You say floating dock, I say sitting duck

My expertise in life is rather limited.

In fact, the only things I’m really well versed in are dental care, raising a family, and pouring a beer just so into a frozen mug resulting in a perfect, frothy one-inch head.

That being said, you’ve got to be out of your freakin’ mind to consider building a floating dock into Gaza for the purpose of delivering humanitarian aid.

Of course, our practically petrified puppet in the White House is out of his freakin’ mind as his senile dementia proceeds apace.

But my point is, if you build it — the floating dock, not a practically petrified puppet — a certain number of Americans are going to die.

And they’ll die in the service of a population that hates America and Israel in equal measure, and whose Hamas brethren would like nothing better than to do to U.S. soldiers what they just did to more than a thousand innocent Jews.

Even if we created a temporary military base, complete with an airfield, on the land side of the dock, some Americans would still die (see Kabul Airport, bombing and U.S. Cole, bombing). I mean, they don’t call Hamas ‘terrorists’ for nothing.

But as that well-meaning, elderly man with a bad memory yelled out during his State of the Union harangue, there will be no American boots on the ground!

The poor souls tapped to serve this mission will be the very definition of sitting ducks. And their Navy and Air Force protectors will be, as Sleepy Joe’s puppet master might say, leading from behind. They will get involved only after missiles, RPGs, drones, and God knows what else, rain down death and destruction upon our servicemen and servicewomen.

Can you imagine Hamas dragging American corpses around the Strip for the edification of their Gazan supporters? Or Hamas sending out videos of female American soldiers being gang-raped, tortured, and killed?

I can.

And after this past October 7, most sentient beings — which precludes the dried-up turnip in the White House — also can.

How best to relieve the suffering of the Gazan civilians, I don’t know. But this cockamamie floating dock idea, created simply to assuage Muslim voters in Michigan, is just about the stupidest and most dangerous idea I’ve ever heard.

If implemented, it’s bound to end in U.S. blood and tears. That, sadly, I do know

U.S. Prepares to Take a Long Walk Off Biden’s Short Gaza Pier.

“Embrace the suck” became the NCO’s unofficial motto during the Iraq War and Operation Enduring Freedom as a reminder to enlisted men and women that just because a job was unpleasant, didn’t mean they didn’t have to do it. As our men and women speed towards the Eastern Mediterranean on Presidentish Joe Biden’s hamfisted mission to provide aid and comfort to Hamas, they’ll have to learn to “embrace the stupid.”

How it is stupid? Let us count the ways…

The first and most obvious is that any food or other aid will not go to any starving Arab residents of Gaza. It will go to Hamas. That is how siege warfare has always worked and will always work. If the White House doesn’t know this ancient truth, the Pentagon surely does. Nevertheless, this country will deliver supplies to terrorists.

I can’t think about that too long without wanting to pour myself a coffee mug full of bourbon, so let’s move on to the next bit of stupid we must embrace.

U.S. Central Command announced that, on Saturday, “U.S. Army Vessel (USAV) General Frank S. Besson (LSV-1) from the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, XVIII Airborne Corps, departed Joint Base Langley-Eustis en route to the Eastern Mediterranean less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea. Besson, a logistics support vessel, is carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies.”

While that all sounds very impressive on TwitterX, CENTCOM left out one tiny detail: it will take the Besson about 60 days to arrive in the Eastern Med and begin assembling the pier.

That’s two months, for those keeping score at home, and by that time I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel were finishing up operations at Rafah in the south of Gaza.

Also, if you’re a member of Israeli’s war cabinet, you’re looking at likely sites for Biden’s stupid pier, and seriously considering ordering the IDF to take and hold them in the next few weeks. The Gaza coast is only 20 miles long, and the IDF already controls nearly half of it. Taking troops away from the main fighting in the cities to protect the coast will prolong the war — but Biden’s stupid pier will do that anyway.

“What happens if the IDF controls the entire coast by the time we get there?” doesn’t seem to be a question anyone at the White House bothered to ask, even as vital as it is.

Then there are all the practical things that can go wrong with three different armed groups with different goals and methods, all operating in close proximity. The best we can hope is the worst predictions don’t come true.

So maybe Biden’s Operation WTF (or whatever they’re calling it) promises to be a ginormous clusterfark from top to bottom, but hey, at least the White House will have protected its left flank against accusations of supporting Israeli genocide, right?

Wrong.

The White House will quickly learn that there’s no appeasing the cultural Marxists who hate the Jews and call Israel a colonial-settler state.

On second thought, I take that last part back. The White House already knows there’s no appeasing the party’s hardcore lefties. But they’re making an obscenely stupid attempt, regardless, because they lack the imagination and guts to do something intelligent.

And so when faced with doing nothing or doing the stupid thing, these people will pick the stupid thing every time.

New VA Funding Bill Includes Provision To Protect Veterans’ Second Amendment Rights

Congress’ funding deal unveiled Sunday night overturns a longstanding “discriminatory” policy that Republican opponents said could restrict veterans’ Second Amendment rights.

The provision included in the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2024 bans the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) from submitting veterans’ names to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check without a judge’s consent. House Republicans argue without the provision, veterans who need help with their finances but do not pose a threat could be stripped of their Second Amendment rights to own firearms.

“For far too long, the men and women who have fought for all American’s constitutional rights were wrongfully treated differently when it came to their own rights,” Republican Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee who championed the provision, said in a statement. “No veteran should lose their constitutional right to bear arms simply because they need help managing their finances, and if they are a danger to themselves or others, a judge should make that decision – not a VA bureaucrat.”

Under existing policy and a law that goes back to 1993, veterans who demonstrate an inability to manage their finances or benefits on their own are automatically reported to the NICS list without their informed consent, according to Bost. The veteran would be banned from purchasing firearms even without any judgment in a court of law that the person could be a harm to themselves or others.

Legislation to end the “discriminatory” practice is “long overdue,” he added.

Democratic lawmakers opposed the move on the grounds it increases hurdles federal workers must clear to report potential threats, according to Military Times.

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BLACK HILLS PICKS UP $30 MILLION NAVY/MARINE CORPS AMMO CONTRACT

South Dakota-based Black Hills last week beat out five other ammunition makers to deliver 9mm ammo to the Navy and Marine Corps.

The $30,885,083 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covers the procurement, manufacturing, testing, inspection, and packaging of 9mm barrier blind cartridges to the Navy and Marine Corps. These will be for use in the services’ front-line 9mm pistols including the Beretta M9 and SIG Sauer M17 and M18.

The rounds were chosen for “combat purposes to provide enhanced terminal effects,” as described by the contracting agency, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division, in Norco, California. NSWC Corona first listed the contract opportunity last June and had six competitive bids submitted.

Although it is not disclosed what loads were submitted for testing, Black Hills introduced its Honey Badger Line of self-defense ammo in 2015, which used a monolithic copper solid projectile to consistently penetrate barriers. In its 100-grain +P version, the Black Hills Honeybadger 9mm archives 1,250 FPS velocity out of a 4.4-inch test barrel and generates 347 foot-pounds of energy. The company also makes a 125-grain Subsonic Honeybadger.

 

The Black Hills 125-grain 9mm Subsonic Honeybadger
The Black Hills 125-grain 9mm Subsonic Honeybadger. (Graphic: Black Hills)

Compare this to the standard M1152 load developed by Winchester which was selected in 2016 as the ammunition supplier for the U.S. Army Modular Handgun System program. Using a 115-grain flat nose full metal jacketed bullet, the 9x19mm Luger round has a distinctive shape. With a brass case and military primer, it has an advertised velocity of 1,320 FPS at the muzzle which translates to 445 foot-pounds of energy. Downrange these shifts to 1,301/432 at 5 yards and 132/387 at 25 yards, according to the tables provided by the company.

The work on the Navy’s new barrier blind cartridge will be performed at Black Hills’ Rapid City plant and is expected to be completed by February 2029.

Today, back in 1945.

Raising the 1st flag over Mt Suribachi

Raising the 2nd flag.

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Lowering the 1st flag as the 2nd is raised.

February 23 marks the day the United States Marines raised America’s flag over Mount Suribachi in Japan during the Battle of Iwo Jima almost 80 years ago.

The moment has been immortalized in a famous photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Take a look back at the history of the iconic photo, the lesser known first flag and the battle of Iwo Jima.

Battle of Iwo Jima

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American soldiers fighting against the Japanese in Iwo Jima on March 1945. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

The Battle of Iwo Jima began after American forces invaded the island on Feb. 19, 1945.

The battle lasted for five weeks and was considered one of the bloodiest military campaigns of World War II and in the history of the Marine Corps, according to The National WWII Museum.

It was estimated that almost 7,000 Marines lost their lives and all but roughly 200 of the 21,000 Japanese forces were killed, according to History.com. 

Following the capture of Iwo Jima, the longest and largest battle in the Pacific took place during the invasion of Okinawa, Japan.

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded to service members for their actions at Iwo Jima – the most in the history of the U.S., according to The National WWII Museum.

Flag raising on Iwo Jima

On Feb. 23, 1945, U.S. forces took Mount Suribachi and were photographed raising the American flag at the summit.

The iconic photo won Rosenthal, the photographer, a Pulitzer Prize.

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Joe Rosenthal, a veteran AP cameraman, who took the famous picture of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, holding camera. (Bettmann via Getty Images)

That photo shows the second flag that was erected on the mountain. A photo of the first flag that was raised shows a completely different angle and a completely different flag.

As several Marines raised the first flag on Mount Suribachi, Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Lowrey from Leatherneck Magazine captured a photo. However, after that first flag was raised, Japanese forces began to shoot and Lowrey ended up dropping his camera while ducking for cover, according to Military.com. 

As Lowrey descended the mountain to get new gear, AP photographer Rosenthal was ascending the mountain.

In response to seeing Japanese forces’ reaction to the flag being erected on the mountain, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson ordered for a new and larger American flag to be raised, according to the Marines website.

This new flag raising was the moment Rosenthal captured and became one of the most famous photos in American history.

Who raised the Iwo Jima flags?

The service members who raised the first flag on Mount Suribachi were: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier, Plt. Sgt. Ernest I. Thomas, Jr., Sgt. Henry O. Hansen, Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg, Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class John H. Bradley and Pvt. Philip L. Ward, according to the Marine Corps website. 

Following Iwo Jima, Schrier fought in the Korean War and was promoted to Major in 1951. He would retire from the Marines as a lieutenant colonel, according to the Military Hall of Honor website. He died in 1971 in Florida.

Lindberg said that many did not believe him when he said he helped raise one of the two flags in Iwo Jima, according to a New York Times report. 

Lindberg spent his final years raising awareness about the first flag-raising and spoke at veterans groups and schools, The Times said.

He died in June of 2007.

Bradley, who was originally misidentified in the photo of the second (more famous) flag raising, passed away in 1994 and his son, James Bradley, later wrote a book titled “Flags of Our Fathers” in 2000. The book’s storyline centered around the flag-raising in Iwo Jima and the famous photograph that came from it.  A movie adaptation of the book directed by Clint Eastwood was released in 2006, according to IMDB.

Controversy surrounded the book after it was found that some of the Marines, including Bradley, in the second flag-raising photograph were misidentified.

The Marine Corps formally recognized the misidentification and in 2016, a corrected list of names for both the first flag-raising and second were released.

Ward was one of the Marines not identified as one of the original men who helped raise the first flag on Mount Suribachi and was part of the amended list of Marines released in 2016.

Ward was posthumously recognized for his part in the battle as he died on Dec. 28, 2005, according to We Are the Mighty.

Thomas and Hansen died in battle.

Those who were responsible for the second flag-raising were: Pfc. Harold Keller, Pfc. Harold Schultz, Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfc. Franklin Sousley, Sgt. Michael Strank and Pfc. Ira Hayes.

In 2019, the Marine Corps, in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and historian Brent Westmeyer, revealed that Keller was misidentified as Cop. Rene Gagnon in the famous photograph of the second flag-raising.

Keller survived the war and went back home to Iowa where he lived with his wife Ruby and three children until he died of a heart attack in 1979, according to the Des Moines Register. 

Hayes, who was a member of the Pima Indian Tribe, was dubbed a war hero by President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he returned to the U.S.

Hayes struggled with PTSD and survivor’s guilt, according to the Museum of Native American History. He died at the age of 32 near his home in Sacaton, Arizona.

Schultz returned to the U.S. and worked for the Postal Service until his retirement in 1981, according to We Are The Mighty.

He seldomly spoke of his time in the war and only revealed any details to his stepdaughter, Dezreen Macdowell. She would go on to be interviewed by Time Magazine and lauded her stepfather as a war hero.

Schultz died on May 16, 1955.

Block, Strank and Sousley were killed in action in Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima warriors should never be forgotten

February 19, 1944.

Of the 82 Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in WW2, 22 of them were awarded for this one battle. Another 4 were awarded to Navy Hospital Corpsmen (medics) attached to the Marine Corps. This was the first battle where the defending Japanese inflicted more casualties than they suffered although more Japanese died than U.S. 6,821 killed and 19,217 wounded.

I don’t have any idea if this is reliable or not, but it does appear;
“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear”


Multiple US military whistleblowers reveal how a disc-shaped UFO intercepted nuclear missile and disabled it with ‘laser-beams’ in mid-air over California.

The US military is in possession of a video of a UFO apparently disabling a nuclear warhead during a routine test, according to multiple former officials.

They claim the video in question captured a saucer-shaped craft circling the unarmed, dummy warhead shortly after it detached from the Atlas missile booster, then shooting four beams of light at the warhead, disabling it.

Retired US Air Force officers Lieutenant Bob Jacobs and Major Florenze Mansmann claim to have viewed the recording of the 1964 encounter before the tape went missing.

The former officials were part of a team responsible for capturing video of missile test launches in California with telescopic photography and videography equipment.

Two days later, after they screened the video, they claim that two plain-clothed CIA agents confiscated the footage and swore them to secrecy.

The incredible account is part of a pattern that some UFO experts have identified, where UFOs seem to interfere with nuclear weapons.

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

Retired Air Force Major Florenze Mansmann claimed he saw a flying saucer disable a dummy nuclear warhead during a missile test. He was ordered not to breathe a word of what he had seen

The alleged incident occurred nearly six decades ago, on September 15, 1964, but it has more recently come into public knowledge due to author Robert Hastings investigating it.

Luis Elizondo acknowledged the existence of the video and claimed he has seen it, according to a February 10 post by Hastings on The UFO Chronicles website.

Elizondo says he was the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) program to study UFOs, and he has been involved in several high-profile leaks of military footage purporting to show UFOs.

Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

 Graphic re-creation of what happened in the 1964 video when a UFO allegedly intercepted the Atlas rocket over the Pacific Ocean

An unnamed source revealed to Hastings that Elizondo confirmed the details of the event in internal interviews.

Back in the 1960s, Jacobs was in charge of a military telescopic photography site in Big Sur, California, which captured the video as the missile traveled several thousand miles per hour in its planned flight path over the Pacific Ocean.

At the time, Mansmann was the chief photographic imagery analyst at Vandenberg Air Force Base – now called Vandenberg Space Force Base – in Santa Barbara County, California.

The Cold War was progressing apace, including lots of black ops programs testing sophisticated and secret military hardware. Some UFO skeptics have claimed that reports of UFOs provided cover for these programs.

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

Lieutenant Bob Jacobs, at the middle and bottom, pictured with his crew. Jacobs reported his sighting in the press in 1982 but was ridiculed and threatened for his claims

The craft inadvertently caught on film was domed and disc-shaped, according to Jacobs and Mansmann.

It was a ‘classic disc, the center seemed to be a raised bubble…the entire lower saucer shape was glowing and seemed to be rotating slowly,’ according to a letter Mansmann wrote about the incident in 1983.

‘At the point of beam release…the object turned like an object required to be in a position to fire from a platform…but again this could be my own assumption from being in aerial combat.’

Forty years later, a US Senate investigator told Hastings that Elizondo had confirmed this description in an official interview last year.

‘During that briefing, the former AATIP director confirmed the existence of the video, the details regarding what it showed, and the location of a copy of it in AATIP’s workspaces,’ Hastings wrote in the new post.

Despite Mansmann telling Jacobs not to discuss what they had seen, Jacobs began to talk about the event in 1982, thinking enough time had passed since the event that he could speak freely about what he saw.

But his claims were dismissed by skeptics, and he was even subjected to harassment and anonymous death threats.

Hastings’ new report appears to match up with Elizondo’s recollection of the video.

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) told a Senate investigator that he had seen the 1964 video

When investigators went to look for the DVD recording of the video, where Elizondo had told them it was, it was not there, Hastings reported.

And although the recording is missing and the story of Elizondo viewing the recording comes secondhand from an investigator, Hastings reported that he has additional evidence to support it:

‘On November 10, 2023, a highly-reliable source – who I am not at liberty to identify – told me that UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] whistleblower David Grusch has privately confirmed that Elizondo also told him about having screened the Big Sur film, and that it did indeed capture an amazing, UFO-related, dummy warhead-interference event.’

It seems that the video may have been lost when the Pentagon destroyed Elizondo’s files and emails, Hastings wrote. This would have occurred in 2017 after he resigned as AATIP director, which he claimed was in protest of the Pentagon covering up UFO matters.

‘This highly unusual move by the Pentagon is in direct violation of a legal Preservation Order that was mandated based on Elizondo’s other duties at the time,’ Hastings wrote. ‘The order requires all of Elizondo’s electronic and hard copy files to be preserved indefinitely, including email and correspondence.’

Beyond the video, there is some limited evidence supporting the story.

A declassified but unreleased set of radar data of the September 15, 1964 event apparently confirmed that an unidentified aerial object was observed near the dummy warhead during the missile test, a source told Hastings.

The analysis of the radar data at the time suggested that the unidentified object could have been debris. It’s also possible that it was ‘chaff,’ metallic objects meant to confuse radar to prevent enemies from pinpointing the exact location of a warhead.

‘So, perhaps the mysterious target tracked on radar near the warhead was merely the chaff,’ Hastings wrote. ‘On the other hand, it may have indeed been the actual UFO, whose presence the author of the radar data report would probably not have known about, given the incident’s Top Secret status.’

US retaliates after deadly drone attack on Jordan base

The U.S. on Friday began to carry out strikes against Iran-backed militants and Iranian military targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a drone strike on an American base in Jordan last Sunday that killed three U.S. service members.

Dozens of other American troops were wounded in the drone attack on the Tower 22 base near Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria. The U.S. says Iran is responsible for funding and arming the militants while Iran has denied involvement.

President Joe Biden had quickly warned that America would respond forcefully, escalating U.S. involvement in the Middle East after months of trying to contain tensions from boiling over into a broader war in the region.

Latest Developments
Feb 2, 6:45 PM
‘We believe that the strikes were successful’: Kirby
The Department of Defense is in the early stages of battle damage assessment “but we believe that the strikes were successful,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in a call Friday.
“The initial indications are that we hit exactly what we meant to hit, with a number of secondary explosions associated with the ammunition and logistics locations,” Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director of the Joint Chiefs, said on the call.

Kirby said the strikes took place in the course of 30 minutes and involved over 125 precision-guided munitions. Of the seven total strike locations, three were in Iraq and four were in Syria, according to Sims.

Targeted facilities included command and control centers, intelligence centers, rocket missile and drone storage facilities, and logistics ammunition supply chain facilities, Kirby said.

Kirby noted the targets were chosen to avoid civilian casualties and because they were connected to enabling the attacks against the U.S. service members.

The administration does not know at this time if or how many militants may have been killed or wounded.

“We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our forces, and our interests,” he concluded.

Texas Guard Flies ‘Come and Take It’ Flag Amid Dispute with Feds

The Texas Military Department posted a photo to its official X account Tuesday afternoon, showing the Gonzales flag flying above its headquarters in Austin.

The flag, which reads “Come and Take It” underneath an image of a cannon, is the best-known flag of the Texas Revolution and originated at the Battle of Gonzales, according to the Texas Historical Commission. In the post on X, it’s shown flying below the Texas flag at Camp Mabry.

No message was posted with the photo. The post had garnered more than 20,000 views about an hour after it went online.

The Texas Military Department could not be reached immediately for comment Tuesday afternoon. A spokesperson for the National Guard Bureau said he could not provide context about the post. The Texas Military Department is a state agency that supports the Texas Military Force, which includes the Texas National Guard. Both are led by the state adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer.

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How an Escalation in Drone Warfare Cost Three U.S. Servicemen Their Lives

Sometimes you’ve got to hand it to the bad guys for being so murderously clever in ways few could imagine. Or worse, in ways that a few forward-thinkers did imagine but that those in power didn’t take seriously.

One of those just happened in Jordan over the weekend, as I’m sure you already know, when Iran’s proxies in Syria used a drone to kill three U.S. servicemen in neighboring Jordan and injure at least 34 more. But Sunday’s attack wasn’t just another run-of-the-mill kamikaze drone strike — the kind we’ve seen more than 150 of on our forces in the region since Hamas launched its terror invasion of southern Israel on October 7.

This one was far more clever, exposing a weakness in our defenses and a failure in our imaginations — and not for the first time.

American Army Air Corps pilot and airpower pioneer Billy Mitchell died almost six years before Imperial Japan’s naval aviators crippled our battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but he predicted exactly such a scenario decades in advance. In 1910 he warned, “That increasing friction between Japan and the U.S. will take place in the future there can be little doubt, and that this will lead to war sooner or later seems quite certain,” and that Japan would initiate hostilities with an aerial bombardment of ships at anchor in Pearl Harbor.

Our top brass and political leaders dismissed the Japanese with racist notions about how they “were supposedly physiologically incapable of being good aviators because they lacked a sense of balance and their eyes were not right.” Navy leadership also insisted that it would be impossible for Japanese carriers to sneak up on us.

Oops.

Flash forward to 1994 and Tom Clancy’s latest techno-thriller, “Debt of Honor.” The book’s unlikely plot centered on a group of Japanese businessmen who, like the Imperial military in the 1930s, co-opted the government for their own ends. In this case, crippling the U.S. military in the Pacific to establish an all-new Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. At the end, with the cabal defeated, one desperate Japanese ultranationalist steals a grounded JAL airliner and crashes it into the Capitol Building while Congress is fêting our victorious president, killing nearly everyone present.

Not even Clancy had imagination enough to predict such an act committed with multiple planes, each full of terrified civilians. But no one in Washington made any preparations at all, even for the all-too-realistic scenario Clancy wrote about seven years before 9/11.

While not a failure of imagination on anything like the scale of Pearl Harbor or 9/11, Iran’s proxies showed real imagination in plotting their Sunday attack. A Defense Department official, speaking anonymously, told Politico today that the Syrian militiamen saw “an opportunity” in our defenses and “exploited” it.

They flew their drone into Tower 22 undetected by tailgating one of our own drones returning from a surveillance mission. It then struck the living quarters at Tower 22, resulting in those terrible casualties.

“Check your six” is a reminder to look behind you and see if there’s a bad guy sneaking up. We either didn’t think to do that, or the drone operator was unable to do that, and the results were deadly.

Notice there’s nothing about diversity, equity, inclusion, or climate?
Or, as a comment notes:
I suspect that the pollsters have told the WH that DEI has become a losing issue especially among ethnic whites, and the word has gotten out to tone down the rhetoric during this election season. I think it would be best to judge the new CNO by what she does and not what she says.


The CNO Stated Her Priorities

 

The Secretary of Defense – and ONLY him, not some underling – by law is in the direct chain of command of the U.S. military from POTUS to the Combatant Commanders. This was blatant dereliction of duty what with a senile delusional dotard sitting in the oval office.


BLUF
Austin’s Department of Defense is a barking shambles. It is incompetent in action and not trustworthy. It not only lies to the people and to Congress, but to the White House and itself…okay, maybe that isn’t all that unusual. As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. If Biden lets this slide by, he’s a much bigger imbecile than even I had considered possible.

SecDef Austin Did Not Tell Biden’s National Security Adviser He Was in the ICU

The Department of Defense didn’t notify the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the Walter Reed National Medical Center intensive care unit until Thursday. That’s it.

I’ve posted twice on the growing mystery of why the Defense Department failed to notify Congress that Secretary Austin was in the hospital. In the first episode, it was revealed in a Pentagon statement on Friday that Austin had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day due to “complications” from an “elective medical procedure.” This came as a shock to the Pentagon Press Corps and Congress.


BACKGROUND: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Has Been Hospitalized for a Week and Just Told Congress Today


The second act materialized earlier on Saturday with the report that Austin hadn’t just been in the hospital; he’d been in the intensive care unit from Monday to Friday evening. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time. While he was incapacitated and she was sunning herself, the US ordered a drone strike on the leader of an Iranian militia; the US Navy was trying to make the Red Sea safe for commercial traffic without upsetting the Iranians or Houthis, a war raged between Israel and Hamas, and North Korea lobbed a couple of hundred artillery rounds into South Korean waters.

I ended that update with this note.

While we are focused on Congressional notification, no one has yet asked if the White House was told.

Now we have the answer to that question.

The Pentagon did not inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday — three full days after he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center, two U.S. officials said.

The news came as a shock to top staff, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as they were unaware the DOD chief was dealing with complications following an elective medical procedure, the officials said. NSC staffers were surprised it took the Pentagon so long to let them know of Austin’s condition. The Pentagon didn’t make the information public until Friday evening, notifying Congress about 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.

For three days, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the National Security Council, and, it seems, a lot of senior Pentagon officials did not know where Austin was, nor did they miss him.

The Pentagon did not inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday — three full days after he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center, two U.S. officials said.

The news came as a shock to top staff, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as they were unaware the DOD chief was dealing with complications following an elective medical procedure, the officials said. NSC staffers were surprised it took the Pentagon so long to let them know of Austin’s condition. The Pentagon didn’t make the information public until Friday evening, notifying Congress about 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.

In what is probably a monument of understatement, one unidentified US official said, “This should not have happened this way.”

Ya think?

There is a Paul Harvey “Rest of the Story” angle that remains to be teased out. What possible elective surgery could Austin have had that he’d literally go AWOL for a week and put the Nation’s security at risk rather than discuss?

Still, there are apologists at work. Democrat apparatchik Brad Carson doesn’t see anything wrong.

There is no standard protocol for when to announce a defense secretary’s hospitalization or temporary inability to do the job, said Brad Carson, formerly under secretary and chief management officer of the Army, though he added it could depend on the severity of Austin’s condition. If Austin were incapacitated, Congress would surely want to know. But if he were still capable of making decisions, even under a doctor’s supervision, “I don’t think Congress has to be notified in such cases.”

This is bullsh**. It makes no sense to say Congress doesn’t need to know if the Secretary of Defense is in the ICU because that affects national security. It certainly makes no sense to imply the national security adviser doesn’t need to be told.

It’s childish and unprofessional to tell the leaders of both chambers of Congress to FOAD by not informing them you are incapacitated. It is dangerously disloyal not to let the Jake Sullivan, idiot that he is, know. It is a sure bet that if Sullivan didn’t know that Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines were also out of the loop.

Austin’s Department of Defense is a barking shambles. It is incompetent in action and not trustworthy. It not only lies to the people and to Congress, but to the White House and itself…okay, maybe that isn’t all that unusual. As the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. If Biden lets this slide by, he’s a much bigger imbecile than even I had considered possible.

US strike kills militia leader blamed for Iraq attacks, Pentagon says

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military launched a retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday that killed a militia leader it blames for recent attacks on U.S. personnel, the Pentagon said, a move condemned by Iraq’s government.

The U.S. strike took place at about 0900 GMT and targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, the Pentagon said, adding he was a leader of Harakat al Nujaba who was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel.

“The strike also killed one other Harakat al Nujaba member,” said Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, describing it as a self-defense strike. “No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck.”

Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October the U.S. military has come under attack at least 100 times in Iraq and Syria, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.

The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria focused on preventing a resurgence of Islamic State militants.

Iraqi police sources and witnesses had earlier said a drone fired at least two rockets at the headquarters in eastern Baghdad of the Nujaba militia group.

Police and militia sources said the rockets hit a vehicle in the compound and killed four people, including a militia commander and one of his aides. Health sources confirmed the death toll.

Video published by pro-militia websites showed a destroyed vehicle in flames. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s campaign in Gaza and hold the U.S. partly responsible.

In a statement, the military spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani denounced the strike on the group, calling it an “unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity” that was operating with Sudani’s authorisation.

Sudani has limited control over some Iran-backed factions, whose support he needed to win power a year ago and who now form a powerful bloc in his governing coalition.

Asked whether the U.S. military struck a member of Iraq’s security forces, Ryder said the individual targeted was a leader of an Iranian proxy group responsible for attacks against U.S. personnel.

Iraq slams US after strikes on Iran-aligned forces
Iraqi militia commanders vowed to take revenge for Thursday’s strike.

“We will retaliate and make the Americans regret carrying out this aggression,” Abu Aqeel al-Moussawi, a local Iraqi militia commander, said.

Last month, the United States carried out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq after a drone attack by Iran-aligned militants that left one U.S. service member in critical condition and wounded two others.

IDF Eliminated Over 8,000 Gaza Terrorists Since October 7.

Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has eliminated more than 8,000 terrorists after eleven weeks of campaign in Gaza, the military is closing in on Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, Israel’s defense minister said.

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared Friday. Sinwar, who is regarded as the key architect of the October 7 massacre, is believed to be hiding in southern Gaza as Israeli ground troops bring most of the Hamas stronghold in the north under their control.

The Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reported defense minister’s remarks:

Speaking at the conclusion of a daily assessment of the situation with senior members of the defense establishment, Gallant said, “The activity of the IDF and the defense establishment continues. In the north of the Gaza Strip – the operation is gradually completing the goals we set: Disbanding the Hamas battalions and denying their underground capabilities. We also operate in the Khan Yunis area and the south of the Gaza Strip, and we will operate in other places in the future.”

“One thing is clear – Yahya Sinwar now hears the IDF tractors above him, the Air Force bombs and the IDF’s actions. He will soon meet the barrels of our guns,” the Defense Minister vowed.

“We will go and deepen our activity and complete all our goals – first of all, the elimination of the Hamas terrorist organization, the denial of its military and governmental capabilities, and the return of the hostages to Israel,” Gallant added. “The operation will be a drawn-out operation, requiring patience, but we will reach an achievement.”

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Today in History, 22 December 1944, Bastogne Belgium

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.

There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honourable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.

If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.

All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.

The German Commander.

 

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.

That wasn’t a ‘mistake’, it was HAMAS intent to have that happen

IDF says it accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for Hamas terrorists.

Following the incident, Israel's ground forces were given new protocols to help identify hostages to avoid more hostage deaths.

Three Israeli hostages were killed after the Israel Defense Forces mistook them for a “threat” during crossfire in Gaza Friday, leaving the military expressing “deep sorrow” for the deaths.

Yotam Haim, Samer Talalka and Alon Shamriz were killed when they were accidentally “targeted” in Shejaiya and shot dead by the IDF.

It believes the three hostages “fled or were abandoned by the terrorists who held them captive.”

Haim and Shamriz were abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Kfar Aza, while Talalka was taken from Nir Am, according to the Times of Israel.

Haim, 28, was a heavy metal drummer in the band Persephore. He was taken from his home at the start of the war and his house was set on fire by Hamas fighters.

Talalka, who was in his early 20s, was taken from a hatchery, where he and his father worked. The young man often worked early weekend shifts in the henhouse, according to the outlet.

Shamriz was a 26-year-old computer engineering student whose parents are from Iran, the Times of Israel reported.

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Pentagon Falls 41,000 Short of Reduced Military Recruitment Goals

The Pentagon came up short on its recruitment goals.

The Defense Department’s senior officials testified Wednesday about shortfalls in Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting in the fiscal year that ended in September at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. The Marine Corps and Space Force made their recruiting goals.

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Ashish Vazirani said that during fiscal year 2023, the military services together missed goals by about 41,000 recruits.

“That number understates the challenge before us as the services lowered [their] end-strength goals in recent years, in part because of the difficult recruiting environment,” he said. “The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception.”

Vazirani cited multiple reasons for the recruitment shortfall, which he called “complex and multifaceted.”

Among the reasons: A strong economy that means more options for young people, a smaller eligible population, Generation Z’s generally low trust in institutions and fewer young people with family members who have served in the military.

In 1995, 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military, Vazirani said. By 2022, 12% had a parent who had served.

“This has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society,” he said.

In September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report on military housing. It detailed sewage backups and inoperable fire systems are among the safety hazards that U.S. service members living in barracks face. The report found such conditions undermine quality of life and military readiness.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that the Pentagon’s assessments of conditions at barracks “are unreliable” and “observed barracks that pose potentially serious health and safety risks – such as broken windows and inoperable fire systems – and that do not meet minimum [U.S. Department of Defense] standards for privacy and configuration.”

Conditions were so bad in some places that service members sometimes took “drastic action, such as getting married, just to leave the barracks,” according to the report. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops live in barracks, which are for the most junior-ranking unmarried service members without children or other dependents.