Drones Gone Wild - LXIX

LOLZ!

The ensuing hilarity of REAL blow back is perhaps best describ'd by Great Satan's rowdy cuz's down under yonder:

In terms of importance to the battle against terrorism, the killing of the notorious militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri in a US drone attack in Pakistan is not far behind the death of Osama bin Laden.


The hope must be that Islamabad will spare us a replay of its confected outrage over alleged violation of its national sovereignty when the al-Qa'ida leader was targeted.


Kashmiri was as bad as they come. An associate of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's kidnappers, he gained infamy when he decapitated an Indian soldier in Kashmir and posed for photos holding the head. As a member of Pakistan's Special Services Group in the 1980s, he trained militants battling the Soviets in Afghanistan. As leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami jihadists allied to al-Qa'ida, he was linked to the 2008 assault on Mumbai, an onslaught against military headquarters in Rawalpindi and last month's siege of the Mehran naval base in Karachi. 

That he has now been killed in one of the Predator drone attacks that Islamabad, in public at least, has been up in arms about is a reflection of the value of those strikes and Washington's welcome determination to ignore Pakistan's carping over violations of national sovereignty and get on with a job Islamabad itself is failing to do.


The incontrovertible reality is that as long as Pakistan dickers and fails to confront the militants in the way it should, there will be no progress in the war in Afghanistan. The Durand Line border is artificial. Jihadists, when they want a respite from coalition onslaughts in Afghanistan, cross into Pakistan where they know they will remain untroubled by Islamabad's forces. That scenario is unsustainable. The US is right to ignore Pakistan's protests and continue the drone attacks which, since 2008 when they were launched by the Bush administration, have killed 1400 militants.


To mask its feebleness in dealing with terror, Pakistan complains that each such attack involves loss of civilian life and that this recruits new followers for the militants. There may be something in that, but that is Islamabad's problem. After their credentials as allies were brought into question when bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, Pakistani authorities must expect the US and its allies will pursue high-value targets such as Kashmiri. 

If they can't do the job themselves, they must let others do it for them.

Pic - "Pakistan thus finds itself under pressure from Great Satan to fight the militants, and under attack from the militants for waging Great Satan's war for it

D - Day

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

32 - June 6, 1944

Midway

"The most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."

They were elite predators. Deadliest of the age. Four of them with their attendantry vessels, screening, scouting and securing SWO boy protection. A six month run of raising pure heck from Infamy Day 

Nipponesed as "Red Castle," "The Province," two sisters "Blue Green Dragon" and "Flying Dragon"their complement of aircraft and air crew were like the most expert naval aviators in world history. And they had the battlefield bona fides to back it up.

After doing Pearl -

"...Japan was on a roll. The Philippines had fallen, including the final outposts of Bataan and Corregidor. The Japanese had swept down through the Malay Peninsula from French Indochina, and on 15 February, the supposedly "impregnable fortress" of Singapore had fallen--to numerically inferior Japanese forces. The Dutch East Indies had been captured. Japanese forces were advancing into Burma and might proceed to India. 

"...Even Australia appeared to be threatened. American naval forces, significantly weakened by the attack at Pearl Harbor, appeared vastly inferior to the armada that Japan was gathering to advance eastward in the Pacific toward Midway--and then possibly to the Hawaiian Islands or even the West Coast. Additional Japanese victories would have made it politically impossible for Roosevelt to continue to pursue the Grand Strategy of Europe-first. 

When Doolittle Raiders  launched a magical 30 seconds panty raid on the Imperial Capitol from USS Hornet, Nippon was determined to destroy what remained of Great Satan's grievously injured naval forces.

Fixing up the final hook up to finish up creating the Far East Greater Co - Prosperity Sphere,  Midway was the bait. Plotting to draw out Great Satan's last two carriers (actually three - Yorktown was an unpleasant surprise as Japan intell'd she was blown out of the water just days before at Coral Sea) Enterprise and Hornet and annihilate them - forcing 32 to sue for peace and abandon PACRIM.

Instead, Imperial Navy rec'v'd the nasty surprise as Admirals Fletcher and Spruance bush wacked Nippon.

The Death Ride of Torpedo Eight was horrific in a uncoordinated attack that was supposed to be coordinated - those low and slow American torpedo planes ceased to exist as IJN's Combat Air Patrol destroyed them all. Wave hopping after the frantic, desperate aircrews - Japanese fighters leisurely killed them all except for a few miraculous shot down survivors.

Fashionably late - Dive Bombing Eight - appeared way up in the sky  - way too far and too late for the bloodthirsty Zeroes to intercept or interdict. Torpedo 8's heroic sacrifice was not in vain.

Diving headlong from as high as 20,000 feet, Dauntless dive bombers attacked INS The Province (Kaga) first. Her death was incredible - four bombs hit her flight deck crammed plumb full of gassed up aircraft fully crunk with bombs and torpedoes. Payback is sweet.

"...Kaga stopped dead in the water and began exploding. In eight minutes (a divine ref to Torpedo and Bombing Eight*) 800 hundred of her crew were vaporized. 

At the same incredible instant Red Castle (Akagi) - flagship of Fleet Admiral Nagumo himself took multiple direct hits and literally xformed in a dead floating inferno.

Minutes later Blue Green Dragon (Sōryū) suffered the same instant death as her plane loaded hanger decks  began reduxing the first hits - exploding in tandem and killing over 700 crewmen as fires flamed up and out of control.

Flying Dragon (Hiryū) exacted revenge of sorts - damaging Yorktown so bad in a counter strike the grand Old Lady was scuttled the next day. It did Flying Dragon no avail - Great Satan hunted her down without mercy and killed her.

The tide of war not so much tilted against Nippon - it somersaulted against her as America took the initiative and never. Let. Go.

Imperial Japan never recovered, her bloody dying death orgy doom was only a matter of time. 

Midway was the place and today is the time that Great Satan's conception as l'nation indispensable'  - uniquely powerful - the only one of her kind - took place.

Pic -"All these torpedo planes can't be coming from one American Carrier!"   

Conspicuous Gallantry WoW!

Imperium!

One of the benefits of spreading enlightenment, civilization and totin' the man's burden in a Westphalian nation/state Empire way is all the cool kids that totally cotton to timeless ideals like fun and free choice.

Kinda like Taliban killer Corporal Dipprasad Pun. Keeping the air alive with hot lead when Taliban over ran a British Army Check Point in the Stan, Corporal Pun was determined to kill every last one of them.

Pun fired more than 400 rounds, launched 17 grenades and detonated a mine to repel the Taliban assault on his checkpoint near Babaji in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, last September.

Surrounded, the enemy opened fired from all sides and for 15 minutes Pun remained under continuous attack, including from rocket-propelled grenades and AK47 guns.
At one point, unable to shoot, he used his machine gun tripod to knock down a militant who was climbing the walls of the compound.

Two insurgents were still attacking by the time he ran out of ammunition, but he set off a Claymore mine to repel them.

He was awarded Great Britain's Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) by Queen Elizabeth II , which is given in recognition of acts of conspicuous gallantry during active operations against the enemy.

"I had so many of them around me that I thought I was definitely going to die so I thought I'd kill as many of them as I could before they killed me"

What a guy!

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the records of cyberspace.

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! The Political Commentator–-A Memorial Day story of unimaginable inspiration!
• Second place 2 votes – The Razor-Occam’s Razor Unnecessary To Cut Short Weiner
• Third Place with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit-The Fruits Of The Obama Doctrine – Poland Distances Itself From The US
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD-Monsters Abroad
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room-Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room – You Will Respect My Authoritah!
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Colossus Of Rhodey – The lamenting of the dearth of authentically black politicians
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Simply Jews – Oklahoma Republican vs National Science Foundation
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – WWII with Chinese Characteristics

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – WarChick.Com - Twice In One Daysubmitted by Rhymes with Right
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes – Wired/Danger Room – One Brain, Hundreds of Eyes: Darpa Plots Manhunt Master Controller submitted by Right Truth
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Israel News – Dangerous diversions and vainglorious victors submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -The Diplomat – How to Track China’s Navy Ambitions submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Newsbusters – D.C. Liberals Sign Petition to Ban Conservative Websites submitted by Bookworm Room
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Don Surber – So quit acting like paparazzi submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Victor Davis Hanson – An Honest Obama Campaign submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Foundry – On the Budget: Ryan 40, Obama Zip, Senate Dems—No Show submitted by The Colossus Of Rhodey
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Iowahawk – Help Me Bring The Weiner Hacker To Justice submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Gulag Bound – Left West, Right West, and Other Matters of Balance submitted by New Zeal
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Via Meadia – It’s Official: California Is a Failed State submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote -Big Jounalism/ Dan Riehl – Weiner Tweet Stream Disputes His Version, Raises Questions submitted by Snapped Shot

See you next week!

Influence Of Sea Power

 It's true! Just like Teufel Hunden's Globe Anchor and Eagle logo are fun reminders that Great Satan built the modern world - and she knows her around!  

Like the ancient ciggy puff Baron saged:

“Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”

Perhaps the most charming power projection charm in all of Great Satan's hyper puissant clutch bag is her ability to command the seas. Control and maintain sea lanes, deter would be actor outers ( State and Non State) - effectively directing and guiding world trade.

Mac and Mc (one of the tripartie participants in the essential "Don't Mess With Def!") take a look at a scary world where Great Satan's Navy isn't large and in charge:

"In 2020, several major European nations default on their debt. Contagion in the financial markets plunges the world economy into global depression. From 2020 to 2025, the U.S. economy contracts from $20 trillion to $12 trillion. During this time, two successive U.S. presidents seek and obtain deep cuts in the size of the U.S. armed forces. Homeland security becomes the main focus of the Department of Defense, with policy-makers concentrating on port and border security, land-based strategic nuclear forces, antiterrorism, and managing civil unrest.


"The global implications of this retrenchment are stark. China’s claims on the South China Sea—previously disputed by virtually all nations in the region and routinely contested by U.S. and partner naval forces—are accepted as a fait accompli, effectively putting the entire expanse under Chinese hegemony. Korea, unified in 2017 after the implosion of the North, signs a mutual defense treaty with China. Japan is increasingly isolated and executes long-rumored plans to create a nuclear weapons capability.


"India, recognizing that its previous role as a balancer to China has lost relevance with the pullback of the Americans, agrees to supplement Chinese naval power in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to protect the flow of oil to Southeast Asia. China agrees to exercise increased influence over Pakistan.


"Iran dominates the Persian Gulf and is a nuclear power. Its navy aggressively patrols the Gulf while the Revolutionary Guard Navy harasses shipping and oil infrastructure to force the Gulf Cooperation Council countries into Tehran’s orbit. Russia supplies Iran with a steady flow of military technology and nuclear industry expertise.


"In Egypt, a decade-long experiment in participatory democracy ends with a violent seizure of power by Islamists. The United States is identified closely with the previous coalition government, and riots break out outside the U.S. embassy. Americans in Egypt hunker down and hope for the best, as there are no U.S. forces in the Mediterranean to evacuate them.


"The NATO alliance falls apart. For its energy security, Europe depends on Russia and Iran, which control the main supply lines and sources of oil and gas to Western Europe. Major European nations stand down their militaries and make only limited contributions to a new EU constabulary force. No European nation maintains the ability to conduct significant out-of-area operations, and Europe as a whole maintains little airlift capacity.


The impact of the world fiscal and political crisis is devastating to the U.S. Navy, which has been in decline since the latter part of the Obama administration, when Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta chose to maintain proportional resourcing of the Navy, Air Force, and Army rather than make difficult choices among competing priorities.


"World trade goes into steep decline. In addition, shippers avoid U.S. ports as a result of the onerous container inspection regime. As a result, American consumers face a diminished selection of goods and a lower standard of living.


"By 2025, the Navy is down to 70 deployable ships (from 286 in 2011). All aircraft carriers and all but six attack submarines are sidelined, as the Navy dramatically cuts back on expensive nuclear engineers and pilots. Additionally, the Navy de-emphasizes projecting power and sea control beyond U.S. territorial waters. A fleet of four ballistic missile submarines is retained for nuclear deterrence.


"With the Navy no longer seeking to project power, the carrier force is decimated; the amphibious force is cut less severely because of the flexibility of these platforms and because they are highly valued for their usefulness in defense support to civil authority missions, such as disaster relief.


"All forward-deployed naval forces pull back to the bases in Norfolk and San Diego. A greatly diminished Coast Guard maintains a presence in Hawaii. All other naval bases are closed. The fleet of 70 ships consists of 6 attack submarines, 4 ballistic missile submarines, 8 aviation-capable amphibious ships, 8 other amphibious ships, 15 destroyers, and 29 small combatants. The Navy also operates 2 hospital ships, which are in heavy domestic demand. It does not operate a logistics force because all fueling, provisioning, and arming is done in port.

Direct hit Starboard nacelle!

"Financing the future Navy fleet is simply common sense for a maritime power. A strong Navy is in America’s long-term interest and essential to the nation’s prosperity. Failure to invest in the fleet, reverse its decline, and maintain steady growth in the number of ships in the Navy’s inventory will only embolden U.S. adversaries.

 "History has seen more than one great naval power (e.g., Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) become a shadow of its former self when it failed to maintain its maritime preeminence. It is difficult to imagine that the nation desires such a decline—and even more difficult to accept that Congress and the Administration are letting it happen.

Pic - "America is a maritime nation, and our Navy is the most visible and effective symbol of our national power and strength overseas."

Left Of Bang

Like Boom! ("The whole world is 808ing")

Great Satan's Defense Science Board at DoD just unleashed the essential Task Force on Defense Intelligence's Counterinsurgency (COIN) Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Operations (PDF - and oh, it's fully crunk mon frer')


Future interventions and ops for COIN Ops to be planned, plotted and prepp'd for include:

"...Land of the Pure, Mexico, Yemen, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma for the elderly), Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Congo, Ethiopia, Palestine, Eritrea, Guatemala, Colombia, Pyramidland, Wahabbi Arabia, Kurdistan, Tunisia, Lebanon and (perhaps the best part of all) numerous autocratic regimes..."

Sweet!

Obviously a get the worst first mentality is implied - but still - totally makes the case that being cool, clever, desirable, hot!, funny, smart and fashionably coutur'd (along with a 30 year in the future military) at the same incredible instant bears certain costs as the world's hyperpuissant. The only one of her kind!  


Finally declassified, we can all enjoy the SUBAR (sexed up beyond all repair) 'When in doubt - knock 'em out" meme sweetly laid out on pages 17 - 18:

"The Task Force concluded that if Great Satan's hot desires and delights is to deter and prevent COIN situations from becoming major conflicts more emphasis should be placed “left of bang” (before the need to make a major commitment of combat troops) and while the insurgency is still in its incipient phase. 

"As the PDF'ing 2011 National Military Strategy of Great Satan notes: “Preventing wars is as important as winning them, and far less costly.”  There are many reasons to consider this shift to “left of bang.” 

 Cool Stuff - More options, fewer surprises, pro active - the better to shape, influ and deter my dear, fewer causalities, whole of Gov in a box approach (oh, Marja!) addresses multi grievance sans combatty endeavors and may actually preclude traditional combat.

Jank Stuff - More non military actions required, unprepared non DoD cats, an untraditional military role, greater intell demands, potential greater resources required in the near term, creates false expectations and the inability to predict all funintended consequences

"Should Great Satan move to a “left of bang” approach to COIN, useful indicators to help predict insurgency scenarios and deal with them early are needed, thus making indications and warnings  indicators an important component of future COIN planning and operations . It is important to note that it is possible to have simultaneous operations (e.g., COIN, CT, conventional, etc.) depending on the definition(s) chosen."

Pic - “Whether Great Satan should engage in any particular counterinsurgency is a matter of political choice, but that she will engage in such conflicts during the decades to come is a near certainty”

Monsters Abroad

Busted!

It was the chilling climax of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the most vicious and genocidal battlefront in the Balkans conflict.

Srebrenica  - July 1995, one of the most notorious modern acts of gendercide took place. While the internat'l community and U.N. peacekeepers looked on, Serbian forces separated civilian guys from girls and killed thousands en masse.

And the cat believed to be in command of the genocide is the freshly busted 'General' Ratko Mladić.

Not unlike 3rd Reich's Das Reich's"Just following orders!" meme defense (that funnily enough failed to defend anyone at Nürnburg), Ratko laid out to his Parliament exactly what Greater Serbia entailed

‘People are not little stones, or keys in someone's pocket, that can be moved from one place to another just like that... Therefore, we cannot precisely arrange for only Serbs to stay in one part of the country while removing others painlessly...That is genocide.’

  Ratko was right. Aside from the nearly 8k civilians killed at Srebrenica while the UN's gay Dutch contingent looked on in dispassionate impotence as the entire Hitlerian Dance Macabre exploded

The policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 with the direct support of Serbian regime of Slobodan Milošević and its followers ultimately led to the displacement of more than 2,000,000 people, an estimated 200,000 killed, tens of thousands raped or otherwise tortured and abused, and the innocent civilians of Sarajevo and other urban centres repeatedly subjected to shelling and sniper attacks; meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, created in Paris on 9 December 1948, and entered into force on 12 January 1951.

 As the ungodly - yet delightfully daemoneoconic avuncular Christopher Hitchens teaches:

"On whatever basis the post-Tito Yugoslavia was to be reconstituted, there was one that was utterly impossible as well as unthinkable: a "Greater Serbia," whereby smaller republics and their populations were forcibly cut to fit the requirements of a dictatorial tailoring. It will one day seem incredible that the NATO powers did not see this right away and continued to treat Slobodan Milosevic as a "partner in peace," thus opening the road that led straight to Srebrenica and the murder of people ostensibly under our protection.

 "At times like this, we are always reliably reminded of what John Quincy Adams said about the risk to the United States of going "abroad in search of monsters to destroy." The monstrous character of Mladic and his movement needed no exaggeration. To this day, a lot of people do not understand how much misery and chaos and suffering it purposely inflicted. 

 "The monstrous nature of his power and reach was paradoxically and enormously exaggerated—not by those who wanted to confront it, but by those who did not! This meant that the whole nightmare was needlessly prolonged and the expense of concluding it greatly increased.

Pic - "The reverse of course is allowing monsters abroad to come in search of us"