I realize Michigan has been trending purple for awhile now, and has spawned one the Squad members but, does Dearborn hold that much sway on MI politics?
I was using "Dearborn" both in a literal and in a descriptive (of the Islamic vote) sense. I believe Dearborn is, in fact, a large center of such a voting bloc, and apparently holds the Democrat Party in thrall to its wishes.
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck can sway a close election for the electoral votes. There are about 150,000 Moslem voters in Michigan. That was Biden's margin in Michigan in 2020, where the Moslem population voted for him by an almost 5:1 margin. Michigan has 15 electoral votes, which makes it a real prize.
Exactly. This is not part of some strategic vision but is a knee-jerk reaction to Biden getting beaten up by the Left over the plight of the Palestinians.
We have been supporting both sides for years. Equal amount to Iran, which runs the terrorist organizations, and to Israel. See details in my comment above.
Florida is no Michigan. Michigan is the gorgeous, great weather, summer escape for us cold northern types. Its basically Florida upside down and backwards.
Because Biden needs to keep the big Jewish donors on board, while not A. pissing off the anti-Semitic woke Millennial vote and B. not depressing the Michigan vote beyond the margin of plausibly deniable fraud.
Indeed we are. Iran, which runs Hamas and the other terrorist groups in the Middle East has received more than $25 billion over the past 10 years alone. $16 billion released to Iran by Obama, $8 billion of military equipment and weapons released when Biden withdrew from Afghanistan (and largely already available to Iran), and some $350 million a year from the U.S. to the UNRWA, which transfers a lot of that money to Hamas (President Trump stopped our donations in 2017 when he found they were getting $1.2 billion a year, or $25,000 per remaining refugee, but the refugees were getting very little of it).
What if the pier is just to get terrorists out and on their way to Michigan and Minnesota.....escape route as no one else will take them - maybe they arrive in September / October just in time for.......
IDF had previously declined to provide security for efforts to drop off food & other supplies. The IDF cannot tell the difference between Hamas terrorists and regular civilians, and the IDF is not going to put their troops at risk for this type of "feel good" FUBAR operation.
Ron: If Israel's Defense Minister Gallant continues to receive his White House paychecks, the IDF will be posing for photo opps, happily receiving cargo from the US Army and handing "humanitarian aid" to smiling old Arab women and dancing Arab children. The whole think is FUBAR. For Israel, it's a nightmare.
Do you have a proof source for your allegation that Gallant is getting paychecks from the WH? Not just "everyone knows", or "it is common knowledge". Tin Hats do not contribute to a meaningful discussion.
Ron: I will grant you that I take creative license with my criticism of Gallant, yet, I stand by my analysis of the situation. Here's a headline from today's (last night, Israel time) Arutz 7 (Israel National News) website: "Gallant aboard Navy ship: 'Maritime aid to Gaza will help overthrow Hamas'" The article was a puff piece, with multiple posed photos, showing Gallant on the bridge and with the crew of an Israel Navy ship, off the coast of Gaza, praising the glories of the new mission of the IDF to help deliver aid to Gaza. Delivery of aid to Gaza (Hamas) will help defeat Hamas? Israeli soldiers are dying so that Israeli forces can help deliver aid to Gaza? This is insanity.
I agree that no Israeli soldier should die in any effort to aid non-Hamas Palestinians in Gaza (presuming that there are non-Hamas Palestinians in Gaza). Hamas can stop the violence in a second if they would lay down their weapons, surrender and give up all remaining hostages that are alive.
Judging by the reporting over the weekend, the Israelis want nothing to do with this mission and the US will be relying on the Qataris for security assistance. Stop laughing.
I'm trying to figure out what could be worse, an American pier burning after multiple ATGM / Drone hits, soldiers captured (complete with white socks) and begging for mercy on Al Jazeera, refugees overrunning an undermanned perimeter, this turns my stomach.
I am already visualizing how it happens. The MRE's arrive. The people say the MRE's suck and there's not enough of them. Some obscure footnote in one of the Surahs gets invoked and Gazan's run amok with sharp knives.
I am thinking more of a Beirut scenario. If we stay close to the beach anyone looking for a shootout picked the wrong location. But a tight perimeter might invite a big bomb.
I never met a W-5 in real life but know quite a few W-4's. I have complete faith in any W-5 made Master/Captain of his ship. A W-5 C.O. won't be saddled or ridden bare-back without bucking some. Actually, I am very envious of any Army W-5 in command of a ship, being a former CWO myself. I was in Deck Group when Enlisted and Operations as a CWO. Am wondering what might have been if I could have done a joint tour as a CWO on a USAV. All Warrant's? I would have gone as the galley or supply DIVO , or as Supercargo just to be there and do what I was told. I want to hang out now and listen to some Army Sea Stories from salty dogs. I hope everyone on the crew is amply armed and has Naval Air on call.
...feel like a scab just got pealed, D. SGT. One of my career miscues was jumping from CWO3 to LTjg. Must have had delusions of FOGOtry clouding my brain. By the time I had to decide to go permanent LDO at O-3 I was grandfathered into a CWO4 auto-promote upon reversion to CWO. Damn my overweening stupid ambition. But you see...I'd been stuck 12 years between making E6 and E-8. The road ya take... *sigh*
48 20' containers loaded to max weight, using the lightest weight for an MRE and assuming volume isn't an issues, which it is, 1 Besson could deliver 2,654,112 meals in one load if carrying nothing else.
(Profanity) how in (profanity) is putting Americans in a (profanity) war zone going giving “humanitarian” aid to a (profanity) DESIGNATED FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION is good idea?
Are we trying to get Americans killed? That’s what it looks like to me. That group is still holding American hostages and consider Americans to be the second best people to kill, if DC has forgotten.
No, it’s time society learned what war looked like. This is was dead Carl called unlimited war, as Israel knows that loosing means they are no longer a country.
Since we control the supply and logistics for the IDF yes we DO own this...hence Genocide Joes lunatic retoric... He could end this with one phone call and everyone who's anyone knows it...
Not really. After 10/7, Bibi would tell him to go piss up a rope. As much as you may think the Muslim vote in the US would go south for Brandon without doing something, if they tried to backstab Israel, there are a lot of Jewish voters that would stay home.
Joe will get both the Moslem and the Jewish vote. Omer and Talia as well as the other members of the squad will come home. Schumer, Raskin, Adam, Wasserman Schultz, etc. have unbreakable tradition keeping them in tow. All know who butters their bread, and it is not Trump.
Hamas is not attacking Israel because they are attacking Gaza. Hamas is attacking Israel because they are Jews and they exist. Biden cutting off aid to Israel will not end this war, because Israel did not start this war. All Hamas fellow travelers in the West need to get one thing straight: no one with a functioning pre-frontal cortex is buying your BS.
Perhaps someone here of the Jewish faith can explain to me the loyalty of American Jews to the Democrat Party. Trump seems like a better guy than Biden or Obama.
I'm not Jewish but as an atheist I think I share that lack of faith with a lot of American Jews. Too many are urban, elitist, far-left academics and intellectuals, and I think a lot of them view Israelis the way a lot of NY, DC, and LA residents view our friends in Kentucky.
As he has already demonstrated he will throw Americans in general under the bus at every opportunity, perhaps all Americans should be voting for President Trump this time around. Wishes and fishes, I know.
As if the Left wasn't bad enough we've got some supposed conservatives panty-twisting "He was wrong on the gene therapy. He hasn't pardoned Assange yet. I can't support him."
You left out the little part about Gaza being the worlds largest open air CONCENTRATION CAMP for decades. The IDF has treated the place like a modern Warsaw Ghetto.
You can only destroy so many lives before the folks in a place get tired of it... We need to stop this Zionist excuse that Arabs hate Jew... You know were Jews have a large community...wait for it...Iran...
That's bovine excrement, Jew hater. You don't even know that Iranians are Persian, not Arabs. In any case, there are about 8,000 Jews left in Iran. Before the Islamic revolution there, there were more than 100,000. There are more Persian Jews in California than there are in Iran.
Any Jew in the Warsaw ghetto would have gladly traded places with Gaza residents prior to Oct. 7.
As for Arabs and Muslims hating Jews, in just Morocco: In 1033, about 6,000 Jews were murdered in Fez by a Muslim mob. In 1465, another massacre took place in Fez, which spread to other cities in Morocco. There were pogroms in Tetuan in 1790 and 1792, in which many children were murdered. Between 1864 and 1880, there were a series of attacks on the Jews of Marrakesh, and hundreds died. In 1903, there were pogroms in Taza and Settat, in which more than 40 Jews were killed.
Were those murderous attacks on Jews by Arabs because the Arabs were upset about the Nakba of 1948, the occupation of 1967, or because Gaza is an "open prison"?
Getting the US directly involved in a war in the Middle East is the Democrats' 2024 version of the Covid lab leak which resulted in massive mail-in ballot and election fraud.
Great information video. Difficult and expensive to do in a benign, surveyed, exercise environment. Obviously, this is anything but. Risk management is multilevel and hierarchal here: operational (military risk / security) at lower level, political risk management (NCA) above that.
Kind of like Afghanistan, where political decisions by civilian leaders over-rode the advice given by our senior military leaders.
Or, so we are told. I'm sure that's how AFG unfolded. Totally sure. Hope this one works out better.
Yeah, I did that "Difficult and expensive" drill several times "in a benign, surveyed, exercise environment." We did have an occasional casualty. After I retired in 1991, I heard they canceled those drills because we were disturbing the sand dunes and the beach grass.
I should probably add that those drills were excellent preparation for ACB2 deployment to the Persian Gulf during ODSS (1990-91). I was delighted when land forces rapidly overwhelmed enemy defenses, and amphibious activity was not immediately needed. As an old lifer once said, "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."
Yes indeed, Seabee Amphibious capability is extremely limited at this time. ACB2 (Little Creek) was decommissioned 02 March 2023. ACB1 (Port Hueneme) is the only Amphibious Battalion left.
This is how the Lebanon bombing and the Somalia "Blackhawk Down" operations began... Do our leaders understand that we are targets here and if so, do they just not care. We saw this with the Afghan withdrawal. And what of our military leaders who accede. Do we trust them?
They were there just to get their participation cards punched just in case they get called out by the perpetually aggrieved class. Naturally, their participation only happen when the US gets involved.
My first thought was of an episode in the "old" (at 10+ years) TV show "10,000 ways to Die" that had a couple gang-bangers crushed by an air-drop pallet when they went to steal it from the hungry folk.
Thomas: You are well dialed in to the situation. I am already looking ahead apprehensively to when JoeBama cuts and runs under fire, leaving all of our "temporary" infrastructure and supplies behind.
Well that will certainly happen but the lives of the servicemen are my concern. In Lebanon, it started with mortar rounds and sniper fire before the truck bomb. In Somalia, we started with aid then morphed
Into peacekeeping. There will be pressure to secure aid distribution and other expansion pressure including backfilling the IDF as peacekeepers. After the bombings start, domestic Hamas protests will disappear but by then, the bodies will be coming back to Dover.
My point was that the US military presence will quickly become a target and once US servicemen start coming home in body bags, the domestic info op supporting Hamas will go quiet because the US public will be angry at the casualties.
Understood. You could be right, but the terrorist supporters have become much more bold in recent years, and they never suffer any consequences at all. It is possible they will increase their activity in order to escalate more and perhaps kinetic support for HAMAS and other far left cause-celebres in CONUS
Beruit 1982-83 all over again. The US intervened because Sharon and his Local Allies went to town on a couple of PLO Camps and basically wiped out the PLO Military Structure. Bibi is doing the same thing 40 years later. Apparently nobody reads History books.
"My constant, unwelcome message at all the meetings on Bosnia was simply that we could not commit military forces until we had a clear political objective," Powell wrote in his memoir, “My American Journey.” Albright, he wrote, "asked me, 'What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?'
This makes me a Very Angry Badger. Why are we going to support Evil. How can anyone be so foolish as to not realize that ALL the aid will go directly to Hamas?
Why? Dearborn Michigan General Election turnout. Biden doesn't care about giving aid to Hamas, screwing over Israel or getting American servicemembers killed. He cares about keeping power.
That's the worst thing about the Ukrainian partisans on social media. "No guys, seriously, we can't give much more now until we get ammo production spun up. We can give a little bit now, but unfortunately not a lot until we produce more ammo."
Let’s face it, after the Michigan primaries, the People Smarter Than You (tm) really running the Executive Branch in POTUS's name (Which, see: Woodrow Wilson and actual First Woman POTUS) panicked over their precious polling. Let’s just call this what it is: Operation Dearborn Votes.
So why are we funding both sides of this war? Yes. We. Are.
Dearborn. Election.
I realize Michigan has been trending purple for awhile now, and has spawned one the Squad members but, does Dearborn hold that much sway on MI politics?
I was using "Dearborn" both in a literal and in a descriptive (of the Islamic vote) sense. I believe Dearborn is, in fact, a large center of such a voting bloc, and apparently holds the Democrat Party in thrall to its wishes.
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, and Hamtramck can sway a close election for the electoral votes. There are about 150,000 Moslem voters in Michigan. That was Biden's margin in Michigan in 2020, where the Moslem population voted for him by an almost 5:1 margin. Michigan has 15 electoral votes, which makes it a real prize.
A lot of Michiganders are moving south. Balkanization is a thing.
Welcome to your new country, brought to you by unfettered immigration.
Less Dearborn, more anti-Semite leftist white chicks. Basically the Arians AND Dearborn.
That we are supporting both sides occurred to me to. I find it bizarre.
This is all about election year politics and optics.
It sure as heck has nothing to do with the grand strategy of the United States.
Exactly. This is not part of some strategic vision but is a knee-jerk reaction to Biden getting beaten up by the Left over the plight of the Palestinians.
It's an election year.
We have been supporting both sides for years. Equal amount to Iran, which runs the terrorist organizations, and to Israel. See details in my comment above.
See 2000 presidential election. Substitute Michigan now for Florida then.
Florida is no Michigan. Michigan is the gorgeous, great weather, summer escape for us cold northern types. Its basically Florida upside down and backwards.
Michigan and Minnesota.
Because Biden needs to keep the big Jewish donors on board, while not A. pissing off the anti-Semitic woke Millennial vote and B. not depressing the Michigan vote beyond the margin of plausibly deniable fraud.
Indeed we are. Iran, which runs Hamas and the other terrorist groups in the Middle East has received more than $25 billion over the past 10 years alone. $16 billion released to Iran by Obama, $8 billion of military equipment and weapons released when Biden withdrew from Afghanistan (and largely already available to Iran), and some $350 million a year from the U.S. to the UNRWA, which transfers a lot of that money to Hamas (President Trump stopped our donations in 2017 when he found they were getting $1.2 billion a year, or $25,000 per remaining refugee, but the refugees were getting very little of it).
What if the pier is just to get terrorists out and on their way to Michigan and Minnesota.....escape route as no one else will take them - maybe they arrive in September / October just in time for.......
"Wrong October surprise." - Xi
This is going to go very, very bad, I bet.
And very quick. I wouldn't be surprised if the IDF was less than cooperative in this venture.
But its Ramadan and Hamas you get a Pier.
IDF had previously declined to provide security for efforts to drop off food & other supplies. The IDF cannot tell the difference between Hamas terrorists and regular civilians, and the IDF is not going to put their troops at risk for this type of "feel good" FUBAR operation.
Ron: If Israel's Defense Minister Gallant continues to receive his White House paychecks, the IDF will be posing for photo opps, happily receiving cargo from the US Army and handing "humanitarian aid" to smiling old Arab women and dancing Arab children. The whole think is FUBAR. For Israel, it's a nightmare.
Do you have a proof source for your allegation that Gallant is getting paychecks from the WH? Not just "everyone knows", or "it is common knowledge". Tin Hats do not contribute to a meaningful discussion.
Ron: I will grant you that I take creative license with my criticism of Gallant, yet, I stand by my analysis of the situation. Here's a headline from today's (last night, Israel time) Arutz 7 (Israel National News) website: "Gallant aboard Navy ship: 'Maritime aid to Gaza will help overthrow Hamas'" The article was a puff piece, with multiple posed photos, showing Gallant on the bridge and with the crew of an Israel Navy ship, off the coast of Gaza, praising the glories of the new mission of the IDF to help deliver aid to Gaza. Delivery of aid to Gaza (Hamas) will help defeat Hamas? Israeli soldiers are dying so that Israeli forces can help deliver aid to Gaza? This is insanity.
I agree that no Israeli soldier should die in any effort to aid non-Hamas Palestinians in Gaza (presuming that there are non-Hamas Palestinians in Gaza). Hamas can stop the violence in a second if they would lay down their weapons, surrender and give up all remaining hostages that are alive.
Not to mention all those 'local hire' truck drivers on the piers. Want to take odds on whether you need a Hamas union card to be a driver?
Want to take a guess if Hamas or PIJ will think twice before putting an IED in one of those trucks?
Little difference, Gaza is full of Hamas terrorists, Hamas supporters & future Hamas terrorists.
Judging by the reporting over the weekend, the Israelis want nothing to do with this mission and the US will be relying on the Qataris for security assistance. Stop laughing.
"Stop laughing'? Why? How?
Like Hamas cared about Sukkot last October.
Yep, Mogadishu bad.
I'm trying to figure out what could be worse, an American pier burning after multiple ATGM / Drone hits, soldiers captured (complete with white socks) and begging for mercy on Al Jazeera, refugees overrunning an undermanned perimeter, this turns my stomach.
I am already visualizing how it happens. The MRE's arrive. The people say the MRE's suck and there's not enough of them. Some obscure footnote in one of the Surahs gets invoked and Gazan's run amok with sharp knives.
I fear a rerun of Abbeys gate.
My thoughts exactly
I am thinking more of a Beirut scenario. If we stay close to the beach anyone looking for a shootout picked the wrong location. But a tight perimeter might invite a big bomb.
My first thought was in this realm
Sea borne VEID possible.
Hamas has swimmers that can do the job in a minimal way.
Somalia brought us the Mogadishu Mile, what are we calling the swim sprint?
Hamas Backstroke?
With Biden at the Helm..... Good Bet!!
Bets that Warrant-in-Command gets saddled with a Legion-of-Merit-Seeking 06 Supercargo?
BG
I never met a W-5 in real life but know quite a few W-4's. I have complete faith in any W-5 made Master/Captain of his ship. A W-5 C.O. won't be saddled or ridden bare-back without bucking some. Actually, I am very envious of any Army W-5 in command of a ship, being a former CWO myself. I was in Deck Group when Enlisted and Operations as a CWO. Am wondering what might have been if I could have done a joint tour as a CWO on a USAV. All Warrant's? I would have gone as the galley or supply DIVO , or as Supercargo just to be there and do what I was told. I want to hang out now and listen to some Army Sea Stories from salty dogs. I hope everyone on the crew is amply armed and has Naval Air on call.
Well, the CWO4's (who were topped out) you knew would be a mix of today's CWO4 and 5's.
Same crusty old salts
...feel like a scab just got pealed, D. SGT. One of my career miscues was jumping from CWO3 to LTjg. Must have had delusions of FOGOtry clouding my brain. By the time I had to decide to go permanent LDO at O-3 I was grandfathered into a CWO4 auto-promote upon reversion to CWO. Damn my overweening stupid ambition. But you see...I'd been stuck 12 years between making E6 and E-8. The road ya take... *sigh*
At least it's not an ESB sitting off the coast of Gaza.
It likely may entail an ESD to load connectors and bring them into the pier. Watch the Sal M video Sal posted.
The Beeson class can carry what they need - it is basically a WW2-type LST.
48 20' containers loaded to max weight, using the lightest weight for an MRE and assuming volume isn't an issues, which it is, 1 Besson could deliver 2,654,112 meals in one load if carrying nothing else.
Great! 2.5M MRE's per trip. We may as well drain that stockpile too while we are at it.
The Beeson can carry what is needed to build a pier so other ships can unload - if they are geared freighters or Ro/Ros
(Profanity) how in (profanity) is putting Americans in a (profanity) war zone going giving “humanitarian” aid to a (profanity) DESIGNATED FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION is good idea?
Are we trying to get Americans killed? That’s what it looks like to me. That group is still holding American hostages and consider Americans to be the second best people to kill, if DC has forgotten.
No, it’s time society learned what war looked like. This is was dead Carl called unlimited war, as Israel knows that loosing means they are no longer a country.
Since we control the supply and logistics for the IDF yes we DO own this...hence Genocide Joes lunatic retoric... He could end this with one phone call and everyone who's anyone knows it...
Not really. After 10/7, Bibi would tell him to go piss up a rope. As much as you may think the Muslim vote in the US would go south for Brandon without doing something, if they tried to backstab Israel, there are a lot of Jewish voters that would stay home.
TrustbutVerify: We're past the backstabbing stage.
Quite a few Christians might as well. Nationally, there is quite broad support for Israel.
Joe will get both the Moslem and the Jewish vote. Omer and Talia as well as the other members of the squad will come home. Schumer, Raskin, Adam, Wasserman Schultz, etc. have unbreakable tradition keeping them in tow. All know who butters their bread, and it is not Trump.
Tell ya' what. Let's cut off weapons to Israel, and Israeli defense firms can cut off the weapons they supply to DoD. We'll see who blinks first.
Hopefully, loss of Tamir missiles causes the Marines to do the necessary RIF on the Army that is long overdue.
Hamas is not attacking Israel because they are attacking Gaza. Hamas is attacking Israel because they are Jews and they exist. Biden cutting off aid to Israel will not end this war, because Israel did not start this war. All Hamas fellow travelers in the West need to get one thing straight: no one with a functioning pre-frontal cortex is buying your BS.
If Biden has to throw Israel under the bus to win reelection then he will do so. Perhaps American Jews should consider voting for Trump.
Perhaps someone here of the Jewish faith can explain to me the loyalty of American Jews to the Democrat Party. Trump seems like a better guy than Biden or Obama.
I'm not Jewish but as an atheist I think I share that lack of faith with a lot of American Jews. Too many are urban, elitist, far-left academics and intellectuals, and I think a lot of them view Israelis the way a lot of NY, DC, and LA residents view our friends in Kentucky.
As he has already demonstrated he will throw Americans in general under the bus at every opportunity, perhaps all Americans should be voting for President Trump this time around. Wishes and fishes, I know.
As if the Left wasn't bad enough we've got some supposed conservatives panty-twisting "He was wrong on the gene therapy. He hasn't pardoned Assange yet. I can't support him."
People ask why I drink
You left out the little part about Gaza being the worlds largest open air CONCENTRATION CAMP for decades. The IDF has treated the place like a modern Warsaw Ghetto.
You can only destroy so many lives before the folks in a place get tired of it... We need to stop this Zionist excuse that Arabs hate Jew... You know were Jews have a large community...wait for it...Iran...
Iranians are not Arabs.
That's bovine excrement, Jew hater. You don't even know that Iranians are Persian, not Arabs. In any case, there are about 8,000 Jews left in Iran. Before the Islamic revolution there, there were more than 100,000. There are more Persian Jews in California than there are in Iran.
Any Jew in the Warsaw ghetto would have gladly traded places with Gaza residents prior to Oct. 7.
As for Arabs and Muslims hating Jews, in just Morocco: In 1033, about 6,000 Jews were murdered in Fez by a Muslim mob. In 1465, another massacre took place in Fez, which spread to other cities in Morocco. There were pogroms in Tetuan in 1790 and 1792, in which many children were murdered. Between 1864 and 1880, there were a series of attacks on the Jews of Marrakesh, and hundreds died. In 1903, there were pogroms in Taza and Settat, in which more than 40 Jews were killed.
Were those murderous attacks on Jews by Arabs because the Arabs were upset about the Nakba of 1948, the occupation of 1967, or because Gaza is an "open prison"?
Joe could end the troubles in the world by stepping down. Under Trump there was no war in Ukraine Gaza or Yemen.
There is not enough profanity in the world to accurately describe how FUBAR this mission is.
Yep. And I’m just scratching the surface. Not even looking at it as an anchorage. One good storm, and the system is wrecked. Like Mulberry A.
Getting the US directly involved in a war in the Middle East is the Democrats' 2024 version of the Covid lab leak which resulted in massive mail-in ballot and election fraud.
It is no accident. It is the script.
Great information video. Difficult and expensive to do in a benign, surveyed, exercise environment. Obviously, this is anything but. Risk management is multilevel and hierarchal here: operational (military risk / security) at lower level, political risk management (NCA) above that.
Kind of like Afghanistan, where political decisions by civilian leaders over-rode the advice given by our senior military leaders.
Or, so we are told. I'm sure that's how AFG unfolded. Totally sure. Hope this one works out better.
That CWO OIC is going to have his hands full.
Better than an O-2 or O-1, however. Experience matters.
and all those warrants started from the ground up :)
I've hear a number started off as Navy Boatswains Mates.
Yeah, I did that "Difficult and expensive" drill several times "in a benign, surveyed, exercise environment." We did have an occasional casualty. After I retired in 1991, I heard they canceled those drills because we were disturbing the sand dunes and the beach grass.
I should probably add that those drills were excellent preparation for ACB2 deployment to the Persian Gulf during ODSS (1990-91). I was delighted when land forces rapidly overwhelmed enemy defenses, and amphibious activity was not immediately needed. As an old lifer once said, "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."
ACB2 no longer exists- decommissioned in 2022 along with their vessels.
Yes indeed, Seabee Amphibious capability is extremely limited at this time. ACB2 (Little Creek) was decommissioned 02 March 2023. ACB1 (Port Hueneme) is the only Amphibious Battalion left.
At least in Afghanistan we had the Taliban available to provide security for the end credits
Love your Substack and podcast! Hey, you mention X. What's your X name? I found several with various combinations of CDR and Salamander. Cheers!
@cdrsalamander
XAMine X-Twitter Threads:
https://x.com/cdrsalamander/status/1306984699575795712?s=61
And I'm sure getting Mogadishu vibes right now. Humanitarian missions have a tendency to expand in unanticipated ways, as you point out.
and the enemy gets a vote. that's why we call them the enemy
Memory has moved beyond the more likely example. Beirut.
This is how the Lebanon bombing and the Somalia "Blackhawk Down" operations began... Do our leaders understand that we are targets here and if so, do they just not care. We saw this with the Afghan withdrawal. And what of our military leaders who accede. Do we trust them?
Not to mention airdropped supplies hitting civilians.
"Somewhere, there's a C-17 loadmaster with 5 confirmed kills."
there were non-US C130s as well. I heard, Dutch, Jordanian, and Egyptian
They were there just to get their participation cards punched just in case they get called out by the perpetually aggrieved class. Naturally, their participation only happen when the US gets involved.
It's not much of a war, but it's the only war we got for promotion points
C130.... And we're not sure they were ours
Don't ruin the meme!
I'm a little embarrassed that my gut reaction was a belly-laugh. Sorry.
My first thought was of an episode in the "old" (at 10+ years) TV show "10,000 ways to Die" that had a couple gang-bangers crushed by an air-drop pallet when they went to steal it from the hungry folk.
Thomas: You are well dialed in to the situation. I am already looking ahead apprehensively to when JoeBama cuts and runs under fire, leaving all of our "temporary" infrastructure and supplies behind.
Well that will certainly happen but the lives of the servicemen are my concern. In Lebanon, it started with mortar rounds and sniper fire before the truck bomb. In Somalia, we started with aid then morphed
Into peacekeeping. There will be pressure to secure aid distribution and other expansion pressure including backfilling the IDF as peacekeepers. After the bombings start, domestic Hamas protests will disappear but by then, the bodies will be coming back to Dover.
Why do you think the domestic HAMAS support will evaporate?
My point was that the US military presence will quickly become a target and once US servicemen start coming home in body bags, the domestic info op supporting Hamas will go quiet because the US public will be angry at the casualties.
Understood. You could be right, but the terrorist supporters have become much more bold in recent years, and they never suffer any consequences at all. It is possible they will increase their activity in order to escalate more and perhaps kinetic support for HAMAS and other far left cause-celebres in CONUS
Big Satan, Little Satan. Don't think that's changed.
Beruit 1982-83 all over again. The US intervened because Sharon and his Local Allies went to town on a couple of PLO Camps and basically wiped out the PLO Military Structure. Bibi is doing the same thing 40 years later. Apparently nobody reads History books.
Right with you.
"My constant, unwelcome message at all the meetings on Bosnia was simply that we could not commit military forces until we had a clear political objective," Powell wrote in his memoir, “My American Journey.” Albright, he wrote, "asked me, 'What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?'
This makes me a Very Angry Badger. Why are we going to support Evil. How can anyone be so foolish as to not realize that ALL the aid will go directly to Hamas?
Why? Dearborn Michigan General Election turnout. Biden doesn't care about giving aid to Hamas, screwing over Israel or getting American servicemembers killed. He cares about keeping power.
Sometimes it really is that simple
This is the most myopic commitment of one of the MOST limited capabilities in the Army inventory.
What are more things we will need later in the year or next year further east.
That's the worst thing about the Ukrainian partisans on social media. "No guys, seriously, we can't give much more now until we get ammo production spun up. We can give a little bit now, but unfortunately not a lot until we produce more ammo."
"PUTIN WHORE!"
I expect the Houthi, Hamas will attack it.
Gazans will swim out or take a boat and swarm it then loot it.
So if this happens does mission creep begin?
Who wants to be the sergeant of the guard that has to open up on unarmed refugees? Not it (touching finger to nose).
Then the reliable idiots in the media will blame the US and give Hamas a propaganda coup.
at this point? PICK ME! They're not refugees, they're temporarily unarmed terrorists.
It will be a nightmare politically.
Probably really tight ROE with retrograde if under threat.
So far Joe has this record of totally screwing things up.
Twitter is, predictably, having a normal one over this.
What's the force protection package? Sternly worded memos?
Just someone standing at the end of the pier with a megaphone, saying "Don't. Don't. Don't."
Politely of course.
Brought to you by the same Command and Planning Staff that evacuated Kabul.
3 languages
An octogenarian saying "Just Don't".
In a wal-mart vest
If it were me? Claymores and Fougasse backing razor wire ad anti-truck barriers
It is ALWAYS a pleasure dealing with a professional.
For the Squids :)
Fougasse = 55 gal drum of jellied gasoline, half buried in sand, open to threat side. Buried side has a claymore with WP grenade behind barrel.
On ignition of claymore, 700 ball bearing rip through barrel and WP producing
- shrapnel
- napalm
- WP
- overpressure
- and Illumination :)
Can I get one o them half-tracks with a quad .50 on it? Better yet two since one is none.
M45 Quad Mount?
Having seen both in action, I like the M42 Duster better. 240 rounds of 40mm / minute
Or you could go with the rotary 20mm, M163
What's the 25mm version?
Highly trained Gaza police officers.
Let’s face it, after the Michigan primaries, the People Smarter Than You (tm) really running the Executive Branch in POTUS's name (Which, see: Woodrow Wilson and actual First Woman POTUS) panicked over their precious polling. Let’s just call this what it is: Operation Dearborn Votes.
Senator McCarthy’s strong showing in the 1968 New Hampshire Democrat primary convinced LBJ to call it quits. Too bad Biden didn’t take the hint, too.
Not just McCarthy but also Kennedy before he was assassinated by a Palestinian.
I think RFK got into the race after NH. But thank you for reminding us about who killed him.
Forget Heinlein's Crazy Years. These are the Stupid Years.