Archive for October, 2007

USMC Refines Specs For Personnel Carriers

I hadn’t heard about this before, but apparently the Marine Corps is looking at a medium troop transport that they’re calling the Marine Personnel Carriers (MPC):

Although no design decisions have been made, the MPC is expected to be a six-wheeled or eight-wheeled vehicle or truck, weigh about 15 tons, protect its nine to 12 occupants from roadside bombs, fly aboard a C-17 airlifter and ford up to 5 feet of water — if not swim.

Building on lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, the MPCs should combine the protective abilities of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle with the speed, off-road ability and tactical mobility of a light utility vehicle, Corps officials said.

Sounds more than a bit like a newer LAV or, rather, a Marine-ized Stryker. Though the Marines are getting a lot of MRAPs, they don’t really have the off-road and expeditionary capabilities the Marines are looking for.

With all the problems, delays, and cost issues surrounding the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, it’s probably just as well that the Marines are going to look at other options.

Dutch Rub… Netherlands Asked to Take Gitmo Detainees

Yesterday I noted the –Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay” quote delivered by Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) to a group of Dutch officials who were threatening to pull Dutch troops out of Afghanistan over the alleged abuses at Gitmo.

Today, Gateway Pundit notes that reports claim that the US government asked the Netherlands to take some of the Gitmo prisoners. Go read.

Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance:

Late Friday evening Hawaiian Standard Time, a liquid-fueled single stage Scud missile streaked across the tropical black sky over the Pacific Ocean near the northern islands of Hawaii after being launched from a sea-based floating barge. Moments later, after being detected and tracked by an X-band radar located on the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, a ground-based mobile defensive missile was launched from a different location on the same range in Barking Sands.

This defensive missile accelerated quickly and flew with a brilliant white slash against the night. At approximately 9:15 p.m. Friday Hawaiian Standard Time, on the border where space and the atmosphere meet, the Scud missile was destroyed by the defensive missile as it flew with high velocity right into the center of the incoming missile. The mobile ground-based missile defense system that includes the defensive missile, its launcher and its X- band radar is called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.

This marks the fourth successful test of this current system and follows the successes of the Ground-Based Interceptor last month, the Patriot 3 Success flight in July and the Aegis Standard Missile 3 intercept in June.

A short video of the test is available here.

This takes the cake:

The full caption reads

A US airman with a machine gun in Indian Springs. Burglars in the United States could once sue homeowners if they were shot, but now a growing number of states have made it legal to shoot to kill when somebody breaks into a house(AFP/Getty Images/File/Ethan Millar)

Currently available here. Via Wizbang.

Via Instapundit: –Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay” –Some guy who survived the Holocaust

Harsh, bitter words. Certainly not diplomatic. But honest and surprisingly pro-victory. (Democrats: More of this please!)

US Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) apparently said this or something to this effect to a group of Dutch politicians. The group favored pulling their troops out of Afghanistan because Guantanamo Bay symbolizes “everything that is wrong with this war on terror”.

Can you say “Target Rich Environment“?

I would put forward that a better symbol of everything that is wrong with this war on terror might be this: USS Cole plotter freed by Yemen

Jamal al-Badawi will be kept under effective house arrest after pledging allegiance to Yemen’s president.

Badawi was sentenced to death in 2004 for his role in the bombing, but escaped from jail early in 2006. He handed himself in two weeks ago.

Carry out that sentence by the end of 2005 and maybe this wouldn’t be just more proof that the law enforcement and justice system approach the Fourth World War is not the solution.

He escaped from jail after being sentenced to death. So the response is to place him under house arrest. Well, “effective” house arrest.

Tell us which house. Pay no attention to the droning in the sky tonight. Sentence fulfilled.

Again, this threat by the Dutch to pull their troops from Afghanistan is just another example of how NATO has let us down. This article in the Canadian media basically whines that the offers to the Dutch are “just enough to keep them in place”. Apparently, motivation to fight terrorists comes from how much you can get your back scratched. I would put forward that this, too, symbolizes “everything that is wrong with this war on terror”.

I’m sure that many will criticize the US legislator for making this statement (assuming he really did) to Dutch officials. And if the words hurt our ability to convince NATO members to deploy troops, I guess the criticism will be justified. But if we have to beg our friends to help us fight terrorism in the one place that everyone seems to agree is a battleground in the war against terrorism, I wonder how good those friends really are.

So does the Prime Minister of what has proven to be one of America’s closest friends. And, besides some members of the government claiming that alleged prisoner abuses at Guantanamo Bay trump all else, even the Dutch are not terribly pleased with other NATO members.

Meanwhile, let’s all sleep peaceably in our beds at night knowing that there are Yemeni police officers standing ready to keep convicted terrorist plotters under “effective house arrest”. Several of them, in fact. Working in shifts.

“The darkness has become pitch black” – Osama bin Laden on Iraq situation
Iraq is a quagmire. For someone.

“The problem is not with the people that started this. The problem’s with us.”
So says Robert Redford.

China Wants to Join International Space Station Project
What could possibly go wrong?

Forget dieting. Obesity a result of modern life
I don’t quite get this, but the study seems to be saying “Obesity isn’t because of eating more food and getting less exercise, it’s because times are different now than they were in the past.” Will someone please explain why this statement isn’t asinine?

Jay Tea on Lt. Ehren Watada
Very good hypothetical conversation.

Maine middle school to offer birth control
I think that the fact that things have gotten to the point where this can be passed speaks volumes about the state of our society. Not to mention parenting.

I almost forgot to tell you about the rhubarb
Good stuff, rhubarb. Nothing beats a nice warm piece of rhubarb pie a la mode. No strawberries mixed in, please, which seems to be the only way I find it here in Michigan. Rhubarb crisp does the trick, too. And the rhubarb jelly or whatever-it-is that I used to shovel into crullers. Yum.

1910 in color: A peek into Russia before Communism
Wow.

NATO Falling Flat in Afghanistan
Not everyone is a slacker. Just most.

Star Trek film names Kirk actor
The film, which chronicles the early days of the Enterprise crew, will be released in the US on 25 December 2008.

Note: The article includes this bit:

[Karl] Urban’s character Bones was responsible for several of Star Trek’s famous phrases including: “He’s dead, Jim.”

In fact, just like “Beam me up, Scotty,” no one ever actually said those exact words in the original series.

Pakistan Has a Plan, And It’s Working
If it’s working, it isn’t working fast enough.

DT Takes a First Hand Look at Army Weapons
XM320 Grenade Launcher and M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System (MASS)

BMovies.com
Lots of oldies but baddies. Including, predictably, a number of films used for MST3K.

Vet sues Army, claims job loss stemmed from parking space
I don’t remember the last time Michigan was in the news for something good.

“I’m justifying that Americans have a right to free speech.”

Once upon a time I was a big fan of O’Reilly, but I got over that. And he is wrong about how many people were killed in Iraq last week. But the Democratic strategist who is standing up for and siding with the deranged moonbats is just plain nuts.

(via Gateway Pundit)

Remember when Senator Barbara Boxed said the National Guard couldn’t respond to the wildfires in California because so many personnel and so much equipment was deployed to Iraq?

She was close, but got her quagmires mixed up:

Bureaucracy hampered initial Calif. fire efforts
Rules kept firefighting aircraft on ground as devastating blazes took hold

As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California’s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.

It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry –fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.

The NG troops deployed to Iraq that Boxer said were missed would have mostly been involved in evacuation assistance, aid distribution, and general security. The military personnel that would have actually battled the fire, possibly reducing the need for evacuations, aid distribution, and security, were available and ready to go but not allowed to take off.

How much difference the planes and choppers would have been able to make is a big question, of course. The Santa Ana winds have been trumping most efforts, land, sea, or air, so far.

But I guess I’d be a bit hesitant to fault the military campaign in Iraq for the lack of National Guard troops fighting the fire in California at this point, particularly when it was state regulations and an undermanned state National Guard contingent to begin with that has had a far more direct impact on available resources.

California is authorized for 21,000 National Guard personnel, but apparently only has about 15,000 right now. (This would mean that there are 10,000, not 15,000, available troops right now.) Though lengthy deployments overseas are hurting NG recruiting and retention (much more than active military), it also seems that California’s benefits package is somewhat lacking when compared to other states. It’s the only state that doesn’t offer any college tuition assistance. I suggest maybe they should expand the military recruiting efforts on school and college campuses to get the state’s NG fully staffed, but the tuition thing would make that pretty tough.

The California province is a quagmire.

UPDATE: Phil Carter, before the fires started:

Nickel and diming California’s veterans

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed eight bills which aim to help California’s veterans and reservists. Unfortunately, the most meaningful (and costly) state benefits for California’s vets didn’t make it through the State Legislature, including but not limited to tuition assistance for currently-serving California National Guard members.

Go read.

1-4th Brigade’s deployment delayed

1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division will not deploy next month as scheduled.

The brigade was slated to begin deploying next month to replace the 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd BCT in Diyala province, a turbulent area north of Baghdad.

But the 3rd BCT, which is redeploying to Fort Hood in December after 15 months in theater, will not be replaced.

Drawdown of the “surge” goes on. The Strykers of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will expand their responsibility in Diyala. The 1st Bde, 4th ID is still going to Iraq, just not as soon as originally planned. A final decision has yet to be made.

More details on the shifting schedule at Army Times.