Let's do some pirate fighting

First, Somali pirates grabbed a Japanese owned tanker (the crew seems to be a mix of nationalities) and then USS Porter (DDG-78) went into action.

A couple of sunken pirate skiffs followed.

See here and here.

Surface action port!

Military officers: right-wing nut jobs

John Cole and Glenn Greenwald, I think, are starting to wonder what color that helicopter circling their house is.

The right wing is sowing the seeds for Dolchstoßlegende even while claiming victory or progress or positive trends or however we are euphemizing it today, and there appears to be a significant portion of the Officer Corps who are willing to go along with it. The arrogance of Boylan is not only a symptom of this problem, it is one of the intended outcomes.
...
the Army's behavior in the Beauchamp case is exactly what one would expect from an increasingly politicized, Republican-controlled division of the right-wing noise machine.

Greyhawk, it would be great if you could get a moment in the chow line with Col. Boylan. I am not sure if we should take Cole and Greenwald to Gitmo or our secret prison in Bulgaria after we pick them up. If you could ask him, that would be great.

CONFESSIONS OF AN ADDLED MIND

Cracked pot of the week: (h/t: WSJ Best of the Web)

When I tell people that Evan has joined the Army, their reactions are almost always the same: their faces freeze, they pause way too long, and then they say, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for you." I hang my head and look mournful, accepting their sympathy for the worry that lives in me.

Now I must accept that the son I raised to be a gentle, caring soul is somewhere in the Iraq desert, a loaded M3 [sic] in his arms. At this very moment, he could be exalting with his buddies that he killed the enemy, ending the life of another mother's son. If, God forbid, another mother's son kills Evan, will I share the same empathy "he was only doing his job" that I'm willing to extend to my own flesh and blood?

"Another mother's son... only doing his job."

Yup, that's precisely what I thought to myself whenever drug-crazed jihadists drove VBIEDs into crowded marketplaces or fired armor-piercing bullets into the skulls of my friends. Those son's of mothers were just doing their jobs. Deep down they're really just like us.

Is it too late to get California scrubbed from my birth certificate? I'd at least give her son credit except that it sounds like he's got "budding TNR diarist" written all over him. 1-2-3-4, what the hell are we fightin' Foer!

Headline Makers

On Saturday, Iraq was page one news, with a headline quote from a sergeant in Baghdad: 'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life'.

On Sunday, the Iraq news returned to page 17:

Sunni Violence In Baghdad Called Disrupted

Petraeus Says Al-Qaeda in Iraq Strongholds Are Cleared, but Insurgents Remain 'Lethal'

BAGHDAD, Oct. 27 -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said Saturday that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has been disrupted and no longer operates in large numbers in any neighborhood of the capital.

"In general, we think that there are no al-Qaeda strongholds at this point," Petraeus said. He added: "They remain very lethal, very dangerous, capable at any point in time, if you will, of coming back off the canvas and landing a big punch, and we have to be aware of that."

[T]he need to "eliminate Joe's connection to the U.S. military."

Toying with G.I. Joe.

Fast boats, wild ride

This guy:

And a brief case "borrowing" naval officer whose dead reckoning happened to be dead on.

As set out here.