CDR Salamander

The Swedish Navy submarine Gotland, which has worked with U.S. naval forces off San Diego since June 2005, will soon be returning to Sweden. The U.S. Navy had “leased” the submarine -- the Swedes note that only actual expenses have been charged -- to help train U.S. anti-submarine forces to cope with modern, non-nuclear submarines.

Labels: ASW

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:34

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 21:56

"I said, 'Right, I've got something to tell you,' " he said. " 'I believe that for us to be able to work closely together and have faith in each other, we have to be honest and open and frank. And it has to be a two-way process, and it starts with me baring my soul. You may have heard some rumors, and yes, I have a long-term partner who is a he, not a she.' "

Far from causing problems, he said, he found that coming out to his troops actually increased the unit's strength and cohesion. He had felt uneasy keeping the secret "that their boss was a poof," as he put it, from people he worked with so closely.

Once the news is out there, the gay Royal Air Force squadron leader said, the issue gets subsumed by the job at hand and by the relentless immediacy of war.

At one point, his squad was working with a British Army unit. "I wouldn't go into a briefing room and face them and say, 'By the way, I'm gay,' " he said of his British Army counterparts. "Frankly, I don't think they were worried, because we were all focused on doing a very, very hard job."

He recalled something his commander had said, when advising him to come out to his squad:

"The boss said, 'I think you will be surprised that in this day and age it will be a complete anticlimax, because as far as I'm concerned, homosexuals in the military are yesterday's news.' "

The British military actively recruits gay men and lesbians and punishes any instance of intolerance or bullying. The Royal Navy advertises for recruits in gay magazines and has allowed gay sailors to hold civil partnership ceremonies on board ships and, last summer, to march in full naval uniform at a gay pride rally in London. (British Army and Royal Air Force personnel could march but had to wear civilian clothes.)

Labels: Culture Wars, DADT

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:58

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:29

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:12

Political leaders from both parties now agree that the American people need to know by September whether the latest escalation in Iraq is working. Many lawmakers will formulate their position on the basis of a coming report from Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multinational force, to the president. Unfortunately, based on behavior in his last command in Iraq and the manner in which he received his current position, Petraeus is not a reliable source for an unbiased assessment.

...Lt. Gen. Petraeus published a misleading commentary in the Washington Post....

If Petraeus wrote on his own initiative, he was injecting himself improperly into a political campaign. If he was encouraged or even allowed to do this by his civilian superiors, he was allowing himself to be used for partisan political purposes.

If Phibian was the Fairy Godmother, even Skippy could be a Princess for a night and have a romantic evening of dancing and stolen glances with BadBob.

...can we really expect him to be objective about the current situation when the president consistently reminds us that the surge is Petraeus' strategy? In a speech in early May defending the surge, President Bush mentioned Petraeus by name no less than 12 times and stated that the "best messenger for the surge" is David Petraeus.
...
Asking Petraeus to assess the situation in September might be asking him - if the evidence pointed in that direction - to say that his whole counterinsurgency strategy was wrong.

...he would most likely cherry-pick data...

Most likely, Petraeus would say that he needs more time, that not all of the extra troops arrive until June. He already has indicated that he will not have anything definitive by September. In fact, Petraeus and his commanders have said the surge must last until spring 2008. Moreover, the Pentagon has alerted four National Guard brigades and 10 more active brigades for deployment to Iraq, so that the escalation can be maintained through the end of 2008.

The answer is to have an independent assessment by an outside group, like the Iraq Study Group, but not including members of that group who might also have an ax to grind. The House and Senate each should appoint one member and the administration another. Only then can we be sure that we will get an unbiased assessment, and that this country will come to grips with the real situation in Iraq.

Labels: Democrats, Iraq, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:46

"In fact, there is a civil war in progress in Iraq, one comparable in important respects to other civil wars that have occurred in postcolonial states with weak institutions. Those cases suggest that the Bush administration's political objective in Iraq--creating a stable, peaceful, somewhat democratic regime that can survive the departure of U.S. troops--is unrealistic." Professor James D. Fearon, writing in the March/April edition of Foreign Affairs.

There is one problem with Professor Fearon's thesis--the facts on the ground that I am seeing right now and that he has not seen in person or not seen recently.

A major part of Fearon's well reasoned argument is that U.S. support for the Maliki government, "encourages Sunni nationalists to turn to al Qaeda in Iraq for support against Shiite militias and the Iraqi army."

His argument is logical and would be correct if the Sunnis of Anbar cooperated with his argument--but they are not cooperating with the good professor's thesis. In fact, they are doing just the opposite. The Sunnis of Anbar are now siding with the coalition and fighting Al Qaeda.

It is important for people, even Professors, to understand how quickly things can change in Iraq.

Professor Fearon's thesis is well thought out, but the facts have changed on him. It is not his fault, but it shows the speed in which the situation on the ground changes.

Very few people know enough about Iraq to make coherent policy pronouncements.

Most of what people think they know about Iraq is wrong.

When I get home in a few weeks people will ask me, "how's Iraq?"

I will tell them, "I don't know, but I can tell you about the areas that I saw first hand and spent a few weeks living in."

Each area of operation is different. Khalidiyah is only 35 kilometers from Kharma and Kharma is only 33 kilometers from West Rasheed, Baghdad, but they are nothing alike.

Anyone who says they can speak with definitive knowledge about all of Iraq is a fool or a liar or both.

A person with definitive knowledge of Iraq would have to discuss the situation in terms of 4 or more general areas of operation and then break those down even more to Battalion by Battalion areas.

But even if a person was to circulate to every battalion in Iraq, by they time he finished, the situation would have changed at the battalions he visited first.

This is the nature of warfare. But many members of Congress think after a five-day-junket and a few power point presentations they can make sweeping pronouncements that they understand Iraq.

Which makes them fools and possibly liars.

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:31

Labels: Immigration

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 23:17

Labels: Iraq, Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:36

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 19:41

Labels: Religion

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:53

What followed was what some here describe as the first war in cyberspace, a three-week battle that forced the Estonian authorities to defend their small country from a data flood they say was set off by orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation for the removal of the statue. There are still minor disruptions.

"This may well turn out to be a watershed in terms of widespread awareness of the vulnerability of modern society," said Linton Wells 2nd, the principal U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration at the Pentagon. "It has gotten the attention of a lot of people."

The Estonians note that an Internet address involved in the attacks belonged to an official who works in the administration of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attacks, which came close to shutting down the country's digital infrastructure, clogging the Web sites of the president, the prime minister, Parliament and other government agencies, staggering the biggest Estonian bank and overwhelming the sites of several daily newspapers.

"It turned out to be a national security situation," Estonia's defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said during an interview. "It can effectively be compared to when your ports are shut to the sea."

Computer security experts from NATO, the European Union, the United States and Israel have since converged on Tallinn to offer help and to learn what they can about cyberwar in the digital age.

For NATO, the attack may lead to a discussion of whether it needs to modify its commitment to collective defense. Aarelaid said NATO's Internet security experts said little but took copious notes during their visit.

In the early hours of May 9, traffic spiked to thousands of times the normal flow. May 10 was heavier still, forcing the biggest bank in Estonia to shut down its online service for more than an hour. Even now, the bank, Hansabank, is under assault and continues to block access to 300 suspect Internet addresses. It has held losses to about $1 million.

Finally, on the afternoon of May 10, the attackers' time on the rented servers expired, and the botnet attacks fell off abruptly. All told, Arbor Networks measured dozens of attacks. The 10 largest assaults blasted streams of 90 megabits of data a second at Estonia's networks, lasting up to 10 hours each. That is a data load equivalent to downloading the entire Windows XP operating system every six seconds for 10 hours.

Labels: Europe, NATO

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:01

Labels: Culture Wars

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 20:10

Labels: Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:16

Labels: Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 00:38

[8.10] When the Persian commanders and crews saw the Greeks thus boldly sailing towards them with their few ships, they thought them possessed with madness, and went out to meet them, expecting (as indeed seemed likely enough) that they would take all their vessels with the greatest ease. The Greek ships were so few, and their own so far outnumbered them, and sailed so much better, that they resolved, seeing their advantage, to encompass their foe on every side. And now such of the Ionians as wished well to the Grecian cause and served in the Persian fleet unwillingly, seeing their countrymen surrounded, were sorely distressed; for they felt sure that not one of them would ever make his escape, so poor an opinion had they of the strength of the Greeks. On the other hand, such as saw with pleasure the attack on Greece, now vied eagerly with each other which should be the first to make prize of an Athenian ship, and thereby to secure himself a rich reward from the king. For through both the hosts none were so much accounted of as the Athenians.

[8.11] The Greeks, at a signal, brought the sterns of their ships together into a small compass, and turned their prows on every side towards the barbarians; after which, at a second signal, although inclosed within a narrow space, and closely pressed upon by the foe, yet they fell bravely to work, and captured thirty ships of the barbarians, at the same time taking prisoner Philaon, the son of Chersis, and brother of Gorgus king of Salamis, a man of much repute in the fleet. The first who made prize of a ship of the enemy was Lycomedes the son of Aeschreas, an Athenian, who was afterwards adjudged the meed of valour. Victory however was still doubtful when night came on, and put a stop to the combat. The Greeks sailed back to Artemisium; and the barbarians returned to Aphetae, much surprised at the result, which was far other than they had looked for. In this battle only one of the Greeks who fought on the side of the king deserted and joined his countrymen. This was Antidorus of Lemnos, whom the Athenians rewarded for his desertion by the present of a piece of land in Salamis.

Having taken upon himself the command of the Athenian forces, he immediately endeavoured to persuade the citizens to leave the city, and to embark upon their galleys, and meet with the Persians at a great distance from Greece; but many being against this, he led a large force, together with the Lacedaemonians, into Tempe, that in this pass they might maintain the safety of Thessaly, which had not as yet declared for the king; but when they returned without performing anything, and it was known that not only the Thessalians, but all as far as Boeotia, was going over to Xerxes, then the Athenians more willingly hearkened to the advice of Themistocles to fight by sea, and sent him with a fleet to guard the straits of Artemisium.

When the contingents met here, the Greeks would have the Lacedaemonians to command, and Eurybiades to be their admiral; but the Athenians, who surpassed all the rest together in number of vessels, would not submit to come after any other, till Themistocles, perceiving the danger of the contest, yielded his own command to Eurybiades, and got the Athenians to submit, extenuating the loss by persuading them, that if in this war they behaved themselves like men, he would answer for it after that, that the Greeks, of their own will, would submit to their command. And by this moderation of his, it is evident that he was the chief means of the deliverance of Greece, and gained the Athenians the glory of alike surpassing their enemies in valour, and their confederates in wisdom.

As soon as the Persian armada arrived at Aphetae, Eurybiades was astonished to see such a vast number of vessels before him, and being informed that two hundred more were sailing around behind the island of Sciathus, he immediately determined to retire farther into Greece, and to sail back into some part of Peloponnesus, where their land army and their fleet might join, for he looked upon the Persian forces to be altogether unassailable by sea. But the Euboeans, fearing that the Greeks would forsake them, and leave them to the mercy of the enemy, sent Pelagon to confer privately with Themistocles, taking with him a good sum of money, which, as Herodotus reports, he accepted and gave to Eurybiades. In this affair none of his own countrymen opposed him so much as Architeles, captain of the sacred galley, who, having no money to supply his seamen, was eager to go home; but Themistocles so incensed the Athenians against them, that they set upon him and left him not so much as his supper, at which Architeles was much surprised, and took it very ill; but Themistocles immediately sent him in a chest a service of provisions, and at the bottom of it a talent of silver, desiring him to sup tonight, and to-morrow provide for his seamen; if not, he would report it among the Athenians that he had received money from the enemy. So Phanias the Lesbian tells the story.

Though the fights between the Greeks and Persians in the straits of Euboea were not so important as to make any final decision of the war, yet the experience which the Greeks obtained in them was of great advantage; for thus, by actual trial and in real danger, they found out that neither number of ships, nor riches and ornaments, nor boasting shouts, nor barbarous songs of victory, were any way terrible to men that knew how to fight, and were resolved to come hand to hand with their enemies; these things they were to despise, and to come up close and grapple with their foes. This Pindar appears to have seen, and says justly enough of the fight at Artemisium, that-

"There the sons of Athens set The stone that freedom stands on yet."

Labels: Fullbore

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 21:21

Labels: Humor, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 10:38

In addition to basic services being restored, the city of Hit has rebuilt its library. Citizens had stored away the books during the war here. They are preparing to re-stock the library. Glenn, you know that I do not hesitate to deliver bad news. I have no bad news to deliver today. The town of Hit clearly is doing much, much better. "Anbar the impossible" might be possible after all.

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:41

Labels: Democrats, Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:33

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:24

-- This week is also a designated "Lean Week" at headquarters. As you know, this is now a monthly event. Some of the key Lean events include: a CLIN 5000 Tools Working Group Rapid Improvement Event, a SEA10 In-Processing event, and two Value Stream Analyses for the Virginia Class submarine program.
-- Right in the middle of Lean Week is Lean Six Sigma Forum on Wednesday the 23rd. This event is perfect if you've heard about Lean Six Sigma, but don't really understand what it is or how it applies to you? It kicks off at 0900 in the building 197 auditorium, and there will be Lean exhibits and displays in the adjacent light court from 1100 to 1330. Thanks to the NAVSEA Workforce Advisory Board for hosting the event. Come see the great things going on at headquarters, our Warfare Centers and Shipyards, and find out how the Navy is moving to make continuous process improvement a way of life.
-- Then on 1 June, I will serve on the SYSCOM Panel at the Navy's Inaugural Lean Six Sigma Symposium at the National Conference Center in Lansdowne, VA. The Navy leadership is committed to Lean and it shows with the slate of leaders who will be attending, including the Honorable Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, and Dr. Delores M. Etter, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition.

Thanks for another week of service to NAVSEA, the Navy and the nation. Have a great week!

RDML (Sel) Jxxx Mxxxxxx

Labels: NAVSEA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:12

Labels: Edwards

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:22

According to recently published reports, the Bush administration quietly approached several retired four-star generals last March about accepting a newly created position to coordinate military and political/diplomatic activity in Iraq. None accepted. One of those who refused was highly decorated retired Marine Corps Gen. John J. Sheehan, who was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks.' " How unreasonable indeed it was of the president of the United States to ask a retired Marine Corps four-star general -- during a time of war -- to do something hard, particularly at the risk of an upset tummy.
...
So to sum: Gen. Sheehan is willing to allow the men and women of our armed forces to continue languishing in a lethal environment that he believes to be dysfunctional, but refuses to get involved because it would be hard and might cause him to "develop an ulcer."
Where are the men like former Marine Corps Gen. Clifton B. Cates, who was cited for heroism fighting in the bloodiest battles of World War I, and years later when given one of the toughest missions of World War II -- taking Iwo Jima -- didn't hesitate? Throughout American history when the times were difficult, tough military leaders have always risen to the occasion. When Eisenhower asked who could relieve the beleaguered men of Bastogne in December 1944, George Patton with all his swagger and confidence didn't hesitate to throw himself and his men into the teeth of the German offensive and won the day; when the Germans threatened to capture Paris in World War I, it was John "Black Jack" Pershing who thrust the American Army into the breach and helped save the French capitol; and who could imagine Col. Teddy Roosevelt turning his Rough Riders away from San Juan Hill because, well, there were bad guys up there and it could be hard? Where are men of this caliber today? Are we to understand that not one of the hundreds of living retired three and four star generals are up to the task of answering the president's call in our present war? What does this say about the quality of generalship in America today?
...
It is time -- well past time -- that we examine the performance of all those who have had leadership roles in Operation Iraqi Freedom. But it's also time for today's Roosevelts, Pershings, Pattons and Cates to step up and be counted; the courage and resolve shown by the privates, sergeants, lieutenants and captains who do the fighting and dying in this war demand it.

General John Sheehan is senior vice president and partner at Bechtel Corporation, the largest civil engineering company in the world. He serves as Manager of Operations for the Oil, Gas and Chemicals Global Business Unit.

Labels: Iraq, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:10

In some respects the media coverage in Iraq has improved, such as the recent spate of reporting on the remarkable success in suppressing Al Qaeda and the insurgency in Anbar Province. But as a whole, the coverage in Iraq lacks context, and reporters as a whole display a lack of knowledge of counterinsurgency and the role the media plays in an insurgency's information campaign.

Like it or not, the media is a part of the battlefield. Why do the media refuse to recognize their role as participants – even if passive – in this war?

Labels: Iraq, Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:02

President Bush today nominated Navy Vice Adm. Eric T. Olson to lead U.S. Special Operations Command, replacing Army Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, according to a Pentagon release.

Olson would be the first Navy officer to head Socom. The command is responsible for about 48,000 elite troops, such as Army Green Berets, Rangers, Delta Force operatives, Navy SEALs and Air Force rescue teams. Olson is now Socom's deputy commander.

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:28

- USS Arleigh Burke: 22 May - soft grounding.
- USS Helena: 16 May - loss of confidence.
- USS Constitution: 11 May - administrative reasons.
- USS Higgins: 08 May - administrative reasons.
- NRD New York: 21 Apr - loss of confidence.
- VAQ-140: 16 APR - loss of confidence.

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:24

No matter how incompetent the Bush administration and no matter how poorly they chose their words to describe themselves and their political opponents, Iraq was a larger national security risk after Sept. 11 than it was before. And no matter how much we might want to turn the clock back and either avoid the invasion itself or the blunders that followed, we cannot. The war to overthrow Saddam Hussein is over. What remains is a war to overthrow the government of Iraq.
...
The key question for Congress is whether or not Iraq has become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the U.S. in the 1990s and who have carried out a series of terrorist operations including 9/11. The answer is emphatically "yes."

This does not mean that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11; he was not. Nor does it mean that the war to overthrow him was justified--though I believe it was. It only means that a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.
...
Those who argue that radical Islamic terrorism has arrived in Iraq because of the U.S.-led invasion are right. But they are right because radical Islam opposes democracy in Iraq. If our purpose had been to substitute a dictator who was more cooperative and supportive of the West, these groups wouldn't have lasted a week.

Finally, Jim Webb said something during his campaign for the Senate that should be emblazoned on the desks of all 535 members of Congress: You do not have to occupy a country in order to fight the terrorists who are inside it. Upon that truth I believe it is possible to build what doesn't exist today in Washington: a bipartisan strategy to deal with the long-term threat of terrorism.

The American people will need that consensus regardless of when, and under what circumstances, we withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. We must not allow terrorist sanctuaries to develop any place on earth. Whether these fighters are finding refuge in Syria, Iran, Pakistan or elsewhere, we cannot afford diplomatic or political excuses to prevent us from using military force to eliminate them.

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 19:47

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 09:54

The Army is looking to slash as much as $10 billion from its procurement accounts to pay for a larger fleet of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, setting off a round of budget drills that could throw its modernization goals into chaos and trigger a wave of program terminations and delays, according to Defense Department officials.


In a bid to find between $8 billion and $10 billion for a down payment on as many as 15,000 additional MRAP vehicles requested by commanders in Iraq, the Army is considering options for financing a sizable portion of the new armored fleet program within its base budget, according to sources familiar with closely held spending deliberations.

Until now, the quick-moving MRAP program was focused on procuring 7,774 vehicles -- 2,500 of which were for the Army -- largely through supplemental appropriations. Because MRAP is not a program of record and was regarded as a requirement unique to needs in Iraq, it was funded outside the service’s base budget.

Labels: Army, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:52

Relatives of kidnap victims call it "proof of life."

Almost four years have passed since Gene and Lynne Stansell received any confirmation that their son, Keith, a U.S. defense contractor who was taken hostage by left-wing guerrillas in Colombia, was still alive.

Then Wednesday out of the jungle emerged a bare-boned Jhon Frank Pinchao, a Colombian policeman who had spent almost nine years as a prisoner of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

At a press conference Pinchao said he escaped from the same FARC camp where Stansell, 42, and two other American defense contractors, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves, are held.

All were alive and in good spirits, Pinchao said.

Former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt is forced to sleep chained by her neck as punishment for having tried to escape from her rebel captors five times, an escaped hostage told family members of the dual French-Colombian citizen.
...
Betancourt was chained by the neck to other prisoners every night -- and sometimes for 24 hours at a time -- in order to prevent her from escaping, family members present at the meeting told The Associated Press on Friday.

"They're treating her like an animal," said her husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte, adding that he feared her captors would harshen their treatment of the hostages following Pinchao's escape. "The guerrillas lie when they say they're treating women and prisoners humanely."

Pinchao, he said, was kept with Betancourt for almost three years.

Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002 while campaigning for the presidency on a leftist ticket in southern Colombia, a longtime rebel stronghold.

In 2003, the FARC sent a proof-of-life video of Betancourt and her running mate Clara Rojas, who Pinchao said gave birth three years ago in captivity to a child named Emanuel. The father is a guerrilla, Pinchao said.

After suffering a bout of hepatitis a year ago, Pinchao said, Betancourt remains thin but is otherwise in good health and recently was his daily exercise partner.

The policeman, Jhon Frank Pinchao, recently escaped from the rebels after more than eight years in captivity. He was abducted in 1998 when FARC rebels raided the southeastern town of Mitu, killing some officers and taking 60 people hostage.

Pinchao says the kidnappers have punished Betancourt for trying to escape. He says he last saw her and the American captives on April 28th.

The former hostage said Thursday in Bogota he fled a rebel camp and spent 17 days walking through the Amazon jungle before a police patrol found him.

Pinchao says the hostages were moved from one camp to another every few months.

The FARC has been holding about 60 political prisoners for several years in the hope of trading them for hundreds of rebels held by the government.

Labels: Colombia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:45

Labels: Hillary, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:17

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 00:17

From January to May 1950 she cruised in the Mediterranean and around northern Europe. With the outbreak of war in Korea, she was sent to join the 7th Fleet, and on 29 June she transited the Panama Canal en route to action.

She sailed with carrier forces, fired shore bombardments, patrolled off Taiwan, and participated in the landings at Inchon and Wonsan in September and October.

In December she helped evacuate the Tenth Army Corps from Hungnam and Inchon. Following a brief overhaul at San Diego in the first half of 1951, she began her second Korean tour as escort for the carrier Rendova (CVE-114).

She participated in the naval bombardment of Hungnam and was so occupied on 7 October when she struck a mine which seriously damaged her bow, killed 9 and wounded 18. Four days later heavy seas broke the bow off and she was fitted with a stubby replacement which enabled her to reach Long Beach, arriving on 18 December 1951.

Labels: Destroyer, Fullbore

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:54

MCCAIN: We can and must complete this legislation sooner rather than later. We all know that this issue can get caught up in extracurricular politics unless we move forward as quickly as possible.

I just talked with a veteran conservative activist whose group doesn't engage on the immigration issue but who is glum about the expected reaction of the conservative grassroots to the immigration deal. "We'll all be hurt. They'll just stay home," he predicted. "They'll figure they didn't support Republicans in order to federalize education, create a big, new entitlement program, and grant amnesty to illegals."

Labels: McCain, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:19

A slim majority of Europeans would back attacks on Iran as a last resort to stop it acquiring a nuclear bomb, according to a poll released on Wednesday. Asked to comment on the statement "we must stop countries like Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, even if that means taking military action", 52 percent said they agreed, with 40 percent against.

Labels: Europe, Iran

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:30

Labels: Humor, Submarine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:26

The head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said his presence in Iraq would expose the 22-year-old Prince as well as the troops serving with him to "a degree of risk that I now deem unacceptable".

Labels: Britain, Dhimmi

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 20:26

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on his supporters to turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism, saying that the best way to honor the troops is to demand an end to the Iraq war.

"Each of us has a responsibility as Americans, a duty to our troops and to each other, to do all we can to support the troops and end this war," the former senator from North Carolina said yesterday during a commencement address at New England College in Henniker, N.H.
...
"This Memorial Day weekend, that means more than just getting in your car, driving to the beach, or a parade, or a picnic and saying the words, 'We support our troops,' " Edwards said.

"We must take responsibility and take action together -- as citizens, as Americans, as patriots. To support the troops. To end the war."

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.
...
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
...
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps."

Labels: Edwards

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:01

In the last five years, China has brought 20 state-of-the-art, super-quiet, diesel-electric submarines on line, increasing its fleet of modern subs to 55. Now there is speculation the Chinese are developing Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells that allow their subs to stay submerged far longer and eliminate any detectable mechanical noise. This would explain how a Chinese submarine was able to surprise the USS Kitty Hawk battle group last October by popping up in its midst and immediately disappearing without a trace. Apparently, the U.S. Navy can't track China's newest submarines.

U.S. intelligence predicted none of this. Last year, Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman admitted, "We are caught by surprise by the appearance of new systems that suddenly appear fully developed." Former Clinton administration defense expert Kurt Campbell has noted, "You look back on those studies, and it's only been a decade, China has exceeded in every area military modernization that even the far-off estimates of the mid-1990s predicted."

With the Soviet Union's collapse in 1992, America cut its defense budget by more than 10 percent during the Clinton years while China boosted arms spending by 10 percent to 20 percent every year since 1992.
The Central Intelligence Agency calculates Beijing now spends 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product on the military. China's military sectors will get about $430 billion -- in purchasing power parity terms -- this year.

Humoring threats from dictatorships invariably results in catastrophic miscalculations. And Taiwan is not Beijing's only illicit territorial claim.

Last November, the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi informed a surprised Indian television audience that "the whole of what you call the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory." This February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "China will not accept any representations by Japan on the premise of territorial claim" over the Senkaku Islands. No Chinese live in Arunachal Pradesh, and Japan has administered the Senkakus for 112 years.

All Asia is watching to see if the U.S. is committed to President Bush's vision of "the global expansion of democracy." If Washington won't stand up for democracy in Taiwan, where would it? And how would Beijing know Washington was serious?

No responsible person wants war in the Taiwan Strait. But the best way to avoid war, to keep our legal commitment to defend Taiwan's democracy and to maintain Asia's stability is to demonstrate steadfast resolve against Beijing's territorial demands.

The United States may no longer be strong enough to defend freedom beyond our shores. The "global expansion of democracy" may not be feasible as we face a Chinese Superpower intent on legitimizing illiberal forces lurking in the shadows of Asia's fragile new democracies. If so, Washington should admit it, so our allies and friends can start making other plans for their security.

Labels: Long Game

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:11

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:53

A Navy frigate had to be helped into port along the coast of central Argentina on Friday, where the ship remains pending investigation.

Lt. Cmdr. Jon Spiers, a spokesman for Naval Forces South, said the frigate Samuel B. Roberts experienced “engineering difficulties” May 11 while U.S. and foreign ships were wrapping up the annual UNITAS Atlantic exercise off the South American coast. Spiers would not confirm the ship ran aground, but noted tugboats pulled the ship into port at Puerto Belgrano. There were no injuries onboard, he added.

“The incident occurred inside the channel leading to Puerto Belgrano less than a mile from the port. The U.S. Navy is investigating the cause of the incident,” the spokesman said.

Labels: Frigate

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:12

At least one million Turks have rallied in the city of Izmir to protest against any government plans to undermine Turkish secularism.
...
Three thousand police were on hand to deal with the huge crowd. Many protesters travelled from other parts of Turkey to fill a 2-kilometer (1.25-mile) oceanfront strip. They carried signs against Erdogan, who has raised tension in recent weeks by nominating his foreign minister, Abdullah Gül -- who likewise has roots in Islamic political parties -- for president. There were protests in Istanbul and Ankara before Gül was rejected by a fractious parliament, which according to the Turkish constitution, is responsible for choosing the country's president. But last Thursday the same parliament passed a bill (more...) to change the constitution and elect future presidents by popular vote.

Erdogan and his party believe Gül would win a popular election. But Turkey's current president, a secularist named Ahmet Necdet Sezer, can still veto the bill.

Gül's candidacy was opposed not just by secularists in the parliament but by the military, which has been known to remove governments it doesn't like. Veiled threats from generals during Gül's presidential bid inflamed national tensions, and protesters in Izmir carried not just anti-Erdogan banners but also paper hats with slogans: "No to Islamic law, no to military coups: a democratic Turkey."

Labels: Turkey

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:04

Halberstam was, of course, one of the Times reporters who achieved fame as a correspondent in Vietnam. (It was for his reporting of the war in 1962-64 that he won his Pulitzer.) Indeed, he was unusual in this regard in achieving not one but two reputations as a writer on the Vietnam War. The first was as a champion of the Kennedy intervention in Vietnam, the brutal and disastrous removal of the Diem regime in Saigon, and the view that the United States had an important stake in opposing Communism in Vietnam. This was still his view in The Making of a Quagmire (1965), his first book on the subject.

I believe that Vietnam is a legitimate part of that [American] global commitment [he wrote]. A strategic country in a key area, it is perhaps one of only five or six nations in the world that is truly vital to U.S. interests.

What about withdrawal? Few Americans who have served in Vietnam can stomach this idea. It means that those Vietnamese who committed themselves fully to the United States will suffer the most under a Communist government, while we lucky few with blue passports retire unharmed; it means a drab, lifeless and controlled society for a people who deserve better. Withdrawal also means that the United States’ prestige will be lowered throughout the world, and it means that the pressure of Communism on the rest of Southeast Asia will intensify. Lastly, withdrawal means that throughout the world the enemies of the West will be encouraged to try insurgencies like the one in Vietnam. Just as our commitment in Korea in 1950 has served to discourage overt Communist border crossings ever since, an anti-Communist victory in Vietnam would serve to discourage so-called wars of liberation.

This was exactly
the view of the Vietnam War in the White House in the Kennedy era—the view of “the best and the brightest” that Mr. Halberstam was soon to castigate.

It was his second reputation as a writer on Vietnam, this time as an implacable foe of the American intervention, that launched Mr. Halberstam as a best-selling author. In the voluminous pages of The Best and the Brightest (1972), he was reborn as a ferocious critic of the war and those responsible for conducting it. President Kennedy was now no longer the good guy he had once been, and his associates, who had gone on to serve under President Johnson, were even worse.

Only Bobby Kennedy, “who had been primarily responsible for the counterinsurgency enthusiasm,” as Mr. Halberstam acknowledged, was absolved from the consequences of his role because of what was said to be his “capacity to grow and change and admit error.” Between The Making of a Quagmire and The Best and the Brightest, Mr. Halberstam had taken time out to join the ranks of the Bobby Kennedy hagiographers by writing The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy; he also wrote Ho, an admiring little book about Ho Chi Minh. These smoothed the way for Mr. Halberstam’s own re-emergence as a politically correct anti-war liberal know-it-all in The Best and the Brightest.

It is in the nature of journalism, of course, for its practitioners to be allowed to reinvent themselves as events require, and Mr. Halberstam proved to be a dab hand at negotiating the terrain separating one realm of received opinion from another. It is the one talent that has never failed him.

Labels: Media, Vietnam War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:56

10 May 2007

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen serving in Multi-National Force—Iraq:

Our values and the laws governing warfare teach us to respect human dignity, maintain our integrity, and do what is right. Adherence to our values distinguishes us from our enemy. This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we—not our enemies—occupy the moral high ground. This strategy has shown results in recent months. Al Qaeda’s indiscriminate attacks, for example, have finally started to turn a substantial portion of the Iraqi population against it.

In view of this, I was concerned by the results of a recently released survey conducted last fall in Iraq that revealed an apparent unwillingness on the part of some US personnel to report illegal actions taken by fellow members of their units. The study also indicated that a small percentage of those surveyed may have mistreated noncombatants. This survey should spur reflection on our conduct in combat.

I fully appreciate the emotions that one experiences in Iraq.

I also know firsthand the bonds between members of the “brotherhood of the close fight.” Seeing a fellow trooper killed by a barbaric enemy can spark frustration, anger, and a desire for immediate revenge. As hard as it might be, however, we must not let these emotions lead us—or our comrades in arms—to commit hasty, illegal actions. In the event that we witness or hear of such actions, we must not let our bonds prevent us from speaking up.

Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary. Certainly, extreme physical action can make someone “talk”; however, what the individual says may be of questionable value. In fact our experience in applying the interrogation standards laid out in the Army Field Manual (2-22.3) on Human Intelligence Collector Operations that was published last year shows that the techniques in the manual work effectively and humanely in eliciting information from detainees.

We are, indeed, warriors. We train to kill our enemies. We are engaged in combat, we must pursue the enemy relentlessly, and we must be violent at times. What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight, however, is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings. Stress caused by lengthy deployments and combat is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign that we are human. If you feel such stress, do not hesitate to talk to your chain of command, your chaplain, or a medical expert.

We should use the survey results to renew our commitment to the values and standards that make us who we are and to spur re-examination of these issues. Leaders, in particular, need to discuss these issues with their troopers—and, as always, they need to set the right example and strive to ensure proper conduct. We should never underestimate the importance of good leadership and the difference it can make.

Thanks for what you continue to do. It is an honor to serve with each of you.

David H. Petraeus
General, United States Army
Commanding

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 21:40

Let the Dems win in ’06. They don’t deserve to win – but the Republicans deserve to loose. Let them run wild for two years and then give the American people a choice in ’08.
...
The Republicans decided on these leaders; they have been measured and found wanting. The Dems do offer something this election cycle: a chance to get rid of the Republican leadership. Sometimes, even the ones you love need a swift kick in the a55. The Republic will survive 24 months of Dem power in Congress.

The House Republican Leadership just does not get it and they will not take us seriously until we flex our muscle against them. We must fight the House GOP and we must fight today.

Today, I declare war on the Republican Leadership of the United States House of Representatives. We must scalp one member. That member's name is Ken Calvert.

When John Doolittle had to step down from the House Appropriations Committee because of a corruption investigation, the House GOP gave the nod to Calvert.

In 2005, Calvert and a partner paid $550,000 for 4.3 acres of land. Calvert then used his earmarking powers to secure $8 million in funds for an interstate exchange on the property. He then sold the property for about $1 million.

Also in 2005, a business partner of Calvert's bought additional land that Calvert's earmarks benefited. When the property was sold, a firm financially connected to Calvert received a commission for the sale.

In 2006, Calvert engaged in other shady land deals. The list goes.

I won't even go in to his arrest for soliciting a prostitute.

John Boehner, do you remember writing these words when you ran for Minority Leader:

Nothing was more appalling to me than the fact that three of our own Members brazenly sold out our country, our Conference, and the fate of our colleagues for personal enrichment or in one case, personal perversion. In 1994 we made it clear we wouldn't tolerate such activity, and showed our differences with the Democrats, by changing our rules to deny prime leadership and committee positions from any Member who had been indicted.

The problem is that this isn't good enough any more. Voters correctly expect more from us, and we should expect more from each other.

Then why put Ken Calvert on Appropriations when there were other people with less baggage? Who could you have chosen? Joe Wilson (R-SC) or Henry Brown (R-SC) or several others.

Joe Wilson's son fought in Iraq. It'd be a freaking PR coup to put him on Appropriations while the Dems are trying to defund the war.

According to a Republican inside the room, Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) encouraged members to “not go back,” reminding them of the heavy toll ethical scandals took during the 2006 election cycle.

“We lost the last election because of corruption,” LaHood reportedly said.

LaHood confirmed that he spoke out against Calvert during the Steering Committee meeting yesterday, saying his 25 years in the House — 12 as a staff member and 13 as a lawmaker — were factors in his objection.

“I care a lot about the House of Representatives, I care a lot about our members and once someone is ethically challenged and gets in trouble it effects all of us,” he said. “I appreciate the high ethical standards that [Boehner] has set ... but I believe the bar was lowered today when our conference chose to vote Ken Calvert onto the Appropriations Committee.”

This party of ours must be pruned and it must be pruned by those of us who care about it before meeting the butchers' shears in the hands of the voters again in 2008. This pruning will make us stronger. It may not look pretty. It will not be pretty. But for the long term health of our Republican Party, it must be done.

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 20:38

Labels: CNO, Humor, Submarine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:43

sailors’ coveralls did not offer adequate protection; and that the ship’s stretcher inventory was inadequate for a mass casualty event

The following are recommendations endorsed by Command Submarine Group, Pacific Fleet for the USS Frank Cable.

1. The commanding officer and the chief engineer errors in judgment allowing the ship to steam No. 1 boiler in order to perform safety valve maintenance before determining the cause of chemistry concentration and abnormal feedwater consumption of the number one boiler should be reviewed for administration or disciplinary action.

2. The executive officer and chief engineer’s failure to conduct proper mainspace (fireroom) and evacuation training may have led to more serious injuries and said failure should be reviewed for administrative or disciplinary action.

3. Several sailors should be commended and recognized for their admirable effort to secure the boiler to prevent further damage to the ship, to assist other sailors with evacuation from the fireroom and to provide first aid to wounded shipmates. A board should be convened to review personnel actions to determine if awards or recognition is warranted.

4. The No. 2 steam drum safety valve should be removed and “hot-tested” prior to reuse.

5. Naval Safety Center evaluate and promulgate best practices for EEBD’s (Emergency Escape Breathing Devices) available to watch standers.

6. That any incomplete actions listed in the preliminary statement be acted upon.

7. BUMED evaluate which stretcher is best suited for medical transport of sailors aboard ship when taking into consideration the possible accompanying on oxygen bottles, and traveling up and down steep ladderwells.

8. BUMED evaluate capability of medical facilities on Guam to respond to a mass casualty.

9. The ship should conduct recurring, meaningful and realistic evacuation drills.

10. The Frank Cable’s engineering department should be evaluated on training, watch standing, maintenance and risk management practice.

11. A training plan should be developed for submarine tenders holding to the same standards of other surface ships with steam plants, but tailored to a submarine tender’s unique parameters.

Among the criticisms leveled in the report are that local ambulances took "47 to 70 minutes" to fully respond to the casualties; that sailors' coveralls did not offer adequate protection; and that the ship's stretcher inventory was inadequate for a mass casualty event.

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:11

Labels: Afghanistan

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 00:01

Labels: Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:35

My try.



Why? Source. Make your own.

Hat tip Chap.

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 00:25

Labels: Uniforms

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:41

In 1936 Belgium started its policy of "Armed Independence", which is different than a policy of strict neutrality. The Policy of "Armed Independence" was highly supported by the Belgian people even if it meant that 25% of the national budget was spent on the military and that in times of economic recession. Nor Britain or France were able to outline such a policy. In both countries military expenditures were highly criticized by public opinion until it was too late.

The inability of the French and British government to react when Germany re-occupied the Rhine-land had brought the German army at the Belgian-German border. The international agreements were broken (Locarno pact). At that time Belgium was the only country prepared to help France in case of a war with Germany. But France didn’t react, as Britain didn’t want to support a war.

Before 1936 Belgium was obliged to help France or Germany when the other attacked the other one and vice versa. French generals and politicians saw Belgium not as an independent state but as the ideal battleground to fight another war with Germany. As tensions grew all over Europe Belgium needed a policy which was supported by the majority of the Belgian people, "Armed Independence".

The majority of the Belgians were against the Germans, but also against the French and this goes back to what happened after WOI, where Belgium was completely forgotten by the French in the Versailles Treaty. Also by not extending the Maginot Line at the Belgian-French border, the French practically invited the Germans to attack France through Belgium. The Belgian government asked the French government, on several occasions, to extent the fortifications, but as the French post-war commission wrote the French military preferred to fight the war with Germany in Belgium. This refusal resulted in a growing mistrust of the French by the Belgian population.

The British government supported in the 1930's the Belgian policy. The following is written in official documents of the Foreign office: The military built-up in Belgium, and the strengthening of their defenses, increases their chances to remain neutral, an attitude, which is beneficial for France and for ourselves.

In 1940 Belgium would have the best-prepared army in its history. Even Germany was impressed by the military built-up in Belgium and Hitler counted to need one million troops to defeat the Belgian army. While Belgium was doing an extraordinary effort to strengthen his army, Britain was following a policy of "no responsibility". Or in military terms, in the winter of 1939 the British Expeditionary Force was only 152.000 men strong. In May 1940 the BEF counted only 237.000 men. If it had spent the same proportional amount of its national budget on the military as Belgium, Britain would have had an army of 4.8 million men strong.
...
When on the 10th of January German military plans were captured when a German plane crashed, Belgian King Leopold III was prepared to accept allied troops in his country if the following conditions were agreed:

* Peace negotiations are not started without Belgian participation
* Belgium's integrity and of his colonies would be guaranteed after the war
* Financial support when Belgium needed to rebuilt his country after the war

For the British government (except Churchill) these conditions were unacceptable. The French decided that they didn't need to wait for an invitation and if Holland was attacked would march into Belgium with or without Belgian approval. The speech of Churchil on the 30th March stating that the neutral countries were scared to chose a side was an insult to the efforts which Belgium had done regarding its military efforts far more greater than Britain or France.

The Belgian army counted 650 000 men (22 divisions). With another 150 000 men drafted in May 1940 to be sent to France to form reserve units. Totaling 800 000 men out of a population of 8 million In comparison it was three times a strong as the BEF (British Expeditionary Force). The majority were infantry divisions (all around 17 000 men strong), 2 divisions "Ardense Jagers" which were considered by the Germans as elite units, 2 divisions Cavalry (motorized infantry), a heavy artillery division, and several specialized regiments.

10/11 May 1940: Battle at the Albert-Canal.

On a sunny day WWII started for Belgium. The Germans obtained tactical surprise by attacking without any warning a large number of military targets and succeeded in destroying most of the already small Belgian airforce on the ground. It succeeded in taking two bridges over the Albert-canal and destroyed the strong fortress of Eben-Emael.

Battles at the Lys River: At the Lys river the most fiercest battles of the Belgian campaign occurred.

While the battles at the Derivation canal took place 6th Army of Von Reichenau attacked the positions of the Belgian troops at the Lys river. The Belgian troops had extended their front to Menin to link up with the British front. Both fronts formed a 90° angle. The British front was diagonal with the German attacking direction. Which made the German left flank very vulnerable to British flank attacks and British artillery

The Belgian front was held here held by two divisions. The 1st (only 7000 men left) and 3rd (only 6000 men left) division and the 10th in reserve. The lack of material was even worse (no radios, few machine guns left). The divisions were supported by twenty artillery formations, something the Belgians still had plenty. These two divisions faced 6 German divisions and one division (7th) in flank protection against the British front.

Already on the 23rd of May the Germans made contact. The whole day and night the German artillery bombed the Belgian positions and the sky was full of German planes. The Germans lost on the 23rd 16 planes over this area, which is an accomplished as the Belgians didn’t have any plane in the sky. The Belgian artillery also participated and as usual dominated the German one. Several German units designated to attack the next day were replaced because the casualties they had taken by the Belgian artillery.

24th May: On the 24th of May 6 German divisions attacked the Belgian positions near the city of Kortrijk. The first attempt of the 30th division failed completely, as did the second, third and fourth one. But after two hours, 26inf managed to cross the river after sustaining very high losses in men and material. At two other places the German division managed to get over the Lys river, at Bavikhove (German 19th division) and Beveren. After a day of fighting the Belgian troops needed to retreat here, but some units remained fighting off the Germans until being eliminated. In the history of the German 30th division is written, "the resistance was much higher than expected"

Between Kortrijk and Menin the 31st German division attacked and managed to break through the Belgian front of the 1st division. The town of Bissegem was lost. The front was lost here as the Germans were now attacking two regiments in the flank. The Germans created a bridgehead of 3km long. The 1st division received units to perform a counterattack to retake Bissegem, but these units could only move slowly to their attacking positions because of the constant Stuka attacks. Still they managed to stop the German breakthrough and reduced the German Bridgehead(4km long and 3km depth)

The main German attack took place around Kortrijk. 4 German divisions, the 18th, 14th, 19th and 30th smashed in the front of the Belgian 3rd division. The 3rd division put up a tenacious fight, defended every meter, and inflected heavy casualties to the German troops. The division itself sustained heavy casualties and its defenses cracked everywhere. The German commander of the 18th division would later write that the attack against this elite Belgian division was very hard and costly.

It wasn’t an elite division, hell it wasn’t even on half it strength. The 3rd division was starting to give away when it supporting artillery fell out of ammo. The supply convoy had been destroyed by another air attack. At 21.00 P.M remnants of the division retreated behind the Roulers canal, leaving a temporary breach of 9 km in the front.

Between the Kortrijk area and the Derivation canal the Germans attempted also to cross the Lys river. The German 255th division failed completely. The German 216th division managed to get a foothold over the river by using two regiments (348 and 396 infantry) but they were quickly beaten back by the precise shooting of the Belgian artillery. The German commander wrote, "The enemy shoots with such a precision that we were only able to retreat back over the Lys river during the night"

25th May: On the 25th of May the Germans had created two bridgeheads, only separated by a small corridor in the Kortrijk area. This corridor included the city of Kortrijk itself. Still the city of Kortrijk was evacuated as it was endangered by encirclement. Belgian troops were moved from other places of the frontline to strengthen this sector, as there were no reserve units left.

On the 27^th May Belgian command realized that the situation was hopeless and that the army was on its last legs. The army couldn’t dislodge anymore and casualties increased by the day. The supply situation was dramatic. While for many different weapon types there was simply no ammo left, the real problem was that the German Luftwaffe had gradually paralyzed the supply convoys.

The information coming from the corps commanders to the Belgian high command on the 27^th was dramatic:

• The I Corps reported that is was endangered to be encircled
• IV corps was heavily attacked
• V and VII corps reported enemy breakthroughs and that their front was broken
• With other corps commanders contact was lost

It was cleat that the Belgian army was falling apart.

In the evening of the 27^th of May negotiations started and unconditional surrender was accepted. The cease-fire started at 4.00 A.M the next day.

The battle at the Lys river had been very costly for the Belgian army as it had sustained 40.000 casualties (4000 KIA, 36.000 WIA), but it had managed to disturb the Germans plans and had aided, without their knowledge, in the escape of the BEF at Dunkirk.

Labels: Belgium, Fullbore, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:41

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

The meeting, which ran for an hour and a half Tuesday afternoon, was disclosed by participants yesterday as the House prepared to vote this evening on a spending bill that could cut funding for the Iraq war as early as July. GOP moderates told Bush they would stay united against the latest effort by House Democrats to end U.S. involvement in the war. Even Senate Democrats called the House measure unrealistic.

Iraq’s parliament session Thursday ended abruptly amid quarreling in the chamber that reflects the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and the dissatisfaction among politicians with the Nuri al-Maliki government.

Bickering and chaos erupted after a parliamentary delegation read a graphic report describing and cataloguing the tribulations of displaced Shiite families who fled their homes in Diyala province, north and east of Baghdad, for Karbala — a city in the south considered holy by Shiites.

Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani — a controversial Sunni who is not liked by all for his blunt and undiplomatic personality — asked the delegation to present parliament with its recommendations on the problems the families are facing on Saturday. He said the recommendations would then be forwarded to the government.

But the delegation members interpreted al-Mashhadani’s handling of their concerns and his grinning manner as dismissive and disrespectful, and they didn’t like the way other lawmakers greeted the report.

A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday…

The Iraqi bill, drafted by a parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

The Sadrist bloc, which sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this was the first time it had garnered the support of a majority of lawmakers…

Al-Rubaie said he personally handed the Iraqi bill to speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani on Wednesday.

If the Iraqis walk away from the Assembly without any of that getting accomplished, and then spend two months without making any effort at all, the war effort is over. The surge will be a dead letter in Congress, and almost certainly Republicans will start to consider defunding as an option as well as Democrats. Dick Cheney understands this, which is why he made a surprise visit to Maliki to explain the situation in small words.
...
So far, the Republicans pledge to hang tough on the supplemental and not allow a 60-day funding scheme to pass, and even the Senate Democrats don't much care for that strategy. However, that agreement holds danger for the Bush administration. The Democrats would cheerfully give two more months of funding to get to the beginning of the fiscal year in order to get Republicans behind them for a September showdown on the continuance of the war. If Maliki and the Assembly take two months of vacation in the middle of it, they'll probably return just in time to wave good-bye to the American troops in Baghdad.

Labels: Iraq, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 21:33

Labels: Britain, Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 21:07

The Chronicle of Higher Education today reports that a proposed revision in the Department of Defense’s directives to the service academies would limit their use of racial preferences in admission. The academies use affiliated preparatory schools to provide an additional year of instruction to students viewed as not quite ready to enter the academies themselves; the proposed revision would eliminate a reference to “minorities, including women” as among the groups that should be given “primary consideration for enrollment” at the prep schools.

This proposed change is fine, so far as it goes (although the Chronicle reports that even it is meeting with resistance at the Air Force academy). But the Chronicle article also reports—and earlier studies by the Center for Equal Opportunity confirm—that the “service academies continue to give consideration to race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions, and none of the changes being considered by the Pentagon would end that practice.” Well, why DOESN’T the Pentagon end that practice?

Aside from the usual diversity gibberish, the argument has been made that it simply won’t do to have an officer corps that doesn’t reflect the ethnic makeup of those they are leading. But when asked about this at the Supreme Court oral argument in the University of Michigan cases, the Solicitor General for the Bush administration said that “the position of the United States is that we do not accept the proposition that black soldiers will only fight for black officers or the reverse [and] that race neutral means should be used in the academies as well as other places.” Just so.

The nation's military-service academies could be stripped of one of their chief tools for bringing in black, Hispanic, and American Indian students as a result of regulatory changes being considered by the Department of Defense, officials of the U.S. Air Force Academy said on Tuesday.

The proposed change in the Defense Department's directives to its service academies would end the institutions' ability to favor minority and female applicants in determining admissions to their affiliated "academy preparatory schools," which offer an additional year of academic instruction to students viewed as unready to enter the service academies themselves.

B. METHOD. NAVY WILL ACCOMPLISH THIS MISSION IN THREE PHASES.
PHASES 2 AND 3 MAY OCCUR CONCURRENTLY AND MAY BE SUSTAINED THROUGHOUT ENDSTATE:
- PHASE 1: ASSESSMENT. PHASE 1 WILL CONSIST OF A BASELINE ASSESSMENT OF RECRUITMENT, RETENTION AND PROMOTION GUIDELINES THAT HAVE RESULTED IN CURRENT TOTAL FORCE DEMOGRAPHICS, AS WELL AS A REVIEW OF THE OVERALL DIVERSITY TOOLKIT, LEGAL AUTHORITIES AND CONSTRAINTS.
- PHASE 2: DECISIVE ACTION. PHASE 2 WILL CONSIST OF ESTABLISHING THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK TO OPTIMIZE NAVY'S DIVERSE TOTAL FORCE, AS WELL AS CONDUCTING A FOCUSED ANALYSIS OF DEFICIENT AREAS TO SUPPORT ROOT CAUSE DETERMINATIONS AND CORRECTIVE ACTIONS. EFFECTS BASED ASSESSMENTS WILL UNDERPIN PHASE 2 ACTIVITIES.
- PHASE 3: SUSTAINMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY. PHASE 3 WILL CONSIST OF THE ENDURING ACTIONS TO MAINTAIN NAVY'S DIVERSE TOTAL FORCE, INCLUDING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR BOTH MISSION SUCCESSES AND FAILURES.

2. MISSION. ASSUMING WE HAVE RECRUITED THE WIDEST RANGE OF TALENT OUR COUNTRY PRODUCES, NAVY WILL RETAIN AND PROMOTE A TOTAL FORCE THAT FULLY LEVERAGES AND VALUES THE DIVERSITY INHERENT IN ITS MAKEUP. WE MUST DEVELOP LEADERS AND ROLE MODELS WHO REFLECT OUR NAVY AND ESTABLISH ENDURING PROCESSES TO MAINTAIN THE DIVERSE TOTAL FORCE.

- RECRUITMENT. ARE ALL ACCESSION SOURCES ACHIEVING A REPRESENTATIVE DIVERSITY AMONG QUALIFIED APPLICANTS?
...
- ARE PREP PROGRAMS MAXIMIZED TO PREPARE OFFICER CANDIDATES FOR SUCCESS AND TO INCREASE DIVERSITY?
- DOES THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK ACHIEVE ALIGNMENT WRT DIVERSITY INITIATIVES UP, DOWN, AND ACROSS THE NAVY'STASK ORGANIZATION, SUCH THAT OUR GOALS FOR A DIVERSE TOTAL FORCE MAY BE ACHIEVED?
..
- PROMOTION. DO POLICIES AFFECTING ASSIGNMENT, MENTORSHIP, TRAINING AND EDUCATION MAXIMIZE OPPORTUNITIES TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPETE FOR ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION, REGARDLESS OF GENDER OR ETHNICITY?
...
- IS THERE A PROCESS TO ENSURE A DIVERSE POOL OF CANDIDATES FOR ALL AVAILABLE BILLETS AND OPPORTUNITIES?
..
- DO PROMOTION BOARD PRECEPTS CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF THE DIVERSE
TOTAL FORCE, SUCH THAT ALL RECORDS ARE AFFORDED THEIR BEST
OPPORTUNITY FOR SELECTION? (NPC, JAG)
(2) CONDUCT PHASE TWO DECISIVE ACTION THROUGH EFFECTS ASSESSMENTS, FOCUSED ANALYSIS OF LINE OF EFFORT DEFICIENCIES AND ROOT CAUSE DETERMINATIONS TO SUPPORT CORRECTIVE ACTIONS. THESE EFFECTS BASED ASSESSMENTS OF RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND PROMOTION TAKE PLACE AGAINST A BACKDROP OF THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK THAT DELIVERS THE NAVY'S DIVERSE TOTAL FORCE. CORRECTIVE ACTIONS MAY CALL FOR ADJUSTMENTS TO THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK.
...
- IS SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF THE DIVERSITY FRAMEWORK APPROPRIATELY INCENTIVIZED AND REWARDED?
- IS FAILED APPLICATION OF THE DIVERSITY FRAMEWORK ACCOUNTED FOR?

5. ADMINISTRATION AND LOGISTICS.
A. BUSINESS RULES. N1/NT INTENTIONS WILL INCLUDE APPLICABLE BUSINESS RULES REGARDING C2, COMMUNICATIONS, EFFECTS ASSESSMENTS, REPORTING, AND DIVERSITY SENIOR ADVISORY GROUP UPDATES. DIVERSITY STRATEGY DOCUMENT WILL BE PROVIDED SEPCOR AND VETTED THROUGHOUT NAVY WIDE DIVERSITY TASK ORGANIZATION AND IN ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGY FOR OUR PEOPLE.
B. TIMELINE. INITIAL PHASE 1 ASSESSMENT ENDS 30 APR 06. PHASE 2 AND 3 BEGIN UPON COMPLETION OF INITIAL ASSESSMENT.

6. COMMAND AND CONTROL. OPERATIONAL C2 WILL BE EXECUTED FROM N1/NT THROUGHOUT THE DIVERSITY TASK ORGANIZATION IAW BUSINESS RULES DELINEATED IN COMMANDER'S INTENTIONS.

7. PUBLIC AFFAIRS. IN SUPPORT OF THIS CAMPAIGN I, IN COORDINATION WITH CHINFO, WILL SUSTAIN AN ACTIVE PUBLIC AFFAIRS APPROACH. PUBLIC RELEASE OF INFORMATION ABOUT NAVY DIVERSITY EFFORTS IS AUTHORIZED WHEN APPROVED BY CHIEF OF NAVAL INFORMATION OR MYSELF.

"Just like we offer the President a variety of combat capabilities, we also offer a diverse cross-section of enlisted Sailors and officers," he noted. "They come from every state, every race, every religion and every background imaginable. But their diversity is surpassed by their unity. Sailors in the fleet show this everyday in the war against a regime and an ideology that hates diversity, despises cultural differences and practices only the brutal repression of dissenting views."

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:39

"I want to launch a call to all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, of liberty, of democacy and of humanism, to all those who are persecuted by the tyrannies and by the dictators, to all the children and to all the martyrized women in the world to say to them that the pride, the duty of France will at their sides, that they can count on her."

"France will be at the sides of the Libyan nurses locked up for eight years; France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt; France will not abandon the women who are condemned to the burqa; France will not abandon the women who do not have liberty. France will be by the side of the oppressed of the world. This is the message of France; this is the identity of France; this is the history of France."

"My dear compatriots, together we will write a new page of our history. This page of our history, my dear compatriots, I am sure that it will be grand, that it will be beautiful. And from the bottom of the heart, I want to say to you, with the most total sincerity which is mine at the time when I speak to you: Long live the Republic and long live France."

To arms citizens
Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows

Tremble, tyrants and traitors
The shame of all good men
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will receive their just reward
Against you we are all soldiers
If they fall, our young heroes
France will bear new ones
Ready to join the fight against you

We too shall enlist
When our elders' time has come
To add to the list of deeds
Inscribed upon their tombs
We are much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them

Support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Join the struggle with your defenders
Under our flags, let victory
Hurry to your manly tone
So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Labels: France

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:29

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:16

The difficulty with placing 155mm howitzer-class guns on ships is the level of recoil, which can play havoc with a smaller ship's stability. The Germans have experimented with KMW/HDW's 'MONARC,' which uses a self-sufficient PzH-2000 mobile howitzer turret mounted on a 6,160 ton F124 Sachsen Class frigate. While an intricate elastic mounting system handled the recoil, adapting all of the PzH-2000's systems for the corrosive naval environment proved more difficult than expected and MONARC appears to have been removed from plans for the new F125 Class frigates.

Labels: Artillery, Germany, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:59

Brownback said Tuesday that local officials and the Kansas National Guard commander all told him they have the resources needed to respond.

``That's what really got me, is her saying that,'' Brownback said in an interview.

``So I asked, privately and publicly, the adjutant general, do you have the equipment you need?'' he said. ``Because if you don't, we're going to hit Fort Riley and McConnell (Air Force Base) and other places to make sure we have all the equipment we need to respond to disasters. Everybody there said no, we have the equipment we needed.''

He added: ``I think what we need to do is to focus on what we need here now, and not draw a broader political question in. We've got a disaster, and we need to all pull together to get everything we need from the state and the federal for the local need.''

Pentagon officials are disputing claims that the Iraq war has spread National Guardsmen too thin to respond to a Kansas tornado after the governor and some Democratic lawmakers complained that the Guard are not equipped to help displaced residents.

Kansas has 88 percent of its state Guard forces available, and 83,000 Guardsmen from neighboring states are also on the ready should the state request their assistance, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday, citing National Guard Bureau statistics.

According to Whitman, the Kansas Guard have available 352 Humvees, 94 cargo trucks, 72 dump trucks, 62 five-ton trucks, 13 medium-haul trucks and trailers and 152 2 1/2-ton trucks, a surplus, he noted.

SEBELIUS: Here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We're missing Humvees. We're missing all kinds of equipment that could help us respond to this kind of emergency.

MCINTYRE: But, as bad as it is, the Army insists the devastation in Kansas isn't overly straining the Guard's admittedly limited resources. There are still thousands of troops and hundreds of vehicles available. In fact, of the state's more than 7,600 Guard troops, only around 10 percent are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And Kansas has not asked for any reinforcements or extra equipment from neighboring states.

Her spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, said the governor didn't mean to imply that the state was ill-equipped to deal with this storm. Sebelius' comments about National Guard equipment were, instead, meant as a warning about the state's inability to handle additional disasters, such as another tornado or severe flooding, she said.

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:17

• - It is better to have your first child between 25-30. If you want to safely have 3 or more, a few years earlier would be wise.
• - Each year, the available population of available good men gets smaller and smaller.
• - A large percentage of men are still boys because they were never taught what a real man is. If they tell you they have a problem with commitment - they are boys. Sad fact is we make more boys and less men than we used to. Don't think so? Go to Dave & Busters some Friday night.
  
• - After age 30, if he isn't interested in at least thinking about getting married - he isn't worth your time.
• - A vain man is the wrong man.

So here I am, 30, going along and KaBAMM! My body, which is in charge of me, tells me that I need children, and the relationship that I thought would last the rest of my life has ended. And for the next few years, it got steadily worse. I want something I can’t seem to get, at least not in the way that seems easiest and most secure and happiest, with two enthusiastic parents. And I am scared that I will not be able to make this right, that I cannot work hard enough, meet enough men to find one who wants to do this with me, be appealing and funny enough, be lucky enough to do this in time. I am doing whatever I can think of to solve this problem; whoring my life on the internet, meeting strangers, moving to a new town. And I AM increasingly desperate, because I DO believe there’s a deadline for this. I just passed my thirty-fifth birthday, which might mean all sorts of things to all of you, but to me it was the “mandatory amniocenteses” birthday.

I am PISSED I have a deadline on this. I never even chose to have this monkey on my back. But worse than the fact that I want kids like I want breath is the fact that I have to arrange that NOW. If I didn’t have a deadline for kids, I could wait until a guy came along naturally. I could live my amazingly good life and chat with you people and sing with Ali and play catch in the park until a boy with smiley eyes walked up to me. My life is GOOD, and I could do this indefinitely if I had all the time in the world to have kids.

Labels: Boomers, Culture Wars

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:41

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:36

In Europe and elsewhere, you have the image of a man who is more aligned with the Right on issues of security and liberalism, while being pro-Israeli and pro-American, which greatly pleases Franco-Israelis, but to a lesser extent the European Left. Do you feel this is a just portrayal?

It looks like you didn't leave anything out. To begin, there is a complete list of traits and caricatures generally used by those who are not very well-intentioned toward me. This perception is neither accurate nor just. I wanted to be the candidate representing the republican Right, liberated from the Left, to be a rightist based on values - work, authority, the priority of the victim over the aggressor, effort, merit, the rejection of a welfare mentality, [promoting] egalitarianism and building equality by starting from the bottom. That makes me the hard Right?

Labels: France

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:29

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 00:01

Labels: Diversity, Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 20:09

Labels: Dutch, Europe, Islam

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 18:46

Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results issued by the French Interior Ministry. Socialist Segolene Royal took 47 percent of the vote.

"The French people have called for change. I will carry out that change, because that's the mandate I have received from the French people."

Sarkozy added that he wanted to tell his "American friends that they can rely on our friendship ... France will always be next to them when they need us."

Labels: France

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:19

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:13

A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for U.S. photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:05

Labels: Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 20:33

Labels: Philippines

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:37

Not one of our Primary Mission Areas. We will never be asked to do that. If we did that, it would take away from the job that we think in most important. There are more important things we will have to do. That is a distraction. Our platform isn't optimised for that. We think other platforms can do that better. My boss won't let us talk about that.

Patrol squadrons (VP) were among the first from the Naval Air Reserve to deploy overseas. Recalled to active duty on 20 July 1950, VP-892 reported to NAS San Diego the following month, and on 18 December logged its first mission, the first by a reserve squadron during the Korean War. Eventually, seven recalled patrol squadrons served during the conflict, flying PBM-5 Mariners, PB4Y/P4Y-2 Privateers and P2V-2/3 Neptunes. The crews flew a variety of missions, including long-range antisubmarine warfare and reconnaissance flights in the Sea of Japan and along the coasts of China and North Korea. This could get dangerous, as evidenced by the experiences of a VP-731 crew operating over the Yellow Sea off the west coast of Korea. On 31 July 1952, two Chinese MiG-15 jets attacked a squadron PBM-5S2, killing two crewmen and wounding two others. The plane's pilot, Lieutenant E. E. Bartlett, Jr., descended to low altitude, weaving in an effort to avoid further attack, and limped to Paengyong, South Korea, where he made an emergency landing. Two squadrons, VPs 772 and 871, harkened back to the days of the famous "Black Cat" patrol squadrons by operating at night over Korea, dropping flares to support night interdiction and close air support missions by Marine Corps aircraft.

Privateers from VP-28, VP-772, and VP-871 flew flare missions in support of Marine Corps F7F Tigercat and F4U-5N Corsair night fighters. They carried up to 250 high-intensity parachute flares, enough to provide target illumination for several teams of attack aircraft during a single night sortie.

In 1951 VP squadrons were pressed into another role, this time over land, dropping illumination flares in support of air strikes. Known as Firefly missions, they helped deny the night to enemy supply movements. Admiral Arthur W. Radford suggested the use of P4Y-2 Privateers as flare ships to replace the more vulnerable R4D Skytrains in illuminating targets for Marine Corps F4U-5N Corsair and F7F-3N Tigercat night hecklers. One P4Y from VP-772 was modified For the mission and proved highly successful, and three more P4Ys from VP-772 and VP-28 were assigned as "Lamp Lighters" (later operated by successive squadrons). During a typical mission, the P4Y would rendezvous with four attack aircraft, search for truck convoys and illuminate the targets for the attack aircraft.

Although United Nations forces were successful in maintaining air superiority over most of the Korean peninsula, lumbering patrol aircraft had a few encounters with enemy aircraft. A VP-42 Mariner was damaged on 11 May 1952 by a MiG-15 fighter over the Yellow Sea, and on 31 July 1952 a VP-731 PBM was seriously damaged by gunfire from a MiG-15, which killed two crewmen and injured two others.

Labels: Fullbore, Korea

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:26

Labels: Cold War, Kerry

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:50

Delivered in JUL 05, USS SAN ANTONIO remains an unfinished ship. 138 of 943 spaces are unfinished and estimated completion dates o fthese spaces could not be determined.

Labels: LPD-17

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:37

A Naval Academy instructor worked as an “independent contractor” for an alleged Washington, D.C.-area madam, according to the defense lawyer for the escort service’s owner.

In an e-mail exchange Wednesday, Montgomery Sibley, a lawyer retained by Deborah Jeane Palfrey after she fired her court-appointed public defender, confirmed the information. He would not offer any other details.

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:15

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

Labels: Blogg'n

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 23:14

A Navy doctor who regularly acted as a chaperon for the Naval Academy men's gymnastics team is being investigated by the military on allegations that he made secret video recordings of midshipmen having sex in his Annapolis-area home, several legal and Navy sources familiar with the investigation said yesterday.

Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, a physician stationed at the academy until May 2006, has been accused of setting up hidden video cameras and recording students but has not been charged with a crime, the sources said. Ronan was a volunteer in the school's sponsor program, hosting students on holidays and weekends.

The investigation was triggered when a male midshipman reported finding a video disc at Ronan's house that showed the midshipman having sex with his girlfriend, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
...
The allegations against Ronan were first reported yesterday in The Capital. According to documents obtained by the Annapolis newspaper, a midshipman on Jan. 30 found a concealed video camera in an air vent while he was changing clothes in the guest room in Ronan's home and reported the matter to the academy.

While stationed at the academy, Ronan was the brigade medical officer, served on an "eating disorders and treatment team" and was an officer representative for the men's gymnastics team. Ronan also worked as a team physician for Naval Academy athletics, sources said.

Labels: USNA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:41

Allah told the Prophet Muhammad,

"O Prophet! Urge the believers to war; if there are twenty patient ones of you they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a hundred of you they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve... but if you're up against Fred Thompson, you're totally screwed and I can't help you."

Labels: Fred Thompson

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 22:17

He is an Eagle Scout who earned a summa cum laude degree from Harvard, graduating first in the history department before earning a doctorate at the University of Cambridge in England. Before he had even begun graduate school, he had published his first book and landed a contract for his second book. Distinguished professors at Harvard and Cambridge wrote stellar letters of recommendation for him.

Yet over five years, this conservative military and diplomatic historian applied for more than 150 tenure-track academic jobs, and most declined him a preliminary interview. During a search at University of Texas at El Paso in 2005, Mr. Moyar did not receive an interview for a job in American diplomatic history, but one scholar who did wrote her dissertation on "The American Film Industry and the Spanish-Speaking Market During the Transition to Sound, 1929-1936." At Rochester Institute of Technology in 2004, Mr. Moyar lost out to a candidate who had given a presentation on "promiscuous bathing" and "attire, hygiene and discourses of civilization in Early American-Japanese Relations."

...history departments at places like Duke had 32 Democrats and zero Republicans, according to statistics published by the Duke Conservative Union around the time Mr. Moyar tried to get an interview there.

Mr. Moyar is used to opposition. A contrarian among most Vietnam scholars, he does not believe it was a mistake for America to have gone into Vietnam. In carefully argued prose using previously unexamined sources, he marshals support for the "domino theory." His scholarship and books have received great reviews and marked him as a rising star.

In saying Vietnam was winnable, Mr. Moyar is "profaning one of the holy of holies," Mr. Balch said. Senator Webb, a Democratic opponent of the Iraq war, and scholar William Stueck, a liberal, have endorsed Mr. Moyar's book, "Triumph Forsaken" ( Cambridge), which was the subject of a conference at Williams College. A conference is a signal honor for a young scholar.

A history professor at Texas Tech, John Reckner, declined to speak about specifics of Mr. Moyar's job application at that particular school, but noted generally, "Let's just say, a person applying to teach whose topic is the Vietnam War and whose position is conservative, would encounter difficulties because the ideological ghosts of the 1960s are, unfortunately, still alive on a great many campuses, even though the Vietnamese themselves have put the war behind them."

On April 27, 2005, 15 faculty members out of the 20 in Texas Tech's history department voted Mr. Moyar "unacceptable."

Triumph Forsaken

Labels: Culture Wars, Education

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:33

THIS NAVADMIN ANNOUNCES THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR OFFICER PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE OFFICIAL MILITARY PERSONNEL FILE (OMPF) MAINTAINED ON THE ELECTRONIC MILITARY PERSONNEL RECORDS SYSTEM (EMPRS) AND CANCELS REF A. THIS INITIATIVE WILL REEMPHASIZE THE INTEGRAL ELEMENTS OF MILITARY BEARING AND PHYSICAL FITNESS TO SERVICE PROFESSIONALISM.

THIS POLICY WILL ALIGN MILITARY BEARING, PHYSICAL FITNESS/APPEARANCE AND OVERALL SERVICE PROFESSIONALISM WITHIN DON.

a·lign /əˈlaɪn/ Pronunciation[uh-lahyn]
–verb (used with object)
1. to arrange in a straight line; adjust according to a line.
2. to bring into a line or alignment.
3. to bring into cooperation or agreement with a particular group, party, cause, etc.: He aligned himself with the liberals.
4. to adjust (two or more components of an electronic circuit) to improve the response over a frequency band, as to align the tuned circuits of a radio receiver for proper tracking throughout its frequency range, or a television receiver for appropriate wide-band responses.
–verb (used without object)
5. to fall or come into line; be in line.
6. to join with others in a cause.

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:09

One person has been killed and dozens injured in a clash over a disputed Soviet war memorial in Estonia. Moscow is furious about government plans to move the statue of a Red Army soldier and has threatened "serious steps."

War memorials are meant to honor the dead -- not lead to more of them. But that is exactly what has happened in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Thursday, where one person died and several more were injured in riots over a disputed Soviet monument.

A statue commemorating Soviet soldiers killed during the second world war was re-erected in a military cemetery yesterday, three days after its removal from a square in central Tallinn provoked unrest from ethnic Russians.

The so-called Bronze Soldier was immediately open for public viewing at the defence forces cemetery in the capital, said a defence ministry spokeswoman.

Police clashed with Russian-speaking Estonians angered by the move to relocate the statue and nearby war grave, which some ethnic Estonians consider a bitter reminder of the Soviet occupation.

I am from Estonia; the world's most powerful nation!

Our government is in North America, our land is in Europe and most of our population is in Siberia!

The main brunt of the Soviet attack was to fall on Steiner's SS Corps, positioned east of the strategically important town of Narva. Steiner's corps was mostly made up of SS Freiwilligen or volunteer formations. SS men from Scandinavia, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Spain and the Baltic States joined German formations in the defense of the river line.

The Dutchmen of the 4.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade Nederland and the various nationalities of the 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland began frantically digging in along what had become known as the Narva Line. The defensive line ran for over seven miles, from the village of Lilienbach in the north to the village of Dolgaja Niva in the south, bulging eastwards from the river near Narva itself.

On 3 February, the Soviet assault began. A Soviet armoured group quickly penetrated the German line and established a bridgehead on the western bank of the Narva.

The Nordland's Panzer Abteilung, named Hermann von Salza, and commanded by SS-Obersturmbannführer Paul Albert Kausch and assisted by Tiger ace Leutnant Otto Carius and a platoon of four Tigers, sprung into action. Quickly eliminating the Soviet armour, the Panzers and Tigers then began supporting the SS-Grenadiers as they cleaned out the Soviet infantry. Crisis was averted in the centre, but further north the Soviets successfully established a bridgehead near the village of Siivertsi.

To the South of the city of Narva, in the zone defended by the ad-hoc Army Abteilung Narwa, Soviet troops crossed the river and threatened to cut off Steiner's SS Corps and two Heer division sized Kampfgruppen. The German commander ordered Major Willy Jähde's Tiger armed 502.Schwere Panzer Abteilung into action, stabilising the German line for the time being. To strengthen the German defense, the newly formed Estonian 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Estnische Nr.1) division was rushed into the line and attached to Steiner's corps. Steiner threw the division into battle on the 20th against the Siivertsi bridgehead. The Estonians proved themselves capable, and within 9 days the Soviets had been pushed back across the river. The first of many crises for the Germans at Narva had passed.

Despite heavy losses and several setbacks, the Soviets kept up constant probing attacks all across the Narva line.

Soviet General Leonid A. Govorov, the commander of the Leningrad Front, realised that the Narva line could not be breached until the German bridgehead on the eastern side of the river was annihilated. A heavy assault was ordered in the Lilenbach area, defended by men of the Nederland's 49.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Regiment de Ruyter, commanded by SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Collani, a veteran of the Wiking Division. After an artillery duel between the Nederland and the Soviet attackers, the attack disintegrated into fierce hand to hand fighting between the attacking Soviet infantry and the outnumbered Netherlanders of Regiment de Ruyter. After several hours of fierce combat, the Soviets fell back. De Ruyter had held the line, and Govorov decided to shift his focus of the attack elsewhere. Over the next few weeks, the Nederland was subjected to almost constant artillery and aerial attacks.

The Nuremberg Trials, in declaring the Waffen SS a criminal organisation, explicitly excluded conscripts in the following terms:

Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter the group composed of those persons who had been officially accepted as members of the SS as enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the organisation with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter or who were personally implicated as members of the organisation in the commission of such crimes, excluding, however, those who were drafted into membership by the State in such a way as to give them no choice in the matter, and who had committed no such crimes.

In April 13, 1950, a message from the U.S. High Commission in Germany (HICOG), signed by John McCloy to the Secretary of State, clarified the US position on the "Baltic Legions": they were not to be seen as "movements", "volunteer", or "SS". In short, they were not given the training, indoctrination, and induction normally given to SS members. Subsequently the US Displaced Persons Commission in September 1950 declared that:

The Baltic Waffen SS Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States.

Right about the Estonians, not so about the Lithuanians and Latvians. The latter two belong to a linguistic family called Baltic, which used to contain more members, but these were gradually eroded by their imperialist neighbours. The most important of these now extinct languages was Prussian, usually referred to as Old Prussian (Altpreußisch), so as not to be confused with the German imperialists who borrowed the name of the people they enslaved and assimilated. There were also tribes speaking Baltic languages in what is now Poland and Belarus.

Labels: Europe, Soviet Union, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 19:16

Today is going to be the day that I've been dreading for quite sometime now. Today is the day I walk away from this blog. Done. Finished.

There are many reasons, each would take a post to list, and I just do not have the energy to list them. As anyone who has been reading this blog for the past month, I think it is apparent that things are not the same with me. There are reasons for that:

One of the chief reasons is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately. I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Secuirty agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious. It took me a while to take note of the fear that has been gripping our little blogsphere and comprehend what it really means. The prospects for improvment, to put it slightly, look pretty grim. I was the model of caution, and believing in my invincipility by managing not to get arrested for the past 2 and a half years, I've grown reckless. Stupid Monkey. Stupid!

Labels: Blogg'n

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:39

Ségolène Royal intensified a desperate final effort yesterday to tar Nicolas Sarkozy, her presidential opponent, as a dangerous tyrant whose election would threaten the peace of France.

Ms Royal, the left-wing candidate who is about four points behind the conservative Mr Sarkozy in polls, denounced her opponent for the “great violence” and “brutality” of a campaign that she maintained was frightening away voters.

She will use a critical television debate with her opponent tomorrow to contrast her “France at peace with itself” with Mr Sarkozy’s “France of the hard Right”.

...
For the Left, vilifying Mr Sarkozy offers a last hope of breaking his march to the Elysée Palace on Sunday. Ms Royal’s aim is to stir anti-Sarkozy fears ...

With his character increasingly a campaign issue, Mr Sarkozy mused at the weekend over the antipathy that he stirs: “Why so much hate? Maybe it is because I say out loud what everyone thinks to themselves.”

He proceeded to spur fresh fury among the left-wing Establishment by blaming the “generation of 1968” for the moral crisis of France. The Socialist party elders and many top civil servants and academics were students in that year of revolt.

Pro-Royal campaigners have called him a “French Berlusconi”, a new Bonaparte and a “French George W. Bush”.

Marianne, a low-circulation magazine, has sold out 300,000 copies of a cover story on “The True Sarkozy”. This called him insane. “His is the kind of madness that has stoked a fair number of apprentice dictators in the past,” it said.

The 100 artists and intellectuals called for a Royal vote yesterday: “To vote against Nicolas Sarkozy is to avoid the danger of a France at war with itself, in conflict and in crisis, divided and torn apart,” said the group, which included the actress Jeanne Moreau, the film directors François Ozon and Constantin Costa-Gavras and the singer Georges Moustaki.

Many of the signatories are to join Ms Royal, along with pop singers and other celebrities, at a rally tonight at the Charlety Stadium in Paris.

The demonisation of the favourite is one of the most striking phenomena of the 2007 campaign, academics and historians say. Max Gallo, an historian who served as spokesman for the late President Mitterrand, said: “Putting aside Jean-Marie Le Pen, I cannot think if any other case of a politician being execrated like this since the hatred of opponents of de Gaulle.”

Labels: France, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:20