Archive for April, 2004
A Marine keeps watch in Fallujah.
How long can the on-again, off-again cease-fire continue? There’s some evidence that many citizens of Fallujah are warming to the Marines and that Iraqi security forces may be recovering a bit after an initial shock, but this can’t end in stalemate if we want to succeed.
This subject is certainly hot right now, at least in the circle of sites I frequent.
Chuck Simmins: Here.
Buckethead: Here, here, and here.
All of these posts are full of good stuff, but I’d like to add my own opinions. Imagine that.
I think that the ideal warship for space combat would be a spaceship built from a convervted World War Two battleship that had been sunk in action. Especially if the main guns were lasers based on 18.1 inch naval rifles, and if a super-monster gun with a barrel in the bow was added.
I realize that some folks subscribe to the aircraft carrier approach rather than the battleship approach, and although I don’t agree with them, I’d suggest fighter craft with laser canons mounted on the wingtips, especially if the wings could be separated in, say, an ‘X’-like fashion.
In any event, angling the deflector shields and cloaking devices will be the primary defensive measures.
TSR DUNGEONS AD&D HOBBY D&D GYGAX BOOK DUNGEON MASTERS Item number: 3189358055
Of note in this otherwise un-noteworthy 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide offering on eBay:
YOU ARE BIDDING ON A BOOK WHICH WAS USED BY A DUNGEON MASTER!
As if that adds to the value. Does it come with a certificate of authenticity stating that an actual dungeon master used the book? What’s better about a genuine real McCoy DMG, anyway?
Really, it probably just adds a few sweat stains, an unidentifiable odor, and some Doritos crumbs on the page with the combat tables.
Still, when I noticed that the next item up for bid was a Wizard’s Handbook offered by the same seller, I had to check it out. Alas, this one wasn’t used by a Wizard.
Incidentally, over 300 items per day are listed on eBay that meet the search term “ad&d”.
Kim Jong Il’s response to rail disaster: Cut off the phones
On Free Frank Warner:
Rather than let the world know what help the North Korean victims need, Kim Jong Il chose to seal his imprisoned country even tighter, to avoid personal embarrassment over the disaster.
He also notes that the train explosion still hasn’t made the DPRK’s official news site yet. (Sort of like the DHS website and the blackout last fall.)
Liberals, Conservatives, and Southerners
Michael Williams has a good one:
You’re walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges. You are carrying a Glock .40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do?
Follow the link for the insightful answers.
(I didn’t really pee in my pants.)
James at Hell in a Handbasket has a post about the sad state of Iraq’s police force. Go read.
Andrew Sullivan, who I don’t read very often, has an email apparently from a military chaplain in Fallujah. An excerpt:
This country became a welfare state under Saddam. If you cared about your well-fare, you towed the line or died. The state did your thinking and your bidding. Want a job? Pledge allegiance to the Ba’ath party. Want an apartment, a car, etc? Show loyalty. Electricity, water, sewage, etc. was paid by the state. Go with the flow: life is good. Don’t and you’re dead. Now, what does that do to initiative? drive? industry?So, we come along and lock up sugar daddy and give these people the toughest challenge in the world, FREEDOM. You want a job? Earn it! A house? Buy it or build it! Security? Build a police force, army and militia and give it to yourself. Risk your lives and earn freedom. The good news is that millions of Iraqis are doing just that, and some pay with their lives. But many, many are struggling with freedom (just like East Germans, Russians, Czechs, etc.) and they want a sugar daddy, the U.S.A., to do it all. We refuse. We don’t want to be plantation owners. We make it clear we are here to help, not own or stay. They get mad about that, sometimes.
Nonetheless, in Faluja, the supposed hotbed of dissent in Iraq, countless Iraqis tell our psyopers they want to cooperate with us but are afraid the thugs will slit their throats or kill their kids. A bad gang can do that to a neighborhood and a town. That’s what is happening here.
You really should go read the whole thing.
Regarding Fallujah, a co-worker asked me the other day why the insurgents were so damn stupid. She said that if they’d just wait six months or a year, the US troop levels would be down and they’d have an easier time disrupting the Establishment of freedom. While that makes sense in a way, there’s a major catch to that idea.
If the insurgency lays low for six months or a year, Iraq will be that much farther along in it’s rebirth. The police forces will be more established. The Iraqi army will be larger and more reliable. The new Iraqi government will have begun taking charge.
But the biggest problem with that plan is that the average Iraqi citizen will probably be buying into the new Iraq more than ever. Electricity will be on even more than it is now. Water and food will be be more available. Living conditions will be much better. More Iraqis will have paying jobs. More kids will be going to school.
(And never mind that George Bush will probably be in for another term as the US President.)
The insurgents have a closing window of opportunity here. Remember when all the wags (gloatingly) observed that the Bush administration had missed a golden opportunity for international support in the period after 9/11? That was true to an extent, but it’s even more true today for the insurgents in Iraq. Our “missed” chance in the world “community” was mostly centered on the interaction between governments. The current chance in Iraq for the insurgents depends on the support, or at least the fear, of the local populace. If enough Iraqi civilians feel secure, domestic and foreign trouble-makers will lose a lot of the cover they currently enjoy in places like Fallujah, Sadr City, and Najaf. At some point, hopefully, Iraq will reach a sort of “critical mass” and the jig will be up for resistance fighters hoping to cultivate the goodwill of the people.
Of course, the same can be said for our occupation. That window is also closing. We can’t drag our feet.
Leitner-Wise Rifle Company has developed a mini-.50 version of the M16. Handy for blowing the ever-loving shit out of all sorts of things.
To create the mini-.50, a .50 caliber bullet is put into a smaller casing (than the standard .50 round used in machine gun and long-range sniper rifles). The smaller casing trades off less propellant for softer recoil, less accuracy over longer distances, but less stress on the barrel and user. The recoil for the mini-.50 is described as being similar to a 12-gauge shotgun. It also makes for a weapon that is easier to carry and faster to employ than the full-sized .50 caliber rifle designs. The Barrett Light .50 M82A1 rifle employed by the U.S. Army and Marines weighs in at 28 lbs unloaded and is 57 inches long while a mini-50 weighs in at around 8-12 lbs loaded and a little over 36 inches long.
The primary advantage of this weapon over the M82A1 seems to be the weight and portability. It’s a cannon in rifle’s clothing.
Follow the link to Strategy Page for more info and a pic of this monster.
UPDATE: ACE comments on this weapon.
Next Stryker brigade pronounced ready for action
The 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, has been declared operational after completing the transition to the Stryker. The brigade is stationed at Fort Lewis, WA, which is also the home of the 3rd Bde, 2nd ID currently deployed to Iraq.
There’s no official news of deployment plans, though given the current state of our Army and the extension of some deployments due to unrest in Iraq I’ve got to think that these guys are going to be heading to the Sandbox in the near future.
Rumors abound here and in Washington, D.C., that the 1st Brigade might join its Stryker sister, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, in Iraq, but the brigade as yet has no orders for deployment, Army officials said yesterday.Instead, the 1st Brigade “continues to train at Fort Lewis to sustain the unit’s high level of readiness,” Capt. Tim Beninato, spokesman for Fort Lewis’ Stryker brigades, said yesterday.
“First Brigade has undergone intensive training over the last year and is prepared to perform any mission it may be directed to conduct in the future,” he said.
The 2nd ID Strykers and the men who operate from them have had a great deal of success since entering Iraq in December. Additionally, the Iraqi security forces in the north, primarily Kurds, seem to be performing fairly well, especially when compared with those around Baghdad, Fallujah, and farther south.
The next unit to convert to the Stryker will be the 172nd Brigade, stationed in Alaska. After them will be the 2nd Armored Cav Regiment, though it seems to me that converting the 2nd ACR first might make more sense as it would free up the armored Humvees that they currently use. Forces in Iraq are short of armored Humvees, and the regular Humvees that have had armor added are suffering greatly due to the increased weight.
The 2nd ACR was scheduled to return stateside this month, but they have had their deployment extended. Some elements of the regiment had already arrived back in the US before the change in plans, but those units won’t be going back.
