Nom de plume: Rivrdog

There's a fine little NAVY war on now...

...against the pirates in Somalia. It looks like the European Union, acting with the services of the French, who have provided a littoral-combat ship, the Dixmude, with it's 16 helos (some are gunships), have taken the pirate nests under fire with combined ops from offshore. Hmmm....looks like that thirty mike-mike chin cannon could make a mess of a pirate ship, and the two pods of folding-fin 2.75" rockets would add to the fray...TOW or HOT missiles in case they meet any Islamic armor protecting a pirate lair...yeppers, littoral combat, all the first-world nations have invested heavily in their shallow-water Navies, and this is what they do.

BTW, if one of the US Navy's ships, such as the LCS-2 USS Independence, were to join that fray, that 120 rounds per minute 75 mm gun could finally see some action, too. 

Now maybe the qat-chewing Somali sea-scum will feel the modern equivalent of the lash...

the FeeBees lose track of one of their own

...and they're beating the bushes VERY hard to find him.

Special Agent, hard worker, no disciplinary problems, un-remarkable home life, appears to have a mid-life crisis and goes AWOL. Takes his gun with him.

Nothing further, except the ferocity with which he is being sought.

Hmmmm, says the suspicious mind, wonder why?

Well, for starters, this Special Agent likely knows about every counter-terror plan on the books, at least on the West Coast.

Of course, there are broad hints, appearing to be official hints, that he may have taken off to say goodbye cruel world. That doesn't fool this old cop. That same thing is said EVERY time a spy or sleuth with important info disappears. After they find him alive, if they do, he will likely be hustled to some hush-hush shrinkhouse to be deprogrammed.

Think the Gulag Archipelago can't happen here?

Think again.

Watch TV, get stupid

Example: Yesterday, the local Evening news I watched, (KATU, the ABC affiliate) had a story on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Oh, the emotion! Oh, now we can have "closure".

Wait a farging minute, boneheads. 100 years have passed since the ill-fated (and poorly-built and operated) liner went down. Who is left to "close"? No survivors of the shipwreck remain, the last one died several years ago, IIRC. Probably few sons or daughters of victims remain, either, since they would have to be at least 99 years old. Maybe a few grandchildren of victims remain, but they'd be at least in their 70's, and those people grew up to be adults before "closure" became the fad it is now, so they probably don't miss their grandpas and grandmas, either, never having seen them.

When someone says "closure" to you, they are probably a mush-for-brains liberal product of the past two generations of our failed educational system. Closure is when you shovel the dirt on the casket, or, at the very last moment, when the insurance company issues the check if you are the beneficiary.

Closure, my ass, but it's not the worst example. In an almost-comical display just last week, a Civil War soldier was re-buried from wherever he had been planted, to the Willamette National Cemetary here in Stumptown. The reason given was that he had not been properly buried when he expired some time after that war. Of course, the rifle squad were Civil War re-enactors (who had a problem doing a speedy reload of their percussion-ignition, muzzle-loading rifles to fire the second volley, (the telly didn't show the third volley). Of course, some shirt-tail family member was there to receive a flag (they didn't say how many stars were on it), and of course the anchorwoman had to gravely intone, "Now the family has "closure". Be still, my retching stomach...

Second example. Afghanistan just suffered though a spate of coordinated attacks in the capital, Kabul. Most were suicide kabooms. There were a bunch of them. This ayem, I am watching Fox News' morning show, and they trot out a retired General, name of Jackson. He immediately reminded me of GEN Wesley Clark, the Clintoon apologist First Class during the Serbian War. This General Jackson opined that the attacks were NOT a military setback for Obama's Afghani policy, since they were not done by the Taliban, but by the Haqqani Network who we are at war with, but won't admit it, in Pakistan.

Oh, REALLY, General? If we have weakened the Taliban but allowed a new group to take their place as the strong terror-mongers, just HOW is that a demonstration of success?

It must be Bonehead Monday.

Ruh-roh! IDF cancels all military leave...

Yeah, ruh-roh. The Israeli Defense Force usually lets lots of troops go home for the High Holy Days.

Could be nothing, could be war coming.

You decide, but I'm filling all my jerry jugs...

Long time no blog - UPDATED!

So, let's catch up:

In the past week of no blogging, I have:

• Just deleted 6 spam comments, from Canada, New Zealand, France and the US of A. I guess I am definitely read all over the world! WhooPee Farge!
• Went to the MOAA Portland dinner last week, met the Professor of Aerospace Studies at Portland University, a Catholic institution which has been responsible, in the past 60 years or so, for introducing eleven hundred new butter-bar officers to the Air Force and Army. Got a briefing on the ROTC Summer Camp, which appears to be not much changed from when I did the OTS version of it, only for 90 days, in 1967, to get MY butter bars. Your blogger was one of the last, true, "90-day wonders".
• Been coming around to the conclusion that we have, at this point in the War On Terror, farged up said War so badly we probably ought to just abandon it and wait for a new Commander in Chief before even thinking of starting it up again. When we first went into the 'Stan a decade ago, we sent in one division, together with some TAC air support, and blew the Taliban and Al-Qaeda off the map in about 3 months. They were unprepared for us, and it wasn't that hard a job, especially for the Tenth Mountain Division, which is built for that combat. Since then, we have installed and tolerated a complete crook of a President Karzai (similar to the crooks we installed and tolerated in MY war, Vietnam), we have saddled our troops with the most outrageous and inane Rules of Engagement ever heard of in any modern conflict, we have made STUPID mistakes, like failing to have a Muslim Imam help with the destruction of defiled Qurans, and now, tolerating certifiable Loonies (how many other of these ticking time bombs are there over there).
• Just a few minutes ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's aircraft was approaching Bagram MOB for a landing, when a stolen base vehicle took to the runway, apparently in an effort to kill the landing aircraft. The pilot aborted landing, and the vehicle's suicide-driver failed in his mission. How bad has our security gotten when we can't do enough OpSec and CommSec to keep the SecDef's ingress into the war zone a secret?

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UPDATE: 031412 2146 PDT: The Patriot Padre notes that US and Brit troops attending Leon Panetta's speech to the troops at Camp Leatherneck were told to disarm in his presence. Hmmmm.

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Our military is screwed up to the max. This security breach tells ME that the solid leaders have already all been replaced or retired, and now the military is led by fools and incompetents both at home and in the war zone. We need to get the HELL out of  'Stan before we waste any more US lives. Yes WASTE those lives. The probability of our actually accomplishing any WOT objective over there is long gone, and anyway, there is a high likelihood that we have encouraged/permitted Karzai to butter both sides of his toast, and he has reached an accomodation with the Taliban by now, which means that our men and women over there are all in great danger from ANY association with the Afganis.

When those troops come home, it is MY job and YOUR job to welcome them back, but never stop reminding them that it was Obama who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The WOT veterans are a powerful force, and if properly advised and reminded, give us the power to maintain our Constitution, since with their help, we could take the field against the government if that became necessary to save the Constitution. Note that this berserker incident will be used to try to get into the heads of all those returning vets, and the Obama Administration will try to convince them that they are ALL crazy, so they should be denied their 2A rights, be subjected to mandatory whacko treatment, etc.

When the first signs of those plans begin to appear (second signs, actually, the first sign appeared after Virginia Tech 5 years ago and the NRA kowtowed to it), we must all raise one very loud voice, at least as loud as the voice we have raised over Fast and Furious.

Yeah, your Rivrdog is still here, still blogging. Now, back to the WillBoat job.

SEAL Team Six, again

This time, they go into Somalia to raid a pirate compound and rescue two hostages.

And they did it wrong, but I don't blame the SEALs, I blame the National Command structure.

The US just blew away, not only 9 pirates, but the chance to use a little psy-war on the rest of the pirate nest that is Somalia.

We have to have targeting intell on more than just the pirate nest that we just raided.

What we should have done is raid the one nest, recover the hostages, and simultaneous with the choppers lifting the SEALs out of there, B-52s would have bombed all the nests we had targeting info on. Simultaneous to THAT, the Navy and the multi-national anti-piracy force should have taken out ever pirate dhow they were shadowing, and we know about a few of THOSE.

If we had hit the pirates hard from the air, sea and land, simultaneously, the word would have gotten out, and probably half those engaged in that outlaw way of life would have given up their jobs on the spot. In a few weeks, we gather more intell, hammer them again from three axes of attack, and my guess is that the threat would be over by March.

And here's one for Buckingham Palace: have the Royal Chamberlain march over to the Old City, have a friendly chat with those blokes running Lloyds of London, and see to it that they REQUIRE armed crews on ships in those waters, as a condition of issuing them insurance. Slow down the process of paying piracy insurance claims to the shipowners. Slow it WAAAAY down. When it becomes a non-starter for the shipping industry to tolerate piracy from Somalia (or elsewhere), piracy will end.

In the short term, pay the Russians what they ask for providing armed crews for the ships transiting those waters. The Russians know how to handle the pirates, and any dhow seeing a Russian ensign on a ship turns away.

Confuser in Chief, "Swift-Boated"

A new book is out on the SEAL mission to kill Bin Laden.

Assuming we can believe the author, a SEAL, on his version of the events (I have a bit of skepticism, because much of what he reveals is or should be heavily classified and that brings up the question of "how did he get the info"), the Commander In Chief completely disregarded the protocols of military security, and required that the word on Bin Laden's death be immediately released.

The author apparently presents the case for keeping it a secret for a time, while the physical intel gathered at the scene could be interpreted and put to counter-intel use against Al-Qaeda, but that was ignored by Obama as well.

If the book is true, it "Swift-Boats" a bunch of military folks who climbed on Obama's coat-tails for that ride.

If the book is true, none of the individuals who went along with Obama's release of info should ever be entrusted with any classified information or positions of leadership again.

I'll get the book, read it and report on it here.

Cyber-War discussion in progress...

...and that's a GOOD thing. We are FAR more likely to be hit, badly, by a major cyber-attack than we are to be hit by nuke, chem or bio terror attacks of a nationally-damaging nature. Yeah, its fun to write and talk about all the what-ifs of various terror attack scenarios, but cheap data storage and hugely-powerful computer boards mean that it costs relatively little to assemble the hardware to attack our financial houses, or cripple other important networks, such as air traffic control.

Ya, sure, all you cyber-wallahs in the security bidsnez, and I have several in my clan, will say we're safe, but in your hearts you know we're not.

What retired USMC GEN. Cartwright says here is that we need to introduce the very human element of deterrence into the equation of defense vs. attack, which usually centers on cyber-protecting data exchanges or data-storage.

The General is correct. The human factor of FEAR worked well to prevent a global nuclear exchange when the two big super-powers had the ability and the provocations to get one going.

Fear works, let's use it!

PDX-xtra: The Flea Party declares war

This ayem, whilst the Oregonian was delivering it's daily fishwrap with it's lead editorial warning the Flea Party that they'd made their point, now it was time to leave, the scruffians attacked.

Suprise attack, masked individual (more on the masks in a moment), flung a bucket of poo onto the Courthouse front door and fled. Cops there within seconds, couldn't find him, probably because all he had to do to escape was cross the street and disappear into the camp, from whence the poo came (obvious, it has a dyed deodorizer in it which is used in the too-few loos at the pigsty).

Okayyyy, so the Flea Party goes to war. When they went to war, they went right to NBC (Nuke-Bio-Chem) Warfare. They chose Biological warfare, and if we are going to have a measured response in kind, which is certainly called for, let's put a decent face on it and leave radiation out, going to Chemical Warfare to dislodge the filthy mob. CS or CN (Cry Sooner or Cry Now) are the choices in tear gas. There's also pepper spray, which doesn't count in the chemical arsenal, but it's available.

No need for a 0330 Charge of the Riot Brigade such as the Oakland, CA po-po used. Just surround the camp and prevent ingress of supplies and re-inforcements. Turn off the water at the street (you don't want them cleaning their faces when the gas goes in). Tell them all to leave, now, and no one leaving by a time certain will be detained (but photograph and identify EVERYONE leaving, no masks. That's allowable as part of a Field Interrogation, permitted in such circumstances. Most will probably leave, and only the hard core which wants to fight will remain.

Give that hard core their fight, show them the riot batons and demonstrate their use. Forget all the glitzy projectile weapons. On this one, let's use knuckles and sticks. Arrest everyone. Charge everyone with the maximum crimes which can be charged, Riot (C-Felony) and Criminal Mischief 1 (C-Felony). Extract cash bail, since all the scruffians are a Flight Risk.

The press MUST be invited to film the entire operation. It is IMPERATIVE that the cops use only that level of force which is sufficient to gain compliance to arrest. Show the faces of the arrested on Cable Access TeeVee, and show the video of the arrest procedures. Invite the press to accompany the clean-up crews in the twin parks, so as to give the taxpayers an idea of the damage which the Flea party "occupation" has caused.

Trials and sentencing. The trials shouldn't take long, the charges of Riot and Criminal Mischief are proven by video of the arrests in the damaged area, and there's little defense to be offered to those charges. A plea of Rioting while Stupid doesn't get you off, boneheads. Everyone sentenced must have monetary damages to pay, no letting anyone off on an excuse of "indigency". Community Service in the clean-up and re-planting of the parks might be in order, but for the obstructionists, and there will be a few, State Prison is appropriate upon conviction of those felonies. If they think that the Flea Party camp was ugly, wait until they get a glimpse of life inside the Walls.

Next, add up the total costs, then file a civil lawsuit against all the arrestees to recover the damages and the costs of everything. File that lawsuit immediately, since it can have a bearing on release agreements, etc.

Then start the recall petition against Hizzoner. He went on a ChiCom-paid boondoggle to China while his city center was under attack. Desertion in the face of the enemy is NEVER to be tolerated in the leadership.

OK, about those masks. A little history, Students. Where do you see terrorists mask up, strike the first blows when there is an accord to avoid conflict in place, and use a weapon of mass destruction in that first-strike attack?

Let's see, the PaleSwinian and other Islamist terrorists do that, various Marxists have done that ("Shining Path", or the Tamil Tigers come to mind). Yep, this group has, at it's hard core, trained terrorists. The eco-terrorists Earth First! and the Animal/Earth Liberation Fronts also mask up and strike first.

And YOU thought it was all about financial inequity?

Silly you.

The Caliphate expands...

...and (D) President Obama enabled it, through his military liaisons with NATO.

Remember that next year, when you get ready to choose (D) or (R).

The Sharia Law you enable today will kill or enslave your sons and daughters tomorrow, Mister and Mrs. America, but don't believe ME, ask any devout Muslim.

You DIDN'T read it here first...