exercises the company was conducting.
....
In an endorsement to the JAGMan report, the division commander, Maj. Gen. John Paxton, wrote that Algrim’s death “was the result of individual and small unit negligence and a lack of supervision. This tragedy could have been avoided.”
.....
“The declining respect for the dangers of unaccounted for ammunition beyond the scope of the immediate training contributed to this tragedy,” the colonel. Repeated combat deployments and operations in Iraq “dulled” the unit’s emphasis on accounting for ammunition and “bred complacency” back home, he wrote.

A truly sad, and avoidable, death that has cost us two experienced Marine NCOs - Algrim and Hohman. What was truly sad to me when I first heard about the incident is that we have been through this before.

Take notes, boys and girls, this is a dangerous business - even at home. Complacency about such things will get people killed. Reconnaissance units evoke images of dedicated and intelligent Marines who are capable of operating independent of the support required by other units. They are held up as the professional gunfighters of the Marine Corps. In the vast majority of instances, they are. Yet, in the past four years there have been two incidents where Reconnaissance Marines killed a fellow Marine by being careless with ammunition. No matter how high speed, low drag you are, you can't afford to be careless with weapons. The Weapons Handling Rules (I hate the term "safety rules") always apply, and you must always be sure of your weapon's condition and the ammunition loaded in that weapon. It applies whether you are in Ramadi or Camp Pendleton.

Thus endeth the lesson.

May 2, 2007 04:53 PM   Link    General Interest     Comments (16)     TrackBack (0)

What, no government conspiracy?

By Slab

Seems the Government Accounting Office has released the results of its investigation into U.S. Army and Marine Corps body armor testing and procurement.

Specifically, we found that the Army and Marine Corps
• are currently meeting theater ballistic requirements and the required amount needed for personnel in theater, including the amounts needed for the surge of troops into Iraq;
• have controls in place during manufacturing and after fielding to assure that body armor meets requirements; and
• share information regarding ballistic requirements and testing, and the development of future body armor systems, although they are not required to do so.

Sorry Pinnacle. No. Government. Conspiracy.

May 2, 2007 04:16 PM   Link    Tech     Comments (6)     TrackBack (1)

Aw, Hell

By John

In the vein of obtuse military bureaucracy vs. a free-flow of ideas via milblogging, bureaucracy wins again:

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.

The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.

"This is the final nail in the coffin for combat blogging," said retired paratrooper Matthew Burden, editor of The Blog of War anthology. "No more military bloggers writing about their experiences in the combat zone. This is the best PR the military has -- it's most honest voice out of the war zone. And it's being silenced."

There is no word in any of the world's languages that can effectively capture the pure stupidity of this decision. Political fights need political warriors. And make no mistake, this war is a political fight. It's like stripping the Army of tanks before they're supposed to invade Germany.

The commenters at Think Progress, who obviously don't read milblogs, are convinced that this is a conspiracy to silence some sort of populist military uprising against the war.

May 2, 2007 07:21 AM   Link    Leadership     Comments (13)     TrackBack (3)

New Republic Gets It

By John

Ace links a great piece from the New Republic. Great, because it's a liberal mag accepting some realities about the war in Iraq. It's one of those registration required bits, so I'll just send you to Ace's (who I stole the quote from).

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. But, when Nancy Pelosi confessed last year that she felt "sad" about President Bush's claims that Al Qaeda operates in Iraq, she seemed to be disputing what every American soldier in Iraq, every Al Qaeda operative, and anyone who reads a newspaper already knew to be true. (When I questioned him about Pelosi's assertion, a U.S. officer in Ramadi responded, incredulously, that Al Qaeda had just held a parade in his sector.) Perhaps the House speaker was alluding to the discredited claim that Al Qaeda operated in Iraq before the war. Perhaps. But the insinuation that Al Qaeda's depredations in Iraq might be something other than what they appear to be has become a staple of the congressional debate over Iraq. Thus, to buttress his own case for withdrawal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We have to change course [away from Iraq] and turn our attention back to the war on Al Qaeda and their allies"--the clear message being that neither plays much of a role there.

What is going on here? There are two possibilities: First, Reid and Pelosi could be purposefully minimizing the stakes in Iraq. Or, second, they don't know what they're talking about. My guess is some combination of the two. Political maneuvering certainly contributes to the everyday pollution of Iraq discourse. But a lot of the pollution derives from legislators being functionally illiterate about the war over which Congress now intends to preside....

...

Obliviousness, after all, has its uses. It comforts the sensibilities of politicians whose varying levels of awareness allow them to favor certain facts and not others....

Most of all, illiteracy makes for good politics. There is the conviction, to paraphrase McCain, that winning a war takes precedence over winning an election. But it isn't so clear that this conviction guides a partisan brawl in which the Senate majority leader can gush, "We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war."

...

Though Reid has no use for the Bush administration's military "surge," he does propose a "surge in diplomacy," in line with the cliché that the war has no military solution. As The Washington Post's David Broder has pointed out, "Instead of reinforcing the important proposition ... that a military strategy for Iraq is necessary but not sufficient to solve the myriad political problems of that country, Reid has mistakenly argued that the military effort is lost but a diplomatic-political strategy can succeed...." In fact, the one brand of diplomacy that truly matters in Iraq--the U.S. Army's tribal diplomacy, which accounts for the recent turn-around in Anbar Province--is precisely the mission that Reid's demand for a skeleton force would shut down.

Where all this leads is clear. Piece together a string of demonstrably false "facts on the ground" from a suitably safe remove, and you're left with a scenario where we can walk away from Iraq without condition and regardless of consequence. You don't need to watch terrified Iraqis pleading for American forces to stay put in their neighborhoods. You don't need to read the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which anticipates that a precipitous U.S. withdrawal will end in catastrophe. Why, in the serene conviction that things are the other way around, you don't even need to read at all. Chances are, your congressman doesn't either.

I had a chat about this with Robert Farley from Lawyers, Guns, & Money recently. Robert's a good dude, in my book. Against the war from beginning to, well...now. But doesn't want to see us fail and does seem to have a firm handle on the realities of pulling out. Many anti-war bloggers don't.

It's just nice to see, y'know?

May 2, 2007 07:06 AM   Link    The Long War

Milblogger Networking

By John

This post at Chap's is pretty interesting. Swabbie Chap and Army Major John from Miserable Donuts worked together to get some ideas on Afghanistan onto the desk of a resident three-star.

With the Pentagon in the middle of all these "miblogs, good for the war? bad for the war?" debates, this seems to be an unforseen bonus. The networking, that is...

It works on the more mundane levels, too. Greyhawk and his wife helped me out with my first PCS by sending a great moving checklist last July.

The whole open communication lines works in with my overarching philosophy on our military, and how we can continue to maintain our effectiveness as a force.

1. Our adapability has proven to be our greatest asset.
2. The constantly growing defense bureaucracy has limited the free flow of ideas between units and services.
3. Milblogs are not constrained obtuse regulation, and can bypass the normally clogged communication channels.

Hasn't really been tested yet, I don't think. And there are plenty of leaders out there who are threatened by the mere thought of an idea coming from anywhere but the man directly below him. Tough. This is a new war and we're always in need of new ideas.

Here's how it works right now, at least in my world:

If I wanted to enact a major change in my group/wing right now, I'd have to first seek permission through my squadron chain of command. Flight Commander, DO, Squadron Commander. With really, any of those three having veto power. That's just to get it to the group commander, who in turn will have to send it to the wing commander. Two more vetos.

And if it is anything remotely significant, the Wing Commander would have to seek out the approval of the numbered Air Force, possibly the MAJCOM. Any and all have to sign off on the proposal. And it just takes one to axe it.

Or, a guy like Chap can just email a guy like Major John through their milblogging hookup, and ensure the right ideas get to the right people quick, fast, and in a hurry.

The intelligence community needs unit bloggers for the same reason, methinks. Wonder if we could setup blogspot for SIPRNET.

May 2, 2007 06:12 AM   Link    Leadership     Comments (5)     TrackBack (1)

A Modest Proposal on the Tops in Blue

By John

Chic[k]pilot writes of our festive military road show:

I wince at the mention of tops in blue. As a cadet I was forced to see them perform so the auditorium was not empty. I will never claim them. If anyone is mad at where money is going, they should be mad at that.

I like it. I'm sure we'd save a cool 1-2 mil by axing them. And hey, it'd make someone in the bloated Air Force acquisitions structure happy. "Hot dog! Look..General, we can afford another 1/200th of an F-22!"

May 2, 2007 06:01 AM   Link    Humor     Comments (44)     TrackBack (1)

McCain Surging

By John

Because "surge" is just such a cool word to use these days. Michael Goldfarb reports:

So this latest poll from ARG confirms what we've all been sensing for some time now, McCain is back! Was it his rendition of "Barbara Ann," which earned him the support of MoveOn.org. Was it the speech at VMI, which set tongues wagging? Or maybe it was just that McCain flourishes as an underdog. Whatever the case, McCain now has the lead in the three states that matter most: Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Nobody would touch him at CPAC, and even this guy -long time McCain fan- was kinda leaning Guiliani back then. Back his VMI speech won me...and no, not just because I'm so blindly in love with my alma mater.

I haven't made up my mind yet, Maverick still has to pick his Goose...but man, I'm getting close.

What can I say? His message resonates and resonates and resonates and resonates with me. Fight the war. Win the war. Simplicity sells, methinks.

Plus, he earned an official seal of badassery during our last long war:

On October 26, 1967, McCain's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, landing in Truc Bach Lake. He broke both arms and a leg after ejecting from his plane. After he regained consciousness, a mob gathered around him, spat on him, kicked him and stripped him of his clothing. He was then tortured by North Vietnamese soldiers, who bayonetted him in his left foot and groin. His shoulder was crushed by a rifle butt. He was then transported to the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton.[10]

Once McCain arrived at the Hanoi Hilton, he was placed in a cell and interrogated daily. When McCain refused to provide any information to his captors, he was beaten until he lost consciousness.[11]

When the North Vietnamese discovered his father was the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command, (CINCPAC), commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam, he was offered a chance to return home. McCain turned down the offer of repatriation.[12]

Interview with McCain on April 24, 1974, after his return home.McCain signed an anti-American propaganda message as a result of rigorous and brutal torture methods, which to this day have left him incapable of raising his arms above his head. According to McCain, signing the propaganda message is something he most regrets during his time as a POW. After McCain signed the statement, the Vietnamese decided they could not use it. They tried to force him to sign a second statement, and this time he refused. He received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal.[13]

McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, mostly in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, and was finally released from captivity in 1973, having been a POW for almost an extra five years due to his earlier refusal to accept an out of turn repatriation offer. McCain was reinstated to flight status and became Commanding Officer of the VA-174 Hellrazors, the East Coast A-7 Corsair II Navy training squadron.[14].

Seems to be a fighter pilot trend in the grand old party these days. So, Vote Lex 2018 anyone?

May 2, 2007 05:33 AM   Link    Leadership     Comments (4)     TrackBack (0)

Proposing a New Air Force Memorial

By John

I'm still pissed about the Air Force memorial. Actually, I'm just kinda mad at the Air Force in general this week.

So a while back, we had a great discussion on how this:

Doesn't compare to these:

Milblogger Tantor proposed a more fitting memorial, a crew chief and pilot prepping a P-51 Mustang for combat. But that was yesterday's Air Force. Me? I think we've found our template for the 21st century Air Force memorial right here:

That's right, the Tops in Blue. Where a bunch of Airmen dress up like muppets and tour the country in a definitively non-military, glittery road-show. And get the official caption: "Tops in Blue members perform for Airmen and Soldiers April 26 at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq. Tops in Blue's goal is to enhance mission productivity for Air Force members around the world."

When the hell did flashing jazz hands enhance mission productivity?

Sigh.

This is the "blue Air Force" that Tantor spoke of. Either we go with that flashy memorial, or create one of a flight commander handing out a letter of reprimand to a maintenance chief for turning in his unit climate survey a week late. This is your Air Force, they keep telling me.

May 1, 2007 05:58 AM   Link    Leadership     Comments (18)     TrackBack (0)

Abu Ayyub al-Masri

By John

May have been waxed by some rival bad guys. Reuters reports:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed on Tuesday in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report.

There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda's indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

If true, the death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.

Red on red kill. Interesting. If it's true. There's been some false alarms on this guy in the past, and the report did come out of the Iraqi interior, not the MNF. Anyway, I'd head over to Roggio's on this (or the Worldwide Standard), he'll probably get deeper into it than I can .

Reuters cavets...and caveats....and caveats:

In February, Interior Ministry sources said Masri had been wounded in a gunbattle north of Baghdad, but those reports turned out not to be true. There were also reports in October that he had been killed, which again were incorrect.

Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, assumed the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq after Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Officials had hoped the demise of Zarqawi might have weakened al Qaeda, but he was quickly replaced by Masri and the group's attacks continued unabated.

U.S. and Iraqi officials accuse al Qaeda of trying to tip Iraq into full-scale civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs with a campaign of spectacular car bombs attacks that have killed thousands.

Okay, I understand this isn't going to end the violence, hell...it probably won't even dent it. But is it so much to ask that Reuters gets into the meat of this budding terrorist mob war, instead of just using the opportunity to repeat the tired civil war meme?

May 1, 2007 03:34 AM   Link    The Long War     Comments (2)     TrackBack (0)