Archive for June, 2005
A couple readers wonder if this thing might not be a SEAL boat as pictured on Global Security.
I personally wonder if it might not be part of a supersecret naval project (perhaps a stealth snorkel, but the Bothan spies haven’t made their report yet), and that we’re only seeing the very tip of the iceberg:
Click the image to see what the Navy might be up to. If you dare.
Cafe Oregano wins.
I think I’m going to make Friday Linkzookery a regular feature on MO, sort of a catch-all for stories and links I find noteworthy but didn’t do a full post on during the week. Many will be from readers. Some of them might be a bit dated. I may or may not comment on a few of them as the muse strikes. This is truly random stuff we’re talking about here.
In no particular order:
Angry man “delivers the goods” to tsunami victims
U.S. Navy Completes Initial Testing Of Lockheed Martin Naval Gun
Stealth warship off the seawall
Received this tip at DT via email:
What can only be described as a stealth PT boat has just gone past my house and is now near the radar testing range of the Navy Research Lab at Chesapeake Beach.
Here’s a pic:
Weird. Radar test target? Small-scale LCS testbed? Experimental Navy SEAL water ski system? Mock-up for a television commercial?
Here’s a couple of better pics taken after it came in for the evening:
Click for better look
Go check out PenguinSix for more pics of this strange beast.
“…the Martians in our movie represent American military forces.”
Very disappointing news about WAR OF THE WORLDS from writer David Koepp:
“And now, as we see American adventure abroad’ he (David Koepp} continues ‘in my mind it’s certainly back to it’s original meaning, which is that the Martians in our movie represent American military forces invading the Iraqis, and the futility of the occupation of a faraway land is again the subtext”Koepp also told Newsweek:
“I think the whole war [in the movie] is about water,” he says. “I figure their planet ran out. Wars tend to be fought over very elemental things: water, land, oil.”
Remember, this isn’t some reviewer with an idea. These are words from the writer’s mouth. But don’t call Hollywood unpatriotic. (via Conservative Grapevine)
Turning the fight over to the Iraqis
In the first article in a series about training the new Iraqi military:
There’s a directive that T.E. Lawrence penned in 1917 that is part of a classified briefing members of the U.S.-led training effort give to distinguished visitors. It reads:“Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not win it for them.”
We’ve been seeing more and more activity from the Iraqi forces, and I’m hoping it’s not all hype. Remember that the British and French governments really didn’t take much of Lawrence’s advice, and look how the Middle East turned out. It’s important that the Iraqis begin taking on more and more responsibility.
Members of all services are eligible for Combat Action Badge
Via a reader:
Soldiers aren’t the only potential recipients of the Army’s new Combat Action Badge: any servicemember may qualify for the award, as long as he or she was assigned to an Army unit in a combat zone when bullets, bombs or mortars began to fly.According to detailed criteria and issuing instructions for the Combat Action Badge, or CAB, issued by the Army earlier this month, the device “may be awarded to members of the other U.S. Armed Forces, and foreign soldiers assigned to a U.S. Army unit, provided they meet the above criteria.”
I think this makes perfect sense. Let’s see if the non-combat Army, who though that making the Combat Infantryman Badge only eligible to infantry MOSes was unfair will think making their badge available to other is unfair. I would guess, since the CAB is a band new development, they will be fine with it.
Yesterday I noted
There’s probably very little on earth scarier than a US soldier or Marine with a map and a radio.
Here’s video proof:
Download 500lbs.wmv (822kb)
This was found at Strategy Page, but I had issues downloading and I understand that others have experienced problems as well. I finally managed to snag it and will post it here for those that might be interested.
As always, if you’re going to link, please link to this post and not directly to the file itself.
The heirs of Stalin and Pol Pot strike again in Aruba. According to the mother of the boy (the one that’s changed his story along the way) is unhappy with the way her son is being treated:
She said he is often interrogated for more than 10 hours a day, and she also accused authorities of turning up the air conditioning to high levels to increase the pressure on him.
In all fairness, I don’t really know too much about this case, so it’s not fair for me to comment on its progress. But I know torture when I see it.
UPDATE: I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for offending anyone who may have been offended by what I said above in this post. I didn’t mean to disrespect anyone who was offended.
(Please note that this isn’t the same as apologizing for what I said or for admitting that it shouldn’t have been said. It isn’t the same as backing down from my comparison of this young man’s detention and interrogation to Auschwitz, the Gulgag, and the Killing Fields. And I’m not at all (not for one second) admiting that I’m an idiot for saying it.)
UPDATE 2: To clarify: I’m not sorry for what I said. I’m not even sorry I offended you. I’m just sorry you were offended.
I fully intend to keep speaking out.
A comment from Buckethead on the NLOS-C post:
We want to be the equivalent of British colonial troops with maxim guns going up against the unwashed with spears. We want qualitative superiority, force multipliers out the wazoo.But the other side is troops. All the high tech in the world does not, and will not for the foreseeable future, replace boots on the ground.
We need more soldiers, more marines. (A few more in the navy, no more airmen, and a space force.) All the networked, semi-autonomous weapons, sensors and defenses will be orbiting around the battlefield. So that when a highly trained infantryman needs the hammer of god, it’s there waiting for him to smite whatever needs smiting.
The soldier will be the focal point of all this firepower. He won’t carry it, but he will direct it. We still need soldiers, and we’ll need more of them.
Amen.
And note the front page picture at DefendAmerica.mil today:
(Click for better look)
There’s probably very little on earth scarier than a US soldier or Marine with a map and a radio.
