Drone Debate

Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY] just concluded an almost 13 hour long filibuster of the US Senate. This filibuster has delayed the confirmation by the full Senate of Brennan to head the CIA. The reason why Sen. Rand spoke, with able assistance for 13 hours, is very simple as he wants a simple answer to a very serious question.

Sen. Paul wants to know if the Obama administration, via the CIA that Brennan is nominated to head, is willing to use drones to kill American citizens on American soil without the due process of the law. Yes or no, that is all Sen. Paul wanted to know.

The response he got from Attorney General Eric Holder can be charitably called a 'maybe' answer. Two strawmen were brought out by Holder in his answer – Pearl Harbor and 9/11. There is a simple logical fault in using these two examples, neither attack was carried out by American citizens. Unlike Hassan Nidal at Ft. Hood or Timothy McVeigh at Oklahoma City.

In the case of Nidal and McVeigh, regular means were used to apprehend the killers. A routine traffic stop detained McVeigh long enough for them to connect the rental truck VIN to him. Nidal was bodily tackled and stopped in his killing spree.

So this administration wants a blank check to determine if an American citizen is an imminent danger. Without recourse to the American judicial system to rule if they have enough evidence to make such a finding. And then to send a remote control aircraft to kill that American citizen. Let me rephrase that, this administration wants to have the ability to assassinate American citizens on US soil without any oversight.

If you are not disturbed at that thought, just contemplate the government getting bad intelligence and sending out a drone on that information. Remember that wedding party in Iraq that American aircraft bombed by accident? Now imagine that happening on Main St in Peoria, IL – a drone fires a Hellfire missile at someone's SUV. Its noon in Peoria. The Hellfire hits and detonates, exploding the gas tank for good measure. Besides Betty Sue and her twin girls getting murdered because of bad information, how many people in the surrounding area just got killed or maimed also.

Now do you think armed drones over the US is such a good idea?

P.S. You may want to look up a movie from the 1980s called 'Blue Thunder' with Roy Scheider. LAPD is loaned a new helicopter. An armed helicopter that can also spy. Scheider's character Murphy finds out the organization supplying Blue Thunder has an ulterior motive of eliminating domestic threats. This administration is trying to replace Blue Thunder with something almost like a video game, just press the R1 on your X-Box controller to fire a Hellfire missile to blow up the target and get Achievement Points which is now a medal that can be worn between the Silver Star and Bronze Star.

LBJ and Obama

President Lyndon B. Johnson once boasted that they - 7th Air Force in Saigon - could not bomb an outhouse without his permission.

President Barack H. Obama boasts that no terrorist on his kill list can be killed by a drone without him taking it seriously.

Words fail me on how to comment on this.

The Great Betrayal

I have been paying some attention to real world events even as blogging took a break. The withdrawal of all but 150 soldiers from Iraq by the end of this year deeply troubles me.

No one who is praising President Obama wants to mention the state of the Iraqi air force. This air force is still in the fledgling state - the first of 18 F-16 Block 52 Fighting Falcons will not arrive in Iraq to defend Iraqi air space until late 2012 or perhaps not until 2013. One full year after the American pullout. If that is not abandonment of an ally and a responsibility than I do not know what is.

This UPI article is pretty depressing in the scope of how unilateral US pull out is leaving Iraq naked to foreign aggression - no real air defense and no radars until the middle of next year. And Iran to the east and Turkey to the north which are the greatest threats; Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait have no desires to conquer Iraq.

To borrow a phrase from Star Wars, "I have a bad feeling about this." Especially when Maj Gen. Buchanan is grasping for straws to give positive spin. Eighteen planes is "robust" when before there are no jet fighters in the Iraqi air force. But when compared to the 40 F/A-18 Hornets of tiny Kuwait or Saudi Arabia which now flies American build F-15 Eagles and Panavia Tornados and has on order 72 Eurofighters and 72 Rafaels, 18 airplanes is a joke. Which also sums up President Obama's 'smart' diplomacy.

Azazel in Baghdad

Jim Lacey at National Review has a very informative article on the continuing danger Saddam Hussein posed. From biological weapons to suicide bombers to supporting terror groups.

When American tanks smashed into Baghdad, Saddam had already completed construction of an anthrax production facility, which was a week away from going live.

Another nearby lab was busily working on cowpox vaccines, with the exact same equipment necessary to create smallpox.

Other WMD scientists told investigators that they had the materials and equipment to start mustard-gas production in days.

Read the article. Hussein and his murderous government were a menance to their population and to the world at large. The Earth is a far better place without him.

Ten Years

As the Twin Towers collapse the debris cloud spreads out to engulf other buildings and even roll across the water of the East River. Other pictures can be found here.

9/11 Hate

The above is some of the commentary posted in response to this photo that captures the instant Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the WTC and the North Tower already burns. Ten years on and the hate is still fierce.

Both Feet In Mouth

That is all I can say about this story. I have been against any photos being released of fallen military service members. I did not think Sec. of Defense Gates surrender to the Obama administration on the issue was a good call. This is all background to the latest gaffe of the Obama administration.

The thirty warriors recently killed in Afghanistan when their CH-47D Chinook was shot down by the Taliban were flown into Dover AFB like their fallen compatriots before them. Since many of the families of the killed, 19, did not want any photographs taken of this solemn procession, photographers were banned. Which meant the Associated Press was not there. Nor did Sec. of Defense Panetta bring his official photographer.

Yet strangely, President Obama brought along his photographer to Dover AFB. So when the White House released a photo of President Obama at Dover saluting, everyone from AP to the DoD were caught unawares. AP refused to distribute the photo since their photographers were not allowed.

I have one thing to say to President Obama, do you have any sense of decorum and decency? As the he runs off to Martha's Vineyard for yet another vacation, I have to conclude he does not.

Defective Weapons

During the Vietnam War when M-16s were jamming in combat, the US Army took steps to correct the problem. More training on cleaning the weapon was instituted along with issuing mroe cleaning kits. Chroming the whole bolt to reduce fouling was another corrective action. The M-16 has gone on to rack up an impressive service record.

When the M-247 Sgt. York DIVAD proved it could not even hit a stationary helicopter, the whole program was cancelled. It never entered service.

Or of more recent vintage is the Crusader SPG. It was designed for the battlefields of Europe as Warsaw Pact forces poured through the Fulda Gap. Instead it faced a post Desert Storm world where Rumsfeld cast a gimlet eye at the whole program. It was revealed to be overweight and overbudget without a real mission. It was cancelled.

There seems to be another weapon in the arsenal of the US Army that needs to go. When a soldier raises their right hand to swear/affirm to protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign or domestic, they become the most fearsome weapon this country possesses to defend itself. Except now some of these soldiers are saying no to orders. There are those of the Muslim faith that are refusing lawful orders on the basis of their faith. Since the US has a volunteer force, why are these people even in the military? They are giving false service after swearing falsely, and as Akbar, who tossed a grenade into a tent where his friends slept killing three, Yonathan Melaku, and Nidal Hasan have shown, they are potential threats to the lives and safety of their fellow soldiers just like defective weapons failing in the heat of combat.

Note - Thanks to ORD and Lysol for catching my goofs. Any that still slipped through are all mine.

Who Didn't Know?

Thanks to Black Five for this link. My blood is about to burst through my ears reading this article and I am only halfway through it. Boy do I need a big soft pillow stapled to a wall so I can bang my head against the wall without incurring a concussion, this torques me so.

First what the frak is administration officials doing violating the Espionage Act to give a reporter almost blow-by-blow account of a mission that should remain murky on details in order to protect our soldiers and deny the bad guys intel they can use in the future to try and kill those soldiers. Actually I know why they doing the leakage, they want to polish their bad-assery apple before people they like. In my eyes they are scum for doing this.

Though it seems the mission was compromised even before the mission launched. The shooters were forced to launch when they did because of one reason - "too many American officials had been briefed on the plan. U.S. officials feared if it leaked to the press, bin Laden would disappear for another decade." The press these two officials were prostituting themselves before in this article were judged a threat to the mission.

Which meant the mission had to go, regardless of anything else. That anything else almost made this mission a repeat of Jimmy Carter's disastrous attempt to rescue Americans in Iran. How can I make this acussation? Easy. The two UH-60s with muffled sound were so quirky - "The added weight of the stealth technology meant cargo was calculated to the ounce, with weather factored in." Now factor in the temperature was warmer than expected plus Afghanistan/Pakistan is mountainous, the lift being generated by the helicopter rotors was less than expected. This should have been a No Go - notice the way its worded it is painted as if the military did not know the weather forecast, but it can be inferred from the previous statement that too many people knew so the military knew they had to go even with unfavorable weather conditions. The military was forced to roll the dice and hope they could dodge a bullet.

So when the shooters did get to bin Laden's compound the dice rolled snake-eyes. So one of the stealth UH-60s faltered and crashed. Luckily no one was hurt in the crash and all the shooters from both Blackhawks went with Plan B. They blasted through the walls and dropped Osama bin Laden. Once the mission was done, they scooted back to Afghanistan.

The anonymous carpet-munchers need to get keel-hauled for their treachery with this interview. For example it was mentioned this was the fourth foray into Pakistani territory. Plus the teams practised on two mockups of the compound. But after the other stuff they vomited up, what is two more right? These people have got to go before they do more harm.

The only human interest interesting fact to emerge from this article is the name of the dog used on the mission - Cairo. Someone give that dog a nice steak. Then give Cairo protection least some jihadi scumbag decides to kill the dog.

Enough Already

I have been busy with other things but still been paying a little attention to things. Like the hemorrhage of information, speculation, and voyeurism about the death of Osama bin Laden.

We have now been accosted by information that the SEALs had helmet cams, their first shot missed, they cleared the women from the field of fire before dropping Osama like a bag of goat excrement, got wanna-bes posing as SEALs, reporters trying to find which bars do SEALs favor, and now that Osama had a wooden crate of porn under his bed.

How crass. I am sorry but no one really obsessed this much about Mussolini when him and his mistress were trussed up upside down. Or when Tojo tried to commit suicide. No one cared that Idi Amin had under his bed a box full of hand grenades and Tom&Jerry cartoons.

What is this, a new reality show called SEAL Team POV? The means should not matter, the United States found Osama and arranged for him to have a hearing with a higher authority on the morals of his actions. End of story.

Holder Sticks Foot in Mouth, Again

For such a smart and nuanced administration that is supposed to really know how to build alliances, they can be incredibly stupid. The latest gaffe comes from the head of the Department of Justice, Eric Holder in Senate testimony on Wednesday. In his testimony, Holder invoked a new and novel concept to justify the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He said it was in the name of 'national self-defense.' And then he elaborated on this concept with a historical comparison.

"It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field. We did so, for instance, with regard to Yamamoto in World War Two, when he was shot down in an airplane."

Historical back-story. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the Imperial Japanese Navy CinC who masterminded the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that disabled the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. This attack allowed the IJN almost uncontested mastery of the vast Pacific for six months until the Battle of Midway. In the early part of April 1943, JN-25 intercepts revealed that Yamamoto would be doing an inspection. There was enough information to give an almost precise timetable of his flight schedule. Admiral Chester Nimitz, PACFLT, authorized an attempt to shoot Yamamoto down. Or the order came down from on high. So on April 18, 1943 - one year anniversary of the Doolittle Raid - 18 P-38 Lightnings took off from Guadalcanal, flew at low levels over open ocean, and arrived at their intercept point. As they arrived two G4M Betty bombers escorted by six A6M Zeros fighters were spotted. In the ensuing dogfight, both Betty bombers were shot down and Yamamoto was killed along with most of his staff.

Eric Holder really screwed the pooch on this analogy. Yamamoto was a serving military officer of a recognized country that was signatory to the Geneva Conventions. Osama bin Laden was not an officer in any recognized military and belonged to no recognized country.

Both men were legal targets under the rules of war, but for different reasons. Yamamoto because he was a member of the military and it was lawful to kill him on the field of combat. Osama bin Laden was a guerrilla fighter operating outside the rules of war in no uniform, hence he was not protected in any way by the Geneva Conventions and subject to summary execution when captured. A very big distinction that people in Japan are aware of and has provoked a bit of ire because Eric Holder has compared one of Japan's greatest warriors to a terrorist.

For someone who is supposed to be so smart, Eric Holder is making some really boneheaded statements. He could have justified the killing of Osama bin Laden under the Geneva Conventions without dragging in the wholly innocent and much respected Isoroku Yamamato.

Credit-bility

John Cox hits a home run with the above cartoon.

Best joke evah is found in the comments from Garand Fan:

Navy SEAL walks into a bar and orders a "BinLaden."
Bartender says "What's that?"
SEAL, "Two shots and a splash of water."

Losing Control of the Message

What happened in the middle of the night US time was clockwork precision. A display of daring, courage, and mastery of the military arts. Everything went perfectly and in under an hour, American forces were gone leaving only one crashed helicopter in their wake but no wounded soldiers. The action was something to rival Son Tay in planning, training, and execution. Unlike Son Tay, the target for Sunday had not moved so the mission became a great success.

Alas the same cannot be said for the actions inside Washington D.C. At first it was portrayed as fearless and gutsy leadership by President Obama. Then from the White House itself emerges a picture of the President sitting against a wall hunched over while the likes of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, and Joe Biden are shown being fully engaged in watching the take-down. Then there is Brennan who said a woman was used as a human shield in the attack and killed, but now it seems she was not used as a shield.

The greatest mystery about the take-down now swirls around Osama bin Laden's death. Did the National Command Authority, Obama, order Osama to be killed? It seems the answer is yes, the order was to kill and not capture; but now there is walk back and equivocation on this matter. There is also confusion on was Osama unarmed when killed, reaching for a weapon, or actually did fire shots? All three actions have now been reported. Killing an unarmed man can have serious consequences for the assault team if their names ever leaked, there will be warrants issued for their arrest like that US Army tank crew that is still wanted in Spain in the accidental death of a Spanish reporter during the taking of Baghdad in 2003. And killing an unarmed man plays into the hands of Socialists and radical Islamicists around the globe, even now one of Osama's daughters is saying her father was captured alive and then shot by US forces.

The final exhibit of how this administration has lost control of the message is the fight over photographs. This administration does not want to release pictures of the body of Osama bin Laden because they do not want to inflame the Islamic world or act like the winning football team spiking a ball in the end zone. Meanwhile Reuters has published pictures of the compound and all of its gory aftermath, showing bodies and blood. Why am I reminded of the adage - 'Won the battle, but lost the war.' It is shaping up that way.

By Their Actions Pt 2

Thursday, President Obama will visit the Ground Zero site in New York City. Apparently it will be his speech on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Which means there is a very good chance, he will turn it into a re-election speech and his version of 'Mission Accomplished.'

Here is the post I did the last time Obama visited Ground Zero. As Sen. McCain carefully bent his badly injured body to reverently place that yellow rose, Obama did an underhand toss of a red rose. Lets hope President Obama is not so crass this time.

George W Bush was invited to be with President Obama tommorow, but Bush politely declined. Though he does plan to be at Ground Zero on Sept 11, 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of that evil atrocity. I wonder if he will need another bullhorn?

Monday QB

Predictably; Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, and CAIR are condemning the US arranging Osama bin Laden to meet with his Maker. Not a real shocker. To borrow and paraphrase Die Hard, "Welcome to the party Mr. President."

Celebrations, are they decent? Are they respectful? After this compare&contrast, you decide.

As the Twin Towers fell and the Pentagon burned, people in Gaza came out and celebrated the mass-murder of innocent people.
As for last night in NYC and Washington DC, what we saw was human beings celebrating the death of a mass murderer.

I think the difference is very clear. How about you?

Now the burying of Osama at sea? There are many who will refuse to believe he is dead because of how fast his body was chucked. At least with Uday people got to see he was really dead. As for the followers of Osama bin Laden, the lack of a body wont stop them from memorializing him. They still have the compound to turn into the AQ version of Graceland.

For those this morning who think this will make Barrack Obama a shoe-in for re-election next year. Think again, November 2012 is 18 months away. Much can happen. The economy can still be in the loo with 10% unemployment and $6/gal gasoline. After Desert Storm it seemed George HW Bush would get re-elected also. Instead the economy faltered and William Jefferson Clinton was elected. It's the economy stupid.

Bravo Zulu!

I got in late last night from being with friends, so I missed the most excellent news that Osama bin Laden has achieved room temperature. That he is pushing up daisies and is really pining for the fjords, not merely resting. But the news certainly makes a better way to start Monday than anything else except winning a lottery or finding some awesome god or goddess in the bed.

Apparently the CIA and a SEAL team killed Osama, one of his many sons, and two couriers during the 40 minute battle deep in the heart of Pakistan, in fact in a suburb of Islamabad the capital. No Americans were injured though one helicopter had to be destroyed. After DNA testing, they are positive the remains are those of Osama bin Laden.

This day has been more than ten years in coming, but justice has been finally served on a most well-deserving scum-bucket in need of retribution. And it is also a warning to all who desire to harm innocents for their pet cause, there is no statute of limitation on hunting you down for your evil deeds. Apparently the initial intel was developed back in 2007 from Camp X-Ray interrogations, followed by lots of tedious hazardous work that identified the compound, which caused more intel gathering, until April 28th when President Obama gave the green-light for the mission.

To the men and women who made this all happen, Bravo Zulu. I seriously doubt you will ever need to buy a pint ever again.

Major Awesome

From Powerline comes this video out of Afghanistan. Those pilots have the brass ones as you can observe as the rear rotor of the CH-47D has scant feet of clearance from the stone terrace.

More on Martinez

Everyone is still trying to find reasons why 22 yr old Antonio Martinez converted to Islam and wanted to blow up military recruiters. His Mom says she did not raise him that way and is "embarrassed" by his actions. Martinez apparently has gone through a crisis of faith, from being baptized Christian to going to full blown Islamic jihadi screaming hate to all unbelievers. Along with spending some time in jail. I guess we will have to stay tuned to this developing story.

Baltimore Bomb Plot

A man tried to detonate a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device outside a military recruiting center in Cantonsville, MD.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore said the man attempted to detonate what he believed to be a vehicle bomb this morning at the Armed Forces Career center in the 5400 block of Baltimore National Pike.

"There was no danger to the public as the explosives were inert, and the suspect had been carefully monitored by law enforcement for months," the office said in a statement.

WBAL-TV, citing a source, said the man was a U.S. national of Nicaraguan descent and had recently converted to Islam. He was seeking to harm military personnel. The Associated Press first reported the arrest.

TSA Poster Child

Ignoring the unreasonable search of our very private persons, this news out of Atlanta will not help TSA fight its losing PR battle. It seems one of their employees at Atlanta Hartsfield pretended to be a gentleman and offered a female airline passenger a ride home. He slapped toy hand-cuffs on her and took her to his house. Later he released her after sexually assaulting her, gave her the keys to his car, and a suicide note. He is presently in the hospital after the attempt. Just to make things even worse, back in 2001 he had been convicted of stalking in the Keystone State. My prayers go out to the victim that she receive healing while hoping justice is done against this thug.