Maybe it’s the only way they can promote themselves as being martial. Heaven knows, they haven’t been doing their job as senior providers of the logistics required to fight a war. You know, ships, ordnance, etc. Camo for SEALs and CBs? Absolutely! Probably for aircrew in some scenarios as well. Most sailors? Dumb as a box of rocks.
The problem is one of will. The Israelis just showed what used to be the consequences, with a punitive raid on infrastructure. At this point, re-opening the Red Sea means ground raids.
After they were under an increasingly effective submarine offensive, and mine blockade. The usual political factors mean nukes are off the table. And that is a Good Thing.
We didn't need to invade Japan either. We were starving them to death with airpower. Besides, we bought all those Small Diameter Bombs, they'd be perfect.
Guess they don't know how a true leader dealt with pirates. Per the Britannica: "After 38 days, the ransom was delivered and Caesar went free [from the pirate's captivity]. Astonishingly, Caesar managed to raise a naval force in Miletus—despite holding no public or military office—and he set out in pursuit of the pirates. He found them still camped at the island where he had been held, and he brought them back as his captives. When the governor of Asia seemed to vacillate about punishing them, Caesar went to the prison where they were being held and had them all crucified."
Gibbeting would work too AND feed the carrion eaters. Perhaps a new green industry could spring up around this environmentally friendly way of corpse disposal. Subsidized, of course.
Oo-o. Gibbeting could produce some good Soylent Green jerky in the Middle East/Red Sea area. Totally green, no solar panels needed. Gaia can see no downside.
U R correct: I picked the wrong beverage. Life is so complicated: I tried to watch a podcast last month of biden explaining Cold Fusion and could understand nothing of what he said.
“many people found the tone of [Kurilla’s] memo to be a bit shocking,” suggesting it effectively warned that “U.S. service members will die if we continue going this way.”
The White House and Nat'l Security group is so used to the brass in uniform nodding their heads and not being forceful in their position, that when a COCOM does take up a position, they don't know what to do.
Huh, an accurate assessment of combat situations is shocking? If you are shocked, you shouldn't be in charge as you have no understanding. That doesn't mean you have to have served, just that you have either failed to seek understanding or are incapable of it.
Remembering Erik Kurilla's story in Michael Yon's reporting from the urban battles in Iraq- Yon's photo of then-LTC Kurilla getting hit three times in the leg, shattering the femur, and still firing his M4 dry into a building where the bad guys were.
This guy is the real deal. Good to know we have someone like that upstairs.
George Washington ordered the first vaccine mandate and it won the revolution. "Finding the smallpox to be spreading much and fearing that no precaution can prevent it from running thro’ the whole of our Army, I have determined that the Troops shall be inoculated. This Expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but yet I trust, in its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army, in the natural way, and rage with its usual Virulence, we should have more to dread from it, than from the sword of the enemy." George Washington to William Shippen, Jr., February 6, 1777.
You have a Marine Amphibious Group in the Red Sea that can land a Reinforced USMC Battalion in Houthi-land in a matter of hours. Use it to temporarily occupy objectives, destroy communications and weapons deployment/storage infrastructure, and leave. Establish a weapons quarantine on Yemen. The Saudis will be willing to assist with the interdiction of the land routes.
Let the IDF use their assets to decapitate the Houthi Political and Military leadership.
Evidently you missed the Korean War. I was in grade school then, but I can remember the controversy over the "privileged sanctuary" the enemy enjoyed north of the Yalu River, where their air force was based and all their supplies came from.
Concern about widening that war (Kim il-Sung, remember, was with the Soviets during WWII and had their permission to head south; and the Chinese Communists had consolidated their control just before the Korean War--with battle-tested troops) was a real thing.
the bombing halt mostly...there was no sustained bombing effort again until 1972.
Johnson ended the Rolling Thunder campaign in April (may have the month wrong...but certainly before midsummer).
[edit] Johnson first halted (not the first halt in the whole campaign, as there were numerous ones from 1965 on) ops on March 31 1968 north of the 20th parallel. The full halt came on Oct. 31 1968...
I think that would be an excellent way for Turkey to get kicked out of NATO, and then have their control of the Bosporus, the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmara wrenched away from them, with extreme prejudice. Can't have a mad dog in control of significant seaways like that. And Russia would be happy to see their free access to the Black Sea.
That would also result in a loss of their presence in Cyprus, and likely an incursion from Iran and Syria, at least in small measure. Winners would be Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, and the rest of the world. Russia's benefit would be a detriment to Ukraine, at least in theory - but I'm not sure that Russia has a lot of slack to send to the Black Sea
Doing the minimum to look like we're doing something, since solving the problem is going, ah "Full Saudi" (or Israeli).
A US Army General gets it. Why can’t SecNav and CNO get it?
They are too preoccupied trying to look like Army Guys...
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8535973/cno-mcpon-visit-officer-training-command-newport
Maybe it’s the only way they can promote themselves as being martial. Heaven knows, they haven’t been doing their job as senior providers of the logistics required to fight a war. You know, ships, ordnance, etc. Camo for SEALs and CBs? Absolutely! Probably for aircrew in some scenarios as well. Most sailors? Dumb as a box of rocks.
"A US Army General gets it."
Emphasize the "A". I am sure that somewhere there is also "A" Admiral that gets it. One down, a zillion to go.
The Romans got it.
The problem is one of will. The Israelis just showed what used to be the consequences, with a punitive raid on infrastructure. At this point, re-opening the Red Sea means ground raids.
Or killing the leadership.
Best way to do that is boots on the ground.
It'd be an interesting experiment to try without boots on ground.
If aerial bombardment worked, there would have been no need to invade Germany.
Aerial bombardment caused Japan to give up...... EMBRACE THE POWER OF A THOUSAND SUNS!
After they were under an increasingly effective submarine offensive, and mine blockade. The usual political factors mean nukes are off the table. And that is a Good Thing.
Well, that and several years of defeats with massive casualties, and starvation.
We didn't need to invade Japan either. We were starving them to death with airpower. Besides, we bought all those Small Diameter Bombs, they'd be perfect.
But not long term. Some Arab nation needs to provide adult leadership.
That didn't seem to work all that well in A'stan, and L Qaeda still seems to be a nuisance.
To the best of my knowledge we never did that well after 2015 when we killed Mansoor.
Just cut the water & power, the situation on the ground will solve itself.
Million-dollar missiles to shoot down 100-dollar drones. Great plan.
Once again, with Dems in power, more proof that the US isn’t serious about warfare, or doesn’t have the backbone to wage it properly.
RTX Stockholders approve of the "plan."
So do our enemies...
Israel accomplished more in their one strike then all the pentagon state department proportionality games over the last nine months.
IDF achieved more press in one day, than years of Saudis doing the same.
Fireball pix are not the appropriate goal.
The fireball got the attention but taking out the cranes used to offload missiles was likely more significant.
Guess they don't know how a true leader dealt with pirates. Per the Britannica: "After 38 days, the ransom was delivered and Caesar went free [from the pirate's captivity]. Astonishingly, Caesar managed to raise a naval force in Miletus—despite holding no public or military office—and he set out in pursuit of the pirates. He found them still camped at the island where he had been held, and he brought them back as his captives. When the governor of Asia seemed to vacillate about punishing them, Caesar went to the prison where they were being held and had them all crucified."
Gibbeting would work too AND feed the carrion eaters. Perhaps a new green industry could spring up around this environmentally friendly way of corpse disposal. Subsidized, of course.
Ooh I like a good gibbet.
That's "gibbets" not "giblets"! ;<)
But I do like a good giblet gravy over my cornbread stuffing.
Oo-o. Gibbeting could produce some good Soylent Green jerky in the Middle East/Red Sea area. Totally green, no solar panels needed. Gaia can see no downside.
The full story on that is even better than the Britannica version.
Yes, indeed. I kept it short.
And yet, Rome is gone but the pirates are still here.
Obama likes Muslims therefore no real fighting allowed.
Americans die, Obama cheers.
Obama and the Democrats hate America and Americans.
Thus the importation of 10,000,000 20-30 year old African, Middle Eastern and Latin American men.
It sounds like you've been in a coma for the last decade. Obama isn't in charge any more dude.
Somebody is and it ain't Biden.
Meanwhile, the Israelis take action which might possibly have a result. Amazed that our "Administration" didn't immediately call for a ceasefire.
They’re too tied up figuring out whether or not we have a President…
Looking at be last couple of days on our carnival, we lack an “administration”.
pray that President Kameltoe will put the Miller Lite guy in as SECDEF
I was thinking maybe the Bud Lite "guy/gal".
U R correct: I picked the wrong beverage. Life is so complicated: I tried to watch a podcast last month of biden explaining Cold Fusion and could understand nothing of what he said.
You could make the same comment about him explaining how to put on a pair socks.
How much of the impasse has to do with the Saudis not giving their acquiesence to a more powerful effort to shut the Houthis down?
We can't operate there for any length of time without their tacit support.
“many people found the tone of [Kurilla’s] memo to be a bit shocking,” suggesting it effectively warned that “U.S. service members will die if we continue going this way.”
Who are these Many People(TM)?
They're the same ones who appear elsewhere as "critics" or "some observers," depending on context.
Shocking...for this administration.
The White House and Nat'l Security group is so used to the brass in uniform nodding their heads and not being forceful in their position, that when a COCOM does take up a position, they don't know what to do.
They learned by watching Harris.
Huh, an accurate assessment of combat situations is shocking? If you are shocked, you shouldn't be in charge as you have no understanding. That doesn't mean you have to have served, just that you have either failed to seek understanding or are incapable of it.
We surely don't want to break anything lest we come to own it.
Can't remember where I heard that one...a different General perhaps?
And as I recall, the good general did not attach the chapter & verse that placed that obligation on the U.S. when he said it.
Remembering Erik Kurilla's story in Michael Yon's reporting from the urban battles in Iraq- Yon's photo of then-LTC Kurilla getting hit three times in the leg, shattering the femur, and still firing his M4 dry into a building where the bad guys were.
This guy is the real deal. Good to know we have someone like that upstairs.
Had never heard of this before...
Bad Ass!!
https://www.usstopekaclg8.org/Mail/Iraq/LTC_Kurilla/LTC_Kurilla.htm
Holy shit. I had never seen that.
Wow!
great story.
I thought the name sounded familiar! Truly bad ass, and he is telling "higher" something they need to hear, but will not like. Long overdue.
But, keep Kurilla's name on your list of future top army brass instead of the perfumed princes/princesses making bad decisions at the top now.
Michael Yon later soured on Erik Kurilla for meekly submitting to the vaccine mandates. https://michaelyon.locals.com/post/4743736/the-hardest-post-i-have-had-to-write
Damn.
George Washington ordered the first vaccine mandate and it won the revolution. "Finding the smallpox to be spreading much and fearing that no precaution can prevent it from running thro’ the whole of our Army, I have determined that the Troops shall be inoculated. This Expedient may be attended with some inconveniences and some disadvantages, but yet I trust, in its consequences will have the most happy effects. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army, in the natural way, and rage with its usual Virulence, we should have more to dread from it, than from the sword of the enemy." George Washington to William Shippen, Jr., February 6, 1777.
You have a Marine Amphibious Group in the Red Sea that can land a Reinforced USMC Battalion in Houthi-land in a matter of hours. Use it to temporarily occupy objectives, destroy communications and weapons deployment/storage infrastructure, and leave. Establish a weapons quarantine on Yemen. The Saudis will be willing to assist with the interdiction of the land routes.
Let the IDF use their assets to decapitate the Houthi Political and Military leadership.
Time to swat the 4th World Gnat once and for all.
If we don't have one already, we can have an SSBN within launch range of Yemen in a day or two at the most.
Why get fancy?
The IDF gets it, They destroyed targets (ports and materiel handling equipment/cranes) that enable the Houthis to receive the drones from Iran.
We (U.S.) go after individual launching platforms.
We are not serious.
It's the Democrat Way of War...
A defineable feature since 1964:
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196022/sanctuaries-and-bombing-halts/#:~:text=Limitations%20imposed%20included%20no%20bombing,zone%20along%20the%20Chinese%20border
Evidently you missed the Korean War. I was in grade school then, but I can remember the controversy over the "privileged sanctuary" the enemy enjoyed north of the Yalu River, where their air force was based and all their supplies came from.
Concern about widening that war (Kim il-Sung, remember, was with the Soviets during WWII and had their permission to head south; and the Chinese Communists had consolidated their control just before the Korean War--with battle-tested troops) was a real thing.
Huh? Their sanctuary north of the Yalu lasted for years after the Chinese had already entered the war in a big way.
There was a back-channel threat that the Soviets would give their Chinese comrades nukes if we hit China.
There were soviet pilots flying those MiGs in Korea, too.
More a bipartisan way of war.
No.
Democrat.
In 1972, Nixon authorized the kind of air campaign that could have happened 7 years before.
And, the original strategic objective...compelling the North Vietnamese to negotiate...happened in a matter of weeks.
Nixon was first elected in 1968. What happened between 1968 and 1972?
the bombing halt mostly...there was no sustained bombing effort again until 1972.
Johnson ended the Rolling Thunder campaign in April (may have the month wrong...but certainly before midsummer).
[edit] Johnson first halted (not the first halt in the whole campaign, as there were numerous ones from 1965 on) ops on March 31 1968 north of the 20th parallel. The full halt came on Oct. 31 1968...
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196022/sanctuaries-and-bombing-halts/
After that the only sustained offensive bombing in the North were the "Protective Reaction" strikes in 1970.
and another source...
https://media.defense.gov/2010/Oct/01/2001309673/-1/-1/0/ToHanoiAndBack.pdf
lastly...fascinating but chilling...to watch this recreation...
(Red Crown was on busy dude!...And the lost F-4's he was contending with adds some levity)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ihI7VU2OY
"there was no sustained bombing effort again until 1972."
Exactly. Bipartisan.
As you say, Sal...We (the US, and to a far lesser extent, Europe) is playing. The only people fighting are the barbarians, and Israel.
Get back to me when we're going full Israel on the barbarians: Then we will be fighting.
Russia? Iran?
I'm not too worried about Russia. Iran? Better we fight them before they become a nuclear power (if they haven't already). If they want to chance it.
Curious as to what you think of some sort of Turkish intervention?
I think that would be an excellent way for Turkey to get kicked out of NATO, and then have their control of the Bosporus, the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmara wrenched away from them, with extreme prejudice. Can't have a mad dog in control of significant seaways like that. And Russia would be happy to see their free access to the Black Sea.
That would also result in a loss of their presence in Cyprus, and likely an incursion from Iran and Syria, at least in small measure. Winners would be Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, and the rest of the world. Russia's benefit would be a detriment to Ukraine, at least in theory - but I'm not sure that Russia has a lot of slack to send to the Black Sea
Doubt Turkey has the force projection capability to deal with the Houthis. They're adequately busy in Northwestern Syria these days...
Agreed. They are the head of the snake. Have been for a long time. Iran should not be ignored when dealing with Hamas/Houthis...
Once they finish in Gaza, maybe Israel will turn to them since we seemingly won't...