Great call in SC

What a great, if obvious choice, by Gov. Haley in replacing Sen. DeMint (R-SC) with Rep. Scott (R-SC).

The Senate needs someone like Scott who comes from a business background and knows what it takes to create jobs and grow the civilian sector.

From his time as a candidate through his time in the House, he has been a calm, focused, clear headed professional with an exceptional temperament that should lend itself well to the Senate.

I will also show something else obvious; soon to be Senator Scott, who won Strom Thurmond’s old House seat by defeating Strom’s son, and now will hold the Senate Seat that was Thurmond’s – he represents the South that I know - not the archaic smears and bigoted assumptions from the ossified views of the chattering classes in the Blue States and the stay-too-long Mandarins in DC think.

We should all wish him well.

Meanwhile in Japan

Not insignificant from a national security POV.  Not bad, just not "background noise."

Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) surged back to power in an election on Sunday just three years after a devastating defeat, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe.

Exit polls by television broadcasters showed the LDP winning nearly 300 seats in parliament's powerful 480-member lower house, while its ally, the small New Komeito party, looked set to win about 30 seats.

That would give the two parties the two-thirds majority needed to over-rule parliament's upper house, where no party has a majority and which can block bills, which should help to break a deadlock that has plagued the world's third biggest economy since 2007.

An LDP win will usher in a government committed to a tough stance in a territorial row with China, a pro-nuclear energy policy despite last year's Fukushima disaster and a potentially risky prescription for hyper-easy monetary policy and big fiscal spending to beat deflation and tame a strong yen.
...
The soft-spoken grandson of a prime minister, who would become Japan's seventh premier in six years, Abe also wants to loosen the limits of a 1947 pacifist constitution on the military, so Japan can play a bigger global security role.

Generational Warfare: GenX has been at it from day 1

Matt Towery outlines for you what we've talked about here for years - the Greatest Generation beget the Worst Generation.

As an-early cohort Gen-X type, of course none of this is news to me. I've had to wade through their cultural and economic debris my whole life - something outlined very well by Douglas Copeland in his 1991 fun romp, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (dogs eating from discarded bags of yuppie liposuction fat still makes me wince).

What was once funny and irritating is now existential in its threat. Matt, over to you;

Regardless of how the so-called "fiscal cliff" ends, one thing is clear: The combined group of Americans whose age comprises either the last few years of the "baby boom," which is said to have ended in 1963, and most of the so-called "Generation X," which followed and ended in 1984, will collectively get the worst end of a deal that, as a whole, they do not want — when and if ever Congress and the president quit playing their games of alternative threats and capitulation.

That particular "Forgotten Collective Generation" should be mad as hell — particularly those between the age of 55 and 35. The combined vote of that age group, no matter what survey one uses, was in the majority against President Obama and has a disdain for government in general.

... math tells us that by the time these folks start to reach the age of eligibility that now exists, they either won't be eligible, or the costs they share will be sky-high, or the quality of care will be so regulated, limited and uncaring that it won't come close to resembling the Medicare program their parents or older siblings enjoyed.

Particularly if one is on the younger side of this unfortunate group, don't count on that little statement you receive telling you what you have contributed and what you would receive down the road. The math says it is impossible — particularly if you are contributing to the "fund" at a higher level.

And of course these folks in general will have the great honor of having to work years longer than many of their parents or older brothers and sisters (I know there are many exceptions, so don't think I don't feel your pain, too, remaining boomers and seniors).

The same goes for Social Security, which is not really a separate fund or trust, just another growing obligation for a debt-ridden nation.

Read it all.

Offshore Control & the Asia/Pacific Challenge, on Midrats

With significant budget cuts already underway and expected for years, how do we adjust through the Pacific Pivot as these cuts take place, yet still remain postured to influence the region in peacetime and defend our national interests in war?

What is the best way to match required capabilities inside an economically sustainable military budget?

While many are familiar with the concept of “Offshore Balancing” – what is “Offshore Control?”

Join EagleOne of Eaglespeak and me this Sunday from 5-6pm EST with our guest for the full hour, Colonel T.X. Hammes, USMC (Ret.), to discuss the concept he raises in his latest article in the United States Naval Institute’s Proceedings, Offshore Control is the Answer.

Col. Hammes served thirty years in the Marine Corps at all levels in the operating forces.  He participated in stabilization operations in Somalia and Iraq as well as training insurgents in various places. 

He has a Masters in Historical Research and a Doctorate in Modern History from Oxford University, and is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. 

He is the author of “The Sling and the Stone: On War in the Twenty-First Century” and “Forgotten Warriors:  The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, the Corps Ethos, and the Korean War,” and many articles and opinion pieces. He has lectured at U.S. and International Staff and War Colleges.

Join us live if you can, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio - the best way to get the show and download the archive to your audio player is to get a free account and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Listen to internet radio with Midrats on Blog Talk Radio

Fullbore Friday

Leadership. Honor. Decades of honoring others you saw on the other end of the field of battle.

Leadership.

Franz Stigler was 26 when he was conscripted into Hitler’s Luftwaffe in 1942, a former commercial airline pilot whose father and brother had both died while serving their country. Stigler had been assigned to Squadron 4 of the German air force, and was initially stationed in Libya.

On his first day on base, he was taken aside by his commanding officer, Lt. Gustav Roedel, who would have a profound impact on his life during and after the war.

On the afternoon of his first mission, Roedel decided he’d join the young pilot. Before takeoff, they talked. “Let what I’m about to say to you act as a warning,” Roedel said. “Honor is everything here.” “Every single time you go up, you’ll be outnumbered,” Roedel said.

Stigler nodded, but said nothing.

What did Roedel mean by that? Stigler was overwhelmed. There never seemed to be a right way to respond, and the irony that he couldn’t, above all, trust his fellow soldiers was not lost on him.

Roedel kept on: “What will you do, for instance, if you find your enemy floating in a parachute?”

How to answer? How to answer? A hedge.

“I guess I’ve never thought that far ahead,” Stigler said.

“If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute,” Roedel said, “I will shoot you down myself. You follow the rules of war for you — not for your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity.”

Honor.

Within minutes, Stigler, alone, was on the B-17’s tail. He had his finger on the trigger, one eye closed and the other squinting through his gunsight. He took aim and was about to fire when he realized what he wasn’t seeing: This plane had no tail guns blinking. This plane had no left stabilizer. This plane had no tail-gun compartment left, and as he got closer, Stigler saw the terrified tail gunner himself, his fleece collar soaked red, the guns themselves streaked with it, icicles of blood hanging from the barrels.

Stigler was no longer energized. He was alarmed. He pulled alongside the plane and saw clean through the middle, where the skin had been blown apart by shells. He saw these terrified young men attempting to tend to their wounded. He drew equal to the B-17 and saw that the nose of the plane, too, had been blown away. How was this thing still in the air?

This plane was going down, and its crew was paralyzed. Stigler pointed to the ground, and, finally, a reaction: The Americans shook their heads. They’d rather die in flames than be taken prisoner by the Nazis.

Stigler was exasperated. As it was, he was risking his own life: Everyone knew the story of the German woman who, just one year before, had been gunned down by the Nazis for telling a joke against the Third Reich. If Stigler’s plane were to be spotted by a civilian alongside a B-17, and if that civilian wrote down the number on his tail and reported him, he was as good as dead.

Then Stigler remembered what Roedel had told him, that to shoot the enemy when vulnerable went against the code of chivalry and honor. Stigler felt he had to do what was right.

Near the Atlantic wall, flak gunners spotted the two planes approaching, the American and the German. They were stunned — they’d never seen anything like this, the enemy flying alongside a German plane, both seeming to be in sync, neither one firing or in pursuit or dodging or spiraling.

Read the rest, and find out how these two old gentlemen finally met.

.... or get the book.

Muslims love those who deny God exists, right?

By their own scripture, it isn't Jews and Christians - who are "people of the book" - who are the issue. No, it is idolators and pagans that are the issue.

An actual Muslim actually respects a practicing and believing Christian - but they despise non-believers. So, in a Muslim country, do you want to be seen as maybe a Christian - or as someone who denies the existence of God/Allah?


Take your time, it is just one question.



In a gobsmacking example of institutional cowardice, NSA Bahrain has cancelled, in essence, one of the few things that I remember with a smile from that horrible country; a camel at Christmas.

The Navy directed service members serving in Bahrain to cancel and dismantle a “Live Nativity” after receiving a complaint from a military atheist group who said the manger scene endangered Americans serving in a Muslim country and violated the U .S. Constitution.

The chaplain at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain confirmed to Fox News the nativity scene was cancelled – but referred any further comments to the NSA’s public information officer.

The “Live Nativity” was a long-standing tradition at NSA Bahrain that featured the children of military personnel dressed as shepherds, wise men, along with Mary and Joseph. It was part of a larger festival that included a tree lighting, Christmas music and photographs with Santa Claus and a camel.

But the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers objected to the Nativity and filed a complaint with the Navy’s Inspector General. They argued the Nativity promoted “Christianity as the official religion of the base.”

... and we folded to that small, insignificant gaggle of fun sponges?

I don't fault the MAAF crickets, I fault one thing - Navy leadership. If we are not going to allow a voluntary, culturally significant goodie for Sailors and their families forced to live in a nasty part of the world, then what are we actually defending?

MAAF shouldn't have an impact on anything people are doing - as they don't understand religion even in its most basic form - much less specifically Islam.

“Also of concern is the likelihood that the predominantly Muslim local population will see the U.S. military as a Christian force rather than a secular military support U.S. – but not necessarily Christian values in their Muslim country,” the MAAF wrote in their complaint. “This even threatens U.S. security and violates the Constitution as well as command policy.”

“It’s unconstitutional, it’s bad for the military and in a Muslim country it’s dangerous,” MAAF spokesman Jason Torpy told Fox News.

Actually, you can drive just 20 minutes out of the base to the Christian hospital in Manama, a missionary hospital at that. It has been there 100 years. There are even HUGE churches with big-a55 crosses in the country. What ignorance, the people of Bahrain have no issue with Christians.

This has nothing to do with Bahrain or Islam - this has everything to do with a small group of bitter, agenda driven people, and the cultural cowardice of Navy leadership. Leadership willing to do this;

“Upon further review, the CRP (Command Religious Program) will be removing the Living Nativity Program from the general base secular holiday festivities and co-locating it more appropriately with some of our other private religious and faith-based observances at the chapel at a separate time,” read a statement the Navy reportedly sent the NAAF.

Some service members in Bahrain told Fox News called the cancellation heartbreaking and children who were supposed to act in the Nativity were devastated.

“It was horrible,” said one officer who asked not to be identified. “It was devastating. Here we are serving in the Middle East, defending our country and other people’s religions and we couldn’t understand why we can’t enjoy our own religious freedoms.”

Crews had already started building the Nativity structure, but orders were given to have it dismantled.

“You can go outside the gate and hear Christmas music, but on the base you can’t have a Nativity,” said another officer. “The sense of hypocrisy is overwhelming.”

It didn't have to happen this way. Not even close.

Hiram Sasser, of the Liberty Institute, said the law is clearly on the side of the service members.

“Once again the Grinches prove their hearts are two sizes too small,” Sasser told Fox News. “The Supreme Court already saved nativity Christmas displays in 1984 and the Navy of all organizations shouldn’t back down against Grinches when law and history are on its side.”

Torpy said he is pleased with how the Navy handled the matter.

“We want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to exercise their religion freely and we want to make sure people on the base have fun and exciting activities available for them without feeling like the base itself is establishing Christianity as the preferred belief system,” he told Fox News.

Folding in the face of such weak cheese. Amazing. Will someone ask SECNAV about this next time they see him?

More at The Examiner and USNIBlog.

Christmas with Dr. Kuehn

Books.

You know my weakness; I'm not one for squishy Christmas presents.

Feed the mind; build depth; honor the accumulated knowledge of our civization.

Especially for a young man or woman who is either thinking of, or is already engaged in the profession of arms; being well read is essential.

One of the "hail fellow well met" guests we have had on Midrats is John T. Kuehn, Ph.D., CDR USN (Ret), Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, KS. 

I've asked him this year for book recommendations for those who need to flesh out their noodle. 

Great choices, and here they are!

---

- Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Carl Marlantes (JTK comment: every naval officer should read this book)

- The Master and the Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (JTK comment: mind bending, really) 

- A Song of Fire and Ice, George R.R. Martin, The Game of Thrones or whatever is next in the series (JTK comment: just fun. I am on Dance of Dragons)

- Joe Rochefort's War, Elliot Carlson (JTK comment: super naval history for any educated reader)

The Next two are older, but they ARE old favorites. One is very readable. The other is cathartic.
- The Two Cultures, by C.P. Snow (JTK comment: a plea for mutual understanding between the humanities and the sciences)

- Life and Fate, by Vasily Grossman (JTK comment: that rare novel/book that explains World War II in Russia, the Holocausts--to include Stalin's--and the Cold War)

For the stocking stuffer consider Tom Ricks' The Generals: American Military Command from WW II to Today (JTK comment, it is shaking up the blogs and the conversations inside and outside the Beltway).

 

---

Salamander comment: I can't pass up a comment about Ricks's book that I just got through reading. First, like John, I highly recommend it, but with a few exceptions where Ricks makes critical oversights. 

First, his narrative about AFG describes the war in a way to USA-centric overview. He just skims a discussion on NATO's role from taking over in late '05 to '10 when USA took back the keys, but that part of the book gives me the impression that he simply has not interviewed enough people familiar with the war from a NATO perspective. Second, he is very wrong about Gen. McKiernan.

McKiernan was the one who brought COIN as refined by Petraeus-Mattis to AFG with the uplift of USA forces in late 2008 - he is the one responsible for bringing Shape-Clear-Hold-Build in to the OPLAN before that.

Nothing malicious on Ricks's part, again, it just shows that his source bench is a bit thin for that part of the war and it bugs me.

If you are interested in his extended reading list ... well ... here you go!