Archive for August, 2007
Hands Off My Analogy
Liberals object when Bush discusses Vietnam
Who would have ever guessed that would happen?
My Victorian Navy
Cool site with lots of Victorian-era pictures and info.
Underwater turbines set to generate record power
1.2 megawatts from that? Not bad.
WWII submarine found 65 years after sinking
USS Grunion off of Kiska.
Dumb, dumber, and Davis
The guy that tells you his SSN on a commercial for his identity theft protection service? Thefted.
Guam hosts talks on military buildup
Been noting Guam’s expansion for some time. It ain’t slowing down any.
The eastern Afghanistan offensive
Senior al Qaeda leader may have been wounded in the ongoing battle at Tora Bora
Picture With and without the Flash
The difference is incredible. Must be high-speed film.
Vietnam Ghosts
TM Lutas on the Vietnam comparisons.
101 Frightening Ice Cream Flavors From Around The World
Including the ever-popular Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream.
Forbidden Lego
Stuff that didn’t meet various requirements for public release. Review of the book Forbidden LEGO: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against!
Poll: One in four adults read no books last year
Amazing. And pathetic.
Budapest Defenders
Simple little Flash game. Kill the Commies. Addicting. Not sure why the Commies don’t shoot back.
ES&S to be Rebuked, Fined and Possibly Banned in CA?
Major voting machine company under the gun. Cool.
Redheads set for extinction
No more redheads by the end of the century. Check back with Friday Linkzookery in 2099 to see if it’s happened.
World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism
by Norman Podhoretz
Coordination between U.S. Coast Guard, Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection, and crews from a U.S. Navy P-3C Orion and the frigate USS Dewert (FFG 45), resulted in the seizure of an estimated $352 million of cocaine during an interdicted and boarding operation on a self-propelled semi-submersible vessel in the Eastern Pacific, Sunday, Aug 19. Photo courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Busted. From Navy NewsStand.
Is the surge in Iraq working? That is the question that Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will answer for us next month.
I, alas, am not interested in their opinions.
It is not because I don’t hold both men in very high regard. I do. But I’m still not interested in their opinions. I’m only interested in yours. Yes, you – the person reading this column.
Repeat as necessary.
‘Alas’, my ass.
He wants regular folks to have an opinion, and he wants that opinion to be the one that counts the most. And how do virtually all regular folks get the information that their opinions are based upon? From Friedman and the like. The ones who say the general’s opinion doesn’t really matter.
Just listen to what I say, dear reader, watch the news that I show you and digest the analysis that I present to you. Then go off and form your opinion. Report back, so that I know what’s happening.
Vicious cycle, isn’t it? Media to Public to Media. Repeat as necessary.
Call me crazy, but wouldn’t the military be in there somewhere when we’re talking about a war? Shouldn’t someone who’s actually there be allowed into the equation?
Read the rest of this entry »
Stryker gets major test during Gap exercise
56th Brigade, Pennsylvania National Guard, continues to transition to the Stryker:
Based in Philadelphia, the 56th Stryker Brigade has about 3,500 soldiers, with units scattered in communities across the state, including Lebanon and Fort Indiantown Gap. The centerpieces of the brigade are the more than 300 Stryker vehicles — 19-ton, eight-wheeled armored vehicles that can travel faster than 60 mph.
Zimmerman said the brigade will hold another significant exercise in February, called Warfighter, that will involve mainly the same people who participated over the weekend. In September 2008, the entire brigade — soldiers, vehicles and all equipment — is scheduled to go to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., for its initial operating-capability exercise. That exercise will determine if the brigade is combat-ready.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 56th deployed shortly following their certification. The article notes that the unit is expecting it.
Air Force declares newest configuration of A-10 aircraft ready for combat
Defense Daily:
Air Force officials announced yesterday that the A-10C ground-attack aircraft, the significantly upgraded version of the venerable A-10A Thunderbolt II, is now ready for combat, with the first squadron of them expected to deploy to Iraq within the next 30 days…
With the combat-ready declaration, the first two squadrons to be fully equipped with the A-10C, both Air National Guard (ANG) units, are cleared to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, the Maryland ANG’s 104th Fighter Squadron, which features 17 front-line A-10Cs, will deploy to Iraq in “less than 30 days,” Brig. Gen. Guy Walsh, commander of the Maryland ANG’s 175th Fighter Wing, which includes the 104th, told the audience here. The second unit is Michigan ANG’s 172nd Fighter Squadron, also with 17 primary aircraft authorized.
All 350+ A-10s will be upgraded to ‘C’ by 2011. Further upgrades, including wing replacements to increase service life and newer, more powerful engines, are being considered for the Warthog.
Bush to invoke Vietnam in arguing against Iraq pullout
On Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri, Bush will tell members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that “then, as now, people argued that the real problem was America’s presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end,” according to speech excerpts released Tuesday by the White House.
“Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left,” Bush will say.
“Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like ‘boat people,’ ‘re-education camps’ and ‘killing fields,’ ” the president will say.
Harry Reid, of course, will have none of it. He’s above Vietnam comparisons:
“President Bush’s attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two. Our nation was misled by the Bush Administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history.”
Thank goodness Reid isn’t going to put up with Vietnam comparisons.
Reid in April, during his ‘this war is lost’ raving:
Reid drew a parallel with former US president Lyndon Johnson who decided to deploy more troops in Vietnam some 40 years ago when 24,000 US troops had already been killed.
“Johnson did not want a war loss on his watch, so he surged in Vietnam. After the surge was over, we added 34,000 to the 24,000 who died in Vietnam,” Reid said.
I don’t get it. Is Reid suddenly hoping that everyone will agree that comparing Iraq to Vietnam is unfair? I can’t wait to see the whining from anti-Bush folks over his comparison.
Meanwhile, here’s part of my The Speech Bush Should Give from earlier in April:
Many commentators and pundits are fond of comparing the situation in Iraq to the war in Vietnam. While some of these comparisons are valid, many of them simply do not hold water. But if playing Vietnam games is what gets everyone’s attention, I’ve got a Vietnam analogy for you: In the decade following our withdrawal from Vietnam in the early 1970s, over ONE MILLION civilians were killed by Communist forces in the region. Some of these killings were retaliation for choosing to stand with America during the war. Some of these killings were politically motivated. But many of the murders were committed simply because killing is how the enemy we fought in Vietnam interacts with the rest of the world; death and destruction are the language they use to communicate with those who do not convert to their cause.
THAT is what will happen in Iraq if we allow the extremists and the terrorists free reign. Perhaps a million dead, or more, because America decided that it was just taking too long.
I recognize that many folks have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq from the start, and I recognize that some former supporters are opposed now. I recognize that some of the reasons for this opposition are valid. But it would be refreshing if these same folks would at least acknowledge the severe damage that a defeat in Iraq would bring to the US and its military, the cost to the region and world that would result, and the savagery on the streets of Iraq that would follow our troops’ withdrawal.
I would at least respect someone for saying “I realize that withdrawal from Iraq will result in the defeat of the US military and probably derail the entire war against terrorism. I recognize that the political influence of the US and the fear of our military will more or less vanish over night, and that future military operations of any kind will be severely hampered due to this. I am aware that our defeat in Iraq will mean that we will negotiate from a place of weakness for at least a decade, and that no one will probably ever trust us or our military again. I also know that leaving Iraq before it is secure means that millions of Iraqis will be killed, either because they helped us or supported the new Iraqi government, because they belong to the wrong religious sect or tribe, or merely because they were caught within the blast radius of the massive violence that will engulf Iraq after US troops leave. I understand that this violence will far surpass anything we’ve seen in Iraq so far, and that it won’t be a “wave” of days or weeks or even months, but an ongoing war against those unable to defend themselves that will last until the barbarians have killed or driven off everyone they don’t like. I understand all of this and I still believe that pulling out now is the right thing to do.”
I wouldn’t agree, of course, but at least they’d have the courage to stand up and say it. Instead, we get these morons who like to pretend that we’re dumb enough to ignore the things they ignore.
RAF Jets Intercept Russian Bomber
Via a reader:
Two RAF jets have intercepted a Russian bomber over the north Atlantic.
Typhoon interceptors shadowed a Russian Tupolev-95 “Bear” reconnaissance aircraft last Friday.
It is the first time the
The Atlanta Humane Society is now accepting Michael Vick t-shirts and jerseys. They’ll be used as bedding, chew toys and rags for cleaning up dog doo. Which is only appropriate, right, Rocky?
Image from SFGate.
USA Today: At Atlanta shelter, Vick jerseys are going to the dogs.
I don’t begrudge professional athletes or other entertainers their massive salaries. But when they are idiots, I have much less patience with them than I do with regular folks.
