Operation Iraqi Freedom Finis

Officially deliciously done!

Operation Iraqi Freedom finishes up today seven years and 5 months after kicking off. Combat Ops (with a tiny tiny thong of cover) are over. A new phase of Great Satan's ME Adventure commences.

44's pre commander in chief campaign promise to totally unass all combat cats in the Land betwixt the two rivers within 16 months—sometimes hinting of an even faster schedule, to pull out one to two combat brigades per month (and there were 15 in the country on inauguration day) has been a myth.

19 months later - Great Satan sweetly deploys five brigades and 50K troops in house, with full stashed suites of weaponry accoutrements.

Re designated as 'advise and assist brigades', their composition and capabilities still have a killer 85 to 90 percent overlap with traditional combat units. And they will continue to go on joint patrols, man joint checkpoints with Iraqis and otherwise continue many of the tasks that they were carrying out before. Also, in the absence of a peace treaty or ceasefire accord, Great Satan doesn't really get to decide when combat is over.

Operation New Dawn will be kicking off now - and that includes the Iraq SOFA thingy that 43 negotiated - that Great Satan is totally welcome military in Iraq til December 2011.

44 played it as "...Bottom line is this: the war is ending. Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course. And by the end of next year, all our troops will be home."

Uh, yessir -got it.

"...Of course Iraq is free to chart its own course—as is South Korea, and for that matter Afghanistan or Pakistan or, say, Mexico."

If Great Satan works out an arrangement for advisory and training forces to stay in Iraq, that would be very much worth considering, and shouldn't be ruled out because of a campaign promise.

Great Satan has an opportunity, "...to help make Iraq a success and an ally, shouldn't we take it?

Pic - "New Dawn"

Arab League 2010

Oh! It's true bay bee!

44's hook up with Little Satan, the old school Fatah Palestine twin, Wahabbi Arabia and Jordan are predestined to be about as successful as a girl getting liquored up before nairing her legs.

Psych!

Uh, tell us somethng we don't know - all the cool kids totally get it.

Hooking up with all these players and hanging with the Hostess with the Mostess is a sexyful signal that Great Satan is trying to pre empt Arab street cred.

And Arab Street cred is soooo weak. Seriously, Persia and Turkey are the champions for Arab League - as their own 'cunning' leadership cadre is worse than incompetent - they could be 'scribed as non compos mentis

While it's never cool to mock the afflicted - there may be times when poking it with a sharp stick is ok - at least figuratively. After all - the main proving proof of life is the response to stimuli

And perhaps nothing in the collection of nation/states au courant deserves a swift sharp stick to see if it's still alive as the collection collectively nom d'guerr'd as Arab League.

"...Arab world is defined by top-heavy states where small groups of men surrounded by many soldiers make decisions without seriously consulting their fellow citizens.

"...This legacy is firmly supported by major foreign powers who see “security and stability” as critical priorities in this region, by which they mean that Israel should remain dominant, Arab nationalists and Islamists should be fought and diminished, and security-minded Arab governing elites should rule forever.

"...This translates into a perpetual cycle of mostly disempowered and disenchanted Arab nationals who never get to experience the thrills of true and full citizenship – participation, accountability, opportunity, transparency.

"...They share in transforming their states into shopping malls, their identities into categories of security clearances, and their humanity into unthinking automatons who wave the flag on command, cheer on cue, and otherwise restrict the exercise of their rational, emotional and creative human dimensions to subservience, acquiescence, and obedience in the political and social spheres.

"...Religion helps many such dehumanized Arabs cope with their constraints and discomforts. Emigration is a solution for some. Most people simply adjust to life in modern non-democratic states where the two most prevalent public manifestations of collective norms are in the domains of security and consumerism.

"...In “secure” Arab societies like Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and others like this them that do not suffer the chronic violence of Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, the ubiquitous symbols of Arab statehood and citizenship are guns in the hands of police and army personnel, and cell phones in the hands of all other nationals.

"...This is another kind of unstable statehood, one whose vulnerabilities do not appear in the open as they do in those other Arab countries engulfed by fighting.

Oh, but they will!

Pic "Feeling so small down in a hole, losin my soul"

Raven

In Great Satan's arsenal of future weaponry being deployed today - those wild hottie naughty killer drones got tons of play!

Why cause?

Because - they got tons of game, bay bee!

Hunter killers like Predator and Reaper are notoriously bad girls - always just out of reach of the handwringing attorney brigade - they diss Pakistani sovereignty (yeah - what a hoot!) seek out and slay enemies and enemy enablers anywhere. Anytime. They. Want.

Aside from Sexy Beast - Great Satan also enjoys doing several recon drones - like Little Satan's 'Hunter', and the Shadow (200 RQ 7) there is also Raven.

Sweet, petite, discrete and in heat - Raven actually returns kinda like a boomerang all on her own - no imposing imposed curfews required!

She's tiny tiny - handheld and hand launched. Raven weighs in at four and a half pounds with a five-foot wingspan and barely 38 inches in length! Raven's gig gives 'farsight' to cats on the ground in a tactical environment from subsquad level on up - thus, ensuring Great Satan's enemies rec'v the nasty surprise on the battlefield while her forces are sweetly informed with real time intell.

Never has killed anyone - Raven is a good girl.

Pic "Raven is a good girl and almost always makes it home. "

2021: The Military and the World

It's 2021 and 46 has just been sworn in. What will future challenges look like and how will Great Satan respond?

Democracy Journal hooked up with 4 super savvy cats and the results are interesting. - ditch State Department and let Defense handle embassies, prepare for the forever quest with Palestine and get ready to stay for a long time in Iraq and Yemen.

"...India and Pakistan will still be very much at odds. Pakistan won’t be stable, and will have been producing more nuclear weapons and more nuclear material. The question is, do you want to get involved, and if so, how do you want to handle it?

"...Weak and failing states, particularly in the so-called Third World or under-developed world, which will have led to instability, the spread of disease, migration, militias running around, and possibly created havens for terrorists.

"...A resurgent China, which will have gotten much further along with its economy and its military. But China will also be facing tremendous crises at home, dealing with demographic and environmental concerns, as well as other internal political issues that get expressed externally.

"...In dealing with China, India, and Pakistan, the president will discover that our civilian toolbox has further atrophied. And just about anything the president wants to, whether it’s military or not, will have to be done through the Department of Defense, because that will be the last adequately resourced part of our international affairs structure.

Also features a pointer in the COIN versus Hyper Puss debate au courant:

"...Is the strategy that we most need one that uses the military as a primary counterinsurgency force and as a means of remaking societies? Or is our primary strategic concern the capacity for our military to act as a stabilizing force–during a period when we go from the United States being the only guarantor of global security to being the most powerful of a number of guarantors?

"...By 2021, it’s almost certain that there will be a greater need for the integration of the elements of power and influence, far greater than we have today.

Pic- "Fire and Flood" with Leticia Wolf

Beau Coup d'état

Oh Snap!

Easily the most proficient of all regime changes is the old putsch junta manuever -

the Coup d'état

"...The coup remains the single most common form of regime change throughout the world. 14 alone attempted in 2004! "

While Land of the Pure is an expert on coup d'tats - having enjoyed more than might be their share since gaining nation/state stats way back in the last millennium (1948, for those who collect such intell), rumours always abound that the next coup is right around the corner.

Or maybe it's this corner:

"...If ever a country were ripe for a coup, it is Pakistan. The besieged government of President Asif Ali Zardari is assailed on all fronts by man-made conflict and natural disaster and there is a palpable sense in Islamabad that the return of the generals to the presidential palace would come as something of a relief."

"...However, what is different about this crisis is that, for once, the generals don't appear at all interested in taking responsibility for a country that is teetering on the verge of collapse.

"...Since winning independence in 1947, Pakistan has endured more years of military dictatorship than civilian rule. Yet on this occasion, the military appears disinclined to enter the political fray. This is partly because it is still recovering from the bruising experience of Gen Musharraf's nine-year rule.

Wheee! That's lucky!

Mainly because mommie India may coup d'état instead!

"...The military has remained loyal to its civilian masters, even during the many periods when they’ve indulged in favouritism or in procurement scams. But there are signs now that a revolt may be brewing within the uniformed services over what they see as the government's unwillingness to back them in their often bloody battle against Maoists, insurgents and jihadists across the country.

Especially the Curse of Kashmir:

"...The well-organized intifada now taking place in that state, the movement is designed to attract international intervention in the state—preferably of a military nature—similar to that which occurred in Kosovo.

"...This might seem like an outlandish idea, but the separatist leaders in Kashmir (who preach their venom openly while living in opulence) have been made to believe by their handlers in Pakistan that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and CIA chief Leon Panetta are in favour of robust US mediation in Kashmir.

"...Such intervention, they believe, would ultimately ensure that the state would, in effect, become independent from India.

"...Sadly, each eruption of violence is followed by an increase in the volume of Delhi's largesse to the state, almost all of which gets used in the Valley and seems to end up in the pockets of the very Valley Sunnis who fan the flames. Kashmir for them has become a cornucopia, sustained by constant agitations that lead to fresh transfusions of cash, a part of which get used to initiate more trouble.

"...Those on the field say that it’s only a matter of time before a revolt takes place within the uniformed services—not just in Kashmir, but in other parts of India.

"...India's military may decide to step back to let Kashmir's political leadership and its Delhi backers face the consequences of a policy of winks and nods to pro-Pakistan elements seeking to prise Kashmir loose from India through international intervention.

Pic - "This is nothing but a creeping coup d’état by the forces of darkness, a coup that will spare no one”

Factions!

Hot gossip foments that fractioneering factions in Pre New Clear Persia are facing off and forcing off the fastening facades of the fascist monolith!

"...The regime is in trouble. Iran's leaders have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the people, are unable to manage the country's many problems, face a growing opposition, and are openly fighting with one another.

"...A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky.

"...Iranian military had created a special unit to deploy the drones—some for surveillance and others, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bragged on Sunday, to carry bombs—but hadn't informed the air force.

Such a happy event is one of several faux pas that make up to take up a general backdrop of internal conflict within the regime

"...It’s likely that these growing concerns prompted Khamenei to take the unprecedented step of issuing a new fatwa in which he described himself as the representative of the Hidden Imam (Mahdi), and which ranked his rulings alongside those issued by the Prophet Mohammed.

"...Khamenei has been Supreme Leader for more than two decades, but until now he hasn’t needed to stamp his authority in such a public way as there was never any doubt who was in charge.


"...So, was Khamenei's decision to issue a new fatwa a sign of desperation? Either way he had little choice but to do so.

"...The fighting within the regime is growing increasingly intense—so intense that perhaps even his ‘supreme’ voice and authority now lies at risk of becoming lost in the chaos.

Pic "It is a transformation inextricable from Iran’s internal struggle for democracy."

Army Disaster in 2016?

Prokhorovka!

As previously previewed - the chaperon for the rowdy Unaussprechlichen COIN Külten is Great Satan's Warcraft Academy and premier panzer commander expert Colonel Gentile.

Showcasing a provocative scenario that years of counter insurgency only operations and training may design Great Satan's worst Army defeat in living memory:

"...In early 2016 the war started between the United States and Turkey and Iran over the fate of Kurdistan. Both Turkey and Iran had become fed up with the constant attacks and concomitant separatist movements of their Kurdish populations and decided to ally together and act once and for all to crush Kurdish desires for independence.

"...The Iraqi government requested American assistance and only a short while after pulling its remaining brigades out of Iraq sent in Brigades from the 101st and 82nd Airborne, 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry Divisions; many of these Brigades had just returned from deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

"...American commanders, so long accustomed to training and operational deployments that involved stability and counterinsurgency operations were unable to perform the most basic tasks of combined arms synchronization.

"...The Army’s soldiers too lacked essential individual skills of fire and movement; artillery battalions were unable to mass fires, and even though the Navy and Air Force had substantial amounts of airpower in the region, the Army on the ground was unable to coordinate it against an enemy who stood and fought.

"...The American Army was beaten and bloodied badly. It lost nearly as many soldiers in this short three month war against the Turks and Iranians than it did in almost 15 years of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It took it another twenty years to recover from this disaster but by 2050 China and Russia had established dominance in Asia, Europe, and Africa to the detriment of vital American interests.

Whoa!

In a way, Colonel G makes the case for what TPM Barnett envisions - Great Satan toting two 30 year in the future militaries.

A "Leviathan Force" to engage in ancient set piece battles versus enemy panzergrenadiers, traditional army air forces and a Surge ala COIN force to maintain stability in crunk and disorderly hoods.

Keeping her skill sets sexyfully sharp could mean instead -

"...Between the headwaters of the Tigress and the hills of Irbil this enormous armored brawl raged unabated for over eight hours.

"...Distant detonations sounding off in tandem - from both enemy fronts - as Great Satan's Navy and Air Force wrought their terrible air dominance. An entire Iranian armor division was destroyed miles from the actual fighting.

"... A few square miles of upper Tigress river valley was transformed into a blackened inferno of exploding armor, wrecked burning vehicles and charred corpses - drenched intermittently by downpours from violent thunderstorms.

"...Suddenly Turkey was fighting for her life as Great Satan's Kurdish victory touched off separatist movements in Armenia and a renewed drive for Kurdistan proper.

"...Persia's humiliating defeat was the last straw for a tormented population suffering under one foreign misadventure after another, the regime collapsed and Supreme Leader was stomped to death in the streets on live Al Jazeera.

Pic - "There are such things as savage small wars of peace, but there are also savage wars of war"

Menage a Trois la Guerre

As best understood, menage a trois is a French term for a sexed up hook up with more than 2 and less than 4.

Could such naughty nom d' guerre be applied like body wax to other Worldly sitches?

That's hot!

Super spy guy Bruce Riedel (Oh! He got game bay bee!) speaks the unspeakable in diplopolititary moderne'

al Q may act out as an official unofficial proxy of Mullahopolis by striking Little Satan!

"...Al Qaeda is warning its supporters and sympathizers to prepare for a new war in the Middle East, which it says will pit Israel against Iran

Little Satan "...will stage air strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations to start. The Iranian Shia regime will try to take advantage of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by blaming Saudi Arabia for helping Israel attack.

"...In turn, the Israelis will seize territory in the Levant to establish “the greater state of Israel.” The Sunni Arab population of the Middle East will be caught between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula.”

The recent gossip about a New Improved Annapolis Awakening featuring 44's Palestine Little Satan mixer betwixt the aforementioned foes and regional powerless houses like Jordan and Wahabbi Arabia may be a carefully crafted smokescreen.

Hooking up with all these players and hanging with the Hostess with the Mostess may very well be a sexyful signal that Great Satan is trying to pre empt Arab street cred for the proxication of AQ as yet another Iranian Front.

Pic - "Iran's empire is already half built; we can't stop it now short of starting World War III."

The GZM Beer Summit

Three Cordoba Lights please!

Alas, the old "Shut Up!, he explained" manuever ala Weenie Hut Juniors totally fails to get a handle on the Ground Zero You Know What, and the amazing insensitivity of certain HAMAS fanboys to tolerate anything except their own intolerant views seems awful suspect.

Perhaps, it's time to tie one on (tore up from the floor up Yo!) with a GZM Beer Summit?

"...The polarizing conflict over the proposed M'Hammedist Cultural Center in lower Manhattan has become as nasty as it is unnecessary. If leaders on all sides managed to address the dispute in a broader perspective, it ought to become obvious that Americans actually agree on both of the key issues in the debate.

"...Most Americans would welcome an obvious compromise that honors both sides to this dispute. Yes, build the mosque. And yes, find a less-controversial location.

Pic "...And get blinded out of your mind..."

Punk Support

"Wanna destroy! Punk support yeah!"

Great Britain's Sex Pistol Punk Rock icon - John Lydon (PiL) aka Johnny Rotten scored a smashing hit with tons of hooks ala diplopolititary designs RE: Little Satan and the Strip Blockade!

While ancient alternative bands like the Pixies and Elvis Abott Costello (who havent had a hit since the Berlin Wall fell) and guitaring grandpas like Carlos Santana (who can still perform some fretboard gymnastics) have peed their britches (good reason for black pants eh?) with inappropriate boring assetted handwringing about chiz they know not of - pretty vacant.

Cooler, hipper, au courant savvy ex Sex Pistols mic man set up a set list that never gets below 120 bpm.

"...I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews. If Elvis-f-ing-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him.

"...But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

Bloody L! What about Little Satan haters in the UK?

"...Lydon rejects their crude and grossly oversimplified views on the Middle East. Lydon, who lives in Venice, California, has breathed real democratic life and fire into a dull and misguided cultural war against Little Satan.


Perhaps Lydon could hook up with Uncle Tony, Sir Paul, the scary Kiss guy (j'ever note he looks a lot like BiBi) and launch a Little Satan Neocon Rock Tour. Maybe even get Green Day to open for their Khan Younis stop in the Strip

Pic "That's what friends are for" with The Rayons

Washed Away

The monsoons that have ravaged Land of the Pure seem apocalyptic:

"...The sheer scale of the disaster almost defies comprehension. Around the country, an estimated 15 to 20 million people have been affected. That’s more than the entire population hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami and Kashmir earthquake in 2005, the 2007 Cyclone Nargis and this year’s earthquake in Haiti — combined.

"...An area as big as Italy and larger than more than half the countries in the world — some 160,000 square kilometers, or 62,000 square miles — is under water.

So far, Great Satan and Great Britain have sworn lifesaving bling like $76 million and $32 million each. Ok.

And their militaries are working round the clock with even more enroute

Yet when Haiti got blasted to sea level - pledges skyrocketed up to 10 billion bucks in 10 days.

So what gives? Is 'donor fatigue' a factor? Or is it something else?

Is Great Satan's client new clear Army with a nation/state attached paying a price for perceptions?

"...Are the people of Pakistan now suffering because of the corruption of their leaders, real and perceived, and the support, real and perceived, given by the Pakistani military and intelligence services to militant groups..." al Qaeda, Taliban and assorted terrorists?

Pic - "Among a broad swath of Pakistani public opinion, holding out a hand for help constitutes a loss of dignity and therefore face."

Surge Climax

Surge!

Ad hocally created several years back to combat a Ba'Athist - J!hadish Haj skipping West to East in the Land betwixt the Two Rivers, Surge was theorized in parts of the Fallujah Battle.

After Fallujah - the insurgency grew at an exponential rate, suddenly a war that seemed won with the defeat of the largest Arab army in history in 20 days seemed lost.

And after the Golden Dome Thingy was literally blasted to pieces in S'Marra, sectarian shiz went off the charts.

Iraq Study Group's smorgasbord/fruit salad bar mentioned an increase in combat cats to decisively defeat and marginalize insurgents and grant Iraq breathing space to get her act together with a consensual gov of some sort - at least on the tactical scale.

A close run thing, Surge gambled that Great Satan could defeat Iran's minions, Syrian agents, Saudi rejects, mean spirited imperial m'hammedists and any easily enticed fence sitters.

Surge totally rocked! While a hot topic at the time, Surge may be historically portrayed as part II of the Iraq War - drawing down to sucker in enemies and then bulking up to slam the trap shut - leaving dead enemies on the side of the road for a stranger to bury.

Surge took the pizazz out of the haj to caliphate the place as the strongest tribe gave birth to the Sons of Iraq.

At the height of Surge - going to Iraq for j!had was a dumb thing to do, ironically success in Iraq caused a redux of enemies in Afghanistan.

While the final scenes of Great Satan's combat ops in Iraq have another 10 days or so to go (short!), Surge climax sends a clear signal to politicans in Baghdad:

"It's your country - keep it if you can"

Pic "We Can Win" with Britney

New Clear Praetorians

Synchronise watches!

If la Stache Grande is correct - hang on tight with both arms inside - it's gonna be off the hook!

And yet - if Little Satan deigns not to design enrichment interruptus - then an even more worser entity is born:

Hail New Clear Praetorians!

Despotries subtle and gross have fielded praetorians throughout the manchild experience. The guardian guard of imperial imperators could perhaps best be scoped out as an uparmored posse of body guards and as political solders at the regime's disposal.

Intended to be special purpose troops for such duties as putting down counterrevolutions and strikes, conduct purges, and quell riots, praetorian guards are the actualizing enablers.

And new clear Praetorians can do all those things plus maintain command and control of an atomic arsenal.

Persia's Revolutionary Guard maintains the regime of Preacher Command - how or will the Revo Guards act out when new clear power is achieved?

"...When Iran develops nuclear weapons, determining their command-and-control will become America's overriding intelligence objective. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's genocidal rhetoric shocks the West. Would he control the bomb? Not likely.

"...In the Islamic Republic, the president is subordinate to the supreme leader. Khamenei may be the ultimate political authority in Iran, but will an aide carrying launch codes generated daily shadow him day and night? Equally unlikely; the ayatollah allows no aide so close.

"...Possession is 90% of the law. And in that sense, on a day-to-day basis, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - which will "own" the arsenal - will control it. This is no comfort: Not only do the Revolutionary Guards contain Iran's most radical ideologues, but they also remain effectively a big, black box to Western analysts.

"...While professors speak knowingly of hardliners, reformers and pragmatists along the Islamic republic's political spectrum, no one knows much about factions within Iran's ideological army.

"...No American official knows with certainty whether the Iranian general controlling the bomb is a pragmatist who seeks only to defend Iran, or whether he believes the key to the Hidden Imam's return is just one button away.

"...The second the first Iranian nuclear bomb rolls off the assembly line, power shifts fundamentally, unleashing an endless cycle with the most radical elements in Iranian society determining leadership and appointing men in their image to determine the next generation of leadership.

New Clear Praetorians will also have an incredibly hot! inclinating penchant for maintaining that regime at all costs. These are the the actualizing enablers of the Revolution, they fought Iraq, fought America and Little Satan with proxies and face to face.

And if the regime's survival is the question of the day

"...3 scenarios are possible.

"...The idea that the regime is not suicidal, the mantra of those who embrace deterrence, transforms into a force for fear: The Revolutionary Guards could blackmail the world to ensure its own survival. It might also flee, selling the weapons to finance their exile.

"...The worst case scenario, however, is that with regime survival a moot point, true believers might use their last moments to launch the bomb to fulfill objectives of destroying Israel or wounding America. After all, they know the world will not retaliate against a new Iran if the culpable regime is already destroyed.


Pic "Life On Standby"

Sino Mil Sec Report 2010

It's time!

Great Satan's 2010 "Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China" reportage got laid out to Congress and it is smoking bay bee!

Defense Dept's gossip sheet has tons of bling to blang - despite the world's largest Collectivist State (with the world's 2nd honkingest economy) bashful attempt to maintain a less transparent secretive stance.

"...Many uncertainties remain regarding how China will use its expanding military capabilities. The limited transparency in China’s military and security affairs enhances uncertainty and increases the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation.

Oh Snap!

"...Earlier this decade, China began a new phase of military development by articulating roles and missions for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that go beyond China’s immediate territorial interests.

"...Other investments have allowed the PLA to pursue anti-access and area-denial strategies. Still others appear designed to improve the PLA’s ability for extended-range power projection, although China’s ability to sustain military power at a distance, today, remains limited.

The report features tons of hot! intell and military capabilities, contingencies, maps and sexyful scenarios, featuring the projected Air Craft Carrier fleet in 2020, rocket forces, au courant and future air power.

And China's brand new Joint Operational ability - deemed essential in modern warfighting:

Enabling Modern Warfare: Joint Operations
China’s military has been working for several years to develop the capability to conduct integrated joint operations (IJO), a concept the PRC believes essential to modern warfare.

IJO are characterized by the integration of multiple service elements under a joint command headquarters, making full use of advanced information technology and a networked command platform. China’s research, training, and preparations for joint operations have evolved substantially since the promulgation of its first joint campaign doctrine in the late 1990s, but
serious challenges limit the PLA’s ability to conduct IJO through at least 2010.

Early Chinese attempts at joint operations focused on the cooperation of branches within a service and operations loosely coordinated among the services using phased operations.

 The PLA issued its first doctrine for the conduct of joint operations in 1999. However, PLA training and exercises for several years after the doctrine’s establishment reflected a reliance on pre-determined sequencing of service operations with little interaction or integration of the forces.

 Recent efforts toward more integrated operations are embodied in the January 2009 edition of the PLA OMTE. This OMTE has been noted in official Chinese media as a new starting point for IJO and as making PLA training more joint and complex.

Obstacles. China’s military leaders recognize and acknowledge that one of the primary obstacles to IJO is that many PLA commanders have little or no training for, or experience operating in, a joint environment.

Key challenges include a shortage of commanders and staff qualified for such operations; a lack of understanding of the capabilities, equipment, and tactics of the other services; and a lack of advanced technology to enable communication and information sharing among the services.

Efforts to Improve. To rectify these deficiencies, the PLA launched enhanced training and professional military education, cross-training rotational assignments to different services, war simulations, military training coordination zones, and multi-regional military exercises.

In 2009, the PLA conducted at least three high-profile joint exercises through mid-September, including a joint ground-air exercise involving cross-military region deployment of up to 50,000 troops, a joint campaign exercise to train theater-level commanders in joint operations, and a joint anti-terrorism exercise with Russia.



Pic "Long March V Missile?! Oh, Long March IV - we barely knew you"

44's Shadow War

Whoa! As Great Satan lays it out to play it out in her super secret magical overseas contingency operations - one of the hot! selling points pointed out that instead of fielding hammers to knock out the gig, Great Satan would wield scalpels - sweetly sticking it only to creeps that actually need killing instead of smashing up everything in the impact area.

Sexing up spy guys with a haute military couture and stealthing up military cats with the 007 ensembe, 44's Shadow War would diss al Qaeda to death

"...In roughly a dozen countries — from the deserts of North Africa, to the mountains of Pakistan, to former Soviet republics crippled by ethnic and religious strife — the United States has significantly increased military and intelligence operations, pursuing the enemy using robotic drones and commando teams, paying contractors to spy and training local operatives to chase terrorists..."

Sweet!

Like the Yemen strike in May:

"...An airstrike had hit a group suspected of being operatives for Al Qaeda in the remote desert of Marib Province, birthplace of the legendary queen of Sheba.

"...But the strike, it turned out, had also killed the province’s deputy governor, a respected local leader who Yemeni officials said had been trying to talk Qaeda members into giving up their fight. Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accepted responsibility for the death and paid blood money to the offended tribes.

Oh Snap! Sometimes the scalpels are crafted from hammers:

Instead of unleashing some of those Drones Gone Wild! (rumor has it - they were booked solid elsewhere across the globe) - Great Satan's Navy fired off a magically enhanced cluster cruise missile that may have taken out more than the Deputy Governor - Yemeni investigators claim nearly 50 people lost their lives when the cruise popped off her rotisserie and did her gig on al Qaeda and everyone else in range.

"...It is still not clear why Mr. Shabwani, the Marib deputy governor, was killed. The day he died, he was planning to meet members of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch in Wadi Abeeda, a remote, lawless plain dotted with orange groves east of Yemen’s capital.

"...The most widely accepted explanation is that Yemeni and American officials failed to fully communicate before the attack

The other explanation is whispered that the Deputy Gov was doing a dirty double deal - actually aiding and abetting time traveling intolerant jerks in their demonic drive to impose their partic vision of imperial m'hammedism by force in a hood where tribalistic loyalties can be swapped as fast and often as blunts in a relaxed semi rowdy pre game party.

This is significant - and could be interpreted as a wonderful signal to certain part time leaders in Yemen.

In 44's Shadow War - the hammers may indeed entice recruits to hook up with Great Satan's enemies.

And they can also take out enticed recruits and potential enemies en masse.

Pic "A broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations conducted in enemy-held, enemy-controlled or politically sensitive territory"

Happy VJ Day!

Bushido!

The last (and perhaps first - nicht war?) Non Western nation/state that ever waged war the Western Way was Japan.

While totally hot for western style war making paraphernalia like blitzkrieg, submarines, air craft carriers and amphibious ops, Japan never really caught on to the other Western stuff at the time - like consensual gov, egalitarianism and unbridled free inquiry.

And during war, Nippon blew off being gallant or magnanimous in victory, actually being cruel and merciless to captured civilians and disarmed combatants alike.

Big mistake!

A pre emptive secret sneak attack at Pearl Harbor enraged Great Satan and filled her with a terrible resolve to literally bury Nippon under an avalanche of American war materiel.

Stuff like Wake Island, the horrific Bataan Death March and other assorted cruelties made Americans determined to do it - regardless of the cost.

After the fight to the death mentality Nippon displayed at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Great Satan obliged and deployed new clear weaponry - not once - but twice.

65 years ago today Japan finally screamed "God! Please! Stop!"

All the hot! deets were totally forced upon and accepted by Japan on 2 Sept 1945 on board USS Missouri

Great Satan xformed Nippon into a fun, functional free choice democrazy that hasn't bothered anybody since.

Happy Victory over Japan Day!

Art - "Remaking Japan" by TigerKatzen

Dongfeng 21D

One of the many hot! functional symbolic symbols of Great Satan's fun functional hyper puissance is the same critter that swept the seas of Nipponese naval naughtiness and set the stage for the creation of l'era moderne.

The American aircraft carrier is an awesome piece of peace projection - often toting about tons of hurt and regret on a global prowling scale that can sieze total air dominance in any environ and could actually annihilate most creeps along with their regimes over a long weekend.

Sweetly cuddled up with attending attendant ships, Great Satan's Carrier Battle Groups send a wonderful signal to friends, frienemies and far field competitors.

When old news became new news about Collectivist China's Carrier Killer chicanery in the form of a nasty little missiling minion nom d'guerr'd "DongFeng 21D" (East Wind 21D in Sinospeak ), cool cats were quick to cant how dangerous this be otch be bay bee.

CNAS' super psychic Dr Cronin (Oh! He got game!) shared up smoking hot Dongfeng deets

"The DF 21D, represents the first post-Cold War capability that is both potentially capable of stopping our naval power projection and deliberately designed for that purpose."

This is significant - mainly because Dongfeng will be a super hot item - a puissant prestige piece d'resistance of desperate despots the world over:

Great Satan and China may never have to face off and face the balloon going up over NoKo or Taiwan yet a sitch may arise where Dongfeng may be deployed for attack anywhere Chinese customers may determine.

Streaking towards target at 10 times the speed of sound, Dongfeng could tote either conventional or even new clear payloaded warheads — and most likely be fired off in salvos.

So, is it time to for Great Satan to xform her carriers into laptops, stripper poles and floating hostels for the homeless?

Hold up comrade admiral!

As best understood, warfighting weapon tech advances don't always mean the end of an era - torpedos didn't mean the end of the battleship, bunker busters haven't made bunkers passe', panzerschrek anti panzermissiles haven't killed off panzers on the battlefield and SAM's haven't ran combat jets off the screen.

"...Time of flight for 900 miles would be on the order of 12-15 minutes, depending on the trajectory. Launch warning from U.S. satellite systems would be nearly instantaneous, and in the remaining ten minutes or so, the carrier can travel 6-8 miles in any direction. This, combined with any errors in the track file, creates what is called an “error ellipse,” which increases over time.

"...To overcome the error ellipse, the DF-21 is presumably equipped with a maneuvering reentry vehicle and a terminal guidance seeker (either radar or IR). This not only drives up the cost and complexity of the missile, it creates additional points of failure that will reduce the overall reliability of the system.

"...Assuming, however, that everything works as advertised, the terminal guidance seeker has a limited field of view (called a basket), and must be directed to a point in space that places the target within that basket.

"...To ensure that this happens, the Chinese would probably fire a salvo of several missiles into the error ellipse, so that at least one missile would pick up the target.

And if Dongfeng lucked out and found a carrier - she'd still have to dodge, evade and make her way through of gauntlet of no quarter players designed to intercept her.

"...Electronic and infrared jamming; decoy deployment; maneuvering; and, of course, shooting back.

"...Standard Missile SM-3 now deployed on Ticonderoga class cruisers and Improved Arleigh Burke class destroyers was designed specifically to engage theater ballistic missiles in their midcourse (free-fall) phase; they have proven very effective in tests. Each cruiser and destroyer will, presumably, carry a dozen or more of these missiles for the defense of the carrier.

"...Plus a shorter-range missile based on the Army's Patriot PAC-3 for "terminal defense."

"...The AEGIS fire control system's Cooperative Engagement Capability will allow the netting of all the sensors in the battle group with external sensors (satellites, reconnaissance aircraft, land-based tracking radar, etc.) to obtain an early and optimal firing solution on any incoming missiles. Assuming two SM-3s and two short-range missiles are aimed at each incoming DF-21, a kill probability in excess of 90 percent is likely.

And if Dongfeng made it through with her honor intact?

"...If it has a conventional warhead, probably not enough to sink the ship, though it might do serious damage. A lot depends on how large its explosive payload is, how fast it is moving when it hits, and where on the ship it impacts.

"...The only way to ensure a carrier kill is to use a nuclear warhead--and if the Chinese do that, all bets are off.

Pic "Dongfeng way better than No Dong"

What If Iran Strikes First?

Strike One!

Tons of teasing talk and juicy jazz about Little Satan igniting the ignition on the ME Regional Warmobile - maybe doing an airborne panty raid on the totally Gay Free Persian regime's tender, sensitive portions like Natanz, Esfahan or even the recently unveiled covert chicanery complex at Qom.

Or copping a feel from BH Liddlehart and doing an 'Indirect Approach" on Hiz'B'Allah - or even Syria. Even a rare bit of pillow talk about a Corleone Family style hit on 2 of Axis of Evil's all stars and their forward elements in Lebanon.

Instead - what if Iran freaks - reeling from the feeling that a pre emptive attack may prevent a regime changing attack - and fires off an offending offensive of her very own?

"...Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other senior officials have proclaimed on numerous occasions their belief that the United States is a declining power, that the international order that underpinned U.S. influence is crumbling, and that U.S. strength has been sapped by long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"...Relatively recent personnel changes in the Iranian military command structure have created additional concerns about Iranian intentions.

"...Ahmadinejad's new defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, made his career in the Quds Force -- the branch of the IRGC involved in terrorism and the export of the Islamic Revolution. He was personally implicated in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, as well as other acts of terrorism.

"...Recently appointed commander of the IRGC navy, Vice Adm. Ali Fadavi, led IRGC naval forces in the Persian Gulf near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when they were bloodied by the U.S. Navy. He is reputed to be a hard-liner driven by a desire to avenge this humiliation and the accidental 1988 downing of an Iranian jetliner by the U.S. military.

"... Both were among the chorus of voices warning foreign powers not to board and search Iranian ships in accordance with recent U.N. sanctions.

Certain elements in Preacher Command "...might welcome, for domestic political reasons, a limited conflict with the United States.

"...This could take the form of a clash with U.S. naval forces in the Gulf or an act that prompts retaliatory U.S. airstrikes but spares Iran's economic infrastructure and its armed forces.

"...Iran's leadership might hope that such a clash would divert attention from the economic hardships caused by sanctions, provide a pretext for a more severe crackdown on the domestic opposition, and rally a divided population behind an embattled and unpopular regime.

Pic - "Any military action by the United States or Israel would have as its function the inflicting of severe damage on Iran’s nuclear installations, medium-range missile programmes and pre-empt any damaging Iranian response.”

Little Satan's Point Of No Return

Launch all fighters!

It's true - maybe sanctions will persuade Mullahopolis to commit enrichment interruptus and forswear new clear desires. Maybe the Iranian Green party will do a regime change from the inside out ala collectivist Russia. Maybe the super spy guy ops Great and Little Satan along with Great Britian, France, and Saudiland will sabotage stuff, co opt, kidnap or kill scientists and render atomic assets null and void.

Maybe 44 himself will finally say the heck with it and unleash Great Satan's military on Perisa - air striking the regime - critical and expensive goodies rendered useless in any wmd proliferating probabilities.

Then again, maybe not!

"...What is more likely, then, is that one day next spring, the Israeli national-security adviser, Uzi Arad, and the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, will simultaneously telephone their counterparts at the White House and the Pentagon, to inform them that their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has just ordered roughly one hundred F-15Es, F-16Is, F-16Cs, and other aircraft of the Israeli air force to fly east toward Iran—possibly by crossing Saudi Arabia, possibly by threading the border between Syria and Turkey, and possibly by traveling directly through Iraq’s airspace, though it is crowded with American aircraft.

"...(It’s so crowded, in fact, that the United States Central Command, whose area of responsibility is the greater Middle East, has already asked the Pentagon what to do should Israeli aircraft invade its airspace. According to multiple sources, the answer came back: do not shoot them down.)

"...In these conversations, which will be fraught, Israelis will state that they believe they have a reasonable chance of delaying the Iranian nuclear program for at least three to five years. They will tell their American colleagues that Israel was left with no choice.

"...They will not be asking for permission, because it will be too late to ask for permission.


"...When the Israelis begin to bomb the uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz, the formerly secret enrichment site at Qom, the nuclear-research center at Esfahan, and possibly even the Bushehr reactor, along with the other main sites of the Iranian nuclear program, a short while after they depart en masse from their bases across Israel—regardless of whether they succeed in destroying Iran’s centrifuges and warhead and missile plants, or whether they fail miserably to even make a dent in Iran’s nuclear program—they stand a good chance of changing the Middle East forever;

"...Of sparking lethal reprisals, and even a full-blown regional war that could lead to the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Iranians, and possibly Arabs and Americans as well;

"...Of creating a crisis for Barack Obama that will dwarf Afghanistan in significance and complexity; of rupturing relations between Jerusalem and Washington, which is Israel’s only meaningful ally; of inadvertently solidifying the somewhat tenuous rule of the mullahs in Tehran; of causing the price of oil to spike to cataclysmic highs, launching the world economy into a period of turbulence not experienced since the autumn of 2008, or possibly since the oil shock of 1973;

"...Of placing communities across the Jewish diaspora in mortal danger, by making them targets of Iranian-sponsored terror attacks, as they have been in the past, in a limited though already lethal way; and of accelerating Israel’s conversion from a once-admired refuge for a persecuted people into a leper among nations.

"...If a strike does succeed in crippling the Iranian nuclear program, however, Israel, in addition to possibly generating some combination of the various catastrophes outlined above, will have removed from its list of existential worries the immediate specter of nuclear-weaponized, theologically driven, eliminationist anti-Semitism;

"...It may derive for itself the secret thanks (though the public condemnation) of the Middle East’s moderate Arab regimes, all of which fear an Iranian bomb with an intensity that in some instances matches Israel’s;

"...And it will have succeeded in countering, in militant fashion, the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which is, not irrelevantly, a prime goal of the enthusiastic counter-proliferator who currently occupies the White House.

Pic "Point of no return"

Amir-ul-Momineen

Oh Snap!

Is Taleban getting desperate?

Aside from extraordinary prowess at killing innocent unarmed humanitarians, brutalizing girls and murdering women including their pre 911 breakthrough hit "Dynamiting Buddha," Taleban battlefield exploits have been few and far between.

Last seen unassing the AO on a moto scooter, the Taliban's tyrannis terribles the one eyed Mullah Omar has been rumoured to still be about - maybe in Pakistan - maybe rewriting the Taliban's RoE

Rumours about "Commander of the faithful" - Amir-ul-Momineen - Mullah Omar have dang near driven Taliban into a totally raison d'jank etre:

"...Without their faith in Mullah Omar’s divinely inspired leadership, the Taliban would almost surely collapse into a welter of rival clans and factions.

"...Those splits are more visible now, as the doubts and divides grow with every false report. Nearly a dozen Taliban commanders who were interviewed by NEWSWEEK for this story say Omar’s silence has become an urgent topic among the Taliban leadership.

"...Perhaps the enigmatic Mullah Omar—if in fact he’s alive and at liberty—is waiting for the right moment to show himself. But meanwhile the cracks in his insurgency are deepening. Unless he surfaces soon, his hopes of returning to power could disappear as completely as he has.

Pic - "Desperate"

Sleight Of Hand

Word!

The old tricks are the best tricks, nicht war?

Especially when tricked out in a new school high tech style!

As previously previewed, blood sworn girthy overtly robust Body Part Collector General of the rocket rich rejectionist 'Resistance' clique of Hiz'B'Allah is getting squished in a bind of his own design via UN's Hariri Tribunal.

In a sleight of hand to deflect diss, close, leisured and thorough inspection (think UN Sec Reso 1701) - Hiz'B'Allah has named Little Satan as the mad bomber that nearly annihilated Lebanon's entire political cadre.

And offered up hot! juicy deets by revealing Hiz'B'Allah has been co opting Little Satan's spy drones for nearly 15 years!

"...Nasrallah revealed that Hizballah had acquired the technical ability, some time in the early 1990s, to tap into the direct video feeds that passed from the many reconnaissance drones circulating in Lebanon's skies to the Israeli military command.

"...What kind of qualitative edge did this breakthrough afford the party, and what implications would it have upon the five-year-long investigation into Hariri's murder?

"...This technological leap forward, said Nasrallah, enabled the party to study the areas under Israeli surveillance, which in some cases provided valuable counter-espionage information.

"...On one such occasion in 1996, Hizballah used this intelligence to lay an ambush at a spot they believed would be the scene of a future operation. Several months later, they were proven right when Israeli naval commandoes landed off the coast of Lebanon and proceeded precisely to that spot, near the village of Ansariyya, where a bloody firefight ensued.

"...Drawing upon an archive of surveillance footage, Nasrallah attempted to demonstrate that Israel was engaged in monitoring the routes that Rafiq al-Hariri traveled in the months building up to his assassination.

"...This evidence, along with the confessions of recently arrested Little Satan collaborators in Lebanon, represented the basis of Hizballah's accusation.

Pic "Espionage accusations being used for diplomatic leverage" with Ashlee pretending to be Little Satan

Kashmir Curse

Oh! It's true bay bee!

Events au courant or future can be perceived to make up for past doofussness, grievances, lost glories and humiliations.

Kinda the short short def for 'nat'lism," it also applies to the Curse of Kashmir

"...What do the men at the top of Pakistan's army have in common? They are officers of the "traumatized generation". Each joined an army that had been humiliated in the 1971 war, which ended not only in the gut-wrenching surrender of more than 90,000 troops to an Indian general, but the partition of Pakistan and the reinvention of the East as Bangladesh.

"...The only war that Kayani has fought, barring recent civil wars of course, is the game-changing 1971 conflict.

"...This generation, still burning with an adolescent heartache that can never quite heal, has had a silent, consuming mission: revenge for Bangladesh through Kashmir, preferably within its career span or at least in its lifetime.

"...The tortured angst of zealots is even more acute because in their fevered imagination, a "Muslim" army on jihad had been disgraced by a "Hindu" force. If the status of Kashmir changes in the next five years, this generation will have realized its religio-nationalist fantasy

"...Four decades later, Pakistan is waiting for Omar Abdullah to become the Yahya Khan of Kashmir, and tweaking events with just enough intervention to help a mistake gravitate towards a crisis. This may sound far-fetched in Delhi, but there is optimism in Islamabad.

"...The Jamaat e-Islami, which advocates accession to Pakistan, is, at long last, in the vanguard of an upsurge; the slogan on the streets is that Omar may be in government but the Jamaat's Syed Ali Shah Geelani is in power

"...Estimates differ but the death toll in Kashmir between June and the first week of August is around 40. Rampaging Muhajirs, outraged at the murder of their Shia leader, Syed Raza Haider on Monday, have killed more than 80 and injured hundreds of Pashtuns in Karachi.

"...This was not a Hindu-Muslim riot; this was Muslim-Muslim carnage. Muhajirs are UP-Bihar migrants who left their land in 1947 for the Promised Land.

:...Six decades later, they need private militias to defend themselves because they offend Pathans in a "pure" country that has virtually eliminated "infidels" from its demography.

Pic "Ready to die"