Category Archives: Troops

The 2,000-foot buzz

Posted on February 12, 2008 | Comments Off on The 2,000-foot buzz

Used to be a buzz was when an aircraft flew over a few hundred feet above the ground. So it seems a little silly to call a Russian Tupolev bomber’s overflight of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean a "buzz" when the lumbering, 55-year-old propeller-driven bomber stayed 2,000 feet above the steel beach. Or is it just a wire service’s attempt to embellish a story of the so-called new Cold War?

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Posted in The War, Troops

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Stryker sauna

Posted on February 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Stryker sauna

It was bad enough that they had to weld an expedient steel cage around it to keep RPGs, one of the most ubiquitous weapons in the Middle East, from destroying the Stryker utterly. Now the Army, in a burst of true dumb, has created a version called the MGS which has a 105mm gun and enlarged turret on top of it, blocking crew exits from two forward hatches and eliminating the vehicle’s air-conditioning. Not only is it a sauna on wheels, but it’s a death trap. It’s also now too heavy and too bulky to easily fit into a C-130, scrapping its original reason for being: air transportability. You might suppose the all-volunteer force would have eased this kind of bureaucratic stupidity. You would be wrong.

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Posted in The War, Troops

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Afghan burning

Posted on February 8, 2008 | Comments Off on Afghan burning

Finishing "A Thousand Splendid Suns" got me interested again in Afghanistan, which I admit had fallen off my radar as of late. Just in time to find out that things look bleak. Nothing like the days when the Taliban was in charge, but apparently sliding back in their direction. NATO isn’t owning up to its promises, Canada is getting antsy, the Bush administration is promising a few thousand more Marines. This is supposed to be the Dems favored campaign, well Hilarity’s. Obama, last we heard, wants to retreat everywhere and invade Pakistan. Nowadays, he says nothing. What would McCain do? Shift troops there as they are withdrawn from Iraq? One brigade at a time? At least we know he won’t give up.

Via Soobdujour. 

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Posted in Afghanistan, Library, The War, Troops

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Inspiring the Giants

Posted on February 3, 2008 | Comments Off on Inspiring the Giants

Remains to be seen whether it’ll be enough, but Army Iraq veteran LTC Greg Gadson, who played football at West Point, has been an inspiration to the New York Giants. We can expect he’ll be on their sidelines at the Super Bowl later today and remember to look for him.

Thanks to rare regular reader Anna for the link.

UPDATE:  I guess Gadson was good enough, because they won it all in the final minute, 17-14. 

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Intolerance

Posted on January 31, 2008 | Comments Off on Intolerance

If you can’t stop the war, stop the recruiting. What pitiable fools these Californians be:

"…the Berkeley City Council…voted 8-1 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station ‘is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.’"

Can’t be different in one-eyed Berkeley. So much for diversity. But they never meant diversity of ideas.

Via Instapundit 

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Posted in The War, Troops

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No Country for Vietnam Vets

Posted on January 30, 2008 | Comments Off on No Country for Vietnam Vets

I was looking for an excuse to avoid the new movie about the latest violent Cormac McCarthy book, No Country for Old Men, set in a mythical West Texas, and Marc Leepson of the VVA Veteran magazine has provided it in the latest issue–which isn’t at the link yet, but will be soon. "No Movie for the Faint of Heart," is his review of this Coen Brothers flicker. Why, I wonder, is Hollywood so invested in extreme violence, as the only alternative to the bad-America message-movie crep they normally churn out? What ever happened to musical comedies and light-hearted romances? Gone with the wind, I guess. I don’t wonder why they typically use Vietnam veterans as mindlessly-violent characters, as the Coens do here one of them in this movie more or less is. It must be part of Scientology’s secret credo. At any rate, it’s too characteristic of their work to be chewed over. Leepson pronounces this one a tsunami of blood and guts, boring in parts, not very thrilling, and ultimately pointless. Yep, that’s McCarthy and Hollywood, peas in a pod.

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Posted in Texana, Troops, Viet Nam

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Anti-Jihadi comic book

Posted on January 24, 2008 | Comments Off on Anti-Jihadi comic book

Artist John Cox, of Cox & Forkum fame, brings the war on Islamic facism to the world of comic books. Matamoros is not Captain America, fortunately, but it’s just as accessible. Maybe more so. I’ve ordered my copy. Matamoros, by the way, is Spanish for Moor-slayer.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Blogosphere, Iraq, Scribbles, The War, Troops

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