Afghanistan
October 06, 2008
September 15, 2008
"Make America proud!"
Sarah, in her capacity as governor of Alaska, sends off the "Arctic Wolves," of the Alaska National Guard, including her 19-year-old son, to duty with the Stryker Brigade in Iraq. She'll speak in Vienna, Ohio, tomorrow. More positive stuff on her here. The negative is easy to find as the "save Barry" news frenzy continues.
September 05, 2008
Mac's speech
It wasn't as good as Palin's, alas. Thank goodness she's on the same ticket, which is more than enough for some previous Mac doubters. Because, after all, she wouldn't be there without Mac's vision and wisdom.
But I enjoyed watching and hearing him. The establishment media covers him so rarely--and never his wealthy wife, a genuinely interesting and admirable person. The POW stuff, which the big-whoop media meisters are bound to complain about, as they always do (it must make them nervous since few of them have served) was powerful and he has the right to use it. It was a good exemplar of the fundamental difference between him and his opponent, and of his brand of patriotism. It also demonstrates, as he suggested, why he is not at all the war-monger the Dems like to paint him. At the same time it shows why our enemies will have to be wary of his resolve, making him much less likely to have to widen the war we're already in.
UPDATE: It seems that Mac's speech outdrew Baby Barry's on teevee viewers. Good for him. And reading the speech, at the link above, I've changed my mind. It was better than Palin's. He knows more. How could it not have been? A young independent more or less agrees.
September 02, 2008
Is Mac inside Barry's OODA Loop?
Chet Richards, one of the guardians of the theories and memory of the late, great Air Force fighter-pilot and military strategist John Boyd questions this contention of Charlie Martin's in American Thinker re Mac's choice of Sarah Palin for veep. Martin uses the term too loosely, suggests CR who says it's too early to tell. CR's claim that the pick was predictable, however, is probably unique. No one else I know of expected Mac to pick a woman. I think the old Navy fighter pilot, indeed, has generally been inside Baby Barry's OODA Loop for some time now with his sharp, quickly-produced teevee ads. Whether he can stay there remains to be seen.
August 31, 2008
The Common Touch
Newt Gingrich on Sarah: "Palin will make mistakes. The news media and the Obama researchers will find things to attack. But if she stays relaxed and continues to be authentically who she has been for 44 years, the country is going to love her..." Except, maybe, the Left, which is terrified of her. And now, in her own words.
August 30, 2008
Sarah's already a commander-in-chief
One job she'll have to give up when she's vice president: commander of the Alaska National Guard. Which, with the permanently-active, round-the-clock 49th Missile Defense Battalion, is a heckuva lot more important than you might imagine--especially since Russian has resumed bomber patrols.
UPDATE: Good background here on pdf, on missile defense operations, thanks to BlackFive.
August 23, 2008
Georgian airlift
Thirty-six humanitarian-assistance flights by C-17, C-130 and other U.S. military cargo aircraft have delivered more than a million pounds of material to Tbilisi, according to U.S. European Command, whose four-star commander Bantz Craddock is in Tbilisi.
More is on the way via a U.S. Coast Guard cutter from Crete and two Navy warships, one due to arrive this weekend and the rest next week. I suppose this, alone, will prevent the Russians from cannonading Tbilisi, although that remains to be seen. It hasn't impeded the Russian sowing of cluster bomblets across some farm fields, however. The bomblets were designed for massed infantry, not for children and farmers, so why did we also use them in Afghanistan? We plainly shouldn't have.
August 21, 2008
Civil wars in Mexico
Well, not quite, but almost. Couple of good notices lately, one at the Small Wars Journal and one from Stratfor, of the increasing drug wars going on in Mexico, corrupting their government and spilling over our southern border. If the Mexican government becomes thoroughly, instead of merely traditionally, corrupt, then what do we do? It seems we may have to put troops on the border not just to halt illegal immigration but to keep the Mexican drug wars from invading us as well. I still say, as I have all along, that the only solution is the only one that won't be tried: full legalization as was done with alcohol with similar restrictions, but prices kept artificially low. Then concentrate on treatment, education and enforcement of DUI laws.
August 17, 2008
Georgians, still fighting, ambush the enemy
It's good to see this report that at least some Georgian soldiers, including a few in desert camo who apparently are from the brigade we returned from Iraq, are still defending their country. They seem to be doing this in the defense of the capital city, according to Georgian Ambassador to the U.S. Vasil Sikharulidze.
The Advisory Corps
This is an idea advocated by John Nagl at Small Wars Journal which makes a lot of sense to this old Army advisor in Vietnam. The role has never been more important, as American counterinsurgency advisors have helped turn around the Iraq campaign and could do the same in Afghanistan. In any case, they will be the last Americans assigned, assisting and training the indigenous armies we leave behind to defend their own countries.
But, as in Vietnam, where the effort was later termed "the other war," as if it wasn't very important, it seems today's Army is being even more ad hoc about it. I got pulled out of a cav regiment for a job advising a couple of companies of Regional Forces and Popular Forces militia known as the Rough-Puffs. We did some training for them, but, with little experience and limited language skills, we hardly ever actually advised the SVN lieutenants and sergeants who ran the patrols and night ambushes. They were usually older and had more combat experience than we did.
I was one of the lucky ones who attended the Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg where many of our instructors were Special Forces though we were not. The current advisory crop apparently has less training and one of the same disadvantages, i.e. being outside normal channels, making the assignment no plum for careerists. Advisory work in Vietnam was not even considered command time for line promotion. An Advisory Corps, with permanent units with esprit, etc., could change that.
It also might improve on what me and my five-man team of two officers and three NCOs primarily did. We mainly called in artillery, airstrikes and medevac as needed. Artillery was useful, if the regular unit guns we called were good. Air strikes were, then, usually flown by F4 Phantoms and were often inaccurate. American medevacs, however, were prized, as the SVN troops were afraid of their own medical corps. Our dustoffs would land in the midst of a fight at night. The SVNs would come, if at all, only in the day. Their soldiers also knew their doctors would quickly amputate a wounded limb, which American docs would try to save.
The Internet, of course, is a superlative resource for all deployed soldiers which we would have loved to have had forty years ago, so the current crop of advisors is luckier, in that way, for things such as this nice collection of advisor advice available with one click.
August 14, 2008
Georgian National Ballet
August 13, 2008
Georgian legend
One of the things I like about the Georgian army--in addition to their deployment of a brigade to help us in Iraq--is that they don't goose step when they march, like the Russian army and, of course, the Nazis before them. They've also traded in their AK-47 peasant rifles for precision American M-4s, which they march with at-the-ready. In this stirring video they are seen to be a mixture of the modern and the ancient, and I hope they're doing well tonight on the battlefield.
August 12, 2008
Almost, but not quite, in Iraq
One more very good reason not to vote for Baby Barry. He'd just throw it all away:
"The Iraqis aren't yet confident enough to stand entirely on their own; al Qaeda's savagery still imposes too much fear, while Iran is training terrorists next door. In counterinsurgency, the people must know they are protected. Gen. Petraeus has proven that intimidation can be defeated by placing American soldiers among the population."
Worth the read, from fav author Bing West.
Lock and load
OCS classmate Bill Cunningham has finally provided the explanation for this phrase which has puzzled and annoyed me for years. Load and lock, okay. But lock and load? Huh?
I had previously found some good history on it, but it didn't explain how the term applied to modern assault rifles. Bill harkens back to our days on the firing range at Fort Benning, reminding that we were told to lock our magazines into our rifles, "with that careful, upward tap for safety," and only then load a round into the chamber. Lock and load. Simple. Thanks, Bill.
August 10, 2008
Dead-stick landing
August 08, 2008
SCAR
August 06, 2008
Army to use Osprey
August 01, 2008
The new colonel in Fallujah
July 25, 2008
Dems squelch troops' voting
There seemed to be surprise mixed in with the anger that Baby Barry ignored the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan--other than the ones specifically vetted for him, black ones for the most part--and skipped the wounded in Germany altogether, during his world tour to create ad spots for his fall campaign. But there shouldn't be any surprise. His own party is doing the best it can to hold down the voting of soldiers overseas. They apparently understand that not many of them would vote Democrat.
July 23, 2008
Baby Barry and the surge
There's a lot of teeth gnashing in the conservative blogosphere over BB's tap dancing around the question of whether he should have backed the surge, given its success in Iraq. I watched the cBS video here and, though I don't care much for his politics, I have to say his answer is no more than what any politician, who didn't wish to step down from his earlier judgement, would do. He didn't put down the troops, as some are suggesting. He acknowleged their success, he just questioned the surge strategy itself.
On the contrary, the shift in military strategy, from large unit fighting to establishing lasting community security was almost more important than the additional manpower. As Mac says it's definitely the way to win in Afghanistan, as well. It's just harder there because the people have fewer resources to fall back on, and the terrain is more difficult, with communities more isolated. And with advisers like Gen. McPeak, Barry might just go back to trying to win cheaply, with bombing.
UPDATE: This, however (scroll to the bottom of the post) is a lie, plain and simple. Why it's called a gaffe is beyond me. Politicians tell gaffes. Ordinary people tell lies. But to me, Baby Barry told a lie, to make himself look good. Instead, he looks very, very bad. See if you don't agree.
July 21, 2008
Three versions? Do I hear four?
The MSM, falling all over itself, as usual, to play pattycake with Baby Barry, is quoting one version of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's alleged translation of his alleged praise for BB's withdraw-from-Iraq-in-sixteen-months pitch.
But, wouldn't you know it, there are at least two other alleged translated versions, each with a different emphasis and different caveats. The original one has no caveats. I thought the CIA was the gang that couldn't shoot straight? I know it's heresy to say so (possibly even, gasp, racist) but I still don't believe BB is going to win the presidency. So save your breath Maliki, assuming you, uh, actually said anything at all.
But I got to admit I like it that the Europeans and other foreigners are falling all over themselves to swoon at BB's feet--and I'll bet that, secretly, Mac does, too. Because if there's one thing that will absolutely undercut an American politician who wants to be president, man, that is it.
July 18, 2008
We won
July 17, 2008
Mac: the surge is the key to Afghanistan
It's the way to win the Afghanistan campaign, McCain says, logically enough...
"...if I’m elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."
...versus Baby Barry's unserious preference to abandon Iraq in favor of hunting down (the quite probably already dead) Osama bin Forgotten.
Via Belmont Club.
July 16, 2008
Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, R.I.P.
A real baby killer goes free, while two soldiers of the right come home dead, two years after they were captured patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border. But revenge will come, too, and it will be sweet.
Via Simply Jews.
July 15, 2008
Bush in control
I don't watch television much. Television, as someone said the other day, is for losers. So I didn't watch the president's news conference. So I didn't get the sound of all the word fumbling that he normally commits--although he's nowhere near as vacuous as Baby Barry. But in the transcript, which the White House makes available in these glorious Internet days when one is no longer hostage to whatever the newspapers are willing to print of it, or whatever the teevee and radio folks are willing to air of it, Bush reads pretty good--inspiring, even, unless you hate him as some do.
For one thing, he delivers the most succinct summary of the how of the war on terrorism that I've read in a long time, and there's another good one on just how the oil companies are trying to take advantage of $140 a barrel oil by seeking more supply. Then there's his take, repeated several times to similar questions, about how the American people are smart enough to adjust their own driving and thermostats without the nanny state's help. Lord, yes. How could they not be? All in all, he sounds pretty confident to me, not at all the shell-shocked lightweight the Seablogger encountered on the tube. Maybe there's a lesson here. Read the transcript, people. You've finally got it available whenever you want it. So read it.
July 13, 2008
Generation shrill
I figured from the tip-off title, Generation Kill, that Hollyweird's latest anti-American, anti-war flick (a seven-hour HBO mini-series, no less) was just another slander on the warriors--especially the officers. But I really had no idea how low the media bums could shrink, having a black "marine" call the Iraq campaign "the white man's" imperialism. The real wonder is that the American military can find any good recruits these days who still think this country is worth fighting for, when its so-called entertainment and news industries keep stabbing them in the back.
UPDATE: This pro-troops documentary is still much better.
July 12, 2008
War widows
The daily's print edition has a compelling story (which, disgustingly, you have to dig for on their Web site!) about Iraq campaign widow Taryn Davis, who lives down the road in Buda. Her Web site for her American Widows Project is a poignant look at what these women (and a few men) are going through. What, for instance, do you do now with the Silver Star? This form of grief, it appears to me, is similar to growing old. Forgetting to bathe more than once a week, for instance.
July 08, 2008
An Iraqi boy's dream
According to war correspondent Michael Yon, it's to grow up to be an American soldier. Photo of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneeling to talk with an Iraqi boy in Sadr City, June 20. Credit: U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq.
July 06, 2008
Col. Bud Day
It's interesting how this former POW, recipient of the Medal of Honor and, indeed, America's most decorated living veteran, has figured in recent presidential elections. He helped torpedo John "Seared In My Memory" Kerry in '04, and that's the only item the weasels at CNN cared about in their recent slur of him. But there is another, far more interesting side:
"Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the [broken arm] treatment he'd gotten from his [North Vietnamese] captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was 'Dr.' McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again."
Read the rest. Mac and Day, a postwar champion of Vietnam veterans, were cellmates at the Hanoi Hilton, and you can be sure that we'll be hearing a lot more from Day as Mac's presidential campaign progresses. Here's the inside story of how he helped get Kerry. Better watch out, Baby Barry.
Vets For Freedom
Cool new advertising campaign from group of Afghanistan and Iraq campaign veterans to counter the anti-war bilge of MoveOn.org. But something tells me there'll be a vets for peace campaign to counter this one before long. May the best ad campaigns win! Though I'd prefer this one.
Via Instapundit
June 20, 2008
The Marines do PR, but the Army, well...
June 18, 2008
Get a clue, mom
Of course the Dems are going to run ads attacking Mac. The Repubs sure are going to run them attacking Baby Barry. But do the Dems have to lie so blatantly? They're still retailing that distortion of Mac's hundred years comment regarding Iraq. Beyond that, however, this anti-military ad--courtesy of TFG--with the Uma Thurmann look-alike saying McCain can't have her precious baby boy, is quite a hoot. Just wait until Alex grows up a little and sees the G.I. Joe action figures at the supermarket, then figures out that half the guys at his pre-school are playing with plastic soldiers or watching Power Ranger videos. Scream your head off, mom, and forbid all you want. That will just make him more inclined to enlist when he's eighteen. As he should, if he's got any gumption.
UPDATE: NYTimes "fact checks" the ad, at least debunking the lie, but then inserting its own dubious ad calling Iraq "an overwhelmingly unpopular war." No surprise that the video is a product of MoveOn.org, the same folks who libeled Gen. Petraeus in a full-page NYT ad. But MoveOn's partner in it, according to the NYT, is a shocker: the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. Good grief.
MORE: Don Surber suggests little Alex's side of the conversation, via Doug Ross @ Journal:
"Hi John McCain."
"This is Alex."
"I realize you cannot pick your family."
"But sheesh."
"What a dingbat I have for a mother."
"She's a loon."
"Single mom."
"Eats seaweed."
"Calls the dog her 'animal companion.'"
"Doesn't bathe because soap is made from oil and she wants to reduce her carbon footprint."
"You can see why she's a single mom."
"Fortunately, Dad was a regular guy."
"An Alex P. Keaton type."
"Maybe that's how I got my name."
"Look, about this Iraq thing."
"Can I sign up now?"
"I know I'm little and all and way underage."
"But you gotta save me. She's a loon."
Habeus corpus petition dismissed
No, the imperial court won't like it. But, it seems, as Ace says, there were just too many pieces of the corpus missing. Yet it amazes me, and it should you, too, just how much time our guys take in identifying a group of Tangos (and their surrounding environment) before opening up on them with a Hellfire missile followed by thirty millimeter from high in the night sky.
June 14, 2008
Why we need to win in Iraq
Baby Barry and Mac apparently can't agree on the formats for more than a few "debates," as contrived as the "debates" have been in the past and likely will continue to be. Baby Barry's got the money and, so far, the polls and so he has no reason to give Mac anything. Can't blame him for that. As for Mac, well, some of the Seablogger's pessimism is starting to rub off on me. Mac the moderate better get off it and start explaining why he champions the Iraq campaign and why the rest of us better suck it up, too. There are good arguments, but he needs to make them and not try to duck the whole thing. Starting here, where even the Dem thinktankers agree, would be a good idea.
Happy 233rd, U.S. Army
June 13, 2008
Why Mac missed Woodstock
"Visiting in Inez, Kentucky, Senator [and presumptive Republican nominee for president] John McCain [lower right] was asked...why he missed the Woodstock 'musical and pharmacalogical' event in 1969. The Senator, in his sometimes humorous and understated way, said, 'I was tied up at the time.'"
June 12, 2008
The F-35 Lightning II
Videos of the world's most expensive warplane show how its Marine version becomes a short-takeoff, vertical landing (like a helicopter) single-engine fighter, Wednesday at Lockheed's plant up in Fort Worth.
Via Instapundit
June 10, 2008
Nearing the finish line in Iraq
June 01, 2008
Imbalance
"The U.S. military has more combat aircraft and pilots than infantry squads," Bing West in 2005's No True Glory.
May 26, 2008
Memorial Day in Afghanistan
May 25, 2008
MACV advisors KIA
Usually I reserve Memorial Day for remembrance of the seven classmates and cadre of OC504-68 who perished in Viet Nam. (Eleven others have since died of various causes at home, including AIDS.) But this year I also want to nod to the one hundred twenty-six MACV advisors who died in pursuit of counterinsurgency (the strategy being pursued in Iraq and Afghanistan), at least according to the Virtual Wall, which may not be complete as to MACV. And, especially, MAJ Roger Lee Graham, of my own Advisory Team 15.
Flags
Mr. Boy will go with his Mom and grandmother this morning to put a little stick flag on his Navy grandfather's grave at the national cemetery near Dallas, in observance of Memorial Day. I think of his Air Force grandfather, my dad, who's buried in Arlington many miles away. Someday we'll take him there. Arlington probably put out their flags yesterday for all. There's this touching Trace Adkins song about that place.
Remembering
May 23, 2008
That G.I. Bill
Glad to see a version of the Vietnam-era bill pass. Sorry to see it was the one predicted to lower retention rates by sixteen percent. But that's the Dems for you. They'll interfere with the war if they can find a way. Meanwhile Dumbocrat veterans (yep, there are some, hard as it might be to fathom) are whacking McCain for not voting for it. Even Barry, the I-never-served-and-never-will candidate, had the nerve to question Mac's committment to his fellow soldiers. Mac smacked Barry back good. The benefits were actually more generous in Mac's bill, which did not pass, but increased with length of service, negating the retention problem.
May 22, 2008
Iraq support rises
Barry's crowd has some retrenching to do. They've long been throwing around the sixty-percent-oppose-the-Iraq-campaign poll figure as a justification for their cut-and-run views. But some recent polling shows a sharp rise to fifty-three percent saying the U.S. will succeed in reaching its goals in Iraq. Even CBS admits this could "alter the dynamics of races up and down the ballot." I've never been a fan of polling, which is hampered as never before by changes in the way Americans use their phones. The polls were predicting Kerry would beat Bush right up until election day 2004. But if you live by the polls, Dems, you gotta die by them, too.
May 21, 2008
Five days before Memorial Day
Warning to military service members from the Federal Transit Administration in Washington, D.C.:
"Uniformed members [on Metro trains] have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting anti-war sentiments, and using racial slurs against minorities. In one instance, a member was followed onto the platform by an individual who continued to berate her as she exited the metro station...military members should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times while in mass transit."
Disgusting. Be sure to thank the next service member you see, wherever you see them.
UPDATE: This may be a hoax, which is sad, but altogether better than if it were really happening. Read the comments at the link for more.
May 20, 2008
Checkpoint value
To hear the media tell it, Israel's checkpoints don't do much more than harrass the long-suffering Palestinians. The Palis are always trying to get the "peace process" to eliminate the security checkpoints. They usually fail because every so often, another suicide bomber tries to get through, like the 20-year-old Arab man wearing five pipe bombs who was shot and killed by the IDF at a Samaria checkpoint last night.
May 19, 2008
Moore the bore
May 17, 2008
The military disability
Harken to the tortured cry of the lying looney-bird, explaining why McCain should not be president:
[Iowa Democrat Tom] Harkin said that "it's one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that's just how you're steeped, how you've learned, how you've grown up."
Apparently this is why we need the Weightless Man in the White House whose inexperience includes no military service or tradition thereof. Insane. Harkin has trouble with heroes because he was only a phony one himself, several times over, in fact. Quite the liar, this particular Dumbocrat.