Friday - May 11, 2007

Position Overrun!

_{Michael Ramirez - Investors Business Daily}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 06:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Lost!

Lost again? You bet and the countryside below us is pretty crowded. We’re over the East Coast of the US somewhere and the people down there in the tower are sure talking in a funny accent. This USAF base below is pretty close to where some hot action in the War On Terror recently occurred. Now where in heck are we?

Ten points extra credit if you can identify the huge tanker plane in the picture below that flies out of this base on a regular basis. Ready, set ... GO!

_{(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 04:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Quote Of The Day

“This campaign of criticism is part of a plan orchestrated by the West and the occupying power to attack Islam on the one hand and the Palestinian cause on the other.”


-- Hamas spokesman Fathi Hamad, and chairman of the board of Al-Aqsa television after refusing to bow to pressure to remove the Palestinian Mickey Mouse Show which is being used to indoctrinate Palestinian youngsters. The show was removed for one day after complaints but is now being re-broadcast again.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 01:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Paleswine •  
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News Of The Weird

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 12:52 PM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs • Stoopid-People •  
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 12:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Motorvators •  
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   Thursday - May 10, 2007

So Long, Amigo

Say what you will about Ol’ Tony, he has been our friend through thick and thin, taking all kinds of heat for his support of the War On Terror. I hate to see him go. Gordon Brown is a murky figure to us on this side of the pond right now. I’m not 100% sure I like everything I’m hearing. Then again, he is Labour Party (read: Liberal) like his predecessor so he won’t help our Brit friends dig themselves out of their socialist nightmare.

In the meantime, I’ll bid Tony a fond farewell ... WE LOVE YA, BABE! ....

RIMDON, England (AP)

Tony Blair said Thursday he would step down as prime minister on June 27, closing a decade of power in which he fostered peace in Northern Ireland and followed the United States to a war in Iraq that cost him much of his popularity.

In a somber farewell, Blair made way for Treasury chief Gordon Brown to take the top post. The British leader looked overcome with emotion, struggling to retain his trademark broad grin as loud cheers rang out.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, it was right, Blair said, to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief.”

“Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right,” Blair told party workers and supporters at Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency in northern England. “I may have been wrong, but that’s your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 04:04 PM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons •  
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Lost!

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Your pilot is somewhat embarrassed to have tell you that he has lost us again. This is your navigator and I want you to know that I disctinctly told that durn fool to take a left at Albuquerque. But did he listen? Nooooo!

So now we’re wandering around out here in the Western area of the US and he is trying to find us a landing strip. We’ve spotted a USAF base below and we’re going to try to land this crate but you have to help us identify where we are first. We have no clues other than that. That is all.”

If you can’t figure it out from the Google Earth Map below and give up, you can look at the picture of an aircraft closely associated with this base under the fold. Don’t peek until you absolutely give up. I can’t show it up front because there is an easily identifiable object in the background that would give it all away to any who ever served in the USAF. Onward and upward!

_{(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)}

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 03:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Four Score And ….

Some things never change. Below is the official Democratic Party platform of 1864. You know the history. All I have done is put it in the context of our present day. If you have any further questions about The Party Of Treason And Oppression, you may contact the Democratic National Committee at 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington DC 20003, (202) 863-8000. Tell them The Skipper sent you ....

The War In Iraq

Resolved, that this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of military necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States.

The Patriot Act

Resolved, that the aim and object of the Democratic party are to preserve the federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired ; and they hereby declare that they consider the administrative usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution; the subversion of the civil by the military laws in States not in insurrection; the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil law exists in full force; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press; the denial of the right of asylum; the open and avowed disregard of State rights; the employment of unusual test oaths, and the interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear arms in their defense, as calculated to prevent a restoration of the Union and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.

Guantanamo

Resolved, that the shameful disregard by the administration of its duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who are now and have long been prisoners of war in a suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation on the score alike of public policy and common humanity.

We Support The Troops

Resolved, that the sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and the seamen of our navy, who are and have been in the field under the flag of their country; and, in the event of its attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that the brave soldiers and sailors of the republic have so nobly earned.

-- Democratic Party platform, 1864

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 03:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 11:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Motorvators •  
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Ann Coulter: La Belle Dame Sans Merci

_{Jerry Holbert - The Boston Herald}

C’est Si Bon
-- by Ann Coulter
_{(HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE) - 05/09/2007}

I‘m off to Paris! I hereby revoke every churlish remark I’ve ever made about those lovely Gallic people. (But in light of former New Jersey governor and current “gay American” Jim McGreevey’s latest career move, I redouble everything I’ve ever said about the Episcopalians.) With Nicolas Sarkozy’s decisive victory as the new president of France, the French have produced their first pro-American ruler since Louis XVI.

In celebration of France’s spectacular return to Western civilization, I bought a Herve Leger dress on Monday, and we’re having croissants for breakfast every day this week. This delicate French pastry, by the way, is in the shape of a crescent to commemorate the Crusaders’ victory over Islam. Aren’t the French just peachy?

“Sarkozy the American,” as he is known in France, called Muslim rioters “scum.” Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

He explained his position on Muslim immigrants in France, saying: “Nobody has to, I repeat, live in France. But when you live in France, you respect its rules. That is to say that you are not a polygamist. ... One doesn’t practice female genital mutilation on one’s daughters, one doesn’t slit the throat of the sheep, and one respects the republican rules.”

Sarko never issued an apology or entered rehab. To the contrary, he said: “I called some individuals that I refuse to call ‘youth’ by the name they deserve. ... I never felt that by saying ‘scum’ I was being vulgar, hypocritical or insincere.”

Is there a single American politician who would speak so clearly without then apologizing to Howard Dean? It looks like the Democrats are going to have to drop their talking point about Bush irritating the rest of the world. Evidently not as much as Muslim terrorists irritate the rest of the world. The politicians who hate Bush keep being dumped by their own voters.

At the Democratic presidential debate a few weeks ago, B. Hussein Obama carped that Bush had “alienate(d) the world community” and vowed that he would build “the sort of alliances and trust around the world that has been so lacking over the last six years.”

Democrats are terrific at building alliances. Remember how Jimmy Carter won the love of the world by ditching our ally the Shah of Iran, allowing him be replaced by a string of crazy ayatollahs? Since then, we haven’t heard a peep from that area of the world.

The smartest woman in the world sniped that she would “create alliances instead of alienation.” Yes, it was spellbinding how her husband charmed North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung and his sociopathic son Kim Jong Il by showering them with visits from Jimmy Carter and gifts from love-machine Madeleine Albright. And that was that: No more trouble from North Korea!

As I understand it, the center of the supposedly America-hating world is France. But now it turns out even the French don’t hate America as much as liberals do. Au contraire! (We can say that again!) Our Georgie is the most popular American with the French since Jerry Lewis.

All over the civilized world, voters are turning terrorist-coddling liberals out of office and voting for politicians friendly toward Bush, the world’s sworn enemy of Islamic fascism.

Those foreign leaders so admired by Democrats for hating George Bush and loving Saddam Hussein are being replaced by rulers who pledge their friendship to the United States.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 02:00 AM   
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Blogging, Part II

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/10/2007 at 01:20 AM   
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   Wednesday - May 09, 2007

The Mohammed Cartoons: Epilogue

Iran To Pay Damages For Cartoon Violence
(JERUSALEM POST) - May. 9, 2007 20:50

Iran has agreed to compensate Denmark for damage done to the Danish Embassy in Teheran during fiery protests last year and both sides were still working out the amount to be paid, the Danish foreign minister said Wednesday.

An angry mob protesting Danish newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad attacked the embassy with rocks and firebombs in February 2006. Similar attacks occurred in Lebanon and Syria, and Denmark has requested a total of 3.4 million kroner (€456,000; US$618,000) in compensation from the three countries.

After a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Wednesday, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the Iranians had partially agreed to the Danish demands. “It’s the obligation of the Iranian government to protect the embassies according to the Vienna Convention and it’s good that the Iranian government accepts this,” Moeller told reporters in Copenhagen.

“Now it’s a question of figures and I hope we find a good result for all of us,” he said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was less committal, however, saying at a joint news conference that “those who have been the cause of such problems” should pay. But he added that “we have to manage and find solutions” to the issue.

Lebanon has agreed to pay 700,000 kroner (€94,000; US$127,000) - about 60 percent of the sum Denmark asked for - but Iran and Syria had so far refused. The 12 cartoons first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and reprinted in a range of Western media triggered massive protests in the Muslim world, where the drawings were seen as blasphemous.

Moeller said negotiations with Iran on the amount of compensation would continue. “There is a far distance between us,” he said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/09/2007 at 05:55 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA •  
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Lost!

“Pilot to navigator! Pilot to navigator! Where in hell are we! Over!”

“Navigator to Pilot! Navigator to pilot! I’m in back mixing a drink. Where in hell are you? Over!”

Yep, we’re screwed lost again, gang! This time we’re somewhere down South and it’s nice below but my nav-person is getting on my nerves. The USAF base below dates from WWII and the first planes to fly out of here were the P-51 Mustang below, probably the finest prop-driven military aircraft ever built. This base also doubled as a German POW camp in WWII. Now, where in heck am I?

_{(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/09/2007 at 03:14 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Surge Report

I know most of you out there reading this stupid blog are like me and served in some branch of the US military. Some of you even managed to stick around and endure the horse-shit for 20-30 years before being released on good behavior with a pat on the back, a somewhat decent pension and a Pavlovian response every time you see a US flag. Yeah, I know. Been there, done that.

Today we are gathered here in the ready room to review the current SITREP in Iraq. I will turn this cluster-f**k over to Lt. General Martin E. Dempsey in just a few minutes but first I want to emphasize a few key points before the good General enlightens you. It is our hope that some of this intel may escape this room and find its way to the manure pile offices of Congress who have no clue how armies work but somehow manage to think of themselves as experts ... in much the same way pigs consider themselves experts on pork chops.

Now ... think back to when you working men and women (that does not include any of you former officers out there so STFU and sit down). When you first arrived at boot camp there were a group of hideous monsters awaiting you there who were quite prepared to hate your very guts before they even laid eyes on you and for several weeks and months they proved it over and over again with physical and mental torture that the Marquis De Sade never envisioned.

Then you finally escaped and started doing a regular 9 to 5 job (well, actually it turned out to be 5 to 9 but who’s quibbling - they only guaranteed you four hours of sleep a day so quityerbitchin’). Day in and day out these monsters dogged your every step, patted you on the back when you least expected it and kicked your ass with regularity. They kept you moving and motivated. They kept you alive. Most of the time you hated them back but you gradually learned how to deal with them and even get along with them, or at the very least to stay under their radar.

Eventually, you became one of them. Shit happens, don’t it?

What monsters am I talking about? These monsters are what every successful military force that ever existed has in common from Sargon IV to Alcibiades to Leonidas to Caesar to Charlemagne to Napoleon to Wellington to Washington to Patton. They are the Non-Comissioned Officers. That’s SERGEANT to you, maggot! Not “Sarge” and sure as hell not “Sir.” Either one will get you a butt whippin’ and or extra duty.

So what do NCO’s have to do with Iraq and the current situation? Pay attention, this is important: NCO’S ARE NOT CREATED OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH NOR ARE THEY GROWN IN TEST TUBES OR SPIT OUT OF IVY LEAGUE COLLEGES. The pure and simple fact is they have to be matured like fine wine, good cheese or cold beer. It just takes time and experience. Period.

The problem we face in Iraq is that Iraqi men are being recruited in record numbers and they are going through training. The upper echelons (read: useless officers and/or “REMF’s") are primarily leftovers from the previous regime who are handling paperwork and generally staying out of the way. Do you see a gap in that military organization? Pay attention, you there in the back row! THERE ARE NO NCO’S and there won’t be for some time! GET A FREAKIN’ CLUE!

I will now step aside and let the good General continue this briefing. Pay attention and sit up straight. YES, YOU PRIVATE!

Institutional Competence Slow, But Growing, General Says
WASHINGTON (CENTCOM) - May 7, 2007

Coalition experts have identified trouble areas in the training regimen for the Iraqi security forces but see cumulative progress overall, the top U.S. training official in Iraq said.

The Iraqi police and army are short of functioning effectively as independent institutions, Army Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told online journalists and “bloggers” in a conference call May 4. However, the Iraqi forces improve tactically from month to month, he said.

“We’ve got some things that are going pretty well at the tactical level; we’ve got some things that are going pretty well at the institutional level; and the challenge now is to kind of pull it together and plug it in” so that the system performs fluidly from top to bottom, Dempsey said. “We’re not there yet. There’s still some holes in the system,” he said. “We’ve got them, I think, pretty well identified and are moving toward it.”

In both institutions, Dempsey said, the most encouraging signs so far have come from individual units. There are always some poor performers, the general explained, though, “in every case we’ve got a group of units and leaders who are essentially acknowledging their responsibilities and their accountability in a way that simply we didn’t see a year ago.”

That sense of responsibility dissipates to an extent up the chain of command and into the logistics, communications and intelligence support areas, Dempsey said. He blamed the problem on a legacy of poor leadership tracing back to the government of Saddam Hussein. “The higher up you run in the echelons of command, the more the vulnerabilities of leadership tend to become evident,” Dempsey said.

Most of the senior leaders of the Iraqi army and police are from the old regime, he noted, and “old habits die hard.” One reason for hope, the general explained, is that the Iraqi ministers of defense and interior are keen to overcome such problems.

In addition, Dempsey said, experience on the battlefield has imparted quick lessons. He said operational planning has improved rapidly in recent months. Before “there was a tendency to dramatically oversimplify things when they would conceive of a mission,” Dempsey said of the Iraqi leadership. “There wasn’t much attention to detail. Now they appreciate the intricacies,” he said.

The benefits of that experience are paying out in the current Baghdad surge, Dempsey said. He explained that even six months ago it would have been impossible to bring 5,300 Iraqi soldiers into Baghdad from other parts of the country, but now the Iraqi army is already in its second rotation.

That the Iraqis are performing so well is exceptional considering they are graduating from their training academies into a war, Dempsey noted, but the fact that the security situation is so fluid means the needs of the force must be continuously reassessed, he said.

After studying the results of a 2006 review, Dempsey said, U.S. officials worked with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in determining the need to transition away from a short-war strategy.

“We made some assumptions in the early days about declining levels of violence and a short war,” Dempsey said. “I think that together last year we came to the kind of mutual conclusion that it could very well be that the levels of violence will be sustained and that this terror threat, this insurgent threat and the threat of sectarian violence could last in Iraq for some time.”

The challenge now before the Iraqi army, Dempsey explained, is to determine the necessary size of the force in relation to the threat. Balancing the necessary training requirements to properly build the force against the demands of war has been difficult, Dempsey said, particularly in regard to developing an appropriately sized noncommissioned officer corps.

Despite a range of military academies around Iraq, he said, “they are having a very tough time taking their aspiring or their rising leaders out of the fight.” As a result, Dempsey said, the Iraqis “find themselves to be stretched rather thin to do all the things they feel that they need to do to control their battle space.

“We know how many NCOs we need for this army; we’ve got the system in place; we’ve got the courses in place; they’ve got a good cadre in place; it’s a good curriculum; but they can’t unplug from the fight as they would like to do, and so we’re coming up a bit short there,” he said.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/09/2007 at 01:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Iraq •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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