The lead in post is here….

Look at our pattern of waging since we have twice used miniature suns on our enemies:

Korea – Took the attack, got rolled back, finally got into the battle, rolled over the enemy, right up to the far end of their country, when we let them. joined by their allies, push us back and a long term armistice has been in place ever since, the Korean War having nver reached “closure.”

Vietnam – Took over from our allies, brought a conventional military, in terms of equipment and mindset, designed for a fight against an armor heavy military, into triple canopy jungles, initially to fight against an un-uniformed militia. While we dominated on the battlefields, even with our historical mindset and equipment limitations, world political opinion was picked up by our own governmental authorities, and we declared victory and departed, promising support for our allied forces. Strategically, we lost the war and the cause of world communism enslaved the people of South Vietnam, when too many loud voices said we couldn’t stomach the carnage anymore. In this war, we faced an enemy who wanted us out our their country, which, was definable by internationally recognized lines on maps.

Gulf War I – A defined mission to liberate Kuwait was handily achieved, using tactics requiring entry into a second nation (Iraq). While the military sought to not only push the aggressors out of Kuwait, they began to neutralize, by elimination, the forces of Saddam Hussein. With his paper tiger military was trapped on the “Highway of Death” while leaving Kuwait, our public opinion lost it’s stomach once more and demanded the end of the carnage, which was actually the strategic destruction of enemy armed forces, and was not engaging civilians. Once again, we fought against a country, one that we could identify on a map. We pushed them back within their borders.

The Global War on Terror – We have used far fewer troops to control two foreign nation far from our shores than any nation has used before in a “war.” We have been exceedingly “delicate” in the application of force, which has left mostly infrastructure intact, compared to the carpet bombing in WWII. We now are hamstrung by an enemy that knows no national boundaries, flies no flag, and wears civilian clothing, operating freely in all nations of the world. The stated goal of the enemy is not for us to leave “their land,” for “their land” is the entire planet. As a result, they are demanding the conquest of all lands of the world. We may leave Afghanistan and Iraq, but that will not be the end of the conflict. At best, it will provide a time to breathe, but no more.

This discussion is about our “governor,” metaphor being the control imposed, short of being able to reach full power on a piece of machinery, a limiting device. I would contend, with each conflict after WWII, we went in and adjusted the governor each time to a lower level than before, while at the same time, we were engineering more and greater military might and technical ability to attack anyone who attacks us.

Why? That is the main question.

You can understand the nations of the rest of the world, our allies, our enemies, and those who are still trying to decide who to stand with in the future, is looking at our much publicized debate and hoping they have correctly ascertained a trend in our policy and actions. The hope of the enemy is we will, lose our lunch and and, maybe, unlike Vietnam, not have the politicians declare victory and then bring the troops home (More like force the withdrawal by cutting off the appropriations money), but this time, following the trend line established, declare we are defeated in our effort to attack a root cause of aggression not only against us, but against all peoples who do not declare Islam as their guiding principle, and tell the rest of the world, from the mouths of our most senior elected officials, we should be ashamed of having sent out troops to their doorstep, to barge in and rape their daughters and kill their sons and fathers, and then cut off the funding, causing a “redeployment” all the way back to their stateside bases.

So, we are coming to a crossroad in our history. Do we, with the most powerful weaponry, the most militarily effective, yet compassionate people every to step forward in the defense of our nation, allow people, who are now well over 30, yet proclaimed “Don’t trust anyone over 30!” while they are young, to emasculate the military, so they may bow before any other country who does not “like” what we do?

It is clear. The projection of the ability to back up your statements, showing your strength, is what the world respects, unless you are the strong one. It is a particular human condition to try to tear down the ones who have risen to the top. We see it in the business world, as software companies went to Congress to try to break up Microsoft. We see the liberals attacking Wal-Mart, and we have the Islamofascists telling the world we need to be conquered. The enemy, respects the strength of our military, and like the Soviets, realize they cannot beat us on the battlefield. They can, as proven in Vietnam, in Central America, and to a lesser extent, in Gulf War I, defeat us by turning the stomachs of those in Congress and a few widely respected media outlets.

We have the answer and it also shows the degree of schizophrenia that has come to be accepted within our society. That will be the topic of Part III of this serial posting.

Batteries Released! Put your links here!

Dateline: Just before Independence Day, 1973, Charleston Naval Base, Charleston, SC, aboard USS CONE (DD-881).

The ship has been to sea for two weeks, playing “Orange Force” (polite way during the Cold War of not offending our enemy by calling our seaborne aggressor units, something other than “red forces.”) surface units, catching up on their Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) qualifications by sending round after round of 5″/38 cal (54 lb projectiles) at the Carribbean isle of Culebra.

The long weekend was coming, there were 6 third class (“3/c”) midshipmen aboard, the crew had recently returned from a year off the coast of Vietnam, providing real world NGFS services for the Army and Marines, and the stacks needed a good going over with haze gray and the Ship’s company deserved some “R&R” after a hectic operating schedule.

I certainly wasn’t privy to the discussion, being a guy wearing dungarees for 6 weeks, as my first hands on educational experience as a one day to be Naval Officer, but I know this: Someone up the chain of command had the brilliant idea of letting the crew take off early for the really long weekend (Wednesday was the 4th that year), and deemed that the 3rd Class Middies, already with some practical experience handling painting implements in the fire rooms and the interior of the ARSOC launcher, as well as on the Signal Bridge, would be tasked to remain behind and be supervised by the duty section.

So, there we hung in Bos’n’s chairs from the fore and aft stacks, armed with brushes and rollers and prodigious amounts of haze gray, on the morning of the 3rd of July, we went about getting either the Engineer Officer’s of the 1st Lt’s “to do’s” knocked out.

Read the rest of this entry »

I picked up the trial to finding this article from a post on Black Five. Matt referenced Joey Bozik, and linked to one picture on the NG website.

Up on the NG site, there are stills and a video with narration of the what writer Neil Shea saw in country, and also followed back home, to the VA and into the homes of those recovering from their wounds.

It’s an insight into the development of care and also the dedication to all of those in the chain providing medical care, and certainly a discussion of the spirit of those wounded and what they are dealing with as well. While the actual pictures used are black and white, some are graphic in nature….there’s your warning before you click.

Iraq War Medicine in 5 parts.

The final video piece, “Pushing Forward” talks about how Sgt Joey Bozik has pushed ahead with his life. Neil’s final statement about this issue is “These people are stronger than most people I have met in my life.” Quite a compliment…

Short theoughts on Charlie Rangel’s selective service plan:

He wants a shared sacrifice? I guess he has to force the young, disconnected, apathetic, and just plain rebellious to take a part in defending their future?

And, let me get this straight: In an “unpopular war,” we’ll just go out and rake them in off the streets, as they won’t come in on their own? Then we have a larger military (gutted by President Clinton, btw), yet we’re going to pull out of Iraq, just what do we need them for?

Mr Rangel, do you have imperialistc visons dancing through your head? If not, I see no reason to add more forces, while you cut funds for the forward deployed units, so they’ll “redeploy” and thereby need less manpower and less munitions to sit in garrison camps thousands of miles from the current combat zones.

I’m just way too slow to keep track of these wonderous plans of the Democrats to fight the war on terror…

Update: Maybe I have figured it out: Draft troops, then you don’t have to pay them well, since they have to be there any way (Hey, Senator Kennedy: Will they at least get the new minimu wage per hour?), and then, all the extra money in the Food Stamp Program will be used! Just think: The Dems can then say they spent more for social progrrams, while giving to the low ranks for the enlisted military, all the while it never showing as an increase in the military budget. That’s a win-win, huh?

(disclaimer: may not be in the exact chronological order, and will not list each and every act of terror, but a good list is linked here)

*click!*
The Olympics in the 70s.
*click!*
The US Embassy in Iran.
*click!*
Marine Barracks, Beruit
*click!*
Leo Klingenhoffer on the Achilles Lauro
*click!*
Lockerbee, Scotland.
*click!*
Discos in Germany where US Service members congregate
*click*
Bombing of embassies in Africa,
Swarming over the “Mog”
USS COLE
9/11
Madrid
7/7
*Click!*
*CLICK!*
*CLICKKKK!*
Read the rest of this entry »

I was in the depths of the Valour-IT drive, and saved this bit of trivia from a review of my sitemeter info. Time to wheel it out in the sunshine for us to consider in the Milblogging community.

The search via Yahoo was: “works or activity pattern in navy” (I just did the search as a reference point)

The location data was: Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, Iran

If they have an international strait, where much of the world’s crude oil passes through, they just might want to figure out something about how a nation’s Navy (in this case) may operate to oppose their choke point ops…

Keep your guard up!

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

H/T: Counsel-at-Arms

Eagle 1 quote Ralph Peters here. Something about killing the bad guys when engaged in a war. Sounds like a tried and true technique, strategy and tactic, from well before the US of A was even a political twinkle in any one’s eye…

About a year or so ago, a gentleman came into my place of work to have us do some for him. He was older, and it was about the time we had seen the “Mission Accomplished” banner, and yet, we were still having internal security problems in Iraq.

As we talked, he said something, so I asked “the question” and yes, he was a Vet, in fact, US Army and a vet of not only Okinawa, but also he went to Japan as part of the occupation force.

I asked him what kind of problems they had with internal security. He told me pretty much none. He said as they marched to the town they would set up camp near and administer, the streets were clear, with only Japanese policemen at each intersection. As they came by, the police would come to attention and salute the formation as they passed. He said sometimes you might see a door on the houses cracked slightly open, and several sets of eyes peering out, but it was orderly and the population went about the business of rebuilding a nation.

He did say one time someone was killed, so the order went out to the locals: You have three days to turn in your weapons. After that, if you have a weapon, you will be shot on the spot.

How did it work? They came and they turned in any and everything that was a weapon, including the many heirloom samurai swords and daggers, some of great age, but…the bottom line, they complied to the letter. He said they never found anyone with a weapon and they never had any issues of anyone being attacked again.

This also, is the connection, as to how so many fine swords ended up in the hands of the vets after WWII. They were each allowed to go to the turn ins and take, for their personal property, one rifle, one pistol and one sword as the spoils of war.

Does this go against our 2nd Amendment rights? Yes, but then again, it was a necessary measure, to ensure the safety of our troops, and we took it.

Consider Iraq today….

Trackbacked to:
EagleSpeak

Post your stuff! Get exposure!

Lots of real world work today. Maybe I’ll “pen” a story this afternoon to put in here…

In the meantime “Batteries Released!

Sounds good for a bumper sticker:

“Warning! Dementia Is Caused By Touching the Ink On Newsprint.”

H/T: gymnast on LGF