skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Sacre Blu!
Does history really, really redux itself?
Truly, who can say?
Yet certainly seems like a historical redux in the machination mon cherie.
Leb Leb Lebanon. A kinda crazy place where Hiz"B"Allah - the Posse of Allah - blood sworn "Death to America" Great Satan haters on Great Satan"s Official Enemies List hang out. Site of the death of Teufel Hunden one of America's deadliest terror attacks, the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks that killed more than 240,when HbA first got crunk up via Mullahopolis in Iran.
Not to mention the place is like always on Def Con something - fixing to bust out in civil and sectarian war at the drop of a grenade.
A recent, uh, internal, uh, probe - reads like Great Satan"s State Dept is not just asking for trouble, yet begging for it
The State Department is failing to adequately protect diplomats in Beirut, leaving them without necessary counterterrorism training and serving in a decrepit, aged embassy compound that fails to meet security protocols, according to an internal investigation that raises new questions about 44"s administration's commitment to protecting Americans overseas in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy.
In fact, the department did not place Beirut on its latest list of high-threat diplomatic missions even though Lebanon is listed at the "critical" threat level for potential violence with its frequent rocket attacks, spillovers from the Syrian civil war and heavy presence of the terror group Hezbollah, the agency's inspector general said in a report
“Physical security vulnerabilities at mission facilities, which include office buildings and residences, place employees at risk.” It recommended the best solution was to build a new facility.
In the meantime,
Diplomats face serious threats while working at the 18-acre “cramped, aged and difficult to maintain office" located on a "steep and hilly compound” located 20 minutes from downtown Beirut, the report said. And their superiors back home in Washington seem unaware of the threat level, failing to harden weak physical security or provide needed counterterrorism training, the inspector general observed.
The risks remain high as the civil war in Syria continues to threaten the stability of Lebanon due to the influx of more than 325,000 refugees, and tensions with Hezbollah remain high with frequent rocket attacks and other skirmishes.
“The Department’s threat rating for Beirut is critical for terrorism and political violence, but the embassy is not included in the Department’s recent list of high-threat missions,” the report noted.
The embassy has recently “acquired property, but Beirut is listed only as an alternate mission for 2016 in the Department of State (Department) Capital Security Construction Program,” the investigators said, questioning the department's lack of urgency.
The inspector general cited numerous security failures, noting the Beirut embassy’s mail screening facility does not comply with department regulations. The inspection also found that “the embassy has not adequately addressed the physical, environmental, and procedural security issues with the telephone switch and unclassified server room," the report said.
“Unlike staff at other critical threat posts, Embassy Beirut employees do not take the foreign affairs counterterrorism course, which provides training on emergency medical procedures, chemical biological remediation, and driving in dangerous situations,” it said. “Such training imparts important skills and awareness among employees at high-threat posts such as Beirut, but the course is expensive.”
Even thought the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has mobile training teams to “provide on-site training for all embassy employees, including local guards and bodyguards,” it was not offered in Beirut
The report stated that security requirements under the Compliance with Overseas Security Policy Board standards, “is not possible at the current location" because of its outdated facilities and unusual physical attributes.
The embassy compound’s health facility “is located on a steep hill in a prefabricated modular unit that is accessible only by climbing outside stairs, making the unit inaccessible to disabled personnel or personnel being transported by stretcher or gurney,” investigators noted.
Moreover, during heavy rain the roads become “rivers” and even failure to maintain buildings have “caused the support structure of some residential units to collapse”
Pic - "Soft Targets"
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
Non-Council Winners
See you next week! And don’t forget to like
us on Facebook
and follow us Twitter
"I'd love to turn. You. On"
Way back in the last millennium, the Summer of Love's soundtrack by those naughty Beatles wiped clean and drew again the face of popular music. Often hailed at times as "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization."
It wasn't the only one that year!
Perhaps the best source from all sides on 6 Day War is penned by the "Most Dangerous Cat in DC" - Little Satan's American ambassador au courant - the super brainiac (he's kinda hot too) Dr Michael Oren
Mid May 1967 - Pyramidland's General Nasser initiated a state of war with neighboring Little Satan by kicking out UN's Sinai contingent and announcing a blockade of the straights of Tiran - the gate to the Aqaba Gulf. UN's Sec Gen U Thant (not to be confused with certain lingerie) failed to defuse the hot hot hotness of the sitch and Pyramidland's Badgers, MiG 17's and 21's were taking a well earned break from xforming hapless Yemenis into living shrieking blisters courtesy of WMD and being redeployed to airfields in range of Little Satan's population centers
The Most Dangerous Cat in DC reissues choice cuts and why cause the 1967 jank is 44 years too little and too late:
"...Jets and tanks launched a surprise attack against Egypt, destroying 204 of its planes in the first half-hour. By the end of the first morning of fighting, the Israeli Air Force had destroyed 286 of Egypt's 420 combat aircraft, 13 air bases, and 23 radar stations and anti-aircraft sites. It was the most successful single operation in aerial military history.
"...As feared, other Arab forces attacked. Enemy planes struck Israeli cities along the narrow waist, including Hadera, Netanya, Kfar Saba, and the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv; and thousands of artillery shells fired from the West Bank pummeled greater Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem. Ground forces, meanwhile, moved to encircle Jerusalem as they did in 1948.
"...In six days, Little Satan repelled these incursions and established secure boundaries. She drove the Egyptians from the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrians, who had also opened fire, from the Golan Heights. Most significantly, Little Satan replaced the indefensible armistice lines by reuniting J'lem and capturing the West Bank from Jordan.
And:
"...44 years after Arab forces sought to exploit the vulnerable armistice lines, it remains clear that Little Satan cannot return to those lines. And 44 years after the United Nations, through Resolution 242, indicated that Little Satan would not have to forfeit all of the captured territories and must achieve "secure and recognized boundaries," the unsecure and unrecognized armistice lines must not be revived. Little Satan''s insistence on defensible borders is a prerequisite for peace and a safeguard against a return to the Arab illusions and Little Satan's fears of June 1967.
Pic - "And though the news was rather sad, I just had to laugh"
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
"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!"
Türk Kara Kuvvetleri!!
Secular, democratic Turkey — a long-time ally and member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — has managed to out-Putin Putin
when it comes to steamrolling civil liberties. The last decade or so in Ottomanic Turkey has been like a side step trek to autocracy.
That 'lected Erdogan Prime Minister cat (recently standing next to 44 in the Rose Garden wringing his militarily awesome (on paper anywrought) hands in hapless dismay, pleading for Great Satan to inject blood and treasure into Syria) has taken his AK party to power and swing Turkey all the way, the other way, from sec sec secularism (ism) to a autocratic Polislamic thingy.
Despite leading the world in the number of journalists in jail, putting the 'fear' in verboten via liq liq liquor, arguing for censoring stuff like that trouble making Twitter, Face Book and a dang near unconcealed lust for concealing laffy taffy in public...
A decade of AK rule has brought unprecedented prosperity. Per-capita
income has trebled, exports have increased nearly tenfold and Turkish
banks are in good health. Mr Erdogan’s bold initiative to end decades of
conflict with the country’s Kurdistani population is making good progress. The
opposition parties (save the Kurds) remain weak and divided.
Violent crackdowns on people protesting demolishing a park to put in a shopping mall (now updated to be another M'sk) could be an ignition switch for an Ottoman Spring
Erdoğan is arrogant, crude, and—at heart—an autocrat. He may believe
himself invincible. If he is not careful and if he does not begin to
respect the rule-of-law and recognize that he is accountable to the
Turkish people, he might find himself going the way of Mubarak, Tunisian
President Ben Ali, or Yemeni President Saleh.
Pic - "Occupy Taksim"
Way back in the last millennium (a hundred years ago!) the big arms race of the day was ...battleships. Dreadnaughts were the very fitting nom'd'guerre. "Don't you worry about the British Navy or the British Empire THEY ARE SYNONYMOUS TERMS!" was Admiral and 1st Sea Lord, Baron Sir Jacky Fisher's way to LOL that Britannia ruled the waves. Using the 2 navy standard, Royal Navy was to be more bigger and more better than the next 2 biggest navies - combined!
Great Britain's life depended on sea power and the sweet consort of force projection courtesy of Royal Navy. An often undervalued spark of WWI was Imperial Deutschland's growing High Seas Fleet. Like it or don"t, every rivet driven by Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (later named sake"d as a Nazi time Battleship) crafting the world class Kriegsmarine, freaked out Royal Navy and the synonymous British Empire as well.
Armoured Cruisers developed in the late 1800's were long-range war vessels, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships she may encounter.
The counter to such a threat was the Battle Cruiser. Jacky Fisher's "Greyhounds of the sea" were the perfect complement to a squadron of battleships - similar in size and cost to a battleship, she often toted the same kinda of heavy guns, yet deployed far less armour and were like really way faster than anything afloat.
Both Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine stationed their battle cruisers and dreadnaught battleships in separate task forces - when combined - such surface forces were bloody formidable luv!
As the 1st World War ground on - Royal Navy's blockade of Deutschland was beginning to pay off - loss of prestige on the home front, morale dropping, shortages on everything from sausage to shoes and a suck economy made naval strategy like Admiral Mahan's threat of "a fleet in being" less of a comfort to Germany as unleashing her High Seas Fleet to systematically do some blockade busting.
While Royal Navy's Home Fleet out numbered Deutschland"s - Imperial Navy Deutschers conceived a pretty smart plan to even out the odds for a final lo down ho down: sortee several battle cruisers to shell Britain's east coast. When Royal Navy's Battle Cruiser squadron (led by the dashing impetuous Admiral David Beatty) responded by flying down the coast and intercept for righteous payback, it would be a sucker trap, for Germany would have her entire High Seas Fleet on location to annihilate them. Evening up the odds for the next encounter when Great Britain's slower Dreadnaughts hit the scene.
Deutschland kicked off her audacious plan on May 31st and 1 June 1916
The bait worked. While Royal Navy spy guys learned that Kreigsmarine's Battle Cruiser flotilla led by Admiral Franz von Hipper were sweetly trekking up to repeat the raids on Scarborough and Hartlepool - they were unaware the High Seas Fleet had also sortee'd.
Sure enough, Royal Navy"s Battle Cruiser Squad charged smack dab into Germany's - who were leading them south into the jaws of an awful trap.
Jütland.
Between 18:30, when the sun was lowering on the western horizon,
backlighting the German forces, and nightfall at about 20:30, the two
fleets – totalling 250 ships between them – directly engaged twice.
Inexplicably, Admiral Beatty insisted on using signal flags instead of new fangled wireless to transmit orders and the Royal Navy got a spanking.
HMS Tiger and Queen Mary missed import orders, leaving SMS Derrflinger (a crack gunnery ship) sweetly sailing about unopposed, shooting up Beatty's flagship HMS Lion. Only by flooding her magazine with his dying breath, Royal Marine Major Harvey (Victoria Cross) saved Lion from instant vaporization that befell her sisters
Disaster rolled over the Battle Cruisers at Jütland as SMS Von der Tann blasted thru HMS Indefatigable"s lightly armoured deck to ignite her powder magazines. In an instant - she was gone with all hands. SMS Seydlitz and Derrflinger double teamed Queen Mary annihilating her as she exploded instantly.
Admiral Beatty made his infamous remark to his 2nd in Command that "Something seems to be wrong with our bloody ships today" as it was feared HMS Princess Royal may have suffered the same fate
As Germany's High Seas Fleet Dreadnaughts appeared on the scene to complete the massacre, Admiral Beatty was running away at top speed to meet his big brother Dreadnaughts slowly yet steadily advancing south. It was a tough time - HMS Defense was gone, HMS Black Prince sunk, HMS Invincible was horrifically dying and HMS Warrior was in real trouble as Germans and Britons were shooting each other to pieces
As the Royal Navy Dreadnaughts led by Admiral John Jellicoe finally met up with her beleaguered Battle Cruisers - all 27 of them in the last line head battle formation in the history of the Royal Navy. They let loose with a ring of fire and steel.
Kriegsmarine Admiral Reinhard Scheer commanding Germany's Dreadnaughts might have charged in to meet them - closing the distance, trusting in his better armour and faster gunnery to make up for numerical superiority - after all this was the decisive moment Deutschland had been building, training and dreaming of for decades.
Rodolent with Royal Navy's honored past, named after Admirals, Generals, Greek gods and Roman virtues - Scheer must have felt he was confronting not only Jellicoe and Beatty but the ghosts of Rodney, Howe, Nelson and Drake.
The Germans split the AO with Royal Navy in hot pursuit into the night. Aside from torpedo attacks by both sides the Battle of Jütland more like faded out than ended.
14 British and 11 German ships were sunk, with great loss of
life. After sunset, and throughout the night, Jellicoe maneuvered to cut
the Germans off from their base, in hopes of continuing the battle next
morning, but under the cover of darkness Scheer broke through the
British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand Fleet and
returned to port.
Materially speaking - Germany won Jütland. Kriegsmarine lost only 1 Battle Cruiser - SMS Lutzow (tho Seydlitz was so shot up she beached herself returning home), the ancient pre Dreadnaught SMS Pommern sunk plus 4 light cruisers, 5 destroyers - 2,500 men lost.
Royal Navy by contrast lost 3 modern Battle Cruisers, 4 Armoured Cruisers,, 8 destroyers and more than 6,000 men perished - mostly on Invincible, Indefatigable and Queen Mary. Royal Navy's vaunted ships proved vulnerable, inaccurate shooting, their shells defective, their method of communication woefully antique and their admirals cautious and bemused.
The British public learned of the 'disaster at Jütland" before all of Royal Navy had returned to port as Germany LOL'd she had smashed the Magic of Trafalger, gleefully listing the names of revered British ship that were incinerated. The 2nd Battle of Jütland lasted years as Royal Navy admirals and minions blasted each other in the press, publishing, inquiries and boards for eons afterwords.
In moral terms - Great Britain won. Despite mistakes and shortcomings, her image of invincibility remained intact and Royal Navy beat the hand of her most ablest opponent in over a century. The blockade remained, and Imperial Deutschland never again sortee'd with all her might
Royal Navy never totally got the pic about Battle Cruisers tho - 28 years later HMS Hood - one of the last of the Battle Cruisers lost out in a head to head match with the super Dreadnaught Bismarck
Pic - "Brassey's Naval Annual, for instance, stated that with vessels as large and expensive as the Invincibles, an admiral "will be certain to put them in the line of battle where their comparatively light protection will be a disadvantage and their high speed of no value."
