Archive for April, 2003
11:53 20 Apr 2003
The European Union is ALL OVER these developments.
“North Korea is a real danger to the world,” EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten told Seven Network television in Australia. [...]
“None of us want North Korea to turn into a sort of bomb-making factory, selling off weapons to any group or country that can afford to buy them,” said Patten, who is visiting Australia.
It’s revolutionary insight like this that makes the EU such a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century. Patten suggests that if we supply more aid to DPRK, we should expect them “not to manufacture nuclear weapons.” Wow. Now there’s a can’t-miss idea.
How about if we suggest that if DPRK doesn’t manufacture nuclear weapons, we don’t bomb the living daylights out of them? Is that less responsible than DPRK’s policy? I think there’s a middle ground here, but making another deal that will just be broken in a few years isn’t the middle ground. It’s surrender.
Well, at least the (Peace Via White Flags) EU will sort this all out.
12:55 19 Apr 2003
This WaPo story recounts the events of what was probably the first US case of SARS. Buried in the middle is this nugget:
Health officials have credited bioterrorism preparation and the swift response of hospital staff and Loudoun County authorities with helping to prevent the woman’s infection from spreading.
Medical professionals in Loudoun had already mobilized twice over the past year and a half to confront a succession of strange medical problems, including a rare outbreak of malaria and an anthrax attack, and they isolated the woman after she arrived in the emergency room with an unknown lung infection.
Now, I’ll be among the first to say that, 19 months after 9/11, we are WOEFULLY unprepared for a major terrorist attack of any kind. But it’s nice to see that something has helped in some way.
12:34 19 Apr 2003
According to this The Australian piece, Bush told Autralian Prime Minister John Howard last week that Aussie SAS in western Iraq were the first Allied forces to engage Iraqi troops. They were part of the probably massive special forces effort to hunt down and destroy the threat of ballistic missile attack against Israel and other neighboring countries. According to Defence Chief Gen. Peter Cosgrove
“They realised: ‘Oops. We won’t be going back into that area. Every time you go in there you get hit.’ ”
Coalition special forces are believed to have mounted their initial forays into Iraq from a number of countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey.
I believe that the most important story of this campagn is going to turn out to be the role that special forces played, and we will probably never see more than the tip of the iceberg. It’s nice see that some of our allies were the first into battle, and that Bush wants to make sure everyone knows it. Unilateral warfare at its best.
22:09 18 Apr 2003
According to Global Security, the 1st Cavalry Division’s orders to deploy to southwest Asia have been cancelled. The 1st Armored Division, in Germany, is on the way. As I posted earlier, I’ve read that the 1st Cav is specifically trained for fighting on the Korean penninsula. Hmmmmmm.
11:26 18 Apr 2003
According to this post at The Command Post, Haaretz says the US is removing three Patriot air defense batteries in Israel. I couldn’t find the story on Haaretz, so it’s unclear whether the move is due to the lessened threat of Iraqi missile attack or for fears that Israeli Air Force jets may be accidentally shot down.
21:34 18 Apr 2003
On vacation in Texas, we visited the USS Texas today in La Porte. For $5, you basically get an unsupervised run of the ship. A lot of stations are locked off, but you get to check out a lot of AA guns, many of which you can train using the hand cranks (the 40mm quads are a lot of work) and you can climb inside one of the twin 14″ main turrets. Very cool. You also get to check out quite a bit below decks, including a lot of engineering. In a word: Awesome. The Texas is the oldest surviving battleship. She was active in WW1, and bombarded the shores of North Africa, Normandy, South France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa during WW2. If you’re in the area, check her out. How many chances does one get to stand on the deck of a battleship?
BTW, I took that pic this afternoon. A real life battleship. Too cool.
08:36 17 Apr 2003
Detroit lost their first round playoff series against the elite Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-0. Those [housecats]. I guess no match-up with the Colorado Avalanche is coming. I’ll get over it.
Colorado, except for an “operational pause” in the second period of Game 1, is headed for a unilateral cakewalk against the Minnesota Wild. They’re up 3-1. Dallas (the first seed in the Western Conference) is bogged down against Edmonton, and Vancouver is in a total quagmire against St. Louis.
I guess those analysts that said Colorado made a mistake by winning the last game of the season and playing Minnesota instead of St. Louis were mistaken. No reinforcements needed. They’re on plan.
And isn’t it a relief that we can joke about these military issues at this point?
08:16 17 Apr 2003
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (5 of clubs), reported killed by Kurdish TV last week, has been captured by US Special Forces in Baghdad. An Iraqi tip apparently led to the capture. He’s one of Saddam’s half-brothers.
00:03 17 Apr 2003
More than 70,000 pieces of the space shuttle Columbia have been recovered in three months of searching in east Texas following the February 1 tragedy that claimed the lives of seven astronauts, NASA said Wednesday.
The pieces collected, weighing a total of 35.3 tonnes or about 37 percent of the total, have been transported to a hangar at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, where engineers are trying to piece it together.
There hasn’t been much news on this lately. Pretty impressive that they’ve recovered so much, though. From SpaceDaily.com.
15:02 16 Apr 2003
Although the fighting has wound down in a serious way, the 4th ID returned fire today while securing an airfield near Baghdad, according to this Phil Carter post. He also notes
I’d use the fresh troops from 4ID to police the streets of Baghdad. Despite their long wait in Texas, these units just arrived in Kuwait and didn’t sit through 8 months in the desert before fighting for 3+ weeks. As such, they’re going to be a lot safer, a lot more deliberative, and a lot more intelligent about basic decisions. Safety incidents have already claimed several soldiers’ lives this week, and 4ID’s soldiers are likely to be a lot more alert to those hazards having just got off the plane. Moreover, 4ID’s troops have not seen the same intense combat as the Marines, 101st and 3rd Infantry soldiers. That makes a big difference for civil-military operations, because they can approach the policing mission without the hostility of combat.
That’s a great insight. And you know those soldiers and Marines that drove into Iraq have got to be SPENT. We don’t really want then shooting people just because they’re damned tired and have been shooting things for three weeks straight. Look at the incident in Mosul. Although we don’t really know what happened up there yet, at this point it’s hard to really blame Marines for shooting anyone that appears even remotely hostile.
