Tag: Military Action

Is The Tank Dead?

But now most Americans are rivaling in the images of twisted metal and burnt out hulks of Russian tanks destroyed on the streets of Ukrainian cities.

Those images beg the next question….are tanks all that effective or needed for that matter?

Now that the question has been asked……let’s move on to an answer (of sorts)…..

Is the value of the tank in modern warfare zilch? That’s the lesson many observers are taking from a flood of images depicting Russian tanks mired in the mud, their turrets blown off, having been ambushed and destroyed by Ukrainian forces armed with cheap anti-tank weapons. These images are often pointed to alongside feeds from Turkish-produced drones destroying tanks, seemingly with ease. After the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war, in which Russian-produced tanks were destroyed by the same model of drones, this is heady stuff for those ready to proclaim the death of the tank.

We already see comparisons of armor advocates to the battleship admirals before World War II, who refused to see the importance of carrier aviation, or Maj. Gen. John Herr, the last U.S. Army chief of cavalry, who continued to insist on the relevance of the horse on the battlefield even after the Nazi blitzkriegs against Poland and France.

…

Are the headlines coming from the Russo-Ukrainian War the final obituary for the tank as a viable instrument of war correct or — as with the Chicago Daily Tribune banner declaring Truman’s loss to Dewey in the 1948 presidential election — premature? Is the tank the horse cavalry of the 21st century? Or is it a useful supporting system, like the battleship in World War II? Or is it still, with adaptation, the weapon of choice for ground combat?

As with every other move in the never-ending wrestling match between offense and defense, unmanned systems and top-attack weapons pose heretofore unencountered challenges that must be met, or you will have to conduct a Monty Python reassessment of your military: And now for something completely different.

Before the rush to the funeral, however, the first question that must be addressed before one buries the tank is this: Is there a continued role for mobile, protected lethality on the battlefields of the future? If the answer is yes, or even maybe, then the next act in the ongoing drama of how to protect the tank is to enable it to do what only it can do. And, given the events of the day, this question must be addressed objectively and urgently.

The Tank Is Dead: Long Live the Javelin, the Switchblade, the … ?

Is it time to re-think the usefulness of a tank in modern warfare?

I say it should be given some major thought since the anti-tank weapons have been getting better and better….is the cost of a tank worth the advantages?

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Failed Attacks

History time again!

There have been some valiant but disastrous attacks in history…..and this is a breakdown of some of those failed attempts….

On July 3, 1863, the Army of the Potomac fought a defensive battle against the Army of Northern Virginia at the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. On the last day of battle, Confederate Major General George Pickett was one of three Confederate generals to lead the final assault on Union lines, lending his name to the battle, a battle that has become synonymous with futility. Here we list 5 of the most valiant, and yet most futile fatal attacks in military history, with no significance to the order listed.

5 Valiant but Failed Attacks

I agree with most of them….but Battle of the Emus?

I would have included the first attack in the Kasserine Pass, Tunisia…..

Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide gap in Tunisia’s Dorsal Mountains, which was defended by American troops. His first strike was repulsed, but with tank reinforcements, Rommel broke through on February 20, inflicting devastating casualties on the U.S. forces. The Americans withdrew from their position, leaving behind most of their equipment. More than 1,000 American soldiers were killed by Rommel’s offensive, and hundreds were taken prisoner. The United States had finally tasted defeat in battle.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/kasserine-pass-americas-most-humiliating-defeat-world-war-ii-19574

The Americans regrouped an the second attempt was successful and broke the back of the Afrika Corps…

Then I would also include the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam…January 1968

The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the attacks, news coverage of the massive offensive shocked the American public and eroded support for the war effort. Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.

https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive

Finally the Battle of Hattin…..where the Crusaders decided to attack the forces of Saladin and the crusaders took it in the butt and in turn their decision lost the Middle East to Saladin….

The Battle of Hattin was fought July 4, 1187, during the Crusades. In 1187, after a series of disputes, the Ayyubid armies of Saladin commenced moving against the Crusader states including the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Meeting the Crusader army west of Tiberias on July 3, Saladin engaged in a running battle as it moved towards the town. Surrounded during the night, the Crusaders, who were short on water, were unable to break out. In the resulting fight, the bulk of their army was destroyed or captured. Saladin’s victory opened the way for the recapture of Jerusalem later that year.

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-crusades-battle-of-hattin-2360712

Just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head…..

Do you have any thoughts of this or something to add?

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The Insurrection Act

A up and coming word of the year, ‘insurrection’ and the last guy to hold the White House considered invoking the Act……

As protesters near the White House demonstrated against the killing of George Floyd last summer, aides were preparing a proclamation allowing President Trump to put active-duty US troops on the streets of the capital. The document was drafted after an angry Trump told the attorney general and military leaders he wanted to deploy troops in the city on June 1, the New York Times reports. They dissuaded the president, but aides decided to have the proclamation at hand, should Trump change his mind. The Insurrection Act of 1807 gives the president the power to dispatch military and National Guard troops anywhere in the country, per the Hill, in the event of insurrection or civil unrest. That was the day that protesters were forcibly removed from Lafayette Park, across from the White House, and Trump held up a Bible outside St. John’s Church, per CNN.

The former president told the Times he did not want to send in active-duty troops. “It’s absolutely not true, and if it was true, I would have done it,” Trump said. But officials said the president brought the notion up again over the next few weeks during demonstrations in other cities. Trump was especially irate at being embarrassed in the eyes of other nations. “We look weak,” he told Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Nonetheless, all three resisted using the Insurrection Act, officials said. White House aides also brought up the possibility of a federal takeover of the District of Columbia’s police force.

The Insurrection Act?

Not sure what this is all about and want more information….then click here….

Click to access STATUTE-2-Pg443a.pdf

Sounds like a consideration for the next batch of in-bred morons that want to destroy this republic….

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AUMF In The Crosshairs

AUMF?

Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

You know that piece of crap that allows the US to attack and destroy anybody that we see fit.

In case you bare still confused then here is the Act in 60 words….

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/107/sjres23/text

(Another link that will go unused)

All I can say right now about this attempt…..it is about damn time!

Well after many years of my bitching and moaning it looks like there is a chance that the repel of this manure could be in the making.

The House has voted to end this abortion…… House voted to repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) that was used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The bill passed in a vote of 268 to 161, with 49 Republicans voting in favor of the repeal and only one Democrat voting against it.

Now it is time for the Senate is tackling the AUMF…..

In 2002, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden were among the 29 Democratic senators who voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq. Almost 20 years later, they support repealing the authorization. Schumer said Wednesday that he supports repealing the measure and the Senate will hold a vote on it this year, Politico reports. “The Iraq War has been over for nearly a decade,” the Senate majority leader said. “The authorization passed in 2002 is no longer necessary in 2021.” The House is expected to pass a bill to revoke the authorization Thursday, reports CNBC. President Biden has said he supports the House bill, which was sponsored by Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee.

The White House said in a statement that the US “has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis” and revoking the law would have “minimal impact” on operations. Schumer said Wednesday that revoking the authorization would not mean the US is turning its back on Iraq, but it would prevent future presidents “reaching back into the legal dustbin to use it as a justification for military adventurism,” the AP reports. He cited the Trump administration’s Jan. 2020 strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani in Baghdad as an example. Some lawmakers say it’s also time to consider replacing the 2001 authorization of military force against terrorists with a more targeted resolution, CNN reports. Lee was the only House lawmaker to vote against the 2001 bill, which was passed three days after the 9/11 attacks.

This repeal could cease some of the willy-nilly use of force around the world by the US….

Not to worry….this repeal will not stop US intervention…..they always can invoke the UN charter….President Joe Biden also has other tools that allow him to take “defensive” actions, including Article II of the Constitution and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter 

Will this lessen our involvement in situations we need to avoid…..probably not…if the M-IC wants an invasion then they will most likely get their money maker of an invasion.

Personally I think this is nothing more than a fart in a hurricane.

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Please Pull The Plug On Israel

NOTE: I am not anti Jewish this post is about actions of the Israeli government and some of the right radical citizens.

Since 1967 I have had an extreme dislike for the state of Israel….it began with the murderous attack on the naval vessel USS Liberty that killed many of its crew and it continued with the barbarous treatment of the Palestinian people……they treat minorities like shit.

I do not understand the moronic loyalty of the US and some of its people to a state that has one of the worse civil rights records in the world. and our government that seems to kiss ass whenever Israel is around.

Then there all the lies that Israel has spread about Iran seemingly to lather up the US into some sort of military action directed at the country.

Now Israel is threatening (as it seemingly does every year) to attack Iran….

According to a report from the Israel Hayom, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is drawing up plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

The report said IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi asked the military for three proposals to hit the nuclear program. The Hayom did not elaborate on the proposals but did say one of them included a military strike.

The Hayom said the military option would require Israel to invest more money into its military and quoted Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “It is clear that Israel needs to have a military option on the table. It requires resources and investment, and I am working to make that happen,” he said.

The Israelis say they are responding to increased uranium enrichment recently announced by Iran.

Iran said they are increasing uranium enrichment to 20 percent to make fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility that was built by the US in the 1960s. Despite sensationalist headlines in Western media, the increased enrichment has a civilian purpose and does not indicate the Iranians are racing towards a bomb.

Iran’s parliament passed a law calling for increased enrichment after the November assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who killed in an apparent Israeli plot. So it was Israeli aggression that ultimately led to the increased enrichment that Israel is now making threats over.

The Hayom report came a day after a minister from Israel’s Likud party threatened to attack Iran if the Biden administration returns to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

(antiwar.com)

Seriously?

Now they want to dictate our foreign policy?

Who do they think they are?

Any debt the world felt they owed to Israel has been paid in full by ten-fold….it is time to stop treating them with kid gloves and time for then start behaving like a civilized nation.

Time has come for the US to cut the apron strings and take control of that situation.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Are We Ready For War?

With tempers moldering in the Middle East yet again….there is an important question that needs asking….are we truly ready for a protracted war?

I have written about this topic……https://lobotero.com/2011/01/12/military-must-be-ready-for-the-next-war/

After the most recent airstrike by the US and the war of words between Iran and the US….the president has said we are ready for war…..

“The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment,” he tweeted on Jan. 5. “If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way.”

Besides being wrong (the military has not spent that much), he repeated a mistake that military leaders have made for years: emphasizing weapons over the fitness of the men and women charged with firing them.

Over the past 18 months, ProPublica has dug into military accidents in recent years that, all told, call into question just how prepared the American military is to fight America’s battles.

If forced to fight in the Persian Gulf or the Korean Peninsula, the Navy and Marine Corps are likely to play crucial roles in holding strategic command of the sea and defending against ballistic missiles.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-says-u-s-is-ready-for-war-not-all-his-troops-are-so-sure

Further Reading:

Defense Strategy for a Post-Trump World

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“lego ergo scribo”

Please Take Your Bows

Breaking News:  The top spokesperson for ISIS has been killed…..

Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, the successor to lead the Islamic State was killed in what is believed to be a U.S. airstrike in northern Syria, just one day after U.S. special operations forces raided a compound and took out the terrorist organization’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Muhajir, a spokesman for the ISIS terror group and the likely successor to Baghdadi, was being smuggled across northern Syria in the back of an oil tanker truck when the truck was hit by what appeared to be a U.S. airstrike, New York Times reported Sunday.

Now for the news of the day yesterday about the raid and the aftermath……

I listened to Trump and his 40 minute diatribe on why he is the best and smartest person on the planet when he should have been discussing the death of Baghdadi…..and now in his own words….

You have listened and now the rest of the world wants to take a bow for the death of the ISIS leader…..

First Iraq says they gave the info to the US…..

Iraq said on Sunday that its National Intelligence Service found Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s location and provided it to the United States, which carried out a raid that killed him.

“After constant monitoring and the formation of a specialised task force over an entire year, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service acting on accurate information was able to locate the den in which the head of Daesh terrorists Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and those with him were hiding in the Syrian province of Idlib,” the Iraqi military said in a statement.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-baghdadi-iraq-statemen/iraq-says-it-provided-u-s-with-baghdadis-location-statement-idUKKBN1X60HG

Turkey wants to claim they gave the info to the US on Baghdadi’s whereabouts…..

Turkey on Sunday said there was “coordination” between Ankara and Washington before the operation which US media reports said targeted and killed Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Prior to the US Operation in Idlib Province of Syria last night, information exchange and coordination between the military authorities of both countries took place,” the Turkish defence ministry said in a tweet.

It did not give details.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/10/27/turkey-syrian-kurds-claim-credit-in-baghdadi-death-operation

So many taking credit and so little time to actually care…..as long as the SOB is still DEAD.

But finally what does the death of Baghdadi’s death really matter?

The complex heliborne raid occurring yesterday killed the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The long sought after terror leader’s death marks a milestone for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Islamic State, particularly at a time when the U.S. has precipitously drawn down its forces in Syria. What should we make of al-Baghdadi’s death?

How much does Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death matter?

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/10/28/how_much_does_abu_bakr_al-baghdadis_death_matter_114816.html

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“Lego Ergo Scribo”

War–It Is Our Nature

I spend a lot of time researching war….I spend a lot of time writing about war….and a lot of time replying to comments by my visitors.  There seems to be a common thread to comments about war…..many think and/or believe that as humans war is in our DNA.

It would seem that it is truly in our DNA because we as a group cannot end a disagreement without violence……for at least a hundred years war is all to frequent.

Whenever I write that I am antiwar or that I am watching some conflict here or there and try to help readers understand war someone will try to comment by saying that war is ingrained into our DNA….that we have little control over the fight.

Is it in our nature to go to war? Should we just accept the fact that humans have this innate tendency and are hardwired to kill members of other groups?

No, says R. Brian Ferguson, professor of anthropology at Rutgers University-Newark. There is no scientific proof that we have an inherent propensity to take up arms and collectively kill.

In a study published in Scientific American, Ferguson argues that war may not be in our nature at all. People might fight and sometimes kill for personal reasons, but homicide, he argues, is not war.

“There is definitely controversy in the field when it comes to this question,” says Ferguson, who studies human nature, war and peace. “But it is the overall circumstances that we live in that creates the impulse to go or not go to war.”

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-scientific-proof-war-ingrained-human.html

War is all too constant these days.

But why?

Personally, I believe it is the M-IC that makes it constant…..for to them it is more about profit that it is the source…..the answer is always intervention and the use of deadly ordinances and weapons….for this needs to be replenished and in doing so the cash register rings.

There is seldom an attempt to find a peaceful resolution….there are faux “summits” to talk peace but they seldom end in success.

The “Complex” is that never ending snake that eats its tail……

What President Dwight D. Eisenhower dubbed the “military-industrial complex” has been constantly evolving over the decades, adjusting to shifts in the economic and political system as well as international events. The result today is a “permanent-war complex,” which is now engaged in conflicts in at least eight countries across the globe, none of which are intended to be temporary.

This new complex has justified its enhanced power and control over the country’s resources primarily by citing threats to U.S. security posed by Islamic terrorists. But like the old military-industrial complex, it is really rooted in the evolving relationship between the national security institutions themselves and the private arms contractors allied with them.

America’s Permanent-War Complex

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Those Unpopular Wars

I know the old professor sounds like a stuck record…but until the napping masses wake up I shall continue to be stuck…..on an antiwar footing.

Trump is pulling out of Syria (so they say still no real evidence)(and now Trump is walking back his proclamation) and all the pundits that are paid handsomely for the pro-war analysis have come forward to crap on the announcement.

Then there are the pundits that say that Americans are tired of these unpopular wars….really?  Which ones are unpopular?  Who have they talked to to ascertain the unpopularity of these wars?

If these wars are so unpopular why is there few speaking out against them?

I have readers that are against our many entanglements but beyond that I hear very little about war from those on the street….so I ask again…..just who are these people that find our many wars distasteful?

The truth is that most Americans give little thought to these wars, regardless what some pundits try to push…..if the war is forgotten then why keep fighting?

A nation that doesn’t remember the men and women sent to fight on its behalf has no business whatsoever sending more. And a democracy that spends more time debating kneeling before the flag than the justification for issuing folded ones desperately needs to get reacquainted with the Constitution – and its moral compass.

Our loved ones didn’t sign up to serve a president. They signed up to serve the American people, most of whom have no idea what they’re fighting for.

https://original.antiwar.com/Stacy_Bannerman/2018/10/11/if-you-forget-about-a-war-its-time-to-end-it/

Let’s be real shall we……war makes no sense anymore…..the only ones that keep the whole idea of conquest are the defense industry only because that is their profits.

America spends more on its military than all its enemies put together yet it still can’t win wars. Failed adventures in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan have drained America’s power and diminished its prestige. The bloated Pentagon budget actually makes us weaker.

Here’s the weird bit: nobody seems to care. If any other government department spent as much and accomplished as little, the populace would be in arms, complaining about wasteful government spending. Instead we mumble “Thank you for your service” and increase defense appropriations.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/war-doesnt-make-sense-anymore/

Finally the Neocons have wiggled their way back into the spotlight of war…..

Two years ago, as Donald Trump ascended to the presidency, you might have thought that, if nothing else, neoconservatives had finally been put out to pasture. In the campaign, Trump had blasted the neocons’ signature policy, the war in Iraq, as a “big fat mistake,” and repudiated their ostensible program of turning nations into liberal democracies. He paid no political price with voters, and probably the opposite, as white evangelicals once drawn to George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” flocked to Trump in record numbers.

Even allowing for Trump’s opportunism and inconsistencies, his election victory appeared to deal a double blow to the neoconservative persuasion. It not only broke the neocons’ hold on the Republican Party, but also, in the same stroke, revealed that they lacked a popular constituency. There they were, free-floating pundits, alone and exposed—neither intellectually credible nor politically representative.

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/01/02/return-of-the-neocons/

With the return of the Neocons comes the old plan…the “preventive war” (is that an oxymoron or what?)

In a December column in the Washington Post, reformed conservative Max Boot bemoaned the emergence of competing visions for American foreign policy, led by Trumpian skeptics on the right and progressive leaders, such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, on the left. These visions, Boot said, were in opposition to his own beloved doctrine of primacy and an American-led international order.

“For decades, elites in the United States had a consensus on foreign policy: They believed that championing a liberal world order was in our interest,” he writes. But now “we are seeing a new left-right axis emerge around protectionism and isolationism—the very policies whose failure during the 1930s ultimately led to the internationalist consensus of the postwar period.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-temptation-for-preventative-war-just-wont-go-away/

Sad to say……”war is good business….invest your children”

After Thought:  Has anyone noticed that since Trump has walked back his original proclamation and the US will stay in Syria the warmongering media has gone silent on the deal?

It’s About The Discipline

In the past there have been a couple of reports about SEALs acting less than honorable…..one was the dispute on who fired the shot that killed Osama and the other is an alleged killing of a Green Beret in Mali (since found a wall of silence)…..but to help out my two posts on these incidents…..

https://lobotero.com/2014/11/10/squabbling-seals/

https://lobotero.com/2018/05/17/death-among-the-scrub/

I bring this up because of something I have recently read…..there seems to be a disciplinary problem with the SEALs and of course it has been refuted….

A Naval official has stepped forward to refute the accusation……

The Navy Department’s second-highest civilian leader says a recent string of alleged misconduct in the naval special warfare ranks is not indicative of a wider cultural problem in the elite community.

Navy Undersecretary Thomas Modly told reporters Thursday that while service leaders are concerned about recent high-profile allegations of wrongdoing in the Navy SEAL community, there’s nothing that “is indicative of a cultural problem.”

“We’re a huge enterprise and so, as a huge enterprise, we have problems just like every other huge enterprise,” he said at a Defense Writers’ Group event in Washington. “So when these types of problems arise, we have very, very good processes to go through a legal adjudication of them, and I think we do that very well.”

Over the last six months, 10 SEALs were booted from the service after testing positive for drugs, two senior leaders were relieved following allegations of sexual misconduct, and reports broke that an operator is in the brig while under investigation after allegedly executing an Iraqi detainee.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/10/04/no-evidence-widespread-seal-disciplinary-problems-navy-official.html

SEALs like all the Special Ops people…they believe their own hype….To me it sounds like there is a problem….maybe it would help if they would stop glorifying these soldiers and the wars they fight……

Just my thought….anyone have one they would like to share?