USAF policy that the Navy should follow

[CDR Salamander]

...and no, I am not talking about the

"Sir, you can't leave the aircraft except by the bus." "But it isn't here, and the terminal is only 50 yards over there and I need to make a phone call."

No, no, no. This is better than trying to find the non-red line on the deck at night in a snow storm so some AirFarce guy won't pull a gun on you..

The Air Force plans to cut 30 generals from its rolls as part of a new force-shaping plan, according to the service’s top civilian leader.
...
“We are cutting the force from top to bottom, in fact, leading with 30 general officers,” Wynne said. “The officer field and the enlisted field are imbalanced, so it is a working process to make sure that we have force balance across the spectrum.”
...
“We’re going to operate more efficiently,” he said.

Of all the empty piers and the lack of shadows on the deck – I have yet to see the number Flags go anywhere. There is a downside of this for the AirFarce; who is going to measure the depth of the grass on base housing?

Modern warfare: the second front is the media

[Eagle1]

A nation at war must either be better at propaganda than their enemy or ignore the media and win the battles on the ground. In either event, it's no place for half measures. See here:

The Israelis are losing this war because their government is fighting indecisively on one battlefield and not at all on the other. Because the Israelis aren't fighting the media war, the press is slashing at the Israelis hourly in a manner previously reserved for President Bush. Like the president, the Israelis are losing politically because the enemy is fully engaged on both fronts.

Hezbollah is playing the media like a fine instrument, and despite Israel's post-event explanations, videos of dead babies trump videos of rockets being launched from the building housing the children.

In a weird way, one of the factors that hurts Israel is that its people are protected from the unguided rocket attacks by their civil defense preparation- bomb shelters and safe rooms, anti-missile defenses. If Israel had lost 50 kids when a rocket had hit a school early in this skirmish, the world might be more sympathetic to Israel. But....when the rule is "if it bleeds, it leads" then the reprehensible tactics of Hezbollah in using human shields work.

Cross posted

Qana strike - the reason

[CDR Salamander]

Pictures are better than a thousand word babble. Video will gain you 2,000. Last night I had a very hard time explaining to a civilian friend why Israel is bombing in residential areas, and will continue to. With some people, Israel can do nothing right, then again; Israeli Derangement Syndrome has been around longer than Bush Derangement Syndrome. For some video, new video, of what Israel is going up against, I have two here.

A Conversation with Code Pink

[SMASH]

I met Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy on Friday, outside Walter Reed.

Hezbollah has a maritime force?

[Eagle1]

A report and some speculation here.

Thoughts by submariners?