Archive for February, 2008
The US moved quickly to support Kosovo; too quickly if you ask me. I think it was a bad mistake and can’t figure out why we did it other than to back the EU. War is looking like a distinct possibility there, and I doubt the soldiers will be coming from Brussels.
Thoughts?
This has been getting a lot of (pretty justified, IMHO) attention:
The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time. For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.
I’ve been skeptical that a decade and more of warming data was not really enough to prove anything, so one year of cooling data is no better. But it’s anecdotal evidence that does a lot to derail much of the anecdotal evidence the global warming crowd like to toss around as conclusive fact.
All along I’ve thought that the largest effect on earth’s global temperatures was the sun. I still think that, and it seems that more and more evidence is coming to light that supports this.
And if you think major Global Warming scenarios were scary, you had better not take a look at some major Global Cooling scenarios. You’ll pine for the days when the Ross Ice Shelf was disappearing, rather than the days that the Ross Ice Shelf threatens to gobble up southern Australia.
US Air Force closely guards tanker winner news
Only a select few know whether top acquisition officials picked Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) or a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its European partner, Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), to build 179 new refueling aircraft. The deal is valued at $30 billion to $40 billion over the next 10 to 15 years.
Most analysts expect Boeing to win the contract, but Northrop insists it still has a fighting chance.
Air Force officials had hoped to announce the news as early as Monday after a key Pentagon meeting, but two defense officials said an announcement was unlikely before Wednesday, and might not come until Friday.
Expect protests and lawsuits and who knows what else.
B-52 money tops Air Force’s 2009 wish list
The nation’s fleet of B-52 bombers would be fully funded and in store for repairs and upgrades under the Air Force’s “unfunded priority list” for fiscal year 2009.
Some $183.1 million would maintain the B-52 fleet, mostly at Barksdale Air Force Base here, according to the just-released document sent to Congress to help it decide how much to invest in military programs and what priorities the Pentagon would pursue if more federal dollars become available.
“It is critical for the United States to have a robust long-range strike system like the B-52,” said Col. Ed Walker, commander of the Air Force Reserve’s 917th Wing at Barksdale, which has both B-52 bombers and the A-10 Thunderbolt II, another airplane that would benefit under the request.
Murdoc’s for anything that benefits B-52s and A-10s.
A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress aircraft sits on the flightline to be prepped for flight by its crew on Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Jan. 8, 2007. The base experienced low visibility, sub below temperatures and gusts of wind up to 50 knots. (U.S. Ai r Force photo by Airman 1st Class Christopher Boitz)
Michael Goldfarb says he’s hearing the rumor. And Stephen F. Hayes thinks it might make sense.
Like Goldfarb, I keep thinking Thomposon. But then, I thought Thompson during primary season, too. Look how that turned out.
Part of Murdoc wishes Dick Cheney was interested in another term at #2. Just so we could watch the heads explode. But then, I think Fred would make some heads explode if he got the chance.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Narito, of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, gives a child a high-five during a patrol in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, Feb. 17, 2008.
Just got a copy of Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life by Ed Begley. Murdoc’s probably a bit more pro-environment than a lot of folks would expect, and I think the book looks decent. It’s got a lot of common sense-type suggestions that regular folks can implement for little or no cost to save money and energy.
My primary concern with energy conservation and generation has more to do with economics and foreign policy than with environmental concerns, but why not keep things a bit cleaner while saving a few bucks and denying cash to our enemies? No one likes pollution.
Especially this guy:
The book appears to be pretty well-written and though I haven’t watched his show on HGTV, Begley and his wife seem to be pretty personable and communicate their ideas in a way that non-eco-fanatics can accept. It’s important that some basic tips and ideas about energy conservation and environmental protection can be put forward without alienating 98% of the population, and this book seems to do a pretty good job.
Nir Rosen in Rolling Stone magazine:
To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq’s central government. The Americans call the units by a variety of euphemisms: Iraqi Security Volunteers (ISVs), neighborhood watch groups, Concerned Local Citizens, Critical Infrastructure Security. The militias prefer a simpler and more dramatic name: They call themselves Sahwa, or “the Awakening.”
At least 80,000 men across Iraq are now employed by the Americans as ISVs. Nearly all are Sunnis, with the exception of a few thousand Shiites. Operating as a contractor, Osama runs 300 of these new militiamen, former resistance fighters whom the U.S. now counts as allies because they are cashing our checks.
You know, I find all this hand-wringing over paying militiamen to side with us hilarious. Absofreakinglutely hilarious. And here’s why.
Overshadowing almost every moment of our campaign in Iraq have been claims that Americans just don’t “get” the culture in Iraq. Virtually every single thing any one of our people says or does is presented as some offensive insult of Iraqi culture or Islam or Arab common sense.
Stupid Americans.
Also, all sorts of people who claim to have supported the invasion of Afghanistan (never mind that they were against it at the time) wonder why we abandoned that model when we invaded Iraq. What worked so well (never mind that they laughed about it right up until the moment it worked) was cast aside so Bush and Cheney and Rummy and who knows who else could have their big glorious war in the desert.
Stupid Americans.
Meanwhile, once the war with no plan had been won in weeks, the biggest dumb move by the US was the dissolution of the Iraqi Army. Now we had all sorts of unemployed Iraqi soldiers running around with weapons and no way to support themselves save by hiring themselves out to the bad guys.
Stupid Americans.
Now, with a strong, capable, professional Iraqi Army coming into its own, security back under control thanks to a number of strategies including additional US forces deployed to hunt down insurgents and terrorists, and legislation working toward various forms of reconciliation moving in the Iraqi government, the “surge” has failed because we’re hiring Sunni militiamen to fight our enemies instead of us.
Aside: There’s a whole nother school of thought that supposes the “surge” has failed because US and Iraqi troops didn’t restore security, Moqtada al Sadr allowed security by calling a truce with US and Iraqi forces. Security exists at his whim and any peace is illusory (and the illusion is only temporary), they say. It’s interesting that if the failure of the “surge” is so plain and so clear, why do failure proponents offer completely different reasons? Anyway,
Once the pants-wetting dies down, maybe critics will realize that paying Sunni militiamen to side with us against insurgents, terrorists, and criminals is almost exactly what they’ve been advocating we do all along.
They wanted the old Iraqi Army intact? Well, the old Iraqi Army was almost completely Sunni and totally rotted by corruption and graft, with loyalty guaranteed only by payrolls, tribal pressures, and threats of force. Oops. Sounds a lot like the “Awakening” to me. Just more manageable and more likely to play ball.
They wanted an Afghanistan model for the campaign in Iraq? Well, is anyone still pretending that the Northern Alliance sided with us because they support baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet? Or did maybe all of those suitcases of cash affect loyalties and alliances? We convinced enough Afghanis that not only did we want the Taliban out of power, we’d pay them to help us make it happen. Oops. Substitute “Iraqis” for “Afghanis” and “terrorists who are killing your families and generally making life rough for everyone” for “Taliban,” and you could be talking about the Concerned Local Citizens.
Finally, this isn’t being done in ignorance of the culture. It’s being done because of the culture. It’s showing signs of success because of the culture. The culture in Iraq, to a large degree, doesn’t frown on what we consider bribery. It’s profitable and it’s honorable. Oversimplified? Absolutely. But true to a large degree.
Make no mistake, this campaign is far from over. There is a long way to go. Some of the tribes we’ve paid off could (and will) flip back. But the wind is blowing in the right direction. This is the way a counterinsurgency is won.
U.S. Navy weapons department personnel launch an inactive torpedo off the port side of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89) during a training exercise while under way in the Pacific Ocean Feb. 21, 2008. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Derek J. Hurder, U.S. Navy.
Here’s more info from an MSNBC.com story:
The captain told NBC News that he was talking about not having enough ammunition and no Humvees for training, but that his unit underwent a three-week crash course in Afghanistan before they saw combat.
The captain, who spoke on background because he’s still active duty, said that his unit temporarily had to replace their .50-caliber turret-mounted machine gun with a weapon seized from the Taliban because they couldn’t get a needed part fast enough…
ABC said the officer was a lieutenant when he led a platoon to Afghanistan in 2003. Fifteen soldiers were reassigned to other units in ones and twos and not replaced before the unit deployed, ABC cited the captain as saying. He knew 10 had gone to Iraq, and suspected the other five had too, ABC said.
So it appears that some aspects of Obama’s claim are true, and that arguments that he didn’t tell an outright lie will hold up. I guess, in a way, I’m a bit relieved that a presidential candidate wouldn’t stoop that low on national television (at least save the total whoppers for local rallies and fund raising dinners, guys) but the use of the particular situation in this way was still a bit much.
He was totally trying to mislead the public on this. He was trying to make an issue out of this incident, claiming that the Commander in Chief was letting the troops down. That’s, um, overstating things just a bit there, Barack.
While the situation with troops being pulled out of a platoon here and there and being reassigned isn’t ideal, it also isn’t quite what Obama suggested it was.
And as for using the Taliban weapon, and I’m assuming that it happened in Afghanistan and not in training, we don’t know enough to know.
Was this during a firefight? Did an M2 or M240 on a Humvee get hit or suffer a breakdown during the fight and the troops pulled a captured weapon to carry on the battle?
Was the unit deployed at a remote location where supplies and replacement parts were hard to come by? Did they employ an enemy machine gun for a day or two until the part could be choppered up from base?
In neither of these hypothetical cases did anything terribly unusual occur, certainly nothing worthy of blaming the President on national television for not taking care of the troops.
How about this story:
He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man’s AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man’s AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.
At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.
When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon’s flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.
The Marines looked at this, the actions of one Capt. Brian Chontosh, and awarded him the Navy Cross.
Would Barack Obama hear this story from this captain and make an issue out of insufficient ammunition and the need to use enemy weapons?
And someone should ask Obama if he supports increasing the military budget so that they can acquire more ammunition for training and double the number of spare parts in the system.
