Archive for February, 2007
Noah Shachtman is leaving Defense Tech and starting a new gig.
I’ve got to take this opportunity to tip my hat to Noah’s work at DT and to thank him for giving ol’ Murdoc a chance to cover and cross-post at such a top-notch operation.
There’s no doubt that his new venture is going to rock, and he has left Defense Tech in more-than-capable hands.
Those of us who follow military news and tech should be very thankful for his efforts thus far and be eager to see what’s coming up.
Great job.
Yesterday an article by Alicia Colon in the New York Sun (Heroes and Cowards) noted:
[T]he mainstream press is constantly bombarding us with the number of military casualties, and it is clear that the reports are meant to incite anger about the Iraqi war. How refreshing it would be if partisan politics could be set aside and reporters put news in the proper perspective without bias.
The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That’s 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who’s counting?
The statistics were apparently mentioned on the radio (Rush Limbaugh, maybe?) and I’ve had a fair number of googlers in to my post from last March on the issue. I used numbers from U.S. ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY DEATHS – 1980 through 2004 put out by the Defense Manpower Data Center.
I had meant to let this all pass without commenting, because as I said in the post
This is, of course very informative and counter to nearly everything you hear on a daily basis, but don’t forget that the militaries under Carter, Reagan, and Bush I were significantly larger than today’s force. Of course, you could also make the argument that the gutting of the military under Clinton set the stage for too few “boots on the ground” in 2003 and beyond, which critics often claim is a contributing factor to the struggle to get the violence under control in the aftermath of the invasion.
But let’s not get all hyped up over this.
I created a couple of quick charts showing that though the numbers aren’t what one would probably expect, it certainly isn’t any sort of “vindication” or anything. Yes, the DEATH RATE (which is apples-to-apples regardless of the size of the military) was lower in 2004 (war) than in 1980 (peace) and I believe that is the most shocking number here, but a lot of the finger pointing at the rate during the Clinton years isn’t terribly constructive.
Then someone at Democratic Underground picked up on it.
Here are some of the interesting comments (with commentary):
but…I didn’t think we lost any soldiers in a war under Clinton
what am I missing…
Somalia? Go watch “Black Hawk Down”.
Only WW2 vets still on active duty were counted, though.
And they link to little ol’ Murdoc. Does getting called “right wing looney site” on DU get me in the club? When does my Vast Right Wing Conspiracy membership card arrive? As stated, other presidents were, in fact, counted.
Read the rest of this entry »
Got this in my inbox. No word on the source or when it first appeared:
It reads:
America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war; America is at the mall.
While I do believe that the current state of this war certainly doesn’t require the draft or rationing or any of the other “total war”-type policies that we saw in World War 2, for instance, I certainly don’t think America is on enough of a war footing or pays enough real attention (rather than attention to sound bites and headlines) to what’s going on.
Much is being made of the recent poll which shows two-thirds of America thinks the campaign in Iraq is important, but I gotta say that I don’t think two-thirds is good enough.
From the write-up on the poll:
The party of John Murtha shamelessly seeks to defund and defeat U.S. troops on the battlefield and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Congress the terrorists wanted is doing their bidding.
There’s a reason the founders of this country designated a single commander in chief and placed the responsibility to wage war in the hands of the president. We saw recently the futility of having 100 commanders in chief when the Senate tried to pass a resolution of disapproval of the war in Iraq and couldn’t agree on the terms of our surrender.
I had honestly hoped it wouldn’t be the case, but it appears that the American insurgency is gaining strength and has the capability of defeating the world’s last superpower. Insurgencies cannot survive without the acquiescence of the locals, but it’s tough to counter them when the locals are too focused on the mall.
UPDATE: More here.
Dean Esmay thinks the whole thing is a load of bunk:
[I]t’s pretty clear that in the Plame affair, the whole idea that there was a concerted attempt to “out” an undercover agent is a complete joke. Nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical happened in that regard. However, a bunch of mid-level people in the Bush administration panicked when they thought maybe they had unwittingly broken a law (even though none of them had) and then went into bureaucratic CYA mode, and Libby over-reacted and got silly over it, while people like Rove went into full-blown panic thinking they’d done something wrong (even though they hadn’t).
I agree. Excepting Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, and other entertainment personalities, the whole Plamegate affair is the biggest non-story I’ve seen in the news for a long time.
There are so many legitimate issues to go after Bush & Co. on. Why so many pinned so much hope on so little is beyond me.
Murdoc Online is currently #6 in the Military Supporter category in the Milbloggies. The top 5 make it to the finals. The nomination process closes today at 5PM ET.
Hint hint.
If you think MO deserves a shot, head on over and nominate the site. Registration is free and only takes a minute.
It’s better than the M4, but you can’t have one
This will be a familiar story to most who follow military weaponry:
March 4, 2002. An RPG tore into the right engine of an MH-47 Chinook helicopter loaded with a quick-reaction force of Rangers in the Shahikot Mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The Chinook crashed atop Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot peak infested with al-Qaida fighters.
Enemy fire poured into the fuselage, killing Rangers even before they got off the aircraft. Capt. Nate Self crawled out.
“As soon as I got off the ramp, a burst of rounds fired right over my head,” he recalled.
He joined a handful of his men in the open, exposed to enemy fire. An RPG exploded within a few feet of their position.
“We got up and started firing and moving to some boulders 15 meters away,” he said.
Once behind cover, Self tried to fire again, but his weapon jammed.
Back in the days when we all thought the XM8 was on the way, we hoped that piston-driven assault rifles were on the way to US troops. Of course, the XM8 was scrapped, and additional purchases were of standard M4-type carbines.
The M16/M4 system has proven its value, but two criticisms continue to dog it:
A) The “stopping power” of the 5.56×45 round and
B) The vulnerability of the direct-gas impingement system
The round is not weapon-dependent, and M4s, M16s, XM8s, and SCARs have all been developed in various calibers.
But the direct-gas system, which blows hot gases into the action, is what really sets the M16/M4 apart, and not in a good way.
The HK416 is one of many M4-type weapons that ditches the troublesome system and uses a piston system similar to that of the reliable AK47.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ramadi’s Mayor Praises Marines, Blasts Iraqi Government
Via Defense Tech:
ON Point: Do you get the necessary support from Baghdad?
Latif: No. They say that they are too busy to help. In the new budget these is supposed to be money for Anbar Province and Ramadi, but we get much less than we are promised.
ON Point: Why are they doing this to you??
Latif: I have my suspicions, but they deny it. But the future of Baghdad is in Anbar and Ramadi, if they would only see it.
Doesn’t really sound like a “massive assault” is about to be launched “shortly”, does it? (See Point #6.) We’ll see.
US ‘Iran attack plans’ revealed
The BBC is breathless over this:
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country’s military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack – if ordered – would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.
The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.
But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.
That list includes Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.
Two possible triggers for action would be either clear evidence that Iran is, indeed, building an atomic bomb or a “high-casualty attack on US forces” by Iranian agents or using Iranian-supplied weapons.
Every few weeks someone gets all excited about some “secret” plans they’ve suddenly discovered exist. Here’s another “secret”, pal: We have all sorts of plans for attacking all sorts of nations. Stop getting all worked up about it.
AF.mil:
Ten F-22 Raptors arrived here Feb. 17 and 18 for the first overseas deployment of the Air Force’s newest air supremacy aircraft.
The aircraft, assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va., started their deployment to Kadena almost 10 days previously with a stop at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. While en route, a software issue affecting the aircraft’s navigation system was discovered Feb. 11 causing the aircraft to return to Hickam.
The issue was corrected and the aircraft continued on to Kadena. According the 27th FS commander, Lt. Col. Wade Tolliver, the unit is excited about the opportunity to work with the 18th Wing and other services while in the Pacific.
Here’s a pic:
Crew chiefs park two F-22 Raptors after landing at Kadena Air Base, Japan, Feb. 18, marking the aircraft’s first overseas deployment. Twelve Raptors along with more than 250 Airmen are deployed from Langley Air Force Base, Va., to Kadena as part of an air expeditionary force rotation. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman Sheila deVera)
Bill Roggio, with help from some guys with FAR too much time on their hands, has a handy map and outline of the order of battle in Baghdad. You really should go look.
The security plan in Baghdad has yielded some initial results in reducing the incidences of sectarian violence. The number of death-squad related murders have significantly been reduced over the past five days, by upwards of 80 percent. The city also saw a reduction in the large scale bombings up until yesterday’s mass-casualty car bombings in markets in Sadr City and New Baghdad, which claimed 62 lives and wounded over 130. One of the actions being implemented to reduce the effectiveness of car bombs is the conversion of Baghdad market areas into pedestrian only zones. [emphasis Murdoc's]
A-b-o-u-t freaking time. Were we hoping they’d run out of automobiles and give up, or what?
Meanwhile, I updated my post on the 11-point plan with commentary about points 4-11, so check it out if interested.
