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Bahrain is the only regional country playing. This is significant because Egypt has a major role in CTF 153, and command of CTF 153 has rotated between US and Egyptian admirals. If this is a test of strength between the US and Iran (and China), the fact that Egypt and Saudi Arabia have bowed out shows which way the political winds are blowing.
The Chinese have six warships stationed in the Red Sea/Persian Gulf area of operations. They are not participating, and they are not aiding commercial traffic under attack. Draw your own conclusions. //
In my view, this is just another case of the Biden national security apparatus trying to give the impression of doing something while doing nothing. The obvious reason they are doing nothing is that Biden, Sullivan, etc., don't want to offend Iran. Instead of looking after our national interests (safe and rapid transit of sea lanes) and showing confidence and leadership, the Biden White House has elected to show weakness and uncertainty. Nothing good will come from this.
The stay of removal comes after a group called Defend Arlington, which is affiliated with Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday seeking the restraining order. The lawsuit accuses the Army, which oversees the administration and maintenance of the cemetery, of moving too fast in seeking the memorial's removal. Per the lawsuit, "The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial’s eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."
In issuing his order, Judge Alston acknowledged there was merit to the argument by the plaintiffs that the work involved in removing the statue would disturb nearby gravesites. Alston ordered participants in the matter to be ready to argue their cases this Wednesday, and also noted that he "takes very seriously the representations of officers of the Court, and should the representations in this case be untrue or exaggerated, the Court may take appropriate sanctions.” //
The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.” //
smagar
3 hours ago
If Congress really wants to see this statue come down, wouldn't it speak up and object to the TRO?
Anyone who's studied this issue knows that the Naming Commission recommendations were buried in an NDAA. Hardly anyone saw them before they began to be implemented.
Since then, the House of Representatives has approved an amendment by Andrew Clyde (R-GA) to this year's defense appropriations, which would prohibit federal dollars from being spent to remove this memorial. If you put two and two together, this is a clear sign from one half of Congress that it doesn't want to see this memorial moved. Now that everyone's had a chance to read all the commission's recommendations and weigh their impact, it's telling that one house of Congress has voted this way.
Let's hope the judge considers this. Sounds as if it's time for the House to hold hearings on the Naming Commission recommendations themselves. Seems as things aren't as cut-and-dried as they were depicted to be.
About 10 percent of the world's sea traffic goes through the Red Sea. Rerouting ships around the Cape of Good Hope lengthens the trip by about twelve days, adding considerable cost to freight and disrupting supply chains. The frequency of the attacks has led two of the world's largest shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to order their ships to avoid the Red Sea until further notice; see Major Shipping Lines Avoid Red Sea; Is It Just the Houthis or Should We Be Looking Deeper?.
The new coalition, to be called Operation Prosperity Guardian (is it too much to ask that we begin calling military operations things that don't suck?), will involve ships of several nations. The concept of the operation is not yet known, but it is expected to combine the protection of individual ships with convoys. In fact, very little is known about the operation (number of ships, which countries, when it starts, its Mission) other than its name.
Shipping companies are taking it seriously. Automatic Identification System beacons are showing that Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd ships are forming up for a convoy. //
As I wrote in Major Shipping Lines Avoid Red Sea, Is It Just the Houthis, or Should We Be Looking Deeper? we need to look beyond the possibility of the Israel-Hamas War expanding if Israel carries out retaliatory strikes against Yemen. This is an exercise in testing the US and NATO response to a critical maritime route being obstructed and the tactics, techniques, and procedures we will use in keeping the sea lanes open.
“House Republicans are aiming to block the Pentagon from removing a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery.”
The Democrats’ march to Year Zero continues apace with the Biden regime’s proposed removal of a Civil War Memorial that marks the grave of the memorial’s Jewish sculptor who is buried at its base. The memorial’s removal would also necessarily desecrate the graves of numerous Confederate soldiers buried nearby. //
The memorial is intended to celebrate the post-war reconciliation of the North and South, a celebration of unity that apparently rankles Democrats and their rabid desire for division and destruction.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-travesty-at-arlington-national-cemetery/
Luke AFB, Arizona-56th Fighter Wing
about 5 years ago
#TBT In 1967, Capt Bob Pardo’s wingman was hit over Vietnam and didn’t have enough fuel to make it to Laos. Pardo told him to lower his tail hook and he pushed him 90 miles over the border where they all ejected and were rescued.
Lt Col Pardo retired from Luke in 1974.
For the whole story click here: https://www.luke.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1397511/legendary-pilot-inspires-new-generation-of-air-warriors/
U.S. defense aid to Ukraine is not only bolstering the defense of a friendly nation but also creating jobs for American workers and revitalizing the defense manufacturing base that has been in a death spiral since 1992. According to an exhaustive meta-analysis of Ukraine defense spending in the Washington Post, well over 90 percent of the military-related aid provided to Ukraine is spent domestically. The spending has resulted in the opening of new production lines, increased operations at existing facilities, and thousands of direct and indirect jobs created. //
The end of the Soviet Union resulted in a bacchanalia of Department of Defense cuts. Not only were the military services offered up as Bill Clinton's "Peace Dividend," but a round of "cost savings" under the Base Realignment and Closure Program savaged facilities that had little peacetime use but would be critical in wartime. One of the major targets was government-owned, government-operated (GOGO) and government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) factories that built munitions and military hardware. Even those facilities that survived found themselves deprived of money for modernization and partially mothballed. The ammunition plants operate very much like they did during World War II. //
But this automated capability isn’t available for the nuances of mixing explosives or filling shells, Brig. Gen. Gavin Gardner, commander of Joint Munitions Command, told Defense News on a tour of the ammunition plant’s production line for the Mark 82, a 500-pound bomb used by the Air Force. Operators still manually mix explosives — like tritonal, which is 80% TNT and 20% aluminum powder — using steam heated kettles, then adding it to the weapon mostly by hand.
That last sentence needs to be read carefully. The number of people alive who know how to steam-sweat tritonal and pour it into shell casings is in the low double digits. The number of those who are not Social Security recipients is a fraction of the total. With few facilities and limited production lines, providing a career path that would encourage someone to train for that job is very difficult. //
Another underlying problem is that the machine tool component of the defense industrial base is so decrepit that when we went to expand production of 155mm shells, we found we did not have the machine tools to build equipment for new production lines. //
As we've seen from the Israel-Hamas War, it is impossible for any friendly nation to defend itself without our assistance. Just three weeks into the war, Israel was making emergency calls for ammunition and equipment. What the Ukraine War is showing us is that we cannot help Taiwan provide a credible defense against China. Worse, we don't have the capacity to provide the United States military with the ammunition or equipment they would need to prevail should we end up in a shooting war with China.
they aren't expensive either, but I digress. All told he was missing probably a dozen or so pieces of equipment that added up to $500 to $1,000. He was being screwed over for actions he was ordered to do by his superiors and now he's paying the price for it, literally.
That ladies and gentlemen, is getting what we called in the Marines, screwed by the big green weenie. We actually have an acronym for it, BOHICA. Which stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
The sad part is that it is a common occurrence, both the green weenie and paying for losses of gear and or other equipment that was lost or destroyed in the course of our duties at no fault of our own. Some examples that I saw of these were both hilarious and infuriating at the same time. //
It is more than just an administration problem, it is a problem within the military as a whole. //
But sure, let's tack on an extra $500-$1,000 to repay the government, along with a Defense Department, that has enough resources, money, or credit, to absorb that cost for miscellaneous gear like an e-tool. That is a giant slap in the face to the very people who literally put their lives on the line in some jobs, to defend this Nation. They need to do better, much much better. //
thinkingoutloud
3 minutes ago
So, did Biden's paycheck get used to pay back the US taxpayers for the "gear" he intentionally left in Afghanistan?
On Monday, Israel shot down a ballistic missile in flight outside of the Earth's atmosphere. This marks a historical first time that an anti-ballistic missile has successfully intercepted a target in space during combat. The missile was fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen and was targeting Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used their Arrow anti-ballistic missile defense system, which is a joint American-Israeli project first deployed in Israel over 20 years ago.