Archive for the ‘World War 4’ Category
Another Michigan link:
West Michigan Army team goes to Afghanistan to engage other women, and win them over
As a mother, Army Sgt. Andrea Yearsoivich treasures home and family.
And as such, she values the chance to lead female soldiers in Afghanistan with a specialized new role: Win hearts and minds, not by firing weapons, but by breaking down cultural barriers that often impede male troops.
“I think it makes absolute sense. It is an amazing opportunity,” said Yearsoivich, 31. The Grand Rapids resident left last week for Afghanistan with other members of the Wyoming-based Michigan National Guard.
Yearsoivich heads a team of six “female engagement” soldiers, tasked to earn the trust of Afghan women and gain information often off-limits to men.
Good stuff, and proud to see some local guardspersons on this important mission.
Longtime readers may recall a 2006 interview Murdoc had with Jannelle Zalkovsky, a soldier who was on a similar mission in Iraq.
Heh. “Guardspersons.”
Obama’s Surrender of Afghanistan Continues Apace?
So let’s get this straight: we agree to release key Taliban leaders from Gitmo, and the Taliban “reciprocates” not by releasing the one American they hold hostage, but by agreeing to “open a political office…in Qatar?” Wow, what a sacrifice! So basically, what is happening here is that Barack Obama is begging the Taliban to do business with him.
Murdoc’s got some strong issues with what our goals in Afghanistan are, how we’re going to accomplish them, and what a “victory” there would look like. But that doesn’t mean he favors surrender.
Our movie culture has descended into immaturity, deep and inhuman violence, a pervasive and flattened sexuality. It is an embarrassment.
In Iraq this year I asked an Iraqi military officer doing joint training at an American base what was the big thing he’d come to believe about Americans in the years they’d been there. He thought. “You are a better people than your movies say.” He had judged us by our exports. He had seen the low slag heap of our culture and assumed it was a true expression of who we are.
And so he’d assumed we were disgusting.
Hollywood: Movies by people who hate America most of the time. Except when Americans go to the movies or buy Blu-Rays.
Via Instapundit.
Fleet of ‘double-V hull’ Strykers growing in Afghanistan
Two hundred of the double-V hulls are now in Afghanistan, with more slated to arrive in coming months, according to Lori Grein, a public affairs officer with the Project Executive Office-Ground Combat Systems. There are almost no flat-bottom Strykers left in Afghanistan, Grein said; most have been replaced by the double-V hulls…
Soldiers who swap the older Strykers for double-V hulls notice few differences.
“Ergonomically speaking they have kept everything the same,” said Wood, 25, of Oakfield, N.Y., who patrols regularly in a double-V hull out of Combat Outpost Talukan in Kandahar province. “All the changes they have made are behind the scenes.”
Insider: $56 Billion Later, Airport Security Is Junk
According to Ben Brandt, a former adviser to Delta, the airlines and the feds should be less concerned with what gels your aunt puts in her carry-on, and more concerned about lax screening for terrorist sympathizers among the airlines’ own work force. They should be worried about terrorists shipping their bombs in air cargo. And they should be worried about terrorists shooting or bombing airports without ever crossing the security gates.
Tech. Sgt. Christian Corella, covers his sector from the door of an Mi17 Hip during an emergency resupply flight Nov. 11, 2011, through western Afghanistan. The U.S. and Afghan flight crews provided supplies to a remote Afghan border patrol outpost. Corella is an aerial gunner from the 88th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. (U.S. Air Force photo/SrA Tyler Placie)
“Don’t shoot! I give up!”
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Foster, a 107th Aircraft Maintenance Unit weapons load crew chief, marshalls an A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft for an end-of-runway (EOR) inspection at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Nov. 22, 2011. The EOR inspection is to ensure the aircraft is safe before taxing to its spot. (DoD photo by Senior Airman David Carbajal, U.S. Air Force/Released)
Hmm. Looks like the airstrike that reportedly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and has international relations all jacked up again (still) was called in by the Afghan military.
Accident because the Afghans were incompetent? Accident because insurgent fire was originating close to the Paki position and the Afghans thought it was them? Accident because the strike hit the wrong target?
Or not an accident?
I’d put as much effort into determining the who and why of the call-in as anything else. There’s a wild chance that maybe one or two of the the members of the Afghan military are not 100% devoted to our cause (crazy idea, I know, but hypothetically possible) and saw a chance to stir up a little trouble and hamstring logistics by getting us to accidentally whack some friendlies.
Either way, it’s hard to take Pakistan’s outrage all that seriously. Yes, the strike was a regrettable mistake. But if they policed their own territory a bit more effectively, maybe we’d not have to worry about what’s on their side of the border so much.
Oh, Look…It’s another leftist lying about his military service: Army records at odds with Occupy veteran’s claims
The claims of a dedicated member of the Occupy Buffalo movement that he saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are not supported by Army records.
Christopher M. Simmance has told several media outlets, including The Buffalo News, that he served as many as three tours of duty in those war zones and that he was severely injured in Afghanistan.
Service records obtained from the Army, however, show he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., for three years and he left the active-duty Army in January 2001 — before the 9/11 terror attacks.
Liar Christopher M Simmance, dedicated member of the Occupy movement
Simmance says his records are “incomplete” and that he “stands by” his claims of serving in the Special Forces, of being wounded in an RPG attack in Afghanistan, of also serving in Gaza, and of only having ten years to live due to his injuries.
Oh, and he claims to have served in “The Valley of Elah.”
Hahahahahahahaha.
We all know that the military has been known to screw up records once or twice before, but Murdoc’s not holding his breath that this guy is genuine. First of all, some people claiming to know him say that he’s “exaggerated” his service record. Second of all, many of the places he says he’s served seem to come from movies. Finally, the guy’s own mother “doesn’t believe any of it.”
