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Site contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com
Salamander brings up a good point. No matter how weird our uniforms get, our allies will always come up with some weirder.
As I work at an Air Force base, I also received the email with the various "future uniforms". I believe that there will be no way they pick the "retardant-neck Star Trek" uniforms...
"Is Murtha old news? Is Iraq old news?"
Yes.
Most of my non-military friends are talking about immigration, American Idol, or both.
Still not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing...
I agree that Wretchard's post was outstanding. It inspired not one nor two but three posts and discussion threads at Grim's Hall. Commenters had a lot to say and think about the subject (although the third post's comments derailed, for reasons I still find a little mysterious, into a discussion of the causes of the American Civil War).
I think the core problem is the total failure of the key models around which we've built international life -- the UN, criminal law, and problems that have developed between nations in their understanding of the Geneva Conventions. Without those models, we don't even have a good way to think or talk about the problems facing us. There aren't new models yet. We're left with rehashed fights between people arguing for applying either this old model or that one, when neither apply any more.
I'm not in the U.S., but I get the impression this really didn't get a lot of coverage. Nothing on the NY Times site front page now, f'rinstance.
Is Murtha old news? Is Iraq old news?
Here's one for the water cooler talk tomorrow.
"That explains where ______s come from!" (Insert your favorite branch of miltary in blank.)
..at VMI really deserves a viewing.
I'm not seeing the arrogance here.
I watched Murtha at a "press Briefing" on C-Span last evening which was supposedly on the topic of Iraq and the Defense Spending Bill... but it was clearly a "let's dangle these anti-Bush statements in front of the old guy and see what we get." It was difficult at times to hear the "press" questions, but then you'd hear from Murtha, "Oh, absolutely... " and his ranting... and then "Oh definitiely" and some more anti-Bush and anti-Republican rantings... and his proclamations that it will be a landslide for the Democrats this '06 election... There was nothing objective on the part of the press (what a surprise!) and the briefing had very little to do with the actual state of affairs in Iraq or the Defense Spending Bill. It was truly outrageous! It was quite apparent that Murtha has become the outrageous sound bite king for the media that has lost the distinction between NEWS and OPINION.
I am working as hard as I ever have to maintain restraint regarding Murtha's latest. Perhaps I am demonstrating better judgment than the esteemed Congressman? Perhaps the bottle will not remain corked forever, but if she blows, the current daydream is that it blows in one room with one microphone, one camera, and two men.
I will express but one of the bubbles pushing hard against the cork...
An email contact (in the extended entry) from someone looking to interview a milblogger for an educational program.
If you're interested, email me (greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com) and I'll send you the contact info.
This has started making the rounds:
Although it is difficult to keep up with politics from over here, your comments on immediate withdrawal have been noted by all of us. I cannot tell you the overall sense of discouragement, sense of betrayal and the feeling that few appreciate our efforts your comments have created. 1BCT has been frequently deployed in support of the War on Terrorism and we believe it is the correct fight and we believe we are winning. We have seen a significant improvement on the ground since we began combat operations in Baghdad three months ago.Rest here.I started in the US Army in 1968 and retired in 1992, with most of my time in Special Forces or Airborne Infantry units. I came out of retirement to come to Iraq with the 1BCT and I enjoy service with these outstanding officers and men. They are better than we were and they carry the terrific burden of frequent deployments and a high operational-tempo. There are few complaints as they feel the mission is extremely important to the nation's security, their families and to most Iraqis. They are dedicated to winning and I believe they are winning. It is obvious to this 'old paratrooper' that your comments have hurt their morale and will eventually impact negatively on their efforts here.
If there were half as many GIs annoyed with Rumsfeld as there are with Murtha the SecDef would have to retire. Among the troops Murtha is held in near-universal scorn.
The Dems just can't get that juke box to play any other song...
After listening to Senator Carl Levin, (D-MI) go on and on about how Americans awoke to the news last week that they are being spied on by their government.. and based his remarks on the now highly questionable USAToday story on turning over telephone records to NSA... Levin then goes on and asks whether Hayden will continue the practice of politicizing the work of the CIA to support Administration's policies... From the Republican Conference:
Despite all findings to the contrary, Senator Levin continues to level the charge that the CIA manipulated intelligence to support Administration policies. For example, during his opening statement at the confirmation hearing of General Hayden, Senator Levin wondered whether the CIA under General Hayden would “shape intelligence to support administration policies . . . as director Tenet did.” In making this charge, Senator Levin did not provide any evidence in support of it. It is an assertion that has been rejected by every investigation looking into the matter. For example, the SSCI report, which Senator Levin signed, found no politicization of intelligence. The WMD Commission rejected Senator Levin’s specific charge when it “found no evidence of ‘politicization’ even under the broader definition used by the CIA’s Ombudsman for Politicization, which is not limited solely to the case in which a policymaker applies overt pressure on an analyst to change an assessment. The definition adopted by the CIA is broader, and includes any ‘unprofessional manipulation of information and judgments’ by intelligence officers to please what those officers perceive to be policymakers’ preferences.” WMD Commission Final Report, p. 188
If Levin were actually on to something, amazing how good we must be to get all the Coalition and other intelligence sources to also support the Administration's policies!
And if you want to see just how little Americans know about the technical aspects (or even just the basics) of data mining... you need to read the tinfoiling going on over at The Chicago Tribune's The Swamp... whoo. Even Patrick Henry and Ben Franklin get bantied about...
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the closed session of the hearings... Oh, wait -- with all the leaks, it'll be on the evening news...
The Baltimore Sun jumps back on the Bureaucratic Leak Express with a splashy NSA story based on anonymous sources. Can you say, “BLE(H)?!”
This one covers NSA Information Technology (IT) management and decision-making, and dredges up for daylight inspection a seeming muck of IT project gossip. The apparent sources for the story are disgruntled NSA bureau-boobs, who have timed their leak to coincide with the target of their animus, that nasty General Hayden who used to be their boss.
More commentary here.
Wretchard, as is his wont, posts an exceptional essay at The Belmont Club. He senses a change in the blogosphere. This fair wind brings hope, I think.
Austin Bay agrees with Wretchard’s analysis, and suggests what’s caused the change.
Just six more months, according the Thomas Friedman.
Ever notice that no matter how busy they are, or what you order, the local Chinese takeout restaurant always tells you it will be "twenty minute?" Just an observation. Maybe Friedman has some kind of journalistic version of carpal tunnel?
(I would argue that the very fact that things continue to be dependent on future outcomes, and not explained by past events, means we've succeeded. For won't that always be true?)
That email I mentioned earlier. You can probably guess my reply to this:
My name is Matt Wright and I found your site when I googled my video “Lazy Ramadi”. Thanks for mentioning it on your site. We had a good time making it. I was hoping I could ask a favor. You have the video linked to Break.com. Break took the video without asking and then tried to pressure me into selling them total control of the video. I told them no thanks. Also they have posted an older version of the video. YouTube.com has the version I would like to have on the web. This version has a tag at the beginning and end asking people to visit two web sites www.dav.org Disable American Veterans and www.uswoundedsoldiers.com. So many people are watching it now we were hoping the video might do a little good. I asked break to switch to the new version and even uploaded it to their site. Their answer was “we will only switch the videos if I get them control and pull the video from other sites. YouTube.com on the other hand understood immediately what I was trying to do. Not only did they swap the two versions but the put the video up on their home page to give it more visibility. Ifilm.com is in the process of doing this as well.Short version of my reply: "I can do better than that - I can publish your email if it's all right with you."Here is a link to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3L-_Snu7kIf you could switch the link that would be great.
Thanks again,
SSG Matt Wright
Camp Ramadi
Ar Ramadi, Iraq
Turns out it was.
The Navy's TFU was AFU. I know. The USAF uniforms are just .... well.... only the AirFarce.
Have strength though. You could be in the Turkish Air Force.
2. Why SMASH moved and changed jobs.
Just sayin'.
Today's so-called elite educational institutions are failing us. They produce graduates who engage in what academics calls "critical thinking," but most of the rest of us recognize as unbridled cynicism.
I'm proud of my Annapolis experience. I earned a (bachelor of science) degree in history, but I also got a very well-rounded education in science, engineering, leadership, ethics, and physical fitness. How many Ivy League schools even attempt to do that these days?
On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt delivered his famous "Citizenship in a Republic" address to the faculty and students of the Sorbonne in Paris. It was a very pointed speech, later made famous for the following unforgettable passage:
What's even more interesting than the content of this post at T.F. Boggs - is that it was linked to by the Army in it's internal daily news summary, Stand-To! , which is available to anyone who wants to subscribe to it. The Army (despite the assumptions people make about the institution) actually does a pretty good job, all things considered, of not sugar-coating and in fact facilitating awareness of dissent and dis-satisfaction. Without a witch-hunt mentality.
Here's another winner in the silly military uniform sweepstakes:
Believe it or not, there is a Navy Chief Petty Officer in the foreground of this photo, working at her computer. Notice how the blue digiltal pattern helps this fierce admin warrior blend in with her natural surroundings...
Just got an email from the guy who made Lazy Ramadi. Very interesting story - hopefully I'll be able to pass it on soon.
Now that you've watched it, vist Disabled American Veterans and www.uswoundedsoldiers.com.
I wrote a piece on the topic more than a year ago now. The short version is this: the military is one of the last places in America where you can find the kinds of men who filled the top ranks of our society a century ago. The Ivy Leagues have fallen way behind the military services -- to say nothing of the military academies -- in producing fully educated gentlemen in the Western tradition.
What is now produced in "elite" society is -- as one of the greatest Harvard men and Americans of all, Francis Parkman, put it -- "pallid and emasculate." He continued, "For the student there is, in its season, no better place than the saddle, and no better companion than the rifle or the oar."
That kind of man is now, as he was in Parkman's time, the American elite.
Someone should be broadcasting into Iran how much it is going to cost to clean up their little enrichment facility.
The Energy Department manages cleanup at the contaminated Hanford site, created in the 1940s as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Cleanup costs are expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion and the work to continue until 2035.
Thanks Blackhawk for the heads up, on this NY Times article about the US offering North Korea a peace treaty.
I wouldn't put to much stock in this talk of a peace treaty. I think the US may be trying to call North Korea's bluff because the Norks have long complained about not having a peace treaty signed. The North Koreans have no intentions of giving up all of their nuclear weapons because they ensure regime survival. A peace treaty will not cause the North Koreans to denuclearize because it is not in their interest to do so. Even a peace treaty that allows the North Koreans to keep the nukes they already have which is anywhere from 5-15 depending on what estimate your read is not in their interest as well.
Why you ask? IMHO the North Koreans want to keep the US military in Korea where they are currently at. The current status quo is perfect for them. The US military stationed in South Korea gives North Korea legitimacy as a world threat not to be taken likely because the world's lone super power is taking them seriously enough that they have 32,000 soldiers forward deployed to deal with them. So if the US is taking North Korea so seriously, than why shouldn't everyone else? This status quo allows the North Koreans to make outrageous demands for aid which are usually granted which helps keeps the regime a float.
Additionally the majority of the US soldiers are located within North Korea's artillery range which means if war did happen the US forces could be easily destroyed thus reducing the threat of an actual military intervention into North Korea to rid them of their nuclear weapons program. It is best for North Korea to keep the US forces right where they are at and a peace treaty would not keep this status quo.
So don't get to excited about this development.
[Note: This all started with that goofy beret order. Sigh...]
Dud is right. Funny how the Air Force now wants to wear a weak version of Marine Dress Blues (sorry, John-Zoomie, not Class A's - or Alphas in Knuckledrag-speak) and even the short sleeve Charlies (Class C's for non-knuckledraggers)...which actually look good. (Poor Army, you guys still have to wear those green polyester shirts made of over-sized napkins?)
Here's what really strikes me as funny...the collared necking in Marine Dress Blues served a functional purpose - to defend against neck strikes from a slashing cutlass while boarding ship by force. It was made of hardened leather and saved many a life. Hence the term 'Leatherneck'.
Now, my military history is not what it could be [help me out here, Grim] but perhaps I just missed the swashbuckling days of Air Force mid-air boardings, taking forcable command of Tu-160 Blackjacks. What great combat flight suits those must have been.
In any event, do we now drop the 'Zoomies' moniker and, out of due respect, now call them 'Fire-Retardant-Necks'?
Forgive me one more post-script on this thread.
I followed the links to the site of one of the authors, and downloaded the sample chapter. I skimmed a bit of it, and just from what I read, I have to agree with the many reviews available online.
Charlie scribbled this piece out last night, well worth a read.
So Charlie starts craving Chinese food and pounds out a post on Sun Tzu. I've been there. One time I was in the mood for Taco Bell and wrote a lengthy essay on immigration.
The best propaganda never dies. This is my favorite story. I've missed it while it's been away. It's good to see it again.
I especially love this part: "Richard Walker is the nom de plume of a former mainstream news producer who now writes for AFP so he can expose the kinds of subjects that he was forbidden to cover in the controlled press."
Yeah, that's believable. Nobody in the "mainstream news" exposes secret American government programs. Heck, they even expose the real ones.
Blech, those are like blue versions of the marine class As.
Alls I have to say is thank God for flight suits.
Too bad about those uniforms. I've heard that at least one service has some good-looking ones.
I have to respectfully contend to Mrs. Greyhawk that the snazzy AF uniforms have nothing on the complete hideousness of the new Navy uniforms....
Dear John,
These snazzy new Air Force duds should make you forget all about those VMI uniforms
Yes, now is the time for the second-ever Battle Star Gallactica reference here.
(And I do mean “duds”.)
It's got history, National Guard snarkage at the Active Component, PM-style tech discussion, and an Evil Reactionary By-the-book I've-never-seen-a-reg-I-couldn't-follow-slavishly Colonel foiled by sharp enlisted guys! What's not to like?
I think next time might be Army's turn (is it too early to start talking about the Army-Navy game?)
This summer, two Courts Martial involving present and former Navy football players. "Players" being the word.
I like to read a lot. I recently read War of the Running Dogs, a rather dry tome chronicling how the British defeated a communist insurgency in Malaysia. This is the only historical example I know of where a "Western" government defeated a grass roots insurgency.
What are some other books I should add to my reading list? What should commanders on the ground (although I am not one) be reading to give them historical perspective and some ideas that might be helpful here in Iraq?
The ex-USS Oriskany (CV 34) was sunk off Pensacola today to make an artificial reef. As much as submariners like to see surface ships blow up, it's still somewhat awe-inspiring to see a ship this big go down...
Haider Ajina sends his translation of news from Iraq:
Greetings,The following is a headline and article from the Iraqi newspaper ‘Iraq Alghed’ of May 17th.
“Iraqi women have four ministerial posts “
Iraqi prime minister designate Noori Almaliki requested that elected parties nominate women for ministerial posts to be held by their parties. He said, ‘So far we have four women nominated for ministerial positions’. Addressing the Iraqi United Coalition Almaliki said. ‘The ministerial map is almost complete; we await today the final answer from the ‘Iraqi list’ and ’Alfadhileh party’. The positions for the interior and defense ministry will be filled by qualified individuals out side of political cluster’. He added ‘it is imperative to oversee activities of the ministries to insure their effectiveness and that they do not become closed to one group or another”. He affirmed the importance of women having good representation in the new government’. He added ‘We will award proportional ministerial positions to Turkmen, Kurds and Christian as per their national entitlements’.
I had dinner tonight with my father, a retired senior naval officer. After dinner, I asked him a hypothetical question: "If you had inside knowledge of an ongoing UCMJ investigation, and a reporter asked you about it, what would you tell him?"
"I wouldn't comment."
"Why not?"
"It wouldn't be proper. I might prejudice the investigation."
"That's what I thought you'd say."
"So, why do you ask?"
I won't repeat what he said next.
Rummy at the old alma mater, the Verrrrrry Military Institute. Not Virginia's Mentally Insane, SMASH.
You can listen to his speech here. Pay particularly close attention to these two paragraphs if you do listen in:
For the first time in American history, the full view of war, it's horrors and glories are on display to the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today's warfighters are conducting battles in the era of digital cameras, satellite phones, the internet, 24 hour news, blogs. And because of these technologies, people are seeing things they've never saw before about the realities of conflict, and of post-war violence.And they will need the help of those of you who have studied military strategy to better understand what it is they are seeing every day and to become more aware that war requires continuous adjustments and calibrations, just as the enemy, an enemy with a brain, is constantly adjusting its tactics.
Yup, roger that.
GI Korea here reporting for duty. Thanks Mrs. G for the invite, it is a privilege to be able to add topics from the Korea AO with all these other great Milbloggers.
I thought everyone might find these recently taken pictures from inside North Korea interesting. They are from a Russian computer scientist Artemiy Lebedev who recently visited the country and took probably the best collection of pictures from inside North Korea I have ever seen. The website is in Russian but the pictures are amazing. It is a four part series and all four links are below:
The photographer has mostly pictures from Pyongyang, a few of the countryside on his way to the JSA, and finally pictures of the JSA from the North Korean side. Keep in mind that the pictures from Pyongyang are from North Korea's showcase city. It just makes you wonder what kind of shape the other cities are in if their capitol looks so run down.
It's time to get busy on the 2007 MilBlog Conference. Some preliminary plans are already underway, and I'll just tell you that it's going to be amazing. There are some fun surprises in the works. The MilBlog Conference is "our" conference, and that's where you come in.
With a hat tip to Blackhawk who left a reference to this story in a comment to Andi's "Mythbusting" post, seems we're soon to have the first "what really happened at Gitmo" movie foist upon us. And, as Blackhawk says, judging by the content of just the publicity poster, we're pretty certain it's not an objective look at the situation:
The Motion Picture Association of America has censored a poster advertising a film about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Canada lost her first female soldier since WWII.
A Gunner.
Captain Nichola Kathleen Sarah Goddard.
And before you blow it off with a "So, like we haven't?" Remember what our first female soldier losses of this war felt like to many of us. It will be no less true in the Great White North.
As evidenced by this post at the Canadian Group Milblog, The Torch.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.
She's downing brews with Rick Rescorla, Jimmy Doohan, and Smokey Smith, VC, at Fiddler's Green.
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