Signaleer

The Warrior Song

2009-11-08T12:46:00.001-06:00

Infantry: Off With Their Heads

2009-11-08T11:30:00.000-06:00

"These 'decapitation' operations have been on the increase over the past few years. The Taliban and al Qaeda have already figured out what is going on, and are increasingly paranoid when it comes to informers, using their own cell or satellite phones, and the sight of any unidentified aircraft in the area. The terrorists keep changing the way they meet and communicate, yet they keep getting killed. While the terrorists can replace leaders and technical specialists, they cannot replace them with people of equal skill and experience. And as they move into the shallow end of the talent pool, more mistakes are made. Al Qaeda operatives who have fled Iraq to Afghanistan, have noticed, and commented on, the lower level of technical expertise among their Afghan brothers. While most Iraqi terrorists were literate, and some even had formal technical training, most Afghans are illiterate, and any technical training they might have was acquired informally. This has led to more bombs that don't go off on cue, or, worse yet, explode while being worked on, or emplaced. This sort of thing will happen more, as the talent pool gets diluted."

Counter-Terrorism: Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemen

2009-11-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

"Saudi aircraft have, in the last week, used several hundred missiles and bombs on Yemeni rebel targets near the Saudi border. This was triggered by an incident on October 14th, when Saudi police caught two al Qaeda members trying to get past a border post dressed as women, and carrying weapons and bomb making material. The two were killed in a gun battle, along with a policeman."

Attrition: Bloodier Afghanistan

2009-11-08T11:03:00.000-06:00

"The Afghan enemy is more likely to stand and fight that their Iraqi counterparts. The Afghans not only fight more, but they fight smarter. They have made much greater use of human shields, taking cover among civilians, knowing that the American ROE (Rules of Engagement) put great emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties."

Infantry: Combat Rules For Afghanistan

2009-11-05T18:38:00.000-06:00

"Most Afghans would like to see the Taliban gone, and the need to put platoons of American troops in hundreds of villages at a time, is the main reason why the American commander wants another 40,000 troops. This plan cuts the Taliban off from supplies and information, and forces them to attack the villages containing U.S. troops. The Taliban are the likely losers in this kind of war, but for the moment, there are not enough American troops to make it so. In the meantime, American troops have had to adapt, and stay one step ahead of the Taliban."

Support: Older Is Better And Will Save Your Life

2009-11-05T18:32:00.000-06:00

"The U.S. Army recently held a competition to determine who 'The Best Medics In The Army' are. Thirteen teams (of two medics each) were in the final competition. The winners were two reservists (Staff Sergeant. Bjoern Pietrzyk and Sergeant Charles Smith). Pietrzyk is a fireman, while Smith is an emergency room radiology technician, both from Colorado. It was no surprise that two reservists would win this competition, for the reservists have brought with them a lot of experience, and knowledge, once activated and sent to the combat zone."

Israel: Firmly Behind The Genocide Solution

2009-11-05T18:27:00.000-06:00

"At the moment, there's no one to negotiate with among the Palestinians. Fatah has called for elections in January, to resolve the split between themselves and Hamas (which controls the 40 percent of the Palestinians that live in Gaza). But Hamas (which has lost much of its popularity because of its harsh and inept rule in Gaza), has refused to allow anyone in Gaza take part in these elections. So the elections will settle nothing. Arab diplomatic efforts to get Fatah and Hamas to reconcile have failed. So have efforts by Western diplomats. Hamas is fixated on its plans to destroy Israel, and imposing Islamic law on the people of Gaza. This leaves no time for diplomacy. To make matters worse, many Arab nations, are responding to the years of 'kill the Jews' propaganda by passing laws against even negotiating with Israel, or having any contact at all."

Cornyn: ‘We Will Not Spend Money in a Contested Primary’ - The Note

2009-11-04T15:02:00.000-06:00

"'We will not spend money in a contested primary,' Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told ABC News in a telephone interview today.

'There's no incentive for us to weigh in,' said Cornyn, R-Texas. 'We have to look at our resources. . . . We're not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election.'

Cornyn said his pledge extends to races for open Senate seats -- not incumbents who may face primaries next year."

New York Times Suddenly Defense Procurement Experts

2009-11-04T14:37:00.000-06:00

"The fact is, the Times editorial board has little idea of how much defensive capability we need, as they've never been a credible or knowledgeable exponent of national security matters. In one breath they argue that cutting the F-22 was justified because the plane hasn't seen combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, in the next, they can barely contain their giddiness at the prospect of killing the V-22 Osprey, a valuable tilt-rotor aircraft that has been absolutely indispensable to quick-reaction Marine forces in both theaters of war. They say that military planners don't want more C-17 cargo jets, a mere month after Air Force officials laid out a very clear and convincing case for additional military airlift resources to support landlocked Afghanistan. They even go so far as to bring out the big guns, plucking lines directly from Obama's stump speeches in their support of killing 'unproven' missile defense technologies."

Battered Presidents Syndrome

2009-11-04T14:35:00.000-06:00

"So what does the Obama administration do? It puts out a pathetic statement marking the anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis. And read the statement closely. After presenting as evidence of good faith a series of gestures made by this administration to the thugs that rule Iran, the president declares that 'We have heard for thirty years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for.'"

Intelligence: Overload

2009-11-04T13:41:00.000-06:00

"Since everything associated with spy satellites is highly classified, the problems with analyzing, or even just storing, the huge quantities of data, have been largely hidden from view. But there are warehouses full of tapes (the easiest way to store digital data), some of them decades old, and never seen by human eyes. In the last decade, there's been a growing flood of data coming from closer to the ground. UAV, droid and security cam video, airborne reconnaissance (both photo and electronic) and even troops mounting vidcams on their vehicles (to see what they might have missed during a patrol). It's been a growing crises."

Winning: Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys With An Edge

2009-11-04T10:36:00.000-06:00

"In Afghanistan, closer cooperation between U.S. and French troops has revealed, to the Americans, that the French are well trained, equipped and led. And are generally quite effective in combat. Cheese eating surrender monkeys with an edge, and automatic weapons. There are 2,800 French troops in Afghanistan."

House GOP pens 230-page health bill draft

2009-11-03T20:06:00.000-06:00

"Instead, the Republican plan increases incentives for people to use health savings accounts, caps non-economic jury awards in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, provides various incentives to states with the aim of driving down premium costs and allows health insurance to be sold across state lines."

Morale: Desperately Seeking The Elephant

2009-11-03T15:33:00.000-06:00

"Many young American infantry soldiers stationed in Iraq are disappointed at the lack of combat. These guys are in for four years, and they hoped to get a little action, as in some once-in-a-lifetime combat. The troops know the odds of getting killed or mutilated are low (at least compared to previous wars, the casualty rate in Iraq is about a third of what it was in Vietnam), so there's not a great deal of fear about 'not coming back.' The upside is appealing, with the prospect of exciting stories to last a lifetime, and maybe a few decorations to confirm it all."

India-Pakistan: Terrorists Trounced in the Tribal Territories

2009-11-03T14:54:00.000-06:00

"Pakistan has seven brigades of troops advancing into South Waziristan, while another seven brigades guard the roads and easy escape routes. Some of the terrorists will escape, but it won't be easy. With Winter beginning, it will be dangerous trying to sneak out of the area cross country. The South Waziristan operation has destroyed dozens of terrorist safe houses, training areas and weapons storage sites. Large quantities of documents have been seized. This included passports belonging to known terrorists who had been involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and subsequent operations in Europe and Arab countries."

The Weekly Standard

2009-11-03T10:10:00.000-06:00

"Well apparently America's military leadership has firmly communicated to the White House that winning this war is important -- a shocking report indeed -- and threatened 'mutiny' if Obama fails to do what's necessary. Look, this is a silly story from the kingpin of ridiculous war reporting. The Vietnam example is absurd enough on its face -- the only relevant comparison between Afghanistan and Vietnam is length and, further, the former isn't even a war -- it's an overseas contingency operation, remember?"

The Weekly Standard

2009-11-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

"“Vaccinating Guantanamo Detainees ahead of millions of at-risk Americans should serve as a serious warning about the federal government’s ability to follow through on its health care reform promises,...”"

The Weekly Standard

2009-11-03T10:01:00.000-06:00

"There's a myriad of peaceful options at the president's disposal: disperse military communication satellites into a large fleet of triple-redundant birds, build satellites with ASAT detection capabilities and emergency maneuverability options, and -- in one of the cooler proposals I've heard -- convert our old MX missile force into an emergency satellite booster force, able to put a replacement bird in orbit in hours. Unfortunately, like most other 21st century threats, space just isn't something the White House is treating with the proper level of respect (or resourcing)."

The Weekly Standard

2009-11-03T09:57:00.000-06:00

The Weekly Standard: "Space has been militarized almost from the moment man was able to place objects into space. Ballistic missiles traverse space on their way to their targets. Satellites fulfill a variety of critical military functions from space, including communications, surveillance, early warning, navigation and target acquisition. U.S. and Western military forces are totally reliant upon space-based systems and would be crippled if they were in any way disrupted or destroyed. The effect of losing communications satellites is obvious. Less obvious would be the impact of disrupting the Global Positioning System."

CIT Files Bankruptcy; U.S. Unlikely to Recoup Money (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

2009-11-01T23:52:00.000-06:00

CIT Files Bankruptcy; U.S. Unlikely to Recoup Money (Update3) - Bloomberg.com: "CIT Group Inc., a 101-year-old commercial lender, filed for bankruptcy to cut $10 billion in debt after the credit crunch dried up its funding and a U.S. bailout and debt exchange offer failed.
CIT listed $71 billion in assets and $64.9 billion in debt in a Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The U.S. Treasury Department said the government probably won’t recover much, if any, of the $2.3 billion in taxpayer money that went to CIT."

No Pain, No Gain: Mastering A Skill Makes Us Stressed In The Moment, Happy Long Term

2009-11-01T14:40:00.000-06:00

No Pain, No Gain: Mastering A Skill Makes Us Stressed In The Moment, Happy Long Term: "'No pain, no gain is the rule when it comes to gaining happiness from increasing our competence at something,' said Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. 'People often give up their goals because they are stressful, but we found that there is benefit at the end of the day from learning to do something well. And what's striking is that you don't have to reach your goal to see the benefits to your happiness and well-being.'"

Special Operations: The Tribulations Of Tribal Politics

2009-11-01T14:31:00.000-06:00

Special Operations: The Tribulations Of Tribal Politics: "Many Special Forces officers believe that a more 'tribe-centric' approach to Afghanistan would be more successful. However, even these operators admit that tribal politics, especially in Afghanistan, can be particularly nasty. Customs carry great weight, but that does not prevent Pushtuns from screwing you, or each other, when opportunity becomes too great a temptation. Another problem with tribes is that relationships are personal, not institutional. The Special Forces teams establish personal links, pledging their personal promise to do this or that. The tribal leaders can understand that. Send in an unknown officer, no matter how well equipped (with cash or other gifts), and he will have to start from scratch. Life is hard out in the tribal territories, and everything tends to be personal."

Morale: Fobbit Fun Forbidden

2009-11-01T14:28:00.000-06:00

Morale: Fobbit Fun Forbidden: "The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (Stanley McChrystal, who has a Special Forces background) has ordered a sharp cut in amenities enjoyed at the few large bases. This is to provide more resources for the troops out in the field. This means that U.S. fast food outlets (like Burger King and Subway) will be shut down, and events like Karaoke Night are cancelled."

Logistics: Al Qaeda Cut Off At The ATM

2009-11-01T14:26:00.000-06:00

Logistics: Al Qaeda Cut Off At The ATM: "Al Qaeda has lots of competition for that money. Hamas and Hezbollah are popular recipients, and it’s considered bad form to criticize competitors for precious terrorist charity dollars. Al Qaeda has another problem, in that have a well earned reputation of being infiltrated. That puts donors at risk from local police. It wasn’t always that way. Before 2003, the Arab governments generally looked the other way when wealthy locals donated money to Islamic charities that were known to be fronts for terror groups. But in 2003, al Qaeda broke the unofficial (but very real) truce with their Arab host countries, by carrying out attacks on Saudi oil facilities. That was a big mistake, because even religiously conservative Arabs understood that without the oil wealth, there would be no there there in Saudi Arabia (and most of the rest of Arabia.)"

Iran: Walking Away From Islam

2009-11-01T14:05:00.000-06:00

Iran: Walking Away From Islam: "An increasing number of senior clerics are openly criticizing the 'Islamic Police State' that has become increasingly harsh in the way it suppresses real, or imagined, opposition. Many senior clerics are aghast at the growing corruption among the clerics who run the government, and the pretense of democracy, with elections rigged so that only pro-dictatorship candidates can even run. At the grassroots, most young Iranians are fed up with the dictatorship. It offers no jobs for the poor, and few opportunities for the educated and ambitious. Most worrisome to the clerics is the growing number of young Iranians who are giving up on Islam. Many of these kids are saying that Islam is 'un-Iranian' and that everyone should return to the pre-Islam Iranian religion."