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Were Troops Forced to Assume New "Identities" For Obama Photo Ops?
My, my, my it seems we are barely into good Senator Barack Obama's "fact-finding" tour of the world outside the DC beltway and already a scandal is brewing. More Winter's Soldier Story at |
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Contributed by Ron Winter on July 25, 2008 at 11:59 PM in | | | |
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This summer's must read
Read the whole thing . |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on August 15, 2007 at 12:03 AM in , , , , | | | |
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"The One"
I'm not going to have a lot to say about this one till the review copy I've been promised arrives but do check out here and follow the links. I already know enough just from that post to know this won't be a book I have to make myself make time to read simply because I promised to review it. I can hardly wait till it gets here and it will affect my blogging when it does. *** Read the first chapter of the book online . (H/T: ) |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on June 12, 2007 at 12:53 AM in , , , | | | |
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A Modest Proposal II
The front page of the WaPo for Sunday, 6-3-07, has a story regarding the dismaying increase of killings of Americans in Iraq that has accompanied the recent surge. Aspects of the article are equally applicable to the Afghan theater. It begins like this--
The article correctly points to the armor-piercing weapons known as explosively formed projectiles as a major factor in the new killing spree. As mighrt be expected, there is no mention of Iran, which has been identified as the source of these deadly new IEDs. Let it be known that--in the right circumstances--the MSM can bow to administration policy in the way it presents the news. It would seem that the Department of State has ditched the Bush Doctrine in favor of creating the appearance of reaching out to the main state-sponsors of terrorism, Iran and its lackey, Syria. For the time being, at least, aggressive action to protect the lives of American troops is on the back burner. This has to change, and the current modest proposal is intended to suggest a possible mode of defense, which might be termed "Operation Bellwether." The basic technology of robotically-controlled vehicles is already well developed as, for example, in the popular spectacles called demolition derbys. Why not create robotic unarmored Humvees that could precede military convoys by, say, fifty yards or so? To make them irresistible to the IED crowd, they could have generals' stars painted on the sides, and fly flag-rank pennants on the front fenders. Visible personnel could be realistic rifle-toting dummies. On the other hand, why not dress up prisoners in US Army uniforms, and let them serve as decoys? We have an ample supply of Al-Qaeda types in military detention centers. We hear constantly of how badly mistreated they are. Why not put them out of their misery by letting their comrades dispatch them to Paradise? There is ample precedent for this sort of thing. The Red Army in World War II regularly marched Gulag prisoners through German minefields in front of their armed troops. If that practice ever led to prosecution of Russian officers as war criminals, it is a well-kept secret. Admittedly, prisoners captured in combat are different from common criminals. Questions regarding Geneva Conventions--however irrelevant they may be in the light of the actual status of detainees--are sure to arise if the details became known. Strict secrecy would have to be maintained. Operation Bellwether would be a natural for detachments of Special Forces, who are not renowned for blabbing to reporters. The story merits careful reading. It ends with a quotation from a British expert on Iraq, Toby Dodge:
Wouldn't it be nice if these officials and analysts were less resigned to the prospect of losing lots of lives, and more disposed towards the "creative destruction" for which the capitalist world is justly famous? |
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Contributed by 72nd TCS on June 3, 2007 at 02:35 PM in , , , , , | | | |
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2007.04.30 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup See previous: Below the fold (newest items at the top):
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 30, 2007 at 01:45 AM in , , , , , | | | |
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2007.04.29 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup
See previous:
Joe Katzman has an excellent related post . Bottom line: Replacing HMMWVs with MRAP's saves American lives. The Army and Marines are waiting for money to replace a bunch of 'em. They don't have it yet because the Surrendercrats are playing political games instead of taking care of the troops. It is my fervent and heartfelt hope that when the jihadis finally manage to nuke DC Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Mad Jack Murtha are just far enough from Ground Zero to see the flash and have a split second to realize what happened before the shock front arrives and liquefies their bodies. Catching the three of them somewhere on the left coast for a moonbat convention would be even better, of course. Update after a night's sleep and some time to surf the web a little: I don't really want the Three Ratateers to die in the initial blast. I'd much prefer they die slow lingering deaths trapped in the rubble, preferably under the same rubble pile so they have time to congratulate each other on how well they managed the war. (No, Bill isn't "off his meds again." I'm not wishing any worse fate for the Ratateers than will be suffered by thousands of others if they succeed in implementing their proposed policies.) Below the fold (newest items at the top):
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Contributed by Bill Faith on April 29, 2007 at 01:06 AM in , , , , , , , | | | |
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Ernie may be dead, but his ghost still writes
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Contributed by Bill Faith on March 13, 2007 at 05:42 PM in , , | | | |
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Dances with Osama?
*** Michelle Malkin has more , A J Strata why it took so long to think of the idea. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on March 12, 2007 at 06:23 AM in , , | | | |
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CIA goes a-huntin' in Pakistan
[Posted here by accident, moved . Sorry.] |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on March 9, 2007 at 11:57 AM in , , | | | |
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For Queen, Country, and One Lance Corporal...
Balls. Big bloody brass British balls. . *** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.01.18.13:44 The Sunday Mirror has the full story , Sky News has video . (H/T: ) |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on January 21, 2007 at 01:52 PM in , , , | | | |
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I guess you'd have to say I'm still pro-victory (Updated)
Emphasis mine. This is what I've been saying for months; flood the zone so there's nowhere to hide, then clean 'em out. Yes we're gonna take casualties, and I'll mourn every one, but in the long run is it better to mourn a few hundred soldiers now or a few thousand civilians later? After we clean out Baghdad and al-Anbar maybe a hundred thousand troops or so on Iran's border, with a few divisions more on the Afghan side, will get Ahmashiitehead's attention in time to keep the situation from getting completely out of hand. Just for the record, I still favor exit strategy:
***
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Contributed by Bill Faith on December 6, 2006 at 02:44 AM in , , , , | | | |
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May It Be
There are hundreds if not thousands of Flash tributes circulating the blogosphere. Tonight I humbly offer mine. The pictures are not mine, the music is not mine and the brave men and women who are the subjects of these images are not me. I have simply combined the artistic photographs of others and a hauntingly beautiful celtic melody with the men and women of valor to produce this simple offering. |
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Contributed by The Gray Dog on November 28, 2006 at 09:45 PM in , , , , , , , , | | | |
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Sunday Musings
RINOS, DINOS, NEOCONS and Leprechauns. You just can’t survive today’s political scene without an appropriate tag. Each party is in search of the perfect description, the ideal candidate and the winning platform, yet if Jesus Christ himself signaled his second coming, I’m sure the extremists in both parties would find him objectionable. What is conservative enough? Where is the dividing line that separates Conservatives and RINOs? Is the extreme right of the Republican Party hell bent on imitating the failed practices of the George Soros wing of the Democrats? Joe Lieberman is the perfect demonstration of what happens when the extreme wing of either party demands perfection. On the other hand, a Democratic majority in the House and Senate is what happens when the Conservatives take their ball and stay home. Democracy is not black or white. It is a fluid system that demands weighing principles against pragmatism, convictions against realities. Extremism on the other hand is a denial of reality. The “my way or the highway” attitude often leads extremists to being stranded on the shoulder of the road. It doesn’t matter what form extremism takes, Conservative extremism, Liberal extremism and Islamic extremism share the same short sighted vision which will cause them to fail. |
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Contributed by The Gray Dog on November 12, 2006 at 07:03 PM in , , , , , , , , , , , | | | |
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October Surprise.
Down to the wire, the October Surprise was unleashed upon the Democrats yesterday. Surprisingly it wasn’t launched by the Republicans, but instead the liberal’s very own “useful idiot” John Kerry. "You know, education - if you make the most of it - you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," With that comment the Old War Dogs are pleased to make known their own 11th hour October surprise: The Old War Dogs Forum is now open for membership at This site was to be announced next week, but in light of Kerry’s comment and the importance of next week’s elections we hope you will visit what promises to be an exciting place for discourse on the issues of the day. Participation does require registration, so don’t be shy. |
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Contributed by The Gray Dog on October 31, 2006 at 07:57 PM in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | | | |
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Is it time for an Orange solution?
Rather than subject this site to the amount of troll shit I know I just ordered up, I'll simply mention here that there's a post on my satellite site that's sure as hell going to upset some tree-hugging jihadi-loving lefties, and probably even some people I usually get along with. |
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Contributed by Bill Faith on October 13, 2006 at 05:49 PM in , , | | | |
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The Blog of War
During the Second World War three American reporters achieved fame for their reporting from the front with the troops, and the books they wrote about the experiences. Richard Tregaskis wrote Guadalcanal diary. Bill Maulden, best known for his cartoons of the dogfaces Willie and Joe wrote Up Front, and Ernie Pyle, the most revered of all, wrote Brave Men. After surviving the war Tregaskis and Maulden returned home to the daily grind of civilian journalism. After surviving the campaigns form North Africa to Europe. Ernie Pyle was killed during the last days of the Pacific war. All three men were famed for focusing their attention on the lot of the common soldier, leaving the great matters of campaigns and strategy to others. However, even they could not capture the immediacy and intensity of the individual soldier’s life. For reasons of security and morale much had to be omitted, and more toned down, removing the grittiness which might shock back home. During Viet Nam, the relationship was entirely different, as the politicized media appeared to have taken sides and mutual suspicion between troops and journalists was the rarely achieved "best" relation. This reviewer found that the war he was fighting and the war being reported were two totally unrelated events. To a great extent, losing the media battle was what lost the Viet Nam war. During the first Gulf War of 1991, military-media relations did not sink to the Depths of Viet Nam, but were still marked by mistrust. During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, something new has happened, the rise of the internet and widespread blogging. Deployed troops can take their laptop computers with them and communicate home directly on a realtime basis. But so long as this is done by email, the effect is no more than letters home. What has truly made the difference is the rise of blogging technology appropriated by the deployed troops for instantaneous communication. For the first time an individual warrior can aspire to tell his side of the story, not just to his immediate family and neighbors but to all the world. If today, Walter Cronkite were to report a litany of defeats, ending with a portentous "And that’s the way it is", even before the administration spokesmen could cobble together a clumsy defense, he would be hooted down in cyberspace by angry soldiers denouncing his lies and telling their stories for themselves. For some of us, the Bush administration’s greatest ineptitude has been its public relations effort, so lame it might have cost us the war under previous conditions, but saved today, by the troops themselves and their un-brigaded supporters back home. They are doing for themselves what Ernie, Bill, and Richard did sixty years ago, and arguably doing it even better. The two largest and most important of these public milblogs certainly are and . Not much is known of Greyhawk, the owner and commander of Mudville, save that he is a serving Air Force Officer living in Germany, and judging by the F-16s on his site banner, probably with the 52 Fighter Wing. More is known about Blackfive. He is Matthew Currier Burden, who left the Army in 2001 with the rank of Major, after a long and active career, often at the pointy end of the spear. In mid 2003 he took the name Blackfive for himself and his new website expressly to report the news which he felt the professional media were ignoring; since then, the site has gained a large following and today is the twentieth ranked blog by visits. Rated by the more subjective measure of quality, is easily within the top five sites (Though the Old War Dogs have picked up the scent and are baying on his trail.) Now Blackfive has written a book, The Blog of War, published in paperback by Simon & Schuster. This book is the story of milblogging as told by the milbloggers in their own words, taken from their posts of the last three years. Extended selections are taken from fifty or more blogs, including a few which have subsequently suspended activity. Several of these blogs have contributed passages for more than one chapter. The very nature of blogging tends to weed out the inarticulate and uncommitted, but Matt has selected the best of the crop. And he has done a further remarkable job of arrangement, choosing the order in which accounts appear, and linking them into a coherent and logical sequence. This is not as easy as it appears. I know; my books are also based on collating related, but discrete narratives, so I have a special appreciation for what Matt has accomplished. Frankly, he has succeeded better than I. And finding just the right passage from each blog, assuring that the most important milblogs are all represented is a task involving heroic research of a sort which cannot be accomplished by search engine. it requires eyeball examination of judgement of dozens of blogs, and thousands of discreet posts. In the first chapter several of these bloggers explain to their families why they volunteered to go. Some of these accounts are heart-wrenching, and others inspiring. The next chapter describes the living conditions, day-to-day, of troops stationed in the war zone. It seems that wars always take place in desolate and barely liveable places, and if the place, such as Italy or Northen France, were not intolerable at the start of hostilities, it quickly becomes so. Spartan living is a major factor which sets apart soldiers on active duty, all of them, including those assigned to non-combat duties. And the living conditions in Iraq sound to me particularly unpleasant, even more after reading these accounts. The next three chapters are entitled "The Healers", "Leaders, Warriors, and Diplomats", and "The Warriors". "Healers" of course contains the accounts of the nurses, doctors, and corpsmen, and includes accounts of saving the wounded, and sometimes failing to do so. And sometimes the wounded are Iraqis, even jihadis. The next two chapters seem remarkably close to each other. Leaders, Warriors, and Diplomats" includes more accounts of elections and civic action, though these areas often blend seamlessly. I might have placed "The Healers" third in the sequence rather than first, but that is a matter of author’s decision, and is a very minor difference in approaches. There is plenty of intense action and pucker here, and the chosen accounts communicate the experience with rare intensity. If you have friends or family over there, be sure to read these chapters, and you may better understand why they have come home more tightly strung and edgy than you remembered them. War is not intended to be pleasant for anyone. These chapters in particular I had to read in relatively small doses. Perhaps one of the most moving sections of this book for me was the chapter "The Homefront", accounts blogged by anxiously waiting family members. It is true that the folks back home who have never been to war cannot understand what war is really like for the troops participating. But it is equally impossible for those troops to completely comprehend the fears of those consigned to wait helplessly at home, knowing little and understanding less of what is going on. And powerless to do anything beyond worry. The soldier becomes sensitized to the shriek of the siren, his wife to the ring of the telephone. This is a side of war I have not experienced. Matt’s book has helped me to make a start on understanding. "The Fallen" relates the saddest experience, accounts of wives who have lost their husbands, and of soldiers who have lost a comrade in battle, perhaps right at their side. Again this is another essential chapter which must be read, but should be read in small doses. This is not the typical flowery "sweet to die for..." tribute. it is a much more powerful tribute to those who sacrificed their lives, and to those who sacrificed almost as much, those they loved. The last chapter, "Homecoming" is a bittersweet ending, the joy of homecoming, and the difficulty, the shock of readjusting that is a part of the experience. Finally the book’s Epilogue lists the bloggers whose contributions appeared in each chapter, and gives their names and a few details about each including an update on their current status. As I had become quite fond of several of these individuals through their blogs, it was a treat to learn their names and details that have not appeared on their blogs. I give Blog of War my highest recommendation. If you are a veteran, of any war, it will help you place your own experience in better perspective. if you only know, or are related to a veteran or active warrior, this book is even more important for you to understand what is going on. I warn you, it should be read in small doses, but it must be read. Old soldiers aren’t supposed to get weepy-eyed, so I guess it must have just been a bad allergy season for me. Never before has the American soldier been as well reported. For maintaining and publishing this book, Matt Burden certainly has joined the elite circle of Richard Tregaskis, Bill Maulden and Ernie Pyle, perhaps at the lead of that list. This Old War Dog says a sincere and deeply felt, "Thanks, Matt." -Rurik |
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Contributed by George Mellinger on September 29, 2006 at 12:53 AM in , , , , , , , | | | |
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The Perfect Evil
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Contributed by Bill Faith on September 28, 2006 at 12:20 AM in , , | | | |
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Not Only Our Own Heroes
How American warriors honor the memories of other brave men, even those who were on the other side. In 1987, Soviet pilots of the 378 ShAP (Assault Aviation Regiment), based at Bagram and flying the Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot, built a memorial to five of their comrades who had fallen in battle. After the Soviets departed, the monument was destroyed. Most recently the remains of the monument was to be cleared for airfield construction, until some American Airmen decided it should be preserved
The Americans began work to gain permission to restore the monument. Here is And here, in the forum of one of the websites I visit regularly, is . At the top of the first page is a photo of the original monument. Unfortunately the text on the first page is all in Russian, however, if you scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "2" to get to the second page, you will find David contacting them in English and much of the discussion now posted in both languages. Then continue to pages 3 and 4 for more discussion and photos from Bagram. It is fascinating to see the interaction of David Keeley and the assorted Russians. And it is heart-warming to see the gratitude of these Russians as well. "SSS" posts:
And "Airwolf":
And , one of Russia's major newspapers, has written an article calling him "Hero of Russia", a significant term since that is also the name of Russia's highest award, replacing the Hero of the Soviet Union, though that is still quite unofficial. I wish David Keeley and his colleagues all success. -Rurik |
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Contributed by George Mellinger on September 22, 2006 at 01:31 PM in , , , | | | |
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Afghanistan tosses Korean Christians
Bryan Preston:
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Contributed by Bill Faith on August 7, 2006 at 09:01 AM in , , , | | | |