Navy Reservist, and blogger, Paul Berkley was murdered over the weekend, reports The Military Outpost. Berkley and his wife were shot while in Milbrook Exchange Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. Berkley was home on leave from Fifth Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the Berkley family and we hope for a speedy recovery for Mrs. Berkley. Sadly, WRAL news reports this incident is not quite what it appears.
[tip to Smash]
AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL
The New York Times reports the navy is proposing to increase the fleet from 281 ships to 313 in the next decade or so. The emphasis seems to be on combatting irregular warfare and looks like it’s moving away from more traditional warfare, such as that with China.
Go Navy!
The combined land, aerial, and sea forces that the Navy Dept. will bring to bear on those hapless Hudsonites will a spectacle for the ages!
Why, I’m getting all randy, nay, ZESTY, thinking about it!
Robbie at UrbanGrounds posts on a moving tribute the Rocky Mountain News has done on the Marines stationed at Buckley Air Force Base whose job it is to notify families of the death of their Marine. If you can view the report without tearing up, you have no soul. God Bless our Marines.
Front Page Mag has the scoop on them.
Once again, it’s all spelled out. One of these years, I hope that this charade of the war being about WMDs that “never existed” will finally die a quick death.
Chinese Americans involved in stealing Naval secrets, according to the Associated Press. My response: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?
A new blog, called “The Officers’ Club” (which I have become quite the fan of) has an article on the assymetric nature of fighting terror. To the point, how do you do, without giving up your principles.
For some time now, I’ve been pointing out that the War on Terrorism (and the War in Iraq…which is a fundamental component of the GWOT) can be divided into two completely separate conflicts. The first is the military conflict, the struggle to find and defeat our enemies.
The second is the political battle. And that battle can be -and has been- overlooked in the past.
Back in the summer of 2003, I had the opportunity to travel to Israel with Cliff May’s Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The thrust of the trip was to examine how a democracy handled the challenges of fighting an unending asymmetrical conflict, without compromising the high ideals of an open society.
There, I listened in on a lecture by an Israeli Defense Force Colonel that sticks with me to this day. “We Israelis,” she said, “have militarily won this fight time and time again. What we didn’t realize is that while we were off fighting the physical battle, the Palestinian terror organizations were off winning the political one.”
Israel stands today largely isolated from the rest of the world, for no other reason that they were attacked, and that they won, whether it was in 1948, 1967, 1973, or during the years of the first and second Intafada.
We were attacked and right now we are winning. There have been no terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11, and the global war on terror is confined to the theatres where we have chosen to fight it.
But each military victory against terrorists can be a political victory for terrorists.
The political battlet is one that every American and every like-minded citizen of the world can fight. It requires an allegiance to our high ideals of democracy, a scorn for those who would attack those ideals, and a voice to affirm those convictions.
The War in Iraq and the greater War on Terror are fights that will be won or lost on the shores of the United States, not Afghanistan or Iran.
The author is right - the political dimension to this fight continues to favor the Jihadis solidly. Frankly, I have little confidence that we will win the political aspect of this fight; the media has demonstrated its’ fealty to the Jihadi cause time and time again, and they still form so much public opinion.
I feel increasingly that a democracy CANNOT fight and win such a battle AND stay true to it’s principles 100%. I get the feeling that sooner or later, in order for victory to be attained, a double standard HAS to be imposed on these Jihadis - WE are right, YOU ARE WRONG.
Sadly, such non-relativistic thinking is taboo, but that is EXACTLY what must be annunciated for this socio-cultural war to be won.
So - the question: what does your leadership training tell you? And does that conflict with what (I was taught) is the 1st objective of leadership - Accomplish The Mission. (The assumption here is that the Mission is to render AQ, and by extension RadIslam, toothless, or dead even.)
Worse than Walker - at least the Izzies aren’t our future nemesis like China is.
This is ENRAGING!!
Key compromises uncovered so far include sensitive data on Aegis battle management systems that are the core of U.S. Navy destroyers and cruisers.
China covertly obtained the Aegis technology and earlier this year deployed its first Aegis warship, code-named Magic Shield, intelligence officials have said.
The Chinese also obtained sensitive data on U.S. submarines, including classified details related to the new Virginia-class attack submarines.
Officials said based on a preliminary assessment, China now will be able to track U.S. submarines, a compromise that potentially could be devastating if the United States enters a conflict with China in defending Taiwan.
Mr. Chi, an electrical engineer, also had access to details on U.S. aircraft carriers and once was aboard the USS Stennis. A Pentagon report made public earlier this year said China’s military is building up capabilities to attack U.S. aircraft carriers.
China also is thought to have obtained information from the spy ring that will assist Chinese military development of electromagnetic pulse weapons — weapons that simulate the electronic shock caused by a nuclear blast — that disrupt electronics.
It also is thought to have obtained unmanned aerial vehicle technology from the spy ring.
And we need more H-1Bs, from places like mainland China??????????
More spies, more covert terrorists.
NO!
It’s bad enough that the US Navy’s techical advantages are GONE. We MUST NOT add insult to injury by inviting more of these perps in waiting into this nation.
ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!
START SHOOTING IF YOU HAVE TO!!!!
Disabled Woman Set Ablaze Updated: 12:36, Friday November 04, 2005
A handicapped woman was doused with petrol and set on fire by youths during another night of rioting in Paris.The 56-year-old suffered third degree burns to 20% of her body in the attack.
Witnesses said a youth poured petrol over the woman and then threw a Molotov cocktail on to the bus she was travelling on in the suburb of Sevran.
Other passengers were able to flee but she was unable to escape because of her disabilities.
It was the worst incident so far in more than a week of rioting.
For the first time, there were also signs of copycat rampages elsewhere in France.
Malkin is updating here.
The Officers’ Club - a good read!
Lt. Smash’s new milblogger project is up and running. Give it a look-see.
[crossposted at Swanky Conservative]
Calling all Navy bloggers. Lt. Smash and Project Valour-IT needs your support. Valour-IT is an effort to get laptop computers to wounded servicemen. Soldiers’ Angels has the history here. Even if you oppose the war in Iraq, how can you turn away from a chance to directly help the troops? Use the button below to give.
You can also give here (Include the word NAVY with your donation so the team gets credit):
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So the so called President of Iran is sounding like Hitler’s channeler, or truly, Hitler reincarnate.
Why?
Here’s what I see as going on.
1) Iran has on it’s East border Afghanistan - which has gone through 2 successful rounds of voting. They even have “un-Burqa-ed” women in uniform. Holy Jihad! A democracy is growing! And the GREAT SATANNNNNNNNNNNN is leading the way, and protecting the democracy! And worst of all, the GREAT SATANNNNNNNNNNNNNNN is NOT disrespecting Islam!
2) See the above, but swap Iraq for Afghanistan, and West for East
3) They have, under development, “peaceful Nuclear power”. Horse manure. They have weps in the works.
4) They need an external enemy to rally the civvies against - the common foe. So, they fallback to their tried and true GREAT SATANNNNNNNNNNNN and her pawn in the region, that most evil, conniving superpower - Israel.
5) Given that 1 and 2 are bad for the theocrats in Tehran, and their student unrest is WORSE, they need a war to derail all this democractic agitation.
6) So the Thug-In-Chief rolls out the hate, but phrases it in a way that all but invites the Israelis to strike at Iran. And that strike would have to transit WHOSE airspace? Iraq’s.
7) So if 6, then the “puppet regime of Iraq and it’s master the GREAT SATANNNNNNNNNNNNN are complicit in the attack on Iran, and Iran strikes at Iraq, plunging the region into war, and God only knows what else…..
I doubt the Izzies do anything extra-territorially. But I also bet (heavily) that the so called Palestinian “freedom fighters” will be blowing themselves up at an accelerated rate.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has declared the US-Japan security pact a “global alliance” following agreement on an unprecedented level of operational co-operation between American and Japanese forces.
[…]
The document also foreshadows a strengthening of tentative security links between Japan and Australia, the key southern partner in the Americans’ Asia-Pacific alliance network.
It calls for US and Japanese forces to regularly exercise with third countries and to strengthen co-operation with them “to improve the international security environment”.
One of those third countries will be India. You’ll have a close working relationship between the US and Japan and the US and India coming together. Add Australia and China’s looking at some serious firepower backing up Western Democracy in the Pacific Theater.
Gunner writes:
Common causes. Common potential enemies. This is a good step forward, with a lot of potential for thorns and blessings.
China’s paying attention. We just saw the next move on The Grand Chessboard.
Blogger Varifrank has this entry on “context”, and how it’s (obviously) absent from the grey matter of almost all people who are in the reporting business.
My fav part? Easy! The TIMELINE - annotated, that is. 1998 is a particularly fine vintage, sir:
1998
Feburary: The United States Senate passes resolution 71, which urged President Bill Clinton to “take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”
John Kerry votes in favor of the resolution…
April: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq’s declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
May: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to Bucharest to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
August: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams. Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticized the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter told reporters that “Iraq is not disarming,” “Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike.”
Scott Ritter now works for Al-Jazzeera, but then again, so does David Frost ( go figure…)
September: The U.S. Congress passes the “Iraq Liberation Act”, which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.
John Kerry votes in favor of the Act…
October: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors
November: Operation Desert Fox
U.S. President Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq. Clinton then calls it off at the last minute when Iraq promises once again to “unconditionally” cooperate with UNSCOM. UNSCOM inspectors return to Iraq.December: Iraq announces that U.N. weapons inspections will no longer take place on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. Iraq also refuses to provide test data from the production of missiles and engines
President Clinton orders American and British airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq. Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan announces that Iraq will no longer cooperate and declares that UNSCOM’s “mission is over.”
UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia call for sanctions to end against Iraq. The three Security Council members also call for UNSCOM to either be disbanded or for its role to be recast. The U.S. says it will veto any such proposal . Iraq then announced its intention to fire upon US and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern “no-fly zones”.
My my my - how EASILY the left forgets facts like these……
Of Arms and the Law found the recent UN report on crime.
A report on British crime figures. “A report released this week by the United Nations confirms what law-abiding Americans have known for quite some time. That being that criminals prefer victims who cannot fight back. Based on a crime survey of the world’s top industrialized countries, the U.N. report indicates that a resident of the United Kingdom is nearly 3 times more likely to become a victim of violent assault than is a citizen of the United States. The report reveals that Scotland is the most violent country in the industrialized world with over 2,000 Scots attacked every week, which amounts to about 3 percent of the population on an annual basis. England and Wales are close behind with 2.8 percent of the population falling victim to violent assault. By comparison, Americans are victimized by violent offenders at a rate of 1.2 percent.”
Worse than Russia - wow.
1st) Peggy Noonan in today’s WSJ. Elgato doesn’t share her cynicism, but this really put into words a feeling I’ve had for some time.
2nd) Jen Martinez has a post from a LTC in Fallujah, about how the US media is the enemy’s best ally. I could not agree more.
Military.com reports that the Navy and Marines have blocked commercial email sites from all overseas government computers and some here at home, if the computers are on NMCI (Navy-Marine Corp Intranet). While I appreciate the attention to Information Awareness and security, I think there should be some accomodation for servicemen and women and their families who have no means of communication to those back home. There should be some system in place, a public pool of computers not on NMCI, for example, an uplink that’s using a commercial network, something, so people can access their personal email services, Skype, instant messaging, etc.
What do the MWR folks think? (Morale, Welfare, Recreation)
Jens-Olaf has some amazing scans of photos from the Eastern Front durng World War I. They are largely from a German Army officer, many are unpublished. Some amazing images there, including this one of German warships in Riga, near the Baltic Sea:
[tip to Boing Boing]