The 100 Year Carrier War

"Turn into the wind - commence launching!"

Beleaf it or don"t Naval Aviation has been dissed, debated, championed and argued over ev since the last millennium

The 100 Years Carrier Battle has been raging in the pages of Great Satan"s Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine for eons 

Even years before its launch, the U.S. Navy’s new class of ships — the aircraft carrier — was dismissed by some critics as an exorbitantly expensive folly that was already obsolete due to advances in modern warfare.

Although this argument has often been levied at USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) currently under construction, it was also said about the nation’s first purpose-built carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) in the early 1930s. In the century since the Navy first started experimenting with shipboard takeoffs and landings, analysts have debated the merits versus the weaknesses of aircraft carriers.

Detractors maintain that carriers are too costly and too vulnerable, while proponents have held that the big flattops have consistently proven their worth and will remain the key to sea power well into the future.

Articles from like 1922 all the way into the new millennium.

Welcome aboard and make your brain more bigger!

Pic - " 21st Century Mahan"

WoW!!

WoW - the Watchers Council - it's the oldest, longest running cyber comte d'guere ensembe in existence - started online in 1912 by Sirs Jacky Fisher and Winston Churchill themselves - an eclective collective of cats both cruel and benign with their ability to put steel on target (figuratively - natch) on a wide variety of topictry across American, Allied, Frenemy and Enemy concerns, memes, delights and discourse.

Every week these cats hook up each other with hot hits and big phazed cookies to peruse and then vote on their individual fancy catchers.

Thusly sans further adieu (or a don"t)

Council Winners
Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn’t Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage
• Second place with 2 votes – Liberty’s Spirit-We The People
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit-An Update On The Zimmerman Trial
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Simply Jews-Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet-Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues
• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Nice Deb-Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Bookworm Room –Marriage’s open frontiers in America
• Sixth place with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –Celebrities Love Social Media … Except When They Don’t
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi –Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Barry Rubin- As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th? submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 2 votes – Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government submitted by The Watcher
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion -Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified? submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute -Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid submitted by The Right Planet
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote -TF Stern’s Rantings – They Chose…Poorly submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle –Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo submitted by The Razor
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Emet m’Tsiyon –Obama’s Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews And Holocaust Facilitator submitted by The Political Commentator
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Compass –America’s terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bruce Bawer –If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em? submitted by The Watcher

See you next week! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

Polislam"s Epic Fail?

Kahlifah!!

Polislam - also nom d"guerr"d as political m"Hammedism - has been l"rage d"jour ever since that Tunisian cat ignited himself (in Tunisia - natch) and sparked off Arab Sprang. The concept is kinda elderly and the future may be about as suck as ancient history

As best understood, crazy assetted preachers in Persia, bits of Lebanon and the Strip have failed to queer the mix on some of Arab League's recent revolutionary revolutions - the allure of a mythical m'Hammedist preacher's paradise is still powerful meds to the wretched realities of cats suffering under secular autocrazies - though in the Strip and Iran - the preacher's paradise IS the wretched reality.

And now - thanks to  the Ikwhan's semi retarded, totally inept intolerant on ten creepiness -m"Hammedist rule in girl hatin' Aegypt - the risible concept that Preacher Knows Best may be deader than the idea of setting up a strip club in Luxor. 

 This first year under the Morsi government in Egypt – by far the largest pilot project ever staged for Polislam’s political ideology – has exposed the myth that Islamists have a real alternative. 

No doubt, Ikwhan inherited an economic mess and a corrupted system that would take more than a year to weed out. Also, one could argue that like all countries, Egypt must play by the international economic rules, and has taken an economic beating with a depreciating exchange rate and rising debt burdens. 

Under Mr. Morsi, no new economic or political ideas were brought to the political table. Ikwhan and by extension - political m"Hammedism had no real solution to the everyday problems of Egyptians such as traffic, garbage, insecurity, unemployment and the sheer chaos that characterizes the mundane life people lead. Like his predecessors, Mr. Morsi tried to court foreign capital, international donors, and international creditors such as the International Monetary Fund. In essence, Mr. Morsi's economic policies were business as usual.

Yet the point here is that m"Hammedists never claimed governing was hard; in essence they simplified good governance to a single and effective slogan: “"Slam is the solution!” To many Egyptians this is now an empty slogan and there is a demand for real policy ideas. This is a good thing as it sets the stage for political parties to mature beyond rhetoric into developing policy platforms.

Political m"Hammedism will retain the respect of having cleaner hands than the Mubarak regime, but Egyptians and perhaps Arab electorates in other transition countries will also demand more. In a devout region, religious credentials will matter less than offering specific solutions to life's mundane problems.

When Aegypt's impotent at any real military stuff and potent only at tormenting girls military decided enough was enough, it was LOLable to the nth... 

Morsi resorted to a series of increasingly desperate verbal signals, including ineffectual crises about his own legitimacy and attempts to grasp expired offers of compromise.

The result made him seem less like a martyr than a property owner waving his deed at a wrecking-ball operator who has already destroyed his home

Pic - "Rule Of The Virginity Checking Military"

Hotter Than A FireCracker!!

4 July 1776 fired off a crazy rocking rolling ride that hasn't stopped 'stirring things up' on a global scale.

Advancing arrogance into an art form with a remarkable relentless risque commitment to liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, and laissez-faire values. 

America differs qualitatively from all other nations, because of her unique origins, nat'l credo, historical evolution, and distinctive political and religious institutions.

Great Satan is magically especial because she was a country of immigrants and the first modern democracy. 

Loud, proud and rowdy - early America forecast future stuff with a provocative lingo that still fits today. "Don't Tread On Me!" "Liberty Or Death", "Live Free Or Die" 

Great Satan's superiority of the American xperiment is reflected in the perception among Americans of America’s role in the world. That American foreign policy is based on moral principles is a consistent theme in the American hot diplopolititary gossip – a phenomenon recognized even by those who are skeptic of such an assessment. 

This inclination to do right has been virtually unique among the nations of the world - and for this very reason - America has been totally misunderstood. How could a nation so rich, so successful actually, really be so unselfish and so caring?

Unconvincing (and either historically igno - or deceitfully dishonest - either term will do) critics cry Great Satan must have darker motives! America must be seeking imperium - to dominate everyone else, suck up all the oil, to trade and rob blind for America's selfish purposes. 

People from more grasping, less idealistic societies find it nigh impossible to accept that America honestly believes that giving everyone opportunity is the real roadmap for abundance and happiness everywhere - not merely in the magical Great Satan.

Americans honestly believe that securing other people's freedom is actually like the best guarantee that America can keep her own.

Great Satan does not want to dominate the world. Americans want to live in peace and hope other people will too.

Great Satanwill go out into the world, redress errors, stop uncool unacceptable behaviour, to first challenge, then annihilate threats to our liberty.

Creative destruction is Great Satan's middle name. It is her natural function, for she is the one truly revolutionary country in the world for more than 2 centuries. 

She does it automatically, and that is precisely why creeps and tyrants hate her guts, and are driven to attack her. An enormous advantage, despots fear her, and oppressed peoples want what she offers: freedom. 

Amazingly, some suspect states, illegit leaders and some people have not yet comprehended that America's primary intention is to preserve and keep our own land and liberty and all it's prosperity and that America will do anything and go anywhere to make it happen.

Great Satan built the modern world.

And She knows her way around.

Happy BDay America!

High Tide

The small town of Gettysburg, gained tragic notoriety in July 1863 for the cataclysmic Civil War battle in which fifty thousand men died. There were more casualties during these three days than in any American battle until Battle of the Bulge – a full third of those who fought were killed or wounded – and entire regiments were wiped out when the tide finally turned against the South.

Americans were killing Americans

As the bitter fighting stretched into several hot days, Cemetary Ridge was one of several high ground spots Union hung onto - by her fingernails at times and today is the 150th year anniversary of the desperate attack to take it away and perhaps even win the war for Confederacy.

The High Tide of Confederal Warmaking

Picket's Charge

Predicted to be an epic fail by the charge's commander, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, and it was arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered psychologically.

"General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as any one, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position."

After Confederate attacks on both Yankee flanks had failed the day and night before, Lee was determined to strike the Union center on the third day. On the night of July 2, General Meade correctly predicted at a council of war that Lee would try an attack on his lines in the center the following morning.

From the beginning of the planning, things went awry for the Confederates. While Pickett's division had not been used yet at Gettysburg, A.P. Hill's health became an issue and he did not participate in selecting which of his troops were to be used for the charge. Some of Hill's corps had fought lightly on July 1 and not at all on July 2.

Actually, cats that had done heavy fighting on July 1 ended up making the charge.

Although the assault is known to popular history as Pickett's Charge, overall command was given to James Longstreet, and Pickett was one of his divisional commanders. Lee did tell Longstreet that Pickett's fresh division should lead the assault, so the name is appropriate, although some recent historians have used the name Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Assault (or, less frequently, Longstreet's Assault) to more fairly distribute the credit (or blame). With Hill sidelined, Pettigrew's and Trimble's divisions were delegated to Longstreet's authority as well.

Thus, General Pickett's name has been lent to a charge in which he commanded about one-third of the men and was under the supervision of his corps commander throughout. Pickett's men were almost exclusively from Virginia, with the other divisions consisting of troops from North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The supporting troops under Wilcox and Lang were from Alabama and Florida.

Despite Lee's hope for an early start, it took all morning to arrange the infantry assault force. Neither Lee's nor Longstreet's headquarters sent orders to Pickett to have his division on the battlefield by daylight. An oversight by Longstreet, either as a misunderstanding of Lee's verbal order or a mistake. Longstreet's Gettysburg performance may be evidence that Longstreet deliberately undermined Lee's plan for the battle.

The July 3 bombardment was likely the largest of the war, with hundreds of cannons from both sides firing along the lines for one to two hours, starting around 1 p.m. Confederate guns numbered between 150 and 170 and fired from a line over two miles (3 km) long, starting in the south at the Peach Orchard and running roughly parallel to the Emmitsburg Road.

Despite its ferocity, the fire was mostly ineffectual. Confederate shells often overshot the infantry front lines—in some cases because of inferior shell fuses that delayed detonation—and the smoke covering the battlefield concealed that fact from the gunners.

The day was hot, 87 °F (31 °C) and humid, and the Confederates suffered under the hot sun and from the Union counter-battery fire as they awaited the order to advance. When Union cannoneers overshot their targets, they often hit the massed infantry waiting in the woods of Seminary Ridge or in the shallow depressions just behind Alexander's guns, causing significant casualties before the charge began.

The entire force that stepped off toward the Union positions at about 2 p.m. consisted of about 12,500 men. Although the attack is popularly called a "charge", the men marched deliberately in line, to speed up and then charge only when they were within a few hundred yards of the enemy. The line consisted of Pettigrew and Trimble on the left, and Pickett to the right. The nine brigades of men stretched over a mile-long (1,600 m) front.

The Confederates encountered heavy artillery fire while advancing nearly three quarters of a mile across open fields to reach the Union line and were slowed by fences in their path. These obstacles played a huge role in the large number of casualties the advancing Confederates faced. The ground between Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge is slightly undulating, and the advancing troops periodically disappeared from the view of the Union cannoneers.

As Pickett's men advanced, they withstood the defensive fire of first Stannard's brigade, then Harrow's, and then Hall's, before approaching a minor salient in the Union center, a low stone wall taking an 80-yard right-angle turn known afterward as "The Angle." It was defended by Brig. Gen. Alexander S. Webb's Philadelphia Brigade. Webb placed the two remaining guns of (the severely wounded) Lt. Alonzo Cushing's Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, at the front of his line at the stone fence, with the 69th and 71st Pennsylvania regiments of his brigade to defend the fence and the guns. The two guns and 940 men could not match the massive firepower that Hays's division, to their right, had been able to unleash

The infantry assault lasted less than an hour. The supporting attack by Wilcox and Lang on Pickett's right was never a factor; they did not approach the Union line until after Pickett was defeated, and their advance was quickly broken up by McGilvery's guns and by the Vermont Brigade.

While the Union lost about 1,500 killed and wounded, the Confederate casualty rate was over 50%. Pickett's division suffered 2,655 casualties

The casualties were also high among the commanders of the charge. Trimble and Pettigrew were the most senior casualties of the day; Trimble lost a leg, and Pettigrew received a minor wound to the hand (only to die from a bullet to the abdomen suffered in a minor skirmish during the retreat to Virginia).In Pickett's division, 26 of the 40 field grade officers (majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels) were casualties— 12 killed or mortally wounded, nine wounded, four wounded and captured, and one captured

As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge, Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center, telling returning soldiers and Gen. Wilcox that the failure was "all my fault." General Pickett was inconsolable for the rest of the day and never forgave Lee for ordering the charge. When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense, Pickett allegedly replied, "General Lee, I have no division."

The Yankee counterattack never came

History may never know the true story of Lee's intentions at Gettysburg. He never published memoirs, and his after-action report from the battle was cursory. Most of the senior commanders of the charge were casualties and did not write reports. Pickett's report was apparently so bitter that Lee ordered him to destroy it, and no copy has been found

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of the Vicksburg garrison along the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two. These two Union victories were the turning point of the Civil War

Pic - "I shall throw an overwhelming force on their advance, crush it, follow up the success, drive one corps back on another, and by successive repulses and surprises before they can concentrate, create a panic and virtually destroy the Army of the Potomac.”

Western Women War

Aha - Europa's experiment with multicultural something something has been an epic fail

The Western world, until now nodding sagely and saying it is a matter of cultural differences, is beginning to realize that it will have to pay a heavy price for its tolerant approach to the murders, "honor killings," rapes, oppression, abuse of and traffic in women and girls -- not only in the Islamic countries but among the Islamic immigrants in the West.

There are, broadly, two different movements, heading in opposite directions: The West looks forward and seeks progress, the welfare of the individual and scientific achievements. The Muslim immigrants, on the other hand, look longingly backward, their faces turned resolutely to the days of Muhammad. For both, the status of women is an indication of the struggle for the face of the West. The gap is widening and the liberal approach is collapsing along with its hypocritical double standards, political correctness and submission to multiculturalism. What we are witnessing is not multiculturalism, it is a violent attempt made by guests in various countries to devour their hosts whole, along with their houses and property, culture and legacy. For anyone who has not been paying attention, the Arab Spring has arrived in Europe, and it would be a good idea to get ready to deal with it.

Another casuality is the Euro Union... 

Europe has grown hostile, both within its border and outside. Who could believe that a second wave of nationalism, racism, and anti-semitism would find fertile ground on this continent? But it has. The creation of a stronger and more democratic Europe requires a new positive vision for Europe.

Pic - "Londonistan is still required reading"

Devolution Revolution

Ev since Aegypt unAssed the Undying Pharaoh Hosni the insanely cruel girl hating book burning land of Pyramids has enjoyed a freak show of sorts.

And Now... 

Egypt, as the bellwether of a fractious region, needs desperately to rise above religious division. In this cultural heart of the Arab world, what happens there sends a powerful message to its neighbours. The protesters swarming into Tahrir Square tomorrow will be motivated by anger – not only at Mr Morsi, but also at themselves for putting him in power. Forcing his resignation is not the remedy, however. After all, the election was won fair and square. Opponents of the government need not resort to grandstanding; instead they must focus on the more difficult business of organising a workable alternative. 

Sad to say, such promises are looking increasingly thin. The evidence of recent months is that, under the cover of Mr Morsi’s mandate, the Brotherhood is ruthlessly advancing its own sectarian and fundamentalist agenda. Coptic Christians, eight of whom were killed in attacks by Muslims in April, are fleeing the country in unprecedented numbers, claiming – with some justification – that they no longer feel safe in Egypt. Meanwhile, just this week, four Shia Muslims were killed and mutilated by a mob apparently led by fundamentalist Salafi sheikhs in a village in Greater Cairo, following months of anti-Shia rhetoric which at times involved the Muslim Brotherhood. Such killings reflect the Sunni/Shia violence spreading like a stain across the Muslim world, and which is deeply implicated in the ongoing violence in both Syria and Iraq. And Al-Azhar, Cairo’s most august fount of Ereligious learning, has publicly called for an end to the spread of Shiism in the country.

2nd Revolution time? 

Ikwhan would be wise to heed the demands of the opposition for a roadmap to national reconciliation – a more inclusive governing approach that can begin to tackle the country’s economic woes. Otherwise, they may find themselves ousted like Mubarak.

And could very well end up with yet another despotry...

Pic -"Revolutionaries often turn out to be failures at utopia-building, but very good at building police states."