It looks to me like the increased chatter about a possible strike is being driven by three things, Bush’s petulant arrogance, the idea that the Republican party might gain political advantage from this, and the idea that Ehud Olmert might gain political advantage from this.
Category: Military
Stop Loss to Continue
So, the back door draft continues.
We are breaking our military.
Gates Bitch Slaps Fighter Mafia
Since 1984, the Air force chiefs have staff have all been former fighter pilots. Before that, they were all bomber pilots.
With the appointment of General Norton Schwartz, who flew C-130s and AC-130s, it’s clear that Robert Gates is slapping down the so called “fighter mafia” hard.
What’s more, Vice Chief is now General William Fraser III, a former bomber pilot, which is another slap at the fighter jock leadership culture.
Maybe now, we can start seeing the Air Force do something useful at the upper leadership.
Turkey and Iran Coordinating on Military Action Against Kurds
Yet another fruit of our misbegotten colonial adventure, military cooperation between NATO ally Turkey and Iran.
B-2 Crash Cause Revealed
The cause, water on the air data sensors, giving the flight control inaccurate data.
There had been a previous incident on Guam when a pilot aborted takeoff, and the solution was to turn on pitot heaters to dry off the sensors, but this was never adopted as a formal part of the checklist.
It was an “underground procedure”.
You know, I would think that on an aircraft that is literally worth its weight in gold, that they would get their maintenance act together just a bit more.
USAF report here.
The video of the crash follows, with the 2nd aircraft being the one that crashed.
First THAAD Battery Activated
I’m not sure how much notice this would ordinarily rate, but I worked on some issues with this, basically laying out some fixed basing concepts for allies who are trusted enough to operate the system.
Not sure who the client nation was.
I laid out THAAD, PAC-3, and Arrow cells.
FCS MGV Update
You can get a good summary of the progress of the NLOS-C howitzer and NLOS-M mortar here, and things seem to be proceeding well, with the tube and the autoloader performing well.
Some pics of the NLOS-C:
FWIW, I don’t think that the FCS MGV (Future Combat System — Manned Ground Vehicle) is a particularly good idea. These platforms will be more expensive than their predecessors, but lighter weight, half the weight of a Bradley, 1/3 of the weight of an Abrams, so they will be more vulnerable to things like IEDs.
The systems they contain, communications and sensors, not the hybrid drive system, do have military value, and I expect them to see service, but it’s cheaper, and to my mind more militarily advantageous to retrofit the boxes on existing systems.
As to whether the military will buy any of these, I think yes, but only the NLOS-C, because the artillery folks at the military are currently using a vehicle first fielded in 1963, the M109 Paladin, and with the Crusader cancellation in the late 1990s, it’s still their turn.
I don’t think that the rest will be manufactured, though the ICV (Infantry Combat Vehicle) is in one very significant way, it carries a full infantry fire team of 9, as opposed to the Bradley’s 6, because of space freed up by making the turret remotly operated.
You could retrofit a Bradley with a new turret for the same effect though.
USAF Secretary and Chief of Staff Forced Out
General Michael Mosley and Secretary Michael Wynne have been forced to resign.
While the nominal reason given by SecDef Gates is mishandling of nuclear weapons by the USAF, I agree with Noah Shachtman’s take on it, that the USAF has been insubordinate on the F-22, and strongly resisting the supporting needs for more UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they were let go for this reason.
Gates pretty much said it himself, “For much of the past year I’ve been trying to concentrate the minds and energies of the defense establishment on the current needs and current conflicts,” he told the Heritage Foundation. “In short, to ensure that all parts of the Defense Department are, in fact, at war.”
Unfortunately, the USAF’s first priority has been a war with the rest of the DoD over the budget, in order to support their bloated spending priorities.
First FCS NLOS- C Howitzer to be Unveiled
This is, I think, the only variant of the FCS manned ground vehicle (FCS-MGV) at all likely to see large scale production.
The artillery Mafia in the Army have been clamoring for a replacement for the M109 Paladin for years, and the downsides of the FCS-MGV in a counter-insurgency scenario really do not apply to this vehicle, as a self propelled Howitzer should never be in a position where it would be in close contact with the populace.
That being said, it would have been far cheaper to buy something from our European allies.
The Latest in the US Gulags, Prison Ships
Delightful. They are now apparently using prison ships outside of territorial waters in order to avoid the scrutiny of human rights activists:
The United States is operating “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.
….
The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.
The Hague, bitches, the Hague.
Bush and His Evil Minions™ need to spend the rest of their lives in foreign prisons under the international criminal court. It’s the only way that this can be resolved now, because we lack the political will to prosecute this ourselves.
Political Kangaroo Court
Col. Peter Brownback, the judge on the Omar Khadr case, has been dismissed by the Pentagon:
U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback, 60, a Vietnam veteran who once admitted he was under pressure from Washington concerning Khadr’s case, was relieved of his duties yesterday and replaced by another military judge.
There was no comment from the Pentagon or the U.S. Office of Military Commissions last night concerning the short email announcing Brownback’s departure.
There had been speculation that Brownback had wanted to return to retirement, but most observers had assumed it would be at the end of Khadr’s trial.
Khadr’s military lawyer, U.S. navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, said the announcement took him by surprise and suggested that the motive for the military judge’s removal was political. Brownback had refused to set a trial date for Khadr, which Kuebler said angered those eager to have his case wrapped up before a change in the U.S. administration.
“The timing is certainly suspicious,” Kuebler said yesterday. “They’re trying to get to trial as quickly as possible. The one thing you can say in (Brownback’s) favour was that he was holding the government’s feet to the fire.”
If you recall, he was 14 at the time of his alleged crimes, and as a child soldier, in civilized worlds, though apparently not in the US military tribunal system, he would be adjudged a victim, not a criminal.
In related news, It appears that the government is pulling out all the stops to make sure that the trials of the alleged 911 conspirators are a part of the presidential campaign:
The U.S. military attorneys included the claim in a 20-page brief asking the military judge to dismiss the capital charges against alleged al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other Guantánamo detainees.
The document includes an e-mail from a civilian member of the prosecution team proposing to set the trial date for Sept. 15, the Monday after the seventh anniversary of the suicide attacks.
”Not coincidentally,” the defense attorneys say, “that would force the trial of this case in mid-September, some seven weeks before the general elections.”
This means that the defense will be given about 3 months to prepare for 5 death penalty cases where much of the evidence is classified, which is clearly inadequate.
Sadr and Sistani Call for Referendum on Iraqi Status of Forces Deal
Sadr is no surprise, but the fact that Sistani is demanding the plebiscite to members of the Iraqi government, though he has not gone public, is a very big deal.
There are now reports that the Iraqi government wants to put off finalizing the deal until next year, which means next administration,
Whoever Did This Will Have American and Iraqi Blood on Their Hands
There are allegations that US troops are handing out coins with Christian bible verses to the residents of Fallujah, which the military has now confirmed:
U.S. Marines are handing out this coin,
imprinted with a Gospel verse, to Fallujah residents.
At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.
Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. “Where will you spend eternity?” it asked.
He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16.”
and
The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in the Iraqi city of Fallujah was passing out coins with Gospel verses on them to Sunni Muslims, a U.S. military spokesman in Fallujah told McClatchy Thursday.
A single Marine, a lone gunman, whatever.
I call bullsh$#. If someone did this, than dozens of people knew that it was being done.
Sistani Will Object to US-Iraq “Security Accord”
In which “Security Accord” means permanent bases:
Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a ‘security accord’ between the US and Iraq.
The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with “the US occupiers” as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said.
While this report is from a source that could best be described as partial, Iranian funded TV network, it jibes with reports that he has been quietly approving action against US and coalition forces.
As I’ve said before, I think that Sistani has been reticent, because he is concerned that occupying forces to do what the British did, put the Sunnis in charge, if the Shia are too strident, but that he believes that permanent bases cross a line.
According to this report, he said this to the Prime Minister in conversations, so if this leaked out, it came from Sistani’s camp, not Maliki.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Warns Troops to Stay out of Politics
I’m not clear if what Admiral Mike Mullen’s, “open letter to all those in uniform”, means, but it is a highly unusual step.
It could be exactly what it says, a statement that, “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways….It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway.”
It could be a slap at those Generals **cough** Petraeus **cough**, who have pimped themselves out to Bush and His Evil Minions™ war, or it could be an attempt to de-legitimize the protests of retired military officers, or it could mean exactly what it says.
My guess is that it’s an attempt at damage control. I see it as a recognition that the politicization of the military in the past 7 years will have dire consequences if not kept in check during the presidential election.
The Good Guys, and the Veterans Win
The new GI bill passed by a vote of 75-22 in the Senate, and so was attached to Bush’s Iraq war supplemental.
Republicans, including the sick old man running for president, John Sidney McCain III, argued against this, saying that it was “too generous”, and so might lure soldiers out of the military because they would want to go to school and better themselves now.
Note also that McCain couldn’t even be bothered to show up for the damn vote.
They included some other extras too:
The bill also includes money for housing and levees devastated by Hurricane Katrina, heating subsidies for low-income families, the space shuttle program, the Food and Drug Administration, biomedical research, roads and bridges, federal prisons, grants to local police departments, aid to rural schools, suppression of wildfires and preparations for the 2010 census.
The bill would extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks nationwide, with an additional 13 weeks for workers in states with high unemployment.
The only thing that surprises me here is the fact that we aren’t already paying for preparations for the 2010 census.
The Bush Blue Dogs in the House are insisting that there be some sort of tax to offset these costs, but I think that they will fold, as this is ready made for the campaign slogan, “Congressman voted not to support our veterans”.
Russia Protests Outside Military Aid to Georgia
The back story is in 2002, the US started suppling military aid to Georgia to fight “al Queida backed forces”, but these forces never existed, and the aid continues.
The Russians, quite reasonably, see this as a provocation directed at them. (see here and here)
The arming of Georgia, like the westward expansion of NATO, is seen by the Russian government as a real threat to their own security, particularly given the guarantees made in the early 1990s that there would be no westward expansion of NATO.
As I’ve said before, I think that part of this agenda is a desire by Republicans to recreate the Slavic menace for political advantage.
Is Canada Upgrading Its Military, Or Is Stephen Harper Downgrading Its Social Safety Net?
Stephen Harper is is looking to double the Canadian Defense budget over the next 20 years.
While there are doubtless some needs driven by the wear and tear from operations in Afghanistan that need to be addressed, this proposal is far more ambitious, calling for extensive upgrades in weapons systems capabilities, most of which have very little correlation to any future needs, which would be in a peacekeeping/counterinsurgency scenario, where legacy systems with communications and networking upgrades could meet the needs of the conflict just as well as new equipment.
In all fairness though though in a counter insurgency scenario the roughly 10% increase in force size may make sense.
We already know that Mr. Harper is very much of the Western Province (Alberta) tradition, which by Canadian standards is rather wingnutty, so I wonder how much of this is driven by a real need to upgrade forces, since any foreseeable conflict would resemble Afghanistan, where the existing systems are more than adequate, and how much is an attempt to pre-allocate money so it won’t be available for things like the national health service and public education.
There is also a 3rd explanation, which is that if there is a common thread among right wing parties world wide, it is a fetish among the about the creation and maintenance of large military establishment, even when threats do not justify this.
It may also be a combination of all three.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Wants to Appease Nazis
At least that’s how Bush just described it in front of the Knesset in his speech, because Gates believes that negotiations with Iran are a good thing, because by engaging them, we can derive the leverage necessary to prevent things like nuclear weapons.
Dems Propose Millionaire Tax to Fund Veterans’ Benefits
It’s good policy, though I would go further and make the rich pay for the whole war, and good politics, because it forces Republicans to vote against veterans benefits or vote for a ½% increase on taxes for couples earning more than $1 million.
Heh.