Recently in Army Category

While not exactly my expertise, I thought that this look at the Syrian commandos and the way they are not being trained is interesting. If you want to know more, please go read the rest. Enjoy.

http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/Syrian-Commandos-Fade-Away-6-9-2009.asp

Syrian Commandos Fade Away
by James Dunnigan
June 9, 2009
Syria's elite units are falling apart. The total number of elite troops in Syria exceeds 15,000 personnel. This in line with their Soviet era doctrine and tactics that insist on special units in massive numbers. But years of poor funding, rapidly aging equipment (even small arms), and lack of action have turned Syria's special forces into a paper tiger. This is rapidly becoming a crisis for Syria because it is the only remaining frontline Arab state (the other two being Egypt and Jordan) that borders Israel that has not signed a peace agreement with the Jewish nation. Syria still harbors ambitions of eventual armed conflict with Israel to regain the Golan Heights. As ludicrous as this goal is, the Syrians have remained recalcitrant and stubborn in their relations with Israel. Secondly, the Syrians rely on their best troops maintain order and put down potential threats to the regime.

During the Cold War, Syria's elite units were considered, by Arab military standards, to be well-disciplined, thoroughly trained, and armed with the latest Russian (then Soviet) equipment. They had extensive battle experience against the Israelis on the Golan in 1973 and Lebanon in '82 and, according to most accounts, these units acquitted themselves well.

http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=45206

The U.S. Army has launched an inquiry into how and why active duty troops from Fort Rucker, Ala., came to be placed on the streets of Samson, Ala., during last week's murder spree in that tiny South Alabama community. The use of the troops was a possible violation of federal law.

"On March 10, after a report of an apparent mass murder in Samson, Ala., 22 military police soldiers from Fort Rucker, Ala., along with the provost marshal, were sent to the city of Samson," Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Monroe, Va., told CNSNews.com on Monday.

"The purpose for sending the military police, the authority for doing so, and what duties they performed is the subject of an ongoing commander's inquiry

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0130gs.html

The Iraqis call him King David. General David Petraeus earned the somewhat affectionate nickname in 2003 after taking Baghdad and then Mosul--a city whose governor he became, almost coincidentally. When all Iraqi institutions crumbled, a development that the Americans had not foreseen, one guard who had not fled explained to Petraeus that since he had conquered Iraq, it was also up to him to govern Iraq. Petraeus improvised, pursuing a military offensive and reconstruction at the same time. "We discovered that we were strangers in a strange country," Petraeus tells me.

He admits that the Army knew nothing about Arab civilization. But he drew the necessary conclusions. Later, back in the United States as head of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Petraeus radically modified American military culture. "My generation was trained to destroy Soviet tanks with helicopters," he recalls, but such training was useless in the modern struggle with terrorism. For that matter, Petraeus refuses to use the term "War on Terror." Terrorism, he explains, is just one aspect of a global war by extremists against our values and our ways of life. On the basis of this definition of extremism and of his experience in Iraq, Petraeus rewrote the counterinsurgency manual, the Army's new Bible. In 2007, George W. Bush sent him back to Iraq to apply his ideas. And as Barack Obama said during his presidential campaign, under Petraeus, the surge "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

Did Petraeus win the war, or at least prevent the United States from losing it? "We must no longer think in terms of victory or defeat," he says. "The time is past for raising a flag on a hill." The war against extremism must be measured in terms of "dynamics" and "progress." In Iraq, Petraeus says, there has been remarkable progress, in collaboration with the new Iraqi army--"progress that is measurable, fragile, and reversible." But public opinion in the United States, the general observes, has already forgotten how things were one year ago. From 40 attacks a day in Baghdad in 2007, the country has moved to a crime rate comparable with that of certain Latin American countries.

While having to get a warrant for raids is a sign of returning (creating?) civilization, it is also a problem since civilization is still a little shaky. Those troubles are leading to things like police trying to protect the terrorists.

Small problems. I doubt there is a country anywhere that does not have a few corrupt cops, but Iraq is still trying to rid itself of terrorists who have been infiltrating all the sections of the government to destroy it from within. I pray they will fail and that the country of Iraq will finally see Peace and Honor.

http://www.thestate.com/world/story/669826.html?RSS=untracked

U.S. soldiers killed two Iraqi policemen Saturday after coming under fire during an operation against al-Qaida in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi officer confirmed the incident, which occurred near the northern city of Mosul, but said the policemen were manning a checkpoint when they were gunned down.

A U.S. statement said the incident began when U.S. soldiers entered a neighborhood looking for a suspected al-Qaida operative who was believed to be in a building.

The Americans called for the building's occupants to surrender when they came under fire from another building about 100 yards (meters) away, the statement added.

"Despite multiple attempts to identify themselves, the (U.S.) force continued to receive hostile fire. Acting in self defense, coalition forces returned fire," the statement said.

"Coalition force members immediately moved to the building and linked up with the Iraqi police forces. A search of the building revealed two Iraqi police, who were not in uniform, were killed during the exchange," the statement added.

The U.S. expressed regret for the policemen's deaths.

The reason that Israel is refusing to treat this war as a war is that the West is pressuring them so much to treat this terrorist population as terrorists.

It is past time to level Gaza and restart it. Of course, there is not a country in the world that will accept the Gazan population. They are the outcasts of the world. I pity them for their condition, but can think of no way to fix it in this lifetime.

http://samsonblinded.org/news/idf-combs-its-way-through-gaza-5709

Israeli troops comb slowly through northern Gaza: destroy tunnels, weapons caches, and booby-trapped houses, engage small numbers of militants in fights. Israeli government refuses to recognize facts of international law. Once a significant proportion of local population reneged on truce, war resumes, and the entire population becomes an acceptable collateral damage. Where guerrillas operate without uniforms, any suspiciously-looking civilians become legitimate targets, and their blood is on the guerrillas-turned-terrorists.

I am glad that this is gone. Part of me still thinks it could have been released in the deep tunnels under cities to kill off some of the rats and roaches, but this IS the safer option.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htchem/articles/20090103.aspx

The United States has completed the destruction of the last of its nerve gas weapons stored in the United States. The 66 month effort destroyed 293,000 gallons (over a million liters) of VX and Sarin nerve agent, by incineration. These weapons were stored, for nearly half a century, in underground bunkers in the Anniston Army Depot, 80 kilometers east of Birmingham, Alabama.

Last year, the last of 478,000 M55 115mm nerve gas rockets were destroyed. These 78 inch long, 57 pound, weapons, each carried ten pounds of VX or GB liquefied nerve gas. These rockets were manufactured from the late 1950s, to the early 1960s, and were soon considered obsolete (because of short range and poor construction). It was believed that the propellant would become increasingly liable to spontaneously ignite. Another problem was that the warheads leaked, and required constant monitoring.

Over the last 18 years, about half the U.S. stock of 31,500 tons of chemical weapons (mainly nerve and mustard gas). The destruction is taking place at seven sites. The incineration plant at Anniston will be closed, for about six months, and converted to destroy the mustard gas stored there. Mustard is a more complex chemical, as far as incineration goes, but is less lethal than nerve gas.

What?

Hamas kills Israelis and no one seems to care and we are all used to it. In this case, Hamas killed an Egyptian! You would think that that someone would care! Besides the locals. If this had been a non-terrorist entity doing the murder, it would have been headlines.

I think the Media is saying: "Who cares? It is only a worthless Arab." Right New York Times?

http://www.sandmonkey.org/2008/12/31/30-thousand-egyptians-turn-out-for-officers-funeral/

The funeral of the killed assassinated dead egyptian border officer was attended by 30,000 of his countrymen, who according to al masry alyoum, turned the event into an anti-Hamas rally, shouting anti-Hamas slogans, and rightly stating that his blood is on Hamas' hands. Not that Hamas gives a fuck or anything, or any of its apologists either. Even Zeinobia, whom I usualy disagree with on almost everything except her obvious and admireable egyptian patriotism, is unhappy with the turnout, claiming that the government is using his death as anti-Hamas propaganda, while forgetting that -if that's true- it's only possible because Hamas killed the man in cold blood, while he was protecting the country.

When StratFor makes a prediction, then I believe it. They have made mistakes, but not as many as other groups.

Any more terrorist attacks in India will force it to either become more totalitarian or to go to war. I am sure that they will choose the later. They have in the past.

If I was a Liberal, I am sure that I would choose option C - allowing the terrorists to continue slaughtering innocents in the name of Peace.

http://www.stratfor.com/memberships/129587/analysis/20081224_india_pakistan_signs_coming_war

Several major signs of a coming Indian-Pakistani war surfaced Dec. 24.

Indian troops reportedly have deployed to the Barmer district of southwest Rajasthan state along the Indian-Pakistani border. Furthermore, the state government of Rajasthan has ordered residents of its border villages to be prepared for relocation. The decision reportedly came after a meeting among the state's director-general of police, home secretary and an official from the central government. Stratfor confirmed the report with an Indian army officer.

According to India's ZeeNews, the Pakistani army replaced the Pakistan Rangers that regularly patrol the border with India. The Pakistani troop movements were later confirmed by U.K. Bansal, the additional director-general of India's Border Security Force (BSF) in Barmer, Rajasthan.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,463171,00.html

Five indicted Blackwater Worldwide security guards plan to surrender to the FBI Monday in Salt Lake City, about 2,000 miles from the Washington courthouse where they were charged, a person close to the case said.

Such a move would be the opening salvo in what is shaping up to be a contentious legal fight before the guards can even get to trial. By surrendering in Utah, the home state of one of the guards, the men can argue for a trial there -- a far more conservative, pro-gun venue than Washington.

The person described the decision to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the indictment against the men remains sealed.

The five guards, all military veterans, were indicted for their roles in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. The shooting strained U.S. diplomacy and fueled anti-American sentiment abroad.

Steven McCool, a lawyer for Blackwater guard and former Marine Donald Ball, confirmed Sunday that his client would surrender in Utah. Ball is from West Valley City, Utah.

"Donald Ball committed no crime," McCool said. "We are confident that any jury will see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution to appease the Iraqi government."

From a military stand point, this was a really great move on the part of the Taliban. The fact that there was so little security is a really stupid move on the part of the Pakistani and NATO military. Who failed?

Lets just abandon the Pakistanis for a while. Take their nukes on the way out of the country so that the fanatics can't get them, so that India and Israel don't have to nuke the country flat. Pakistan is about to fail and nothing the West can do will help, because the barbarians are insisting that it is only the West allowing the non-fanatics to stay alive. We need to allow them to stand on their own feet! If they fail, we can then kill all the survivors.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,463124,00.html

Militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said.

The U.S. military said its losses in the raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar would have only a "minimal" impact on its operations against resurgent Taliban-led militants in Afghanistan.

However, the attack's boldness will fuel concern that Taliban militants are tightening their hold around Peshawar and could choke the supply route through the famed Khyber Pass.

Up to 75 percent of supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan after being unloaded from ships at the Arabian sea port of Karachi. NATO is already seeking an alternative route through Central Asia.

The attack at the Portward Logistic Terminal reduced a section of the vast walled compound to a smoldering junkyard.