Scenes From The Area

I haven't really 'ginned any "street scenes" posts since The Mungadai re-deployed. But street scenes in S. Florida can sometimes be as interesting (although rarely as lethal) as street scenes from Iraq. So, with a little bit of narrative, here's some local color:

On my (ass-ripping, have I mentioned that before?) long commute every day, this is my favorite caution sign.Of course, I've yet to actually see a croc trying to cross the road. If I do, I'm thinking new shoes and luggage.

Not to sound too provincial, but I found seeing the Muslim profession of faith prominently displayed in S. Florida a little jarring. Then again, the poor guy that owns the truck, if he saw me, might have found a uniformed guy taking pictures of his truck and the legend on the rear windshield a little jarring.

After my thirteenth or fourteenth consecutive night shift, I splurged on the way home this morning and grabbed chow (and, uh, a couple Bloody Mary's) at one of my favorite diners. If you're ever headed south on Hwy 1 in the Keys and see this sign, do yourself a favor and pull over for great eats. Due to the lovely weather, and the dearth of sunshine I've had lately, I ate outside under the awning. I was just pondering weather to indulge in a third Bloody Mary (just to help get to sleep, don't'cha know), when I heard the awful racket of heavy pipes tuned low. Jeez, the ground shook. Across the street, the Rat Patrol had arrived. I thought the vehicle was too cool, and crossed the road to check it out. This, in and of itself was a comedic event. I was coming off an all-night 16 hour shift. In the wee hours of the morning (about 0300), I'd taken a break and ran the 8-mile loop around the airfield, just to keep the blood pumping through the remainder of the shift. As I'd done the run in my monkey shoes, six hours later I was a little hobbled up. That, and the two Bloody Mary's, made scuttling across Hwy 1 (not known for its surfeit of tip top drivers) look like an outtake from Benny Hill. I'm sorta glad I was the only one around with a camera.

The vehicle was even more awesome up close. I dug the high-mod up suspension. (For anyone interested, note that the vehicle is for sale. You're welcome. No finder's fee necessary but gratuities are always appreciated)

The 105 mm shell case rear turn indicators (and note the Mermite container in the back. Hot Chow!) Also, the Kilroy graffiti was a nice touch.
The engine was definitely not GI issue.
The interior was bare bones, high-speed and functional.
And for the sticklers for detail out there, note the .50 cal door handles and front turn signals.

I'm not into all things hooah, but for this victor I'll make a grudging exception.

Protecting the Force: A Boss Mongo Recommendation

I just realized: in casting aspersions upon the DoD Fort Hood Report, I committed the cardinal sin of the potshot blogger. I bitched and kvetched without offering a better countersolution. So, here goes:

Instead of spending an inordinate amount of money and man-hours implementing the recommendations of the report (the recommendations regarding Force Protection anyway, I've got no opinion on all the recommendations--and there were lots of them--on the peripherals), spend a little bit of time and money standing up a Guardian program (I'm using the term Guardian because it's an FBI reporting program that the report recommends we get nested with. My Guardian is better). Or whatever name fits.

Do a threat vulnerability assessment of each military post; analyze which areas would be the most lucrative targets for an active shooter scenario. Then identify the "right" ratio of Soldiers that should be armed in order to keep that area safe. Then ask for military members to volunteer to act as armed Guardians on their post. Guardians would:
-be in the rank of Staff Sergeant or above
-receive a SECRET clearance, with the background check enhanced the way that the Fort Hood report says that MAJ Hasan's should have been
-undergo a psych screening, like unto the screening that our snipers go through before their training
-in states/counties allowing a CCW permit, Guardians would receive the training and permit, in states without CCW, Guardians would draw their weapons from the arms room or the Provost Martial at the startof the duty day and relinquish them before leaving post
-each post with a Guardian program would have an Army shrink dedicated to monitoring Guardians
-Guardians would receive an intensive entry level training program, and then have a required number of range and situational training hours per month
-Guardians would be thoroughly familiarized with the layout,"reaction plan" and anticipated timelines for all lucrative/vulnerable targets on the post (PX, Commissary, schools, day care, SRP centers, hospitals), they would know the local SWAT/SRT plans and reaction times for all these locations, and would train periodically with those higher-end units
-Guardians would carry concealed throughout the duty day both at their place of duty and wherever they might go on post through the course of the day
-Guardians would receive an additional skill identifier that 1) counts toward promotion and 2) goes with them when they change units/posts, so that the pool of Guardians is always growing
-the Army already has a designated Force Protection compact pistol, the M11, which Guardians would carry instead of the M9 (just because I don't like the M9, and hey, it's my program, right?)

Two minutes and forty seconds after the first 911 call, first responders were at the scene of Hasan's shooting spree, 90 seconds later Hasan was incapacitated. In the interim, fourteen people were killed and 43 others were wounded or injured. How much lower would those numbers be if trained, motivated, and armed Soldiers with the charter to protect their brethren were in that SRP Center when Hasan started shooting?

I'll guarantee you two things: this solution would have a better chance of stopping or mitigating another active shooter scenario on an Army installation than all of the recommendations in the DoD report, and Army leadership will never, ever acquiesce to this sort of program. Too risky, from the bureaucracy's point of view.

Oceans of Diamonds on Uranus

I'm not touching that headline. But the possibilities are endless.

A Timely Update

Writing that last post reminded me: I still haven't heard back from these guys.

By Bureaucrats, For Bureaucrats

I've heard bad things about the Fort Hood killings AAR. I just sat down and read the whole thing.

Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood is dreck.

First, as reported, the document doesn't cover the "alleged perpetrator's" (and that whole "alleged" bit pisses me off) religion. Doesn't mention Islam, Islamic extremism, jihadi, takfiri, Muslims, extreme Muslims or the Religion of Peace. Apparently, the authors of this report obviously got the guidance not to write anything that might attenuate diversity. After reading the whole thing, I went back and word-searched all those terms, as I might have missed it when my eyes sorta glazed over reading about the DoD's shortcomings in providing Memorial Service support (really: finding 4.11).

Actually reading the report, I realized that most of the pundits and polemicists that have decried this piece of desktop dung couldn't imagine the scope of its awfulness because they're outsiders looking in. As someone eking out my living in the bowels of the Defense bureaucracy, let me tell you; as bad as you may have heard this report is, it's even worse.

First of all, it's one of those reports that is so chock full of bureaucrat-ese, it is probably four or five times longer than it needs to be. Second, it runs up recommendations with no concern for cost or efficacy. Basically, it proffers that the answer to a failure of the bureaucracy is...more bureaucracy. For example, did you know that for the DoD to stop "internal threats" such as MAJ Hasan,

An effective protection system requires robust information sharing and command and control structures that facilitate active information gathering on potential threats, and disseminating the analysis and assessments of the threat derived from such indicators to the appropriate levels of command. While leaders at Fort Hood responded well under the stress of a rapidly evolving crisis, we are fortunate that we faced only one incident at one location. We cannot assume that this will remain the case in the future.
Our command and control systems must have the right architecture, connectivity, portability, and flexibility to enable commaners to cope with near-simultaneous incidents at multiple locations. Commanders also require the tools to intercept threats before they conduct their attacks, physical barriers, and access controls to prevent unauthorized access, and appropriate response forces to defeat attackers who have gained access to DoD facilities. (p8)

Gosh, that helps clarify the situation.
Apparently, statutory and regulatory guidance prevents the release of the "alleged perpetrator's" performance evaluations, although the report does point to failures in that regard by Hasan's supervisors. According to open source reports, the guy was a shitbag whose chain of command passed him along with adequate reports despite shortcomings in his academic prowess, duty performance, and physical fitness.

Hey, we all lament the officer and NCO evaluation system. Apathy or lassitude on the part of Hasan's chain of command could well have stemmed from a well-founded suspicion that it wouldn't do any good, anyway. The way that our evaluation system works, the uneducated layman could put the report cards of the single best officer and single worst officer in a battalion side-by-side and a) not pick out which one is the best and b) think that they were both pretty good performers. I have been counseled numerous times in the past that writing a negative report on a guy, even when that report was fully justified by a robust package of counseling, "just wouldn't be worth the effort," and that the subject of the report would probably win on appeal. I would be interested to know whether Hasan's raters were truly derelict in their responsibilities, or were just cowed by the prospect of investing an extraordinary amount of work in justifying a negative report and having it all come to naught, anyway. The report charges the DoD to

Reinforce the serious effects of failure to reflect fully, accurately, and completely all aspects of professional, ethical, and personal career development in performance appraisals. We can only deal with internal threats if we can rely on the quality of the information reported in our official records

without ever considering that DoD also needs to facilitate the flip side of the coin. Writing a negative evaluation (and making it stick) should not require effort like unto an Everest expedition. And that's without even considering that the guy was a minority, and that the DoD had gone to great expense to train and educate him. I'm not saying that his chain of command shouldn't be sanctioned for not shithammering him. I am saying that DoD makes it oft times extremely difficult to do the right thing. A fact that the report blithely ignores.

The report states that because of his SECRET security clearance, Hasan had pretty much open access to the installation.

In the Fort Hood incident, the alleged perpetrator held an active and current SECRET security clearance based on a February 2008 National Agency Check with Local Agency and Credit Check of background investigation. Although accomplished in accordance with current guidelines, this background investigation did not include a subject interview or interviews with co-workers, supervisors, or expanded character references. We believe that if a more thorough investigation had been accomplished, his security clearance may have been revoked and his continued service and pending deployment would have been subject to increased scrutiny.

Okay, let's think about this. All Army officers have a SECRET clearance. Qualifying for one is a pre-commissioning requirement. The DoD already has a huge backlog in performing clearance investigations, and that's without performing subject/co-worker interviews for SECRET-level clearances. Is the report suggesting that we increase the burden on an already over-tasked system by an order of magnitude by having all SECRET clearance candidates interviewed? Or, do we diminish the scale of the increase by using common sense to levy more in-depth investigations on those with certain...uh...attributes that might make them more high risk? Hmm, what would such attributes or characteristics be? Let me think on it, I'm sure it'll come to me.

For that portion of the readership composed of my military brethren: Do you enjoy all those annual training requirements you have to attend? You do? Good, get ready to add another one, because DoD is going to

Integrate existing programs such as suicide, sexual assault, and family violence prevention with information on violence and self-radicalization to provide a comprehensive prevention and response program.

Great. I just love all that training. Y'know, the Army is so big on establishing metrics for every mission, has anyone ever established that all those classes actually do any good? I mean, good for the actual Soldier, not good for the command so it can cover its ass by saying "hey, we did our annual training." I have been to relatively few of these sessions that I thought would really do any good, although some are as effective as they are necessary.

The report, to me, seemed a study in jackassery. It levied a lot of recommendations against DoD that would be either peripheral or useless in stopping another attack. It didn't consider the costs in money, time, or effort that its recommendations would place on Commanders--even though all the recommendations are purportedly to help Commanders frustrate future attacks. This rag is definitely "by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats."

Is there anything at all positive about the report? Sure.
Know what the name of the US Postal Service's anti-workplace violence program is called?
The Going Postal Program. Really. (p C-5)

I Blame Global Warming

The recent cold snap experienced down here devastated the fish populations. While my own observations are anecdotal, I went down to my jetty the other morning and counted 27 dead fish in the area between the jetty and the boat ramp (an area about 10m X 15m). The whole of the island smelled like dead fish.

Haitian Vacation

Posting will be light until we get the Haiti relief effort up and running smooth. Big units go into full-scale 24/7 operations by slicing some of their bloated staff into a night ops crew; minimal impact on the organization except for sleep schedules. In itty-bitty units like mine, you gird your fucking loins and run a marathon at a wind-sprint pace.
Also, I will for the most part pass on posting about Haiti. I'm a little too close to Haitian relief efforts to be a disinterested commenter. I'd wind up either being a contrarian or a cheerleader, and neither is appropriate. Maybe later, when the AARs are written, I'll toss off attaboys and bullshit flags, but not right now.

Sherlock Holmes vs James Bond

...Is an analogy used in Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan. The comparison and contrast may have lost a little luster since Sherlock Holmes has been bad-assified in the new movie (thoroughly enjoyed the movie by the way. One point to ponder: in issuing the coup de grace hit on a hand-to-hand opponent, Holmes analyzes the efficacy of and then employs a liver punch, only it's wrong. So, film gaffe or safety measure so that kids don't run around exploding each others' livers?) but the paper is, in my humble opinion, a great overview of the shortfalls of our current information and intelligence architecture and a decent roadmap where it needs to go in order to better serve our national interests in Afghanistan.

In an effort to practice what they're preaching MG Flynn, Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence for ISAF and his co-authors have produced an eminently readable paper that "critically examines the relevance of the US intelligence community to the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan." The authors avoid delving into egghead esoterica and succinctly flense the current modes and methods of procuring intel in Afghanistan and offer up sound recommendations on improving the system. The authors proclaim that

The most salient problems are attitudinal, cultural, and human. The intelligence community’s standard mode of operation is surprisingly passive about aggregating information that is not enemy-related and relaying it to decision-makers or fellow analysts further up the chain. It is a culture that is strangely oblivious of how little its analytical products, as they now exist, actually influence commanders.

The study demands that the intel community shed its current "Powerpoint" mentality and start banging away on MS Word. The authors point out that the intel community doesn't provide Commanders on the ground the breadth and depth of information needed for a Commander to matriculate enduring positive effects for Afghanistan. Instead, by focusing primarily on anti-insurgent (as opposed to counterinsurgent) intelligence, the intel community predisposes Commanders to adopt a "capture/kill" mentality against the Taliban, rather than an "isolate, diminish, and starve" approach. Thus

“A military force, culturally programmed to respond conventionally (and predictably) to insurgent attacks, is akin to the bull that repeatedly charges a matador’s cape – only to tire and even­tually be defeated by a much weaker opponent,” General McChrystal and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Command Sergeant Major Michael T. Hall recently wrote. “This is predictable – the bull does what comes naturally. While a conventional approach is instinctive, that behavior is self-defeating.”

The changes that the intel community needs to make are to begin looking in depth across the breadth of Afghanistan and focusing on every dimension of Afghani society that might provide a lever or fulcrum to a Commander. The best analogy offered on how the system needs to change its perspective was a neo-Clausewitzian comparison of the COIN intel requirement to that of a political campaign in that

To understand the dynamics of this process, it is useful to think of the Afghanistan war as a politi­cal campaign, albeit a violent one. If an election campaign spent all of its effort attacking the oppo­sition and none figuring out which districts were undecided, which were most worthy of competing for, and what specific messages were necessary to sway them, the campaign would be destined to fail. No serious contender for the American presidency ever confined himself or herself solely to the “strategic” level of a campaign, telling the staff to worry only about the national and regional picture and to leave individual counties and elec­tion districts entirely in the hands of local party organizers, disconnected from the overall direction of the campaign. In order to succeed, a candidate’s pollsters and strategists (the equivalent of a J-2 staff) must constantly explore the local levels, including voters’ grievances, leanings, loyalties, and activities. Experienced campaign strategists under­stand that losing even one or two key districts can mean overall defeat. (Recall, for example, the defin­ing impact of two Florida counties – Miami-Dade and Palm Beach – on the national outcome of the 2000 presidential election.) To paraphrase former Speaker of the House Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill’s famous quote, “all counterinsurgency is local.”

The proposal to build Stability Operations Information Centers, each with a healthy demographic of journeyman analysts that go out with every possible ground element in order to survey and collate information picked up by every available sensor, is sound. The folks who live and operate in a given area will know everything knowable about it--up to and including minutiae that they don't even realize will be important in gleaning a better picture of cause and effect within their respective AOs. As the paper says, "The soldier or development worker on the ground is usually the person best informed about the environment and the enemy. Moving up through levels of hierarchy is normally a journey into greater degrees of cluelessness."

The most important piece of the paper, though, is that it emphasizes, again and again, that intel is Commanders' business. Leaders need to constantly push their intel shops to collect, evaluate, and assess the relevant information and intelligence that they need to shape their campaigns. Too often, Commanders demand that their intelligence be diluted into bite-size bubble charts that may track what happened, but not how or--more importantly--why.

The Stability Ops Info Centers would in many ways replicate the intel procedures prevalent in current intel Fusion Centers. However, while Fusion Centers usually concentrate on "red" activity (enemy activity), The SOICs would concentrate on "white" activity (the population, economy, development and government). So, an example of the efficacy of the SOICs would be when

An NGO wanting to build a water well in a village may learn, as we recently did, about some of the surprising risks encountered by others who have attempted the same project. For instance, a foreign-funded well constructed in the center of a village in southern Afghanistan was destroyed – not by the Taliban – but by the village’s women. Before, the women had to walk a long distance to draw water from a river, but this was exactly what they wanted. The establishment of a village well deprived them of their only opportunity to gather socially with other women.

The authors also make a good argument for keeping the intel system bifurcated along the Fusion Center/SIOC dichotomy. Access, timeliness, and customer culture between the two intel venues differ so wildly that it is best to keep them separate.

I would push, though, for a trifurcated (yuh, I invent words as I go along) architecture. Rather than a red vs. white paradigm for collection, analysis, assessment, and dissemination, I'd like to see a "black, grey, white" paradigm. Black for lethal/bad guy targeting, white for all the DIME stuff, and grey for those actors about whom we're not real sure. Many of the persons, infrastructure, locations, and organizations on which we collect would probably be graded on a sliding scale along that spectrum, depending on which dimension was prioritized. For example, a local political figure might be pro-Coalition (white) and have a lot of influence with various tribal shuras (white), but he might have sticky fingers when it comes to aid money (grey), spend a little too much time with certain criminal elements (grey) and meet regularly with his brother's wife's cousin's husband, who just happens to be a Taliban bigwig (black). In order to get the holistic view that the authors want, the firewalls betwixt the different targeting systems would have to have access points so that analysts could braid the information coming from the three areas into a coherent picture. I don't think the introduction of grey intel necessitates a whole new third type of center, I just think that there's got to be an overarching means of getting the full picture of any particular person, place, or thing. Get this right, and Sherlock Holmes becomes the bad ass he needs to be without requiring James Bonds "double-0" status.

Speaking of Phonetic Anomalies...Like I Was Saying

This report has me trying not to dislocate anything patting myself too hard on the back:

A timeline provided by the State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, showed that an initial check of the suspect based on his father's information failed to disclose he had a multiple-entry U.S. visa. The reason was that AbdulMutallab's name was misspelled.

"That search did not come back positive," said one official, who called it a quick search without using multiple variants of spelling.

Like I said, spell it in standardized Arabic, optically scan it, turn it into a bar code, and disseminate.

Here's To All You Ladies Celebrating Mongo Day

Glad the Mongo clan could be of service...
The difference in spelling is a phonetic anomaly from the Irish...

Happy New Year

The System Worked As Well As Anyone Else's...Right? C'mon, really, Right?

My thinking 'til now was: This many years after 9/11, the foiled Christmas Air Terror Attack is just embarrassing. So much went wrong, in so many dimensions of national security, that everyone involved in national security should probably be more than just a wee bit humiliated.
Then I read this:

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off...

Okay, whoa. Time the fuck out. We ("we") miss this Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab guy. That's embarrassing. Then we find out that a month ago a UFA clone ran a rehearsal in Somalia and got caught by African Union peacekeeping troops. Now, I don't want to sound like an American chauvinist (I am, just don't want that perception to interfere with making my point), but we just got skunked by the African Union peacekeeping force. That's like the LA Lakers getting blown out by Brownie Troop 394.
Forget calling for "heads to roll." That doesn't happen anymore. Instead, we need to get cross-cultural and historical, and bring back a golden oldie as the official means by which someone that fucks up this bad expresses remorse for poor duty performance. Seppuku.

Sniper Stuff

It looks like the three primary sniper schools (Army, Marines, SF) are starting to do some cross-talking and sharing of lessons-learned. Good. No tactical military endeavor is so much an intersection of art and science. And, too, our combat troops--to include and especially snipers--are experiencing more actual combat than any in our history:

Earlier patterns of combat were different. For example, during World War II, the bulk of the Allied troops in Europe went in after June 6, 1944. The fighting in Europe ended eleven months later. In the Pacific, the fighting tended to be episodic. A few months of combat, followed by many months of preparing for the next island invasion or battle. In Vietnam, not a lot of people went back for multiple tours, and those who did spend a year with a combat unit, spent less time in combat than they would in Iraq. Even during Vietnam, it was noted that many of those who were in combat for 200 or more days, did get a little punchy.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, army combat troops often get 200 days of combat in one 12 month tour, which is more than their grandfathers got during all of World War II.

The linked article isn't on sniping, it covers PTSD and the chemical changes the syndrome induces (I'm not smart enough on the science to do a chicken-or-egg disquisition). As a comparative analysis of combat experience logged since WWII, though, the article reasonably argues that our troops are the most experienced our country has had, ever.

And speaking of all things sniper, Stephen Hunter, the Fyodor Dostoyevsky of the sniper novel, has a new book on the streets. So, looks like everything stops on the Mongo reading list until I download and devour I, Sniper.

American History or Mungadai Heresy?

Chuck Norris is iconic to the Mungadai, so I hesitate to put this out there. Still, a good thought on which to meditate.


H/T to Mr. Rummel at Hell in a Handbasket

And Speaking of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

So, Richard Reid pulled his stunt with the shoes less than six months after 9/11, and ever since we've had to doff our shoes at the security checkpoint at airports.
The 2006 terror plot of the "hair gel and anal salve" Al Qaida set ensured that now we cannot carry on more than an itty-bitty smidgen of any sort of liquid onto a plane.
We're hearing about new TSA rules that will force passengers to sit for the last hour of any flight with nothing in their laps and without recourse to the restrooms (because, of course, AQ terrorists are not savvy enough to use the lavatory 65 minutes before touchdown). But (butt) does that really ensure our safety? I think not.
Nope. Since ol' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab chose to squirrel away his PETN in his jockey shorts, and said shorts didn't raise a single alarum, there is only one fail safe TSA countermeasure available...

Damn, flight bumped again...

Apparently, It's Judo Day

Judo 101

Any regular readers (all three of you, give or take) have probably begun to suspect my penchant for judo and jiu-jitsu, and that it is one of the optics through which I try to view most situations and/or problems.
I don't watch much television--not that I'm one of those anti-television snobs. Aside from reality shows, content on TV is better than it's ever been. I just have too much to do otherwise with working out, MA training, work, family stuff, and professional reading (and drinking. And fishing). So I'm coming late to the game with watching the Human Weapon series on the History Channel. Still, found it, and enjoyed their installment on Judo. The show provides a good overview of Judo history (with its Jiu-Jitsu roots) and principles. Anyone looking for a quick Judo 101 could do worse than to watch the show. Part one is embedded below, but I recommend all four installments.

A Modest Proposal In The Interests of National Security

The foiled Christmas terrorist attack--the system worked!-- highlighted an ongoing peeve of mine. How many ways can you mangle, make up, or imagine you will see in the press the spelling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name? There are conventions for transliterating non-romanic languages into English, but they still give us a plethora of spelling options for, in this case, Arabic names.

Look at the high fashion, Italiana-guarded, Barbie-curl coiffed titular head of Libya. According to Wikipedia:

Because of the lack of standardization of transliterating written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been transliterated in many different ways into English and other Latin alphabet languages. An article published in the London Evening Standard in 2004 lists a total of 37 spellings of his name, while a 1986 column by The Straight Dope quotes a list of 32 spellings known at the Library of Congress.^[83] This extensive confusion of naming was used as the subject for a segment of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update in the early 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, Gaddafi reportedly responded to a Minnesota school's letter in English using the spelling "Moammar El-Gadhafi".^[84] The title of the homepage of algathafi.org reads "Welcome to the official site of Muammar Al Gathafi".^[85]

"Muammar Gaddafi" is the spelling used by Time magazine, BBC News, the majority of the British press and by the English service of Al-Jazeera.^[86] The Associated Press, CNN, and Fox News use "Moammar Gadhafi". The Edinburgh Middle East Report uses "Mu'ammar Qaddafi" and the U.S. Department of State uses "Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi". The Xinhua News Agency uses "Muammar Khaddafi" in its English reports.^[87]

So, Gaddafi is a guy who wants everyone in the room to know who he is and that he is there. Were it up to him (and, unfortunately, oft times it is) trumpets would blare and pigeons would fly every time he made an entrance, and we can still document 30~40 different open source methods of spelling his name.

Now suppose that you're just some schmuck that wants to infil the US--or US airspace, anyway--in order to blow up innocent civilians, cause significant property damage, and generally terrorize as much of the US population as you can. With a name like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, how many different spelling variations can you come up with in an effort to thwart the various and sundry bureaucracies charged with keeping your sorry ass out? Even if there were, for example, a couple of small irregularities between your hand-printed immigration card, and your passport, and your driver's license, and your visa card, and your actual visa, would an English-speaking official either notice or think it was significant? Suppose Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had had the mission to infiltrate the US and put boots on the ground for a period of time before executing his plan (like, say, spend some months in a Florida flight school before being ready or able to execute the mission)? If he could get into the US, he could drive from coast to coast, stopping at motels to rest or see the sights, without ever using the same spelling twice. Any bureaucracy, or any ad hoc conglomeration of bureaucracies ostensibly collaborating to catch the guy, suffers a workload that expands geometrically over space and time trying to track the guy down, and that's without him employing any other countermeasures than playing scrabble with his name.
All applications for non-immigrant visas (you can see one here) are written exclusively in English. In fact, the Visa application is topped with big red letters that say, in part,"Your answers must be in English and must use English characters." I can understand the philosophy that in order to come to the States, you should at least have enough facility with the language to fill out the paperwork. Of course, this is not the philosophy upon which DOS bases its requirement to actually fill out the form. Any non-English speaking individuals seeking to fill out a visa can go to the local Embassy or Consul and get assistance filling out the form. So, if your name originates from the Arabic alphabet (or the Cyrillic, or Kanji, or Hangul, or...), then your name in the English alphabet is pretty much whatever approximation you choose that more or less is phonetically close enough. Does this seem like an administrative weakness that can be exploited?

Arabic is tough to learn; to even be a competent "basic" speaker, you have to learn a whole new alphabet. The Army has a whole curriculum based off a transliterated English alphabet; the transliterated alphabet only aids in phonetic rote memorization. Even this many years after 9/11, it is probably too much to expect that our alphabet soup of bureaucracies would have enough competent Arabic linguists to manage even the "by exception" guys on various watch lists, let alone all the Arabic native speakers who come into contact, for whatever reason, with our US Government.

So, what if we had all applicants fill out a bubble sheet, like unto that which Americans fill out for any standardized academic test (e.g., the SAT), possibly linked in with some sort of biometrics, and that gets translated into a standardized bar code that code be scanned, databased, and disseminated electronically.Above is Gaddafi's name in such a standardized format.* It couldn't take too long to 'gin up some code that would enable us to digitally track his comings and goings in the US--I mean, if he's not allowed to pitch his big tent in Central Park. If every applicant/immigrant with a name not derived from the English alphabet used this, it would probably make everyone's life easier. A guy named Abdulmutallab on the watch list couldn't spoof the system by writing Abdel Mu'talib. When he did apply for a visa, every one in government with a responsibility to safeguard the homeland (which should be everyone in Government) would be able to bounce his standardized name off of his own lists. Failure to properly render one's name in one's native language when one chooses to apply for any permissions or dispensations from the USG would mean no further access to our government (or our country) without a lengthy appeal process to determine why you bungled your name in your own native tongue.

An added benefit is that this isn't even "profiling." We just want to do you, Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the courtesy of getting your name right. So that we can better and more efficiently act on your request for a visa (driver's license, whatever). The fact that we can better and more effectively shithammer you if you're a terrorist, well, that's just a happy coincidence.

*And Gaddafi's name proves the point. My own facility with Arabic ranges from poor to not-quite-as-poor, depending on how much I'm using it. As it's been years since I've read any Arabic press with Gaddafi's proper name in it, this was a surprise: If pronounced exactly as spelled in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), Gaddafi's name is more like QaTHafi. I'm reasonably sure the proliferation of D's rather than Th's in the middle of the spelling of his last name is due to a variation between MSA and Libyan dialect. So, even if a guy is making an honest effort to accurately transliterate his own name, the difference between the Arabic spoken and written word can throw a spanner into the works.

2009 In Retrospect

Analyzed as only Dave Barry can.

Ouch

Pretty scathing critique from Yasotay.

Man, That Dude Is Hardcore

There's hard, there's hardcore, and then there are those who take it to a whole new level.

Weekly Roundup

Okay, the way I'm going, it's more of a monthly round up. Whatever.
First, the weather every where else blows so much (no pun intended), it prompted me to put the "local weather" tab onto the blog. Okay, so we get the snot knocked out of us every hurricane season; there is an upside. Not only did I go for a lovely run yesterday, I actually had to wear a long sleeve T-shirt when I did. Brrr, bitches.
Speaking of running, regular readers know that I'm firmly in the "running is da debbil" camp. However, I just finished McDougall's Born to Run, and I'm now willing to posit that maybe it's just that "running in running shoes is da debbil." The book answers the question "what's the difference between a long distance runner and a pronghorn"--pretty effectively, I might add. So, I'm trying to re-train my feet and investigate our roots as persistence hunters,. Interesting, and I can report no orthopedic injuries thus far. We'll see. A single injury and I'm going right back to "running" just twice a year, in two mile iterations. And yes, I'm running only in my monkey shoes.
Picked up from Starbuck on the trials and tribulations of Master Sergeant Grisham. I'm not going to comment on Grisham's plight, Starbuck and Blackfive have got it covered, with all appropriate links. But, two thoughts about the overall atmospherics of milblogging and the milbloggers' response of a blackout.
1. Blackfive astutely observes that

milblogs are facing an increasingly hostile environment from within the military. While senior leadership has embraced blogging and social media, many field grade officers and senior NCOs do not embrace the concept. From general apathy in not wanting to deal with the issue to outright hostility to it, many commands are not only failing to support such activities, but are aggressively acting against active duty milbloggers, milspouses, and others. The number of such incidents appears to be growing, with milbloggers receiving reprimands, verbal and written, not only for their activities but those of spouses and supporters.

Uh, so is anyone surprised that the ranks of Army middle management has a significant demographic comprised of anal-retentive, control-freak, self-righteous pricks? That's the environment that we all work in, and whether we're blogging, or leading our troops, or following our leaders. One can see this demographic at work whether one is blogging, designing a CONOP for the liberation of Iraq, or briefing the dental readiness of one's unit. Deal with it. One can either participate, trying hard to be one of the "good guys," or one can withdraw. Either way, it's the Army's bat, ball, and rules, and to paraphrase Heinlein "of course the game is rigged, but if you don't play, you can't win."

2. If the objectionable goal of the anal-retentive, control-freak, self-righteous pricks is to get milbloggers to STFU and color, why are milblogs protesting by S'ing TFU? Seems to me this is an opportunity to point out ostensible disconnects between senior leadership and middle management (and yeah, as a field grade officer, I detest the term "middle management" WRT field grade officers, I do it just to kick myself in the balls and stay humble). Are any milbloggers out there digging deeper than the facts presented in the Military Times (I'd trust the poop I got from a military professional blogging on his own time than a journalist, nine times out of ten)? Has anyone queried Grisham's chain of command to find out why they're hanging him out to dry? In fact, has anyone queried them requesting a for-attribution quote in a...milblog? Heh, that would torque them up a bit.

All military professionals know that their freedom of speech is constrained, usually for all kinds of good reasons, like good order and discipline and OPSEC. That doesn't mean we have no means by which to throw a bullshit flag. It's just that in my (admittedly limited) experience, going silent is seldom the way to address a problem or injustice.

Done

Okay, I've schlepped the last box, swept the last floor, and turned over the keys of the old place. We are now established in our new domicile. Since it was a local move for the fam, the Army didn't contribute, and the wife had to go north to meet some familial obligations, so the moving team consisted pretty much of me, myself, and I. That sucked. I did beer-bribe some of the Clydesdales at work, who helped me with downloading my storage units, so I had that going for me.
So while we're officially "in" the new place, we're not quite done yet. Lots of boxes & containers to unpack. I figure that, per Mongo clan SOP, we'll be done right about the time we get orders to PCS again.
The new place is huge, but needs a little work. The back yard looks like a set out of Jumanji, so some significant effort will be spent back there before we can actually use the boat ramp or the jetty.
Still, the view is great.

Especially at sunset.

The Pot-Bellied Dictator Commands Some Toe-Tappin"

Audaciously ripped from the digital pages of JihadGene's mandatory Friday night dance mix. The Great Reader always provides a Friday tune to help transition to the weekend; whatever the dance selection, it invariably makes me think of Snoopy's happyfoot dance. So, without further ado, here's Gene's pick for this week...oh, and apparently some of my Navy brethren have waaaay too much time on their hands when on float. Oh yeah, and in order to keep from getting too footloose and fancy free, this is how diversity really works. See anyone concerned about race, religion yada yada?

Post The Colors...The Only Colors That Should Matter

I'm pretty incredulous and more than a wee bit pissed at the Army's knee jerk paean to diversity after MAJ Hasan's successful execution of a domestic terrorist operation at Ft. Hood, Texas.
And I've commented before on the disgusting diversity genuflection of the service academies.
But this post from Powerline shows how entrenched and invidious the diversity game is at Navy and, I can only assume after GEN Casey's comments, West Point.
Followed by some decent backlash snark.

Code of Conduct Training

Interesting photojournal here about the Army's SERE school. Apparently CNN spent some time at Bragg sometime in 2002 and did a CNN Presents on the survival school. What I found most interesting was the hormonal study data presented. And the fact that there are cadre present that have suffered through captivity their own selves.
On the hormone stuff, though, I'd say that it's a pretty bold statement to make that SF guys have a "biological profile" that makes them cool under fire. Most of the smart guys I've spoken to about genetic predisposition for combat performance were adamant that the jury is still out on the whole nurture or nature question (warning, don't click on that link unless you really, really want to get your geek on. Just take my word on it).
Oh, and in researching for this post, I heard that that Elmer Adams guy that's quoted is a Son Tay Raider. Yuh, I guess that gives him creds on talking about stress inoculation.
And, while we're talking about all things SERE, here's a pretty cool tale of Monopoly games with a real "get out of jail free" card. Good stuff.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Because of my rather robust deployment schedule (Mrs. Mongo has graciously done the math, and I was gone the last 21 of 24 months), my lovely and engaging wife has signed me up for every parental engagement possible. In the month and a half I've been back, I'm definitely well on the way toward winning back all my Super Dad points. So far, I've chaperoned about five school dances, three field trips, and four or five assemblies. She's kept me away from the PTA meetings because she knows that I'd be me.
One of the activities that Mrs. Mongo put on my dance card was going to the 5th grade class for a question and answer session after the school Veterans Day ceremony yesterday. When I was first assigned to a posting in S. Florida, my wife talked to another wife we knew from previous postings who was on the ground, and who said that the best public schools, by far, were down in the Keys. So I bit the bullet (okay, I wasn't given a vote) and accepted the (ass-ripping) commute in order to put the kids in good schools. The schools down here have been phenomenal. I'm pretty hard on the public school system, but have been forced to admit that I could not ask for a better school in which to place my kids.
So, I was given some rough ROE (Rules of Engagement) about what I could, and couldn't, talk to the kids about, and set loose. We had a blast. The kids asked some pretty perceptive questions. I was sorta kinda on the hot seat. When the Q&A was done, I hadn't answered everyone's questions. So, I volunteered to answer written follow-on questions sent home. For shits and grins, here are the follow-on questions and my answers:
Q: How many people have you ever shot/killed?
A: Unfortunately, Army guys have to sometimes employ violence in order to do our jobs. However, it’s not the kind of thing one keeps score on.

Q: Do you have to lift a lot of weights?
A: I have to exercise a lot, but I do not lift weights. I do a lot of calisthenics, sprinting and yoga. Sometimes I will use real-world weights to exercise (like tires, logs, and bricks), but I do not do what one would call “weightlifting.”

Q: How many inches are your biceps?
A: A lot.

Q: What’s the worst weather you’ve ever been in?
A: I have been in a lot of bad weather. I would say that the worst weather one has to endure is when it is just above freezing (say 35-39 degrees F) but raining. That is really miserable, which is why I’m glad we live in the Keys.

Q: Has your Dad’s team ever won once?
A: My team wins every time we go out.

Q: Have you ever laughed during an ambush?
A: I usually laugh after the ambush, once I realize that all my guys and me are okay, and nobody was hurt.

Q: Where is the hottest place you’ve ever been to?
A: The hottest place I’ve ever been is in Hol Hol, Djibouti. It’s the hottest place on earth, and I once spent about three beautiful weeks there.

Q: Are Iraqis nice or mean?
A: The Iraqis I know, and have worked with and lived with, are capable of the most amazing acts of kindness, charity, and selflessness, and the same guys are capable of disturbing acts of cruelty and barbarism. They are very, very different from us, and even after all these years I am still working on understanding them.

Diversity, Dithering, and Damnable Myopia

As Veterans' Day draws to a close, I feel drawn to revisit GEN Casey's statement, highlighted in my previous post.
First, I need to apologize for the childishly trite heading for that post, but it was the only way I felt that I could adequately express my shock and dismay at GEN Casey's statement without letting loose a string of invective at the sentiment contained therein.
Here's the deal: the Army is not strong because of its diversity. The Army is strong because we take a wildly diverse population and bind them to a common goal, and a common ethic, with one set of values (that many wear posted on their dogtags, because, I guess, one can accomplish values training by osmosis). In some ways the Army (or the military writ large) is the ultimate melting pot. We don't care who you are, where you are from, what your race, color, creed, cultural background, or (as long as you don't ask or tell) what your sexual proclivities are. All we care about is that you are constitutionally capable of making the commitment to defend our nation and our constitution.
We are not Army Strong because we've got white, black, red, brown and yellow in our ranks. We are Army Strong because we've got white, black, red, brown and yellow hewing to a common cause: the defense of our nation and our way of life.
Achieving "diversity," in and of itself, is nothing to crow about, unless your objective is so vapid and vacuous that the mere composition of your team is reason enough to declare victory.
These days, I think the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. have been turned on their head. When we pat ourselves on the back for achieving "diversity," we laud our composition merely for the physical attributes with which they were born, and not for the great things that they have achieved. We are navel gazing and preoccupied with the color of our members' skins, and not the content of their respective characters. This is a shame.
And because of the apparent fugue state our fixation with diversity has engendered, I am hearing a lot of smart people say," well, there were red flags with MAJ Hasan, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions."
Got it. But when a Muslim stands up, declares "Allahu Akbar," and starts shooting every Soldier in sight, I know where my investigation begins; I know what a duck looks like, walks like, and quacks like.
Again, I reiterate, I think our Army is far too professional to succumb to "backlash" against Muslims because of Hasan's actions. See, mature professionals are able to point their fingers at singular Jihadi bastards without painting every Muslim with their crimes. When you're not preoccupied with diversity and population composition, you're able to hold individuals culpable for their actions.

OMFG

GEN George Casey, United States Army Chief of Staff:
"What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even-greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here," he said. "We have a very diverse army. We have a very diverse society. And that gives us all strength."

Diversity. I do not think this word means what you think it means.

I'm ending this post now, as I'm at the limits of professionalism, here. Thank you, GEN Casey, for helping me to expand the horizons of my professional comportment.

Piling Higher and Higher

More boo-shit here on anti-muslim "backlash."

Um, you know, I think I'd rather have our government worrying about the anti-christian/jewish/western/enlightened/informed/humanist forelash--forelash? You know what I'm saying.
When you think about it, it's an automatic "win" for the politico-knucklehead that runs out and warns the American public against anti-muslim "backlash." The politician can later have a surrogate portray them as the "voice of calm and reason in difficult, possibly violent times" that helped preclude a backlash. Even though every one of these guys and gals know that the US public is not going to target an entire demographic because of the actions of one sociopath.
Just another example of our political masters acting as political vultures.

A Beautiful Mind

Today is the birthday of the incandescently beautiful Hedy Lamarr.
Not only was she simply gorgeous, she was also a member of the artistic/scientific duo--the other being George Antheil, concert pianist and self-described "bad boy of music"-- that won Patent #2,292.387.
Basically, in an effort to provide the Allies radio-controlled torpedoes, the pianist and the actress developed the first form of "frequency hopping," as a torpedo controlled on a single frequency was too easily jammed.
The concept on which this patent was based continued to grow, and scientists continued to slice and splice the concepts, and Hedy's contribution to science, one can plausibly claim, came to be known as that weird critter "WiFi."
Anyone in the military today can tell you the impact of frequency-hop radios (and anyone who has ever tried to re-set timing or send an IRF in the dark in the rain can tell you that we may well have peaked with Ms. Lamarr).
And, I guess, Ms. Lamarr was pretty "edgy" for her times; in the 1933 film Ecstasy, she apparently spent most of her screen time being, um, what's the word? Nekkid. Apparently (even by today's standards) the film was a wee bit racy.
So, for all of you that either post or prowl pictures of today's beauties--say, Megan Fox, all I can say is: look for a beautiful mind.

Another Chink In The Armor.

Yuh. Gotta keep working on that heartless bastard motif. Shields up.

Backlash?

Still don't get it. In the way one does, in this information age, I followed Starbuck who led me to Attackerman who led me to The Washington Independent which led me to the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military. Their statement on the atrocity at Fort Hood contains the following paragraph:

In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, it is more important than ever that we not make the same scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes that were evident in the aftermath of previous tragedies. The Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military urges the media, government officials and all of our fellow Americans to recognize that the actions of Hasan are those of a deranged gunman, and are in no way representative of the wider Arab American or American Muslim community.

My response to every contact listed on their website is:

Gentlemen,
We are all reeling with shock and horror after the massacre of innocent Soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas. MAJ Malik Hasan was a sick and twisted individual, whose savagery and wanton disregard for the sanctity of life mark him as an abomination.

In our diverse and inclusive society, I feel more than confident that MAJ Hasan's actions will be seen accurately for what they were: The actions of a sociopath. However, the APAAM statement about the Fort Hood massacre, while correct in its condemnation of MAJ Hasan, left me confused and more than a little distressed.

Your statement said, in part:
In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, it is more important than ever that we not make the same scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes that were evident in the aftermath of previous tragedies. The Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military urges the media, government officials and all of our fellow Americans to recognize that the actions of Hasan are those of a deranged gunman, and are in no way representative of the wider Arab American or American Muslim community.

Could you please tell me what scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes were made in the aftermath of previous tragedies? Do you mean within the military? Or within American society at large? I feel more than sure that in our current media environment with its instantaneous communications technology and voracious need for content, I would have heard of any hate crimes directed against Arab American servicemen or Arab American citizens at large. Yet I have heard of none, thus far. I did not hear of any after the bombings of our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya by Islamic Arab terrorists. I did not hear of any after the suicide-boat bombing of the USS Cole by Islamic Arab terrorists. I did not hear of any after the bombing of Khobar Towers by Islamic Arab terrorists. I did not hear of any after 3,000 Americans of every race, color, and creed were slaughtered on September 11, 2001 by Islamic Arab terrorists.

Gentlemen, could you please elucidate for me exactly what scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes you are talking about? By implying retributive hate crimes against Arab American servicemen after any of these events, you commit calumny against the vast majority of our uniformed service members (or, if speaking of Arab American civilians, the United States at large) who treat all of their brothers in arms with the respect and trust that is the due of any member of our Armed Forces (and the citizens of our great nation who treat all Arab Americans as, well, Americans).

I hope to hear from you.

I look forward to their response. I think this is the same pablum we've been hearing since before 9/11, and that there is no there, there. Or, I've been missing the boat on Arab Americans being persecuted for who they are rather than what they've done, and I have erred. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with any American, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender, and defend him against assaults on his God given rights. That was the impetus of the oath I took more than twenty years ago: I will defend our Constitution, and all of our citizens, unto death.
I'll let you know what the response is, if any.

MAJ Malik Hasan: Murderous Dog

As I read the coverage of MAJ Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, mental bullshit flags are flying left and right.
First of all, I'm getting tired of hearing about "fears of a backlash" against Muslims:

Barack Obama today joined calls from across America for calm amid fears of a backlash in the wake of the shooting spree by a Muslim soldier at the Fort Hood that left 13 dead and 28 wounded.

Apparently, even the Army is getting into the act

Army Chief of Staff George Casey said ..."I do worry slightly about a backlash" against Muslim soldiers in the Army...

Does anyone even know of any real, substantiated cases of "backlash against Muslims" in this country since 9/11? I am so tired of hearing this trope, and am especially dismayed that the Army is knitting its brow in concern for our Islamic soldiers. Not going to happen: our force is too professional to allow any instances of backlash to foment, and I think our society is too inclusive and diverse for it to become a problem in this country. Sure, Hollywood will always weave a thread of American intolerance into its tales, even on shows I like, like 24, in order to demonstrate a societal moral equivalence between our cultures: "oh, see, we all must suffer violent extremists in our midst." Not happening.
Also, it looks to me a lot like news shows are bending over backwards to avoid intimating that Hasan was an Islamist/Jihadi son of a bitch. All kinds of reportage that "he was distraught over his impending deployment."
Bullshit. Not only are we an all volunteer force in general, but any soldier can get out of any deployment by going to an Army headshrinker--like Hasan--and saying "I feel stressed, this is making me homocidal/suicidal." Bam, instant relief from deployment requirements. [I know a guy that got sent back from Iraq like that; he wasn't "battle fatigued," nor was he suicidal/homicidal. He was a coward who verbalized those sentiments to a headshrinker specifically to get out of combat.] But our Soldiers didn't just volunteer for the Army, and then suffer the vagaries of being arbitrarily or wantonly flung into the combat zone. Instead, they volunteer every day, slugging it out to protect our country, when any one of them could get a ticket home with minimum effort. You can get out of combat by saying you're feeling homicidal, with no need to actually commit homicide. And there's no way that Hasan didn't know that.
Most rational people wouldn't need to pull out Occam's razor to start an investigation into Hasan's motivations with a look at the possibility that it was Jihadi movitivated. It is a plausible start point, it's rational, it's just not politically correct.

Term "Stone Cold Stud" is not Gender Speciific

A stud is a stud. Thank you Officer Munley, from all of us.

Heartbreaking

I'm pretty much a heartless bastard. I've worked very hard to become so. Still, this article demonstrates that I've still got some chinks in the armor. Damn, my allergies must be acting up again. I gotta go blow my nose.
H/T AoS

High Seas Seizure

I'm sure that the Israeli seizure of the largest weapons cache ever interdicted going into Syria/Lebanon on an Iranian ship is an anomaly. No harm, no foul, right? We can continue "negotiating" with the Iranians on their nuke program in good faith. This is not an indicator that the Iranians would ever be duplicitous.
The Syrians say they don't know nothin' about it, so it must all be a big misunderstanding, right?

Question is, is Schultzie a metaphor for the Syrians, or the American negotiators?

Fort Hood

Nothing to contribute on the slayings at Ft. Hood. Prayers go out to the families, friends, and brothers-in-arms of the fallen and the injured.

The Warrior Song

Okay, I'm old (relatively), broken (sorta/kinda) and bitter (after this last deployment, but I'm working through it).
Yet lo, after all all these years, this still pumps my 'nads. Fuckin' A.



H/T Tgace

Then, Just Like That, He Was

If your wacky, devil-may-care, acrobatic aviation paison offers you a once-in-a-lifetime shot at going up into the wild blue yonder, make sure you know the approved handholds. Approved handholds.

Again, from AoS.

Not Just A Hero...

...but also a stone cold stud. Mortally wounded with three GSWs to the chest and abdomen, the officer/agent scores a head-shot from 30 feet. Damn. We should all be humbled by that convergence of commitment and competence.

H/T AoS

Welcome Home, Brother

It's been a long time coming.

Duty...Country

Just so no one gets the wrong idea, I didn't catch that 187 pound Tiger Shark. My pizo cubano Furio did (more on Furio later). Still, that's my damn front yard they docked at and my damn danvit they're hangin' that booger off of. So, that's kind of like partial credit, right?
Actually, I'm in the midst of a lodging move right now, so all my shit's blown up like a TA-50 lay out in Dahlonega, and I've been doing zero angling, zero fighting, and zero blogging.
At some point, things'll settle down and I'll be able to begin to try to figure out why I gave this blogging thing a shot, and why I should keep at it, and where this blog should go now that I've repaired from Iraq.
In the meantime, there's sharks to catch. And--lucky for me--there're beers to be drunk whilst waiting for the guys who actually catch the sharks to come back in to the dock.

Dearth of Postingness

Yuh. I've not been posting. I suck.
But I've been doing really important shit.


Really important.

Running Is Bad For You, Still

What's the difference between a long-distance runner and a pronghorn?

...the husky and Arabian horse wouldn't run long distances if not pushed to do so. Animals run because they have to—to eat or avoid being eaten. Man is the only animal that runs simply to do it. Our large brains can convince our frail bodies to keep moving regardless of cost. We may not be the fastest animals, but we can run ourselves into the ground for sport, exhausting our food supply, and making ourselves susceptible to disease, injury and death. That's a feat no pronghorn can touch.

Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy Make The Case for Re-Defining "Serial Murder"

Okay, bit of a reach. But not much.

Going to see transvestites in Thailand is normal, the problem is whose money they used to go

Uh. Not sure any commentary is necessary. Is that Mao jacket getting a little tight around the collar?

Reap What You Sow, MFs (My Friends)

Looks like the Revolutionary Guards got a taste of their own medicine. Oh, and Iran is blaming us for either sponsoring or participating in the suicide bombing. Right.
So, Iran through its Hezbollah and AQ surrogates (AQ? How can that be? AQ is Sunni...) has turned suicide bombing into an art form. Then they bitch when the technique is used against them. Queue the itty-bitty violins. Reap what you sow, bitches.

Bureaucracy Brilliance, Installment #197

So, you're a public employee charged with managing the criminally insane. What sounds like good therapy for a homicidal maniac (I mean, that's actually not an epithet, that's a clinical description)? Why, take him to the county fair, let him loose, and provide little to no supervision. What could possibly go wrong?

Story has a "happy" ending, though. They got the guy back in the pokey before he managed to kill anyone. So, no harm, no foul? Right?
I love how the guy states that his escape was "unplanned." Who is more insane? The mad dog killer that got out, or the state authorities that provide an insane killer a "target of opportunity" for escape.

Autumnal Clearing

Okay, lot's of stuff in the "blog holder" bookmark that hasn't been published because I was either working, re-deploying, or on leave (and far too drunk to blog). So, I'm cleaning out the bookmarks folder and throwing up all the stuff I've taken a pass on the last month or so. Bear with me. Or "bare" with me. Whichever you prefer. After all, it's almost noon, so I've already started knocking back the oilcans.

Media Mores and My Money

WSJ interview with Andrew Breitbart, the guy who strategerized the release of the ACORN videos taken by faux pimp and prostitute, O'Keefe and Giles. The videos caused a sensation, and did all the things Breitbart claims in the interview.
Of most concern to me, though, is the fact that Mr. Breitbart and his crew got the story when other news outlets couldn't (even if they had wanted to) because

The approach Mr. O'Keefe and Ms. Giles used—lying to prospective sources or subjects—is grossly unethical by the standards of institutional journalism. Almost all major news organizations, including the Journal, strictly prohibit it. To be sure, there is a world of difference between employing such tactics and reporting on the results when others have used them. And there is no question that the pair's findings were newsworthy. But journalistic discomfort with their methods is a sign of integrity, not corruption.

I think that it is, in general, a good thing that newspapers will not lie to their sources--would that they had the same concerns about lying to the public (predominately, lying by omission). However, ACORN had accepted millions in federal funds, and my understanding is that they were programmed for billions more through the stimulus plan. That an advocacy organization is so replete with the most vile sort of corruption (facilitating the exploitation of underage sex slaves) is repugnant enough. That they were able to procure and manage millions/billions in federal largess is even worse. They were using our money to commit these criminal acts.
"We" have decided that organizations receiving federal funds are susceptible to having its compensation and payroll capped, and that the investment of federal dollars warrants federal organs monitoring and meddling in the private sector to "micromanagement" levels. I think that anyone accepting federal dollars should expect a corresponding level of scrutiny from the press.
Were every recipient of federal funds aware--"afraid," " leery," and "suspicious" are good, too--that every conversation about the possible illicit use of those funds could be a media "sting" operation, we might find fewer cases of this kind of corruption and abuse.
All federal employees are aware that, as pubic servants, they are subject to scrutiny far more invasive than that of the private citizen. Receipts and reconciliation documents for the expenditure of public funds have to be maintained--and are subject to inspection and inquiry--for years after the transaction occurs. Government computers, phones, and other IT are used with the understanding that there is little to no expectation of privacy. Why should a private sector organization or business accepting public funds get a pass?
The current tsunami of federal spending will spawn a corresponding storm surge of waste, fraud, and abuse. A free, independent press willing to ferret out the bad actors by any means necessary would only strengthen our republic.

As If S. Florida Isn't Creepy Enough

Okay, we've got gators and crocs. We've got sharks and 'cudas. We've got (biting) bugs of a quantity and quality most people can't even imagine. And now we've got snakes. Big. F'ing. Snakes.

Mass Cal in the Motor City

I've said before that running is da devil. Apparently I'm on to something; three died at the Detroit Marathon.

Missed It By That Much

Apparently, forty years ago I'd've been a contender.

Best Headline, Ever.

Even a devotee of the Jerry Springer Show couldn't dream this one up.

H/T to somebody, I forget because I was inebriated when I bookmarked it.

Why Hearts and Minds Are More Than Just a Sight Picture

The main reason to woo hearts and minds: because the populace gets a vote.

Looks Good To Me

The newest, most recently declassified recruiting video for the USMC. In true Devil Dog fashion, it is short, sweet, and to the point.

So, does MMA work as Street Defense?

Well, yeah, if you're dressed in drag and wearing heels in Swansea. Man, those dudes must really, really be secure.
Funniest though, is if you watch the video report at the end of the linked article, was the information that "the two men attacked the cage fighters in drag after attacking a man dressed as Spider Man.
What the hell goes on in Swansea?

H/T AoS

Home

Will start posting again soon. Right now, not doing nada.

A Quick Thought

Haven't--and won't--be posting regularly. Am sitting in the MWR computer room, catching up on e-mails etc and trying to read the back-log on the usual blogs. One thought occurred to me as I read through two posts on Starbuck's blog; I don't think they were meant to be mutually supporting, but his post on technology's contribution to micromanagement and on force protection and risk aversion both tweaked at a thought I've been having for a while now:
Why aren't we doing more long range patrols?
Even the guys that are (or, more aptly, were) in small COPs and JSS' seem to punch a time clock. You go out, you do your patrol or day's mission, and you roll back in. Granted, these smaller posts don't have the amenities that the super FOBs do, but still, every troop knows that after a hard day's work (which is usually substantially longer than the eight-hour work day, granted), he's going back to his rack, to his iPod, to his latest edition of black belt magazine.
How many troops now in Iraq (and Afghanistan) actually spend the night in what one would classically call a "patrol base?" Not surrounded with concrete T-walls and Hesco barriers, not in a known location from which the insurgents (et al) know that one will exit and return to daily?
With our technology (and, now that most Coalition have been given the boot out of urban areas) small patrols could move all day through non-urban terrain, stop after dark in a pre-mission reconned area that is defensible, and move out after a couple of hours to continue patrolling.
I'm wondering if this is being done in Afghanistan, and whether it is twined with the ISR and Fires capability that our air gives us. Long range patrols, that employ significant, dedicated air power to bolster lethality, may well be a way to decrease troop levels without increasing troop vulnerability and casualties. Plus, it would allow us to cover more area, have more exposure with the local populace, and reduce the predictability of Coalition comings and goings. MTF on this recommendation--this isn't a fully formed tactical theory so much as me jumping on my first chance to post in a couple days...

Heads Up

Posting will be intermittent and foreseeable for the near future. As soon as I get hooked up with regular and dependable internet access, I will begin posting again regularly. Inshah'allah.

Combat Advising at the Double Deuce

Dalton's words of wisdom.

Bad Prom Date Choice

There's an inside joke in my family: all good things come from Brazil. I'm thinking I may have to re-evaluate that particular sentiment.
Sheesh.

via Fox News

Fever Dreams

The canal outside my house winds through the mangrove swamps and out to big blue. The water is amazingly clean although the mangroves ensure that the water has a tea-stained tint. The tea colored water doesn't prevent one, when hanging out on the dock or the rocks, from seeing the brilliance of the fish below. The parrotfish and sergeant majors are always amazing. The best part of the canal is that one can (and often does) jump in whenever the urge occurs, especially on those really, really hot Keys days. The top three or four feet of water is bathwater warm, but always, always underneath a striation of incredibly cold water. Water that can turn the lips blue, and set the teeth chattering until one yearns (above and beyond the O2 deficit) to get back up into the sun...

It's been f'n hot the last couple of days. Blast furnace heat that makes seeking shade just a switch from "broil" to "bake." We had a break for a couple of days, and I thought maybe summer was thinking about tapping out. Apparently not. It's pant-like-a-dog hot; could be worse, though. We could be in Kuwait.

19 AUG Street Scenes

...are posted at the team blog.

Bullshit Flag Redux

I threw a bullshit flag earlier on the Human Rights Watch report that the Israelis committed war-crimes during their recent Gaza incursion, particularly by gunning down women and children waving white flags.
Michael J. Totten has dug up some pertinent facts about the report's author:

the gist is that the author of a recent Human Rights Watch report about Israeli soldiers in Gaza supported the infamous massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics by terrorists in the Palestinian Liberation Organization. And that's just for starters.

Yeah, this guy can be relied on to author a "just the facts, ma'am" report. Read the whole thing.