text:
Left of the Boom
The campaign against the IED threat in Iraq resembled in some respects the Battle of the Atlantic. Starting from nearly nothing in 2003 the "improvised explosive device" lurking under the roadbed, embedded in a concrete curb, in a dead dog or a garbage can — or sometimes taking the form of a long string of artillery shells wired to each other — became a major cause of Coalition casualties. Like the U-boats their success rose a crescendo and then faded away under a cocktail of countermeasures. The "Happy Time" for the IED bombers was the summer of 2007.
The conceptual similarities between the fight against the U-boat and the IED were that the victors evolved better detection technology, surveillance techniques and adaptive routing than their opponents, who were also evolving. The parallels between mine detection technology and sonar; electronic intelligence and Huff-duff, between road surveillance systems and long range air patrols are obvious. And the really killing blow in both cases — what spelled the end of the wolfpack and the road bombers was also identical: getting "left of the boom". A Washington Post article from 2007 described how military analysts understood from the start the:
need to move "left of boom," to use the vernacular developed by the Army in 2003: that is, to attack the bombmaking construct well before IEDs are emplaced. That involves understanding the financiers, bombmaker cells, and other aspects of this, long before a bomb appears at the roadside. Only in the past year has the Pentagon begun moving in a concerted, purposeful way to left of boom.
If the detonation of an IED represents the endpoint of its lifecycle, any actions taken by the defender in the vicinity of that event are disadvantageous from the point of view of physics. You are out of distance and time when in proximity to the bomb and the best electronic countermeasures and armor plating can only provide limited damage mitigation. Fundamentally speaking, if you have to wait until you are nearly on top of an explosive (or a U-boat) before you detect and react, you are screwed. You are playing a losing game.
But consider the area to the left of the boom, before an explosive device has been deployed. In this part of its lifecycle the weapon is still being funded, assembled, transported, fuzed and concealed. It is potentially lethal but only potentially. Like a serpent in an egg its malice is still prospective. In that space the IED is vulnerable; in that space it can be defeated. And in that space it was defeated.
While, as Wired notes, the movie "Hurt Locker" justly put the spotlight on the matchless bravery and skill of the EOD teams, it leaves out a very large part of the story. Beating the enemy meant going after him; busting the funding networks, killing or capturing the bombmakers, disrupting the supply of materiel and watching the environment the way B-24 Liberator crews once scanned the waves for submarines.
It's tempting to ask what the counter-IED experience implies to the overall strategy of fighting terror. Is it ever possible to passively defend a country against attack? What role does converting the attitudes of the enemy's own support base play in generating intelligence? And what good is intelligence without the willingness to use it to crack down on the equivalents of the ideology, leadership, funding, operational trainers and materiel supply line of the enemy? In other words, what does going "left of the boom" mean in the context of counterterrorist operations?
Roger Simon says that even in Hollywood and public opinion may be more open than it has ever been to themes and ideas that were conventionally regarded as uncool.
The 2010 Academy Awards may not have marked the end of "liberal Hollywood" as we know it, but they certainly put a solid dent in it. With the pro-military "The Hurt Locker" winning over the enviro-pabulum of "Avatar" and Sandra Bullock garnering the Best Actress Oscar for a Christian movie, the times are a-changin' at least somewhat, maybe even a lot.
But one thing is now certain. It is time for conservative, center-right and libertarian filmmakers to stop feeling sorry for themselves and go out and just do it.
Maybe people are willing to listen to ideas and themes outside of their circle, now that the old order and the divisions which marked it are falling away. If so then now is the time for historians and authors to go back and take a fresh look at the remarkable successes of the recent past. Experience is perhaps the only thing with real shelf-life a world of rapid technological change. Though forms are transient, function endures.
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76 Comments, 76 Threads
1. Salt Lick
Maybe people are willing to listen to ideas and themes outside of their circle, now that the old order and the divisions which marked it are falling away.
Yes, I never, ever thought I'd like rap and hip-hop until I listened to the Wolverines singing "One Term President."
Something's happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.
Hat tip to Gerard.March 9, 2010 - 8:11 am Link to this Comment
2. Gerald P. Hanner
Even though I was around during WWII and have read extensively the exploits of the era, I never ran across the term "huff-duff" before. HF/DF (high frequency radio direction finding) is commonplace now, but it was new back then. Find and attack U-boats before they could form wolf packs. Getting inside the Kriegsmarine OODA loop.March 9, 2010 - 8:23 am Link to this Comment
3. Insufficiently Sensitive
And in US politics, going left of the boom for the next two elections must involve determining how much of the 'stimulus' funding is in a holding pattern, in waiting for the signal to deploy the taxpayers' hard-earned cash on behalf of the party that passed that awful bill.
How much of it is held by ACORN and its hundreds of hydra-headed alter egos? How much by Arts Corps and MusicianCorps? In August 2009, Music National Service launched MusicianCorps as a prototype for the full Musician and Artist Corps. Are they the prototype for the false-front, popular-front 'Coffee Party', wholly owned and controlled by Obama activists?
Where else are these resources held, and how will they be deployed? Reactions to their unleashing of propaganda campaigns will again, as in submarine attacks and IEDs, be a bit late.March 9, 2010 - 8:30 am Link to this Comment
4. Tarnsman
"But one thing is now certain. It is time for conservative, center-right and libertarian filmmakers to stop feeling sorry for themselves and go out and just do it."
Here, here! Or is it 'Hear, hear!'? The box office successes of conservative, pro-American films is undeniable (Independence Day, The Dark Knight, 300, The Blind Side just to name a few). It is high time that the conservatives in Hollywood show the other side how it's done and how to make some money doing it. Money talks, even in Hollywood.March 9, 2010 - 8:36 am Link to this Comment
5. Pork Rinds for Allah
Want to get LEFT of the Boom?
Take Assad of Syria, Hezbollah's Grand Master Bearded Wonder and President for Life (Mr Dinner Jacket) of Iran and drop a nice GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb on their heads…
Don't apologize, Be outspoken and announce it on YOUTUBE…
Take the BATTLE to the ones that pull the strings…
Wake up America…March 9, 2010 - 8:40 am Link to this Comment
6. Mark
For years the Democrats engaged in political IED strategy against the Republicans, who were soft targets. The strategy worked to a large extent. But now the supply lines and bomb-makers (e.g., ACORN, Soros/ngo's, Wall Street deals and corruption, shower-room Rahming) are exposed, and people are ticked off that the Democrats are more interested in setting IED's than building the nation. Republicans are well left of the boom. Every time Pelosi or Reed tries to place an IED, it goes off in their hands.
Hillary hoped that government would be the Village that took care of its children, i.e., us. Obama agreed, but wanted the Village to resemble Chicago. At any rate, the Village is just about broke. Ecce Detroit. People are ending up at the place down-and-outers always end up, relying on themselves, family, and friends. With friends like those in the Village, who needs enemies?
I guess one has to kind-of-admire Obama for pressing ahead, trying to place the ultimate IED, complete with nuclear option, via the Health Care Takeover. The Democrats put me in mind of Richard's 'Monkey Trap' metaphor. The Democrats can't let go of the Takeover IED bait in the coconut, even as it's blowing up in their fist.
When I saw Richard's post title, I was ready for a nautical boom metaphor, i.e., respect the mainsail boom, pay attention to the wind and to jib wrinkling, and don't let yourself get destroyed by a sweeping boom in an accidental gybe. When the boom sweeps across, there's no stopping it. Obama's not paying attention.
Bob Herbert in today's NYT writes that Obama has failed to focus on jobs. Mainly, the commenters agree. Obama has lost a lot of the NYT crowd (admittedly for not being radical enough, but also for not providing a recovery with jobs). Obama is sailing too close to the wind, ignoring the flapping jib and the luffing mainsail. He is so screwed.March 9, 2010 - 9:10 am Link to this Comment
7. Docbill
Going left of the boom on terrorism to me means a focused, aggressive assination campaign against the funders, clerics, facilitators, and middlemen who supply the money, arms and social/intellicutal legetimaticy for these groups world wide. Any country, anywhere, anytime. If support dries up for fear of being killed it would be just like Phil Sheradin having the hide runners kill the buffalo to destroy the support infrastructure/commisary for the plains indians. Rgretable but necessary.
If we have to kill them down to three 10 yr. olds standing in the middle of a date grove then so be it. They have to understand that this stops or else.
Richard I spell horribly. Please add a spell checker to this wonderful site. Thanks.March 9, 2010 - 9:16 am Link to this Comment
8. Annoy Mouse
The effort to defeat IED's is a perfect example of full spectrum warfare. Intelligence was gleaned from expanding social networks. Actionable leads had spec op's doing the old knock and grab. Suspected bomb making sites were rolled up and anyone around them. Surveillance from UAV's followed suspects around their daily routine and followed materials until the emplacement team was on position. Squads walking along miles of roads sweeping bridges and the undergrowth where they are easiest placed. AC-130's orbited about filming them as they dug a hole, sent their kid to go get some pliers. Whole mapping systems ensued with their own IED symbology. IED went off here. One was defused here. Watch out for these culverts.
In effect, the war in Iraq became the war against the IED and the engagements and intelligence were more or less centered on the cessation of that threat. If you were to try to build a nation you first secure communications across it expanses. Next you secure road networks for transportation and deployment of your security personnel. And if this is where your enemy comes out to meet you, so be it. Afghanistan started to drift in this direction and until they can drain the swamps and establish safe roads the job there will not be done.March 9, 2010 - 9:42 am Link to this Comment
I will be most interested in seeing if IEDs start showing up in places like Iran and Syria to blow up the bad guys.
We did not just defeat the Wolfpacks, we did a little of our own wolfpacking the the Pacific. And wakeless German electric torpedoes were copied and used to help defeat IJN countermeasures against our subs
You can say it is not our way to do that with IEDs but when WWII started it was not our way to burn cites to the ground or bomb ordinary workers' houses, either. Precision bombing was our way – and we never gave up on it – but it was useful to lay waste to a few hundred urban square miles, too.
We felt that the Germans and Japanese had given us permission to use those tactics on them by their own actions. Today we have all the permission we need to start setting IEDs among the mullas and Batthists.March 9, 2010 - 9:47 am Link to this Comment
10. Langley
I do not think it is the end of "Liberal Hollywood."
Now that Obama is president it is "cool" to be pro-war.
And before Whiskey posts I want to say that Blind Side is just a SWPL film.March 9, 2010 - 10:00 am Link to this Comment
11. JJRedfan
The website for MusicianCorps is here (click this link).
Here's an excerpt from the biographical blurb for one Aaron Walker-Loud:
"For ten years Aaron has also worked and volunteered within child-care, music education and other youth programs as a teaching artist, mentor, curriculum designer, child-care director, child-care trainer and event producer/coordinator. Aaron carries forward the philosophies taught to him by his family, mentors and music teachers from his youth in Seattle's Central District emphasizing respect for differences among people, creativity, development of life goals, anger management, self-discipline and team-building, as well as community activism and understanding social injustice. Aaron actively works to impart these same positive philosophies and principles upon his students.
Sure sounds entirely innocent to ME! Golly! These people surely couldn't have some agenda they're trying to advance with our money!March 9, 2010 - 10:36 am Link to this Comment
12. sirius_sir
But consider the area to the left of the boom… It is potentially lethal but only potentially. Like a serpent in an egg its malice is still prospective.
Other commentators have already made the not-quite implicit connection to disrupting terror networks before they become a full-(ahem)blown threat. It seems an entirely logical, rational approach. And yet, consider the grief the Bush Administration received for making that exact argument relative to removing a certain tyrant, one who was already known to be immersed in funding and promoting and developing terrorist capabilities, although one could–and some people did–argue we should wait further for the threat to become 'imminent'.
But with the benefit of hindsight (meaning 'there were no WMD') we now know the idea of there being even a potential threat was nothing more than a neo-con fabrication, and so the contention became we were lied into a war a wiser nation would have chosen to avoid.
Of course, that perspective depends on the certainty of knowing the Ba'athist regime's continued existence wouldn't have had a deleterious effect on the future. That it was already having a deleterious effect on the present did not, for some, seem to matter.
Now that we face another gathering storm in Iran, if we're lucky, maybe some years hence we'll be able to compare the efficacy and wisdom of the one approach relative to the other.March 9, 2010 - 11:32 am Link to this Comment
13. Steve C.
Critics of the military services underestimate the ability of the people in those organizations to learn and adapt. The tactical problem: IEDs and the strategic problem: how to defeat an insurgency, are only different in scale. Rarely are such solutions quick and cheap. Experience remains the best teacher. Fortunately for the USA, our forces value initiative and our nation is wealthy enough to provide resources. We are now learning how to apply the lessons learned in Iraq to Afghanistan.
The solutions adopted will not be the same, but our experience in Iraq at a minimum will tell us what won't work. That's a substantial head start we did not have going into Iraq.March 9, 2010 - 11:59 am Link to this Comment
14. tomw
7. Docbill:
There is a spelling checker built into Seamonkey, and I'm pretty sure Firefox.
tomMarch 9, 2010 - 12:12 pm Link to this Comment
15. peterike
Ugh, my post was posted. Then I edited it, and the edit was marked as spam, deleting my post. Dang!March 9, 2010 - 12:34 pm Link to this Comment
16. Ari Tai
Re: preemption. Stopping a bullet before the trigger is pulled.
Is all about intelligence. Consider that we have a "Department of Defense" yet something less than 10% is spent on the so-called Intelligence Community. Everything else is punitive offense (well, ok, a small percentage of that % is capable of fighting, the rest is overhead, REMFs, and a scattering of headquarters staff recently returned from the battle who have a clue). Even HF-DF success in the submarine battle was just as often a cover for successful code breaking, understanding the enemy's intent (to be able to forecast more accurately), not just observing their actions. A defensive perimeter (Maginot line) seldom provides a long term guarantee. We just are not very good at guarding. Our sensibilities lead us to want to trust other humans. We get slack and the small number of bad actors can move across borders with near impunity (consider Dubai where arguably the good guys achieved the same). Which underwrites not just the value of intelligence, but that of the deterrence that punitive offense practiced regularly and exercised reluctantly and decisively when needed. "No greater friend, no worse enemy" should describe our actions effects on our foreign relationships, with an omniscience and precision that strikes fear (a fear that usually only comes from near-certain death, not simply the prevention of a given act) into the hearts of those who would do us or our friends or our interests ill. The Soviets did this very well, but they were soulless. We have to accomplish the same while retaining our morality.
It's curious how the political divide differs in its use of a "zero discount rate" on challenges. The Left joyously wants a zero discount rate (forcing preemption today) for yet-to-be-seen-greater-than-historical-warming AGW – with little tolerance for engineering a solution (which could be a solution from strength – i.e. spend energy even more profligately than today to enrich all, rather than poverty/austerity for all). Consider that NYC didn't exist 200 years ago. We could certainly move it inland with minimal cost given today's rate of rebuilding over a few hundred years, in a few hundred years, if/when the water started to rise – for any reason – perhaps Yellowstone cooking off (and we didn't have government creating the moral hazard of cheap flood insurance). What's more important is the individual's (not the state's) ability (wealth) to face any challenge (consider that in the long term, we're all self-insuring). The more wealth (energy) we have under our individual control, the more trite these issues are (consider 15,000 oldsters frying and dying in their apartments in France without the wealth to earlier impulse buy a 300EU (and dropping thanks to China Inc) air-conditioner, with a power grid that accidently was capable of supporting all those units during the hottest days. Here we have central planning (not markets) killing all those grandmothers and institutionally considering it a fair trade against other benefits. Shades of Stalin). (Granted, the cost of a window AC in France is (still) 2x what it is in the U.S. – like most everything else bought in Europe).
The Right reluctantly, even tearfully, wants to deal with a bully today rather than tomorrow. Perhaps because there's actually a proven and oft-demonstrated negative discount rate on folks like Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Chavez.. Allende. Curiously Pinochet's statistics look nothing like the previous list (save in the mind of the Left), especially when we use the right's measure of personal and property rights/wealth (v. the Left's group & proles' equality of suffering) as a measure of goodness
Re: discount rate. A way of calculating the future value of something I buy (or do) today. Where in most life experiences, everything depreciates to zero in far less than 100 years. Which implies the most forward looking we can be, should be is a few generations. Consider even the Panama Canal is being rebuilt. Perhaps the new one will last more than 100 years without retrofit (or being abandoned because of some other advance).March 9, 2010 - 12:43 pm Link to this Comment
17. Habu
IED's ?
Yes, they are a problem but I can think of ten topics more pressing and urgent than a thread on IED's.
Save the comments on how patriot you are and that we need to talk about IED's because our troops are still in harms way. I've been in harms way on three continents with live fire and little support, no pizza/beer/flicks/calls home, and no showers, etc.
War is hell.March 9, 2010 - 12:47 pm Link to this Comment
18. herb
Simon, as quoted above:
even in Hollywood and public opinion may be more open than it has ever been to themes and ideas that were conventionally regarded as uncool.
What has occurred here is that the current regime is the boom. What is necessary is to go to the left of the boom and reclaim American History; Washington, Jefferson, Henry, et al. Why we are here? What meaning does our presence hold for us? For all men? Are duties required? What are they? How do we fulfill them? Most here know the answers to these questions and their consequentials. But the kids dont.
American History is not typically taught. It is what is left of the boom.March 9, 2010 - 12:49 pm Link to this Comment
19. Esther
Langley @10
"Now that Obama is president it is "cool" to be pro-war."
Interesting but debatable. A poll out yesterday says that Americans think the US is less respected in the world now than two years ago. As has been pointed out on several blogs, some of those respondants are probably Democrats disenchanted with a continuation of Bush policy vis a vis Afghanistan i.e. a pro-war stance.March 9, 2010 - 1:04 pm Link to this Comment
20. peterike
Habu. Yes, they are a problem but I can think of ten topics more pressing and urgent than a thread on IED's.
The topic isn't IEDs.March 9, 2010 - 1:28 pm Link to this Comment
21. wws
Saw a fascinating article a while back, sad that I can't find a link or remember the exact source. But it was an interview with the trainers of soldiers going to Iraq and covered how the best IED finder was not something technical, but instead was still the trained human eye.
And he noted something fascinating – the man being interviewed said that while most soldiers could be trained to be fairly good at it, a few were phenomenally good at finding the hidden IED's, and every patrol wanted to have at least one of these guys with them. They were the ones who could see the garbage sack that just didn't look right, the parked car that was just a bit more suspicious than the rest. They were the ones who could see the imminent threats that no one else around them would ever notice. These men tended to come from one of two very different backgrounds – although perhaps this shows that they are surprisingly alike in some ways. One are the boys who grew up hunting regularly in the woods, usually by themselves. But the other type were men who grew up on the tough urban streets of an inner city. Both of these groups were *far* better at threat detection than the average suburban boy with a lot of computer experience; in fact extensive computer experience correlated with generally poor performance in this category.
The writer surmised that from boyhood these two types of men, the country boys and the inner city boys, had internalized a system of 360 degree awareness to the point that they did this on an almost instinctive basis. The computer raised boys, on the other hand, appeared to focus very intently on what's directly in front of them but had little awareness or interest in what was going on behind them or on either side – which of course is where the most dangerous threats always are. I think of it as the difference between 2 dimensional awareness and a 3 dimensional, wraparound awareness of your surroundings.
I also strongly suspect, and this is beyond the scope of that article, that the best hunters have always been those who have been able to anticipate the thoughts of that which he was seeking – "if I were a deer, where would I go? If I were going to attack, what direction would I come from? If I were to hide an IED, how would I disguise it?" Not many men can do that well, but there's always a surprising few who can.
And those are the ones you want next to you if you're in harms way.
22. Josh
Is it ever possible to passively defend a country against attack?
Perhaps. At great cost in time, money, lives, and other resources, but with a dividend in humanitarianism, or something like it.
Me, I prefer getting to the left of the boom by carpet bombing until the population at large is enlisted on your side, or no longer capable of supporting insurgents, nor consuming oxygen. Much easier in time, money, and (our) lives.
This is not to say I'm right. What it is to say is, since you can only try one of these at a time, one never does know the might have beens.
wws, I think the type of "spotter" you describe is just a savant. Like Doctor House, or The Mentalist, or Castle, or the guy on Lie To Me. Seems we're developing a mythology of these types. But I wouldn't say that anyone is *that* good at it, let's not mythologize them beyond all reality. There are good IED placers, too.
23. Habu
20. peterike
Habu fell off his high horse and landed in some not so metaphorical horse dookie.
Apologies to all.
No dessert.
24. wretchard
Whether or not the country and inner city boys happen to be better at spotting threats than others, there's Pappy Boyington's famous adage that if you show him a hero you will show him a bum. A Boyington story has him swimming in circles, drunk and winding up just where he started. Maybe it's apocryphal, but apocryphal stories typically have a point. (from http://www.warbirdforum.com/blackone.htm)
My favorite Boyington yarn involves the time he was stationed in San Diego, while living on North Island. He was assigned to attend an enlisted men's party, so as to keep alcohol (!) out of the affair. Naturally he got drunk and missed the last ferry home.
Boyington called his young wife to drive the 20 miles around the peninsula and fetch him, but got the response: you can damn well swim home. So of course he jumped into the ocean in full uniform and struck out on the three-quarter-mile swim, guiding on a light to his left. Gradually he lost or shed all his clothes except his skivvy shorts, and when he climbed up the shore, he slipped back and shredded those.
Worst of all, his guiding light was on the shore he'd left from, causing him to swim in a half circle and land back in San Diego, with the difference that he was now buck naked.
Boyington dodged through the alleys and turned himself to the Shore Patrol, whose desk sergeant looked up at him and said: I don't know who you are or what you've been doing, but I do know one thing–you've got to be a marine.
Whether Boyington was right or not, it's probably safe to say that people who do well at mixing it up with and besting banzai warriors, SS fanatics, and fanatical jihadis may lack something in the department of refinement, at least in the sense that they don't stand on ceremony. The hero business usually involves experiencing and excelling at unpleasant stuff.
But the fact is that humanity has needed this sort of person from the beginning of the species. I suppose people who would rather have a well ordered world find certain activities and personalities reprehensible and considered from a certain vantage, they probably are. But until mankind straightens out and the lion lies down by the lamb, a certain suspicious and aggressive turn of mind will remain a survival asset in bad places.March 9, 2010 - 2:13 pm Link to this Comment
25. Langley
Esther @ 19
Yes. America is less respected now than before. The media/education/non-profit complex has done its job well. It can not remove the poison it has put into the system.
However, last summer, after seven years of war, the Episcopal church I attend decided to put up a plaque honoring those who were fighting. The newspapers have begun to talk about battles instead of casualties. There is a "change."March 9, 2010 - 2:16 pm Link to this Comment
26. wws
Okay Langley, since you brought that up:
There was a fine Episcopal Church with beautiful stained glass, including one panel which depicted the WW1 doughboys in their uniforms along with some military scenes. After church one day the pastor noticed a young boy who was fascinated by it, so he walked over to him.
The boy said "Why did this get put here?"
And the pastor replied proudly "Do you see the plaque? That window is dedicated to all of our Boys who died in the Services."
At that the boys eyes got very big and he asked quietly, "Was that the morning services or the evening???"March 9, 2010 - 2:42 pm Link to this Comment
27. Docbill
The buffalo hunters who shot the plains indians out a commissary were not pleasant. Nor were the mountain men who blazed the trails across the mountain west. Without both of these archetypes the American West would have not developed as it did.
We are currently governed by a bunch of Starbucks latte drinkers rather than a group of Scotch swillers. I prefer the Scotch swillers. I trust their motives more.
I can't get to my spell checker in Foxfire/Mozilla from this forum. Thanks.March 9, 2010 - 3:00 pm Link to this Comment
28. Darren
WRT finding IEDs, the neural network learning system that is the human brain has some real quirky behavior that is sometimes incredible. Most of it we aren't even aware of, my guess would be that the IED finders had a nonverbal poke from their subconscious that told them "This is not right" when they saw even a camoflauged IED. The words as to exactly why something is not right will come later, if they come at all. The 360-degree awareness is, at least in part, not ignoring the subconscious impulse that things are not right. Of course, picking out the specifics of "that box is in a strange place" from the background subconscious unease that comes from walking around in 80 pounds of gear in a 115-degree oven with people possibly trying to kill you from every doorway and window is a function of training and living in an adrenalized environment for an extended period of time. Apparently, most soldiers can tamp down their fight-or-flight enough to do their job and do it very well, while a few still retain the sensitivity to be human bomb detectors.
I'm a radiologist, I look at medical images for a living and often I know there's a problem even before the image is fully displayed on the monitors. The part of my visual search system that has seen every study I've read in training and in practice often can give me a general GO-NO GO read within the first second, before I have a chance to think about what I'm seeing. Sometimes I have to look for several minutes to understand what's wrong, but I already know there is something wrong. It's not a perfect system, sometimes a subtle or disturbing finding is only found in a conscious and deliberate search, but more often than not it pays to pay attention to that senstion that things are not right.
As far as larger strategy goes, the IED/Counter-IED story is the offense-defense debate writ small, if often bloody. Getting to the "left of the boom" is just getting inside the OODA loop of the IED and its supply chain. At the macro level, the US really only began to play the game in earnest after 9/11, and the Drone War is the latest iteration. The terrorists went from attacking US assets and personnel in foreign territory, to attacking the same in ostensibly US territory (the African embassies), to attacking us domestically. Finally, the US put the right people in their territory (heavily armed, trained and supported with the benefits of our technology) and the game began to swing the other way. The drone war is Counterterrorism 2.0, while the Surge is a better example of Counterinsurgency. They're complimentary strategies, one goes out and whacks the targets in what they considered safe territory, while the other progressively makes swaths of territory inhospitable for terrorists.
Simply by engaging the terrorists we have begun at the macro level to build up the same kind of knowledge base that was used at the micro level to defeat IEDs. Since 2001, virtually all the fighting has been on their turf, and while it has clearly cost us in blood and treasure I believe it has cost them a lot more. Most importantly, it has cost them some of the myths that sustained their organization: the US is a Paper Tiger. The US will back down if you bloody their nose. The US has technological superiority but that is nothing compared to your devout zeal. Those are pillars of militant Islamism that are more difficult to replace than men and equipment. For the most part, "Inshallah" covers a lot of inaction in the Arab world, the militants who go out to seek to impose the will of Allah are the exception and not the rule. The ultimate in "getting to the left of the Boom" from a strategic sense is to return the baseline of the Muslim world to waiting patiently on Allah to implementing his will, as opposed to implementing his will with direct action. At some point, the fact that those seeking to force the will of Allah have failed will push the theologic calculus back to lassitude from activity. The active ones will never get to zero, but this current phase of conservatism in the Muslim world has to draw to a close at some point. Whatever part of it was fueled by temporary successes against the Great and Little Satans is likely drawing to a close — if we continue to hold the line.March 9, 2010 - 3:35 pm Link to this Comment
29. jWarrior
4. Tarnsman: It's "Hear, hear!" from the British parliament.March 9, 2010 - 3:38 pm Link to this Comment
30. Cannoneer No. 4
Attack the Network
https://www.jieddo.dod.mil/attack.aspxMarch 9, 2010 - 3:44 pm Link to this Comment
31. Esther
Langley @25
I hope your experience is more than anectotal, I really do. But, in my blue state most churches in my diocese have been doing this since the Bush years.
Perhaps also we should not confuse being pro-troop with being pro-war.March 9, 2010 - 4:19 pm Link to this Comment
32. hdgreene
To get "left of the Boom" may be confusing as a metaphor for our current political problems, since it sounds like getting left of the left — if we speak of preempting the leftist "political booms" caused by Soros and Acorn etc.
David Horowitz produced "Discover the Network" — which details the leftist financiers and political bomb makers. We have a media with hundreds of investigative reporters who scrupulously avoid the discovery (leaving it to Glen Beck).
Since before the 2,000 election we've had a spate of "suicide creditability bombers." Many in the media, academia and even the sciences (see "climate-gate") were willing to destroy their credibility to seek a political end. But while the effects of the IED and the suicide bomber are immediate and obvious, the "suicide credibility bomber" is more like rust than fire. And rather than give his own life in the name of the cause, it is the "life" of the institution he represents (and credibility he steals) that he — and his kindred spirits — offer at the altar.
Much of the political effect of the IED and Suicide Bomber is the "symbolic" display of intensity of belief. If the perpetrators possess such passion, the more distant observer is invited to think, than they likely have justice on their side — though as the campaign of mayhem continues the observer will likely conclude they are violent nihilists.
The "suicide credibility bombers" are part of the society they attack — though they often live apart from it, self exiles in their own land. Therefore it is hard to believe they intend to undermine the society in service of an extreme cause — that they are loyal to a future with them in control. Typically, they do not sacrifice their credibility with a single blast but bit by bit. And they say they are the true patriots, and agree — one with the other.
At some point the "audience" realize the bombers are not the honest and forthright commentators on events they pretend to be. So when candidate Obama claimed to have already identified $2 trillion in budget cuts to pay for his new spending, most voters realized this claim went beyond normal political rhetoric. The fact that the "mainstream media" gave him a pass on this and so much more was seen — in the most charitable interpretation — as a series of lies of omission and commission told in the service of a deeper truth. "Yes," their actions seemed to say, "we lie to you but we do it for you!"
But having taken political power on the basis of lies and distortions — and apparently for no "good reason" (and perhaps for many bad ones) — the Suicide Credibility Bombers show themselves as narrow minded ideologues willing to sacrifice the good of the nation in order to grab a little more power and prestige for their cause — and for themselves.
In the resulting atmosphere, an act of cultural self immolation offers slight chance of a successful ego boast. Instead of the "bomber" appearing committed and caring, they will look silly, self centered, and stupid. Perhaps that explains the level of quietude at the Oscar ceremonies (which I'll admit to not watching).March 9, 2010 - 4:22 pm Link to this Comment
33. Cannoneer No. 4
How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade
Palantir is like DiscoverTheNetworks on steroids.March 9, 2010 - 5:22 pm Link to this Comment
34. Storm-Rider
Good is more creative than evil. Good is stronger and more courageous than evil. In defense of sacred life and liberty, good is more violent than evil.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword…
http://www.archive.org/details/battle_hymn_of_the_republicMarch 9, 2010 - 6:28 pm Link to this Comment
35. dfolds
Each side improvises as the battlespace affords. The enemy innovated the cheap roadside bomb, perhaps detonated by a remote control or trip wire. They used their strengths against our weaknesses. Now we play our strengths against their weaknesses. Our improvised explosive devices are deployed freely in the battlespace, but ours rain down from heaven upon the place beneath. They are twice blessed — they catch the enemy unaware, and they bypass the need for our troops to carry the Miranda card on their person to read to their captives.March 9, 2010 - 7:26 pm Link to this Comment
36. Walt
Whistling an old Sinatra tune
Ahmed roamed the room
Intent on projects for the day
A few things to go boom
Sinatra songs just filled his head
Only The Lonely filled his mind
His wife, his love since she was twelve
Was doing him unkind
The IEDs were cooking now
Friend Yousef taking care
To see that nothing would go wrong
The danger they would share
His mind's eye drifted back to her
To her new love, the thief
Who stole her gentle eyes from him
Aazad, the Taliban chief
Come Fly With Me, Aazad had said
In The Wee Small Hours they met
Then Yousef brought him back to earth
The fuses must be set
Revenge and rage filled Ahmed's soul
His babe, his wife, her vow
Aazad the Chief was not at fault
But trysts he'd not allow
Sinatra's words played loud and clear
He'd live by Allah's code
The IEDs were ready now
And soon they would be sowed
How many of them do you want
Friend Yousef said at last
And Ahmed strode straight for the door
The time was here so fast
Two Marvelous For Words, he smiled
And shouldered up his load
Just One For My Baby is all I need
And one more for the roadMarch 9, 2010 - 8:16 pm Link to this Comment
37. Robinsolana
Keep this up and Bin Laden will be thinkin he made a big mistake.
The history of these killer extreme Islamics is that they start killing their own people and burn out their own cause.
Was Condoleezza brilliant or what?March 9, 2010 - 8:19 pm Link to this Comment
38. Tamquam
12. sirius_sir: But with the benefit of hindsight (meaning 'there were no WMD') we now know the idea of there being even a potential threat was nothing more than a neo-con fabrication, and so the contention became we were lied into a war a wiser nation would have chosen to avoid.
We KNOW nothing of the sort. There is evidence that more was afoot than the MSM stalwarts were ever willing to report even had they been willing to see it.
For over half a century the Left has been very effectively getting "Left" of the American "Boom." We have seen our institutions disrupted, watered down, mis-directed, over burdened, co-opted and demoralized. Until recently that has been a process so gradual as to be unnoticed by most of those in the pot. Lately the current Administration and the Congress have assumed that they had a mandate to make a hard turn to port which has alerted a lot of people to the fact that the Ship of State is not headed in a desirable direction. Part of that awakening has been the activity of people like Andrew Breitbart whose MO is to get "Left" of the Left's "Boom" and disrupt it, as he did with the Acorn Videos. I'd like to see a whole army of Breitbarts pushing things back to the right by marching "Left," Left, "Left," Left, "Left," Left!March 9, 2010 - 11:41 pm Link to this Comment
39. peterike
Habu, no worries. You are a warrior. I totally understand your state of rage. I have it too. It gets in the way sometimes. No biggie. Every now and then I wonder how I can even make it through the day without exploding. It can lead to bursts of invective that I later regret. But for me, at least, my life has been an endless history of bottling my invective, so I'm especially good at keeping it under control. But I understand, my brother. I understand.
Now then, to attempt a repost of what got lost in the spam pit.
For me, possibly the most "right-wing" movie of the Oscars is "Precious," because it speaks of What Must Not Be Spoken. I haven't even seen it yet, but it's clear that "Precious" depicts the deep pathology of a significant segment of the black community in America: the violence, the wasted lives, the man-less and father-less world where women live and children are raised. Only a black director could "get away" with this, as it were. I suspect it may puncture the complacency of a few Liberals, but probably not many.
That said, I must report that my previous lost post was posted from 39,000 feet on a Delta flight from NY to LA. I was so excited to be posting from mid-air. Alack and alas, it was lost. Maybe on the return flight I can post again (my return includes a stopover in Chicago — maybe I'll look up Bill Ayers).March 9, 2010 - 11:55 pm Link to this Comment
40. KimW
As well as the devices of HF/DF, improved ASDIC, Hedgehog, better numbers of escorts and experience in sub hunting, there was also the breaking of the 4 rotor Enigma to give the needed intelligence data. And that rested on the human element – not just Fasson and Grazier of HMS Petard swimming over to the abandoned U boat and recovering the critical cipher lists before she sank, taking them with her – but the whole array of those serving in the anti-submarine effort. The battle against the IED rests on those soldiers willing to go up against that unseen enemy.March 10, 2010 - 1:20 am Link to this Comment
41. Das
Habu @17
We don't really know you and all your heroic exploits so don't expect us to manage all conversations around your prickly self. Besides all the soldiers I know who did heroic things never spoke about it the way you do–including a grandfather in WWI and uncle in Korea and a best friend in Vietnam (by luck I ran into one of his commanding officers and he told me about my friend's heroics in Vietnam, 4th infantry combat engineers); this conversation is not about you, sir.March 10, 2010 - 3:35 am Link to this Comment
42. Storm-Rider
siris_sir – 12: "But with the benefit of hindsight (meaning 'there were no WMD') we now know the idea of there being even a potential threat was nothing more than a neo-con fabrication…"
"The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy."
"Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn't fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003. It's a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad. In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel — thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region. This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media."
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=462856&Ntt=saddam's+nukesMarch 10, 2010 - 5:57 am Link to this Comment
43. Storm-Rider
Habu 17,
Thank you, sir, for your sacrificial military service in the cause of American life and liberty. I've never served, but my father fought in face-to-face and hand-to-hand combat during the Battle of Saipan. You are most definitely part of this conversation because we are speaking of defending something which is sacred, and you played a role; so God-bless you for what you did.March 10, 2010 - 6:08 am Link to this Comment
44. Jim Nicholas
Habu and peterike,
Your interchange (habu's response @ 23 to peterike @ 20 and then peterike's response in return @ 39) is the kind that helps us all remain civil here at Belmont Club.
Thanks and best wishes,
JimMarch 10, 2010 - 6:50 am Link to this Comment
45. tomw
27 Docbill:
Firefox 3.6
Tools>Options>Advanced> click 'check my spelling as I type' box
Seamonkey =>1.1.5?
click 'check my spelling as I type' box
I used the ZIP file or EXE, IIRC, not the 'installation package' for installation.
Sorry for going OT.
tomMarch 10, 2010 - 7:00 am Link to this Comment
46. Habu
41. Das
Sorry old chap, I truly didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I made an error and attempted to atone for it with some self deprecating humor.
Let's face it, none of us "know" others here unless it be by happenstance. Most of my exploits I've shared over the years have been in response to the same type of badinage shared by others so I thought I'd share mine. Admittedly they are perhaps unique in that I am a former Marine and CIA Intelligence Officer. Those aspects of my life are over 30 years old and just reminisce of bygone days. I have never meant to ever make a thread a "about me".
I did notice that later in the thread W brought up Pappy Boyington, Marine Ace.
I know it may disappoint you further but Greg Boyington lived one house down from me at El Toro , Marine Corps Air Station and I have pictures of sitting on his knee at my first birthday party. Heck, I had little to do with that but its kinda interesting. Wouldn't you agree?
Anyway, sorry to give you the impression that it's all about me. Two years after I'm gone few will remember my name as it is with most of us. But I will leave this Earth knowing I made a sacrifice for my country that meant something when other chose not to do so.March 10, 2010 - 7:22 am Link to this Comment
47. geoffgo
I find this tough to articulate. Sacrificial military service? I served too, but do not consider that 5-yrs as a sacrifice; because sacrifice means "to give up a higher value for a lower value." Otherwise, it's called a gain.
That would mean all military service has been for naught, suggesting that the opposite – giving lower value for a higher value – results only from not serving.
It's difficult to differentiate between "voluntarily sacrificial" and the shorter suicidal. That's the enemy MO, no?
Nonetheless and sadly, many US troops have been needlessly sacrificed on the battlefield. We need to be making sure that sacrifice is reserved exclusively for the enemy.
I don't believe I, Habu or most other vets feel serving was a sacrifice. Contribution?March 10, 2010 - 7:39 am Link to this Comment
48. Storm-Rider
geoffgo 49,
To those of us who have not served in the American military Habu's (and other's) military service can rightly be viewed as sacrificial because he placed himself in harm's way for our benefit – waging war on those who would do us harm and destroy our sacred rights to liberty and pursuit of happiness. Although Habu was not killed in battle (and thank God he didn't make the ultimate sacrifice), he no doubt could have died due to the very the nature of war. Whether you live or die, placing one's body into harm's way during war is sacrifice.
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." George OrwellMarch 10, 2010 - 8:01 am Link to this Comment
49. Darren
The only thing I would add to your definition of "sacrifice" is that in this day and age, with an all-volunteer military, simply putting up your right had and swearing (among other important things) that you will give up your right to go where you want and do what you want, to wear what you want and look the way you want to, to speak your honest opinions, to serve under those who you may find inadequate for their tasks and to do so not under threat of unemployment but under threat of imprisonment — that is a tremendous sacrifice. It's a huge sacrifice of personal freedom to protect the personal freedom of others. It is a noble and sacrificial act for everyone who serves, even if they do nothing other than "shovel s**t in Louisiana".March 10, 2010 - 8:19 am Link to this Comment
Storm Rider #50:
Back in the mid 70′s when the military was trying to tell everyone that it was no different than some private firm like IBM, it was still pointed out that service in the military had an "Unlimited Liability Contract." You can quit IBM if they thell you to do something that you consider to be too dangerous or that simply you don't like. That is not true with the military.
I had to learn to wear a SCAPE suit because if we had a rocket leaking on the pad the contractors could just quit but someone had to go in to secure the vehicle.
But in reality, to take the Oath and put on the uniform is accept not just a loss of freedom but also to embrace certain attitudes and standards. They will throw you out of the military for not balancing your checkbook correctly. U.S. Congressmen may take much the same oath but very very few of them could meet the standards. And quite a few would be in Leavenworth if they were treated like the military.March 10, 2010 - 8:37 am Link to this Comment
51. onesimus
To encourage all who served in Viet Nam, I offer the following.
I saved the original article back in 2003, I forwarded excerpts of it yesterday, along with the link to the Digital Viet Nam Memorial Wall to many friends.
I strongly suspect Lee Kuan Yew is correct, admitting I want him to be correct, desperately.
If any Belmonters have convincing reasons to doubt his analysis please post them. I hate to propagate falsity.
"What of the significance of Vietnam as a local skirmish in the Cold War? Here we have the testimony of Asia's principal elder statesman, Lee Kuan Yew, First minister of Singapore. He has pointed out that the American intervention in the war halted the onward march of Communism southwards for 15 years — roughly from 1960 to 1975. In that crucial period, the new ex-colonial states of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, maybe India itself, took advantage of this incidental American protection to develop their economies from poor agricultural and trading post economies into modern industrial and information societies. . .
"If Lee Kuan Yew is to be believed, then, the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was a major factor is achieving the West's overall victory in the Cold War. It held the line while freedom and prosperity were established in non-Communist Asia — and that provided the rest of the world, including the evil empire itself, with a "demonstration effect" of how freedom led to prosperity.. ."
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yfhtr64March 10, 2010 - 8:41 am Link to this Comment
52. Tamquam
National service is both the duty and the privilege of citizenship. Military service is distinguished not only by being subject to the rigors of military discipline, but by the willingness to both do brutal and terrible deeds in defense of the Nation, and to risk having those same deeds done to oneself. My own military service was admittedly undistinguished, but I am none the less proud of it.March 10, 2010 - 9:27 am Link to this Comment
53. Sandy Daze
10 March 2010
Re WMDs, it has been said earlier:
"The absence of evidence is not/NOT evidence of absence."
The removal of the Yellow cake, the long convoys of undetermined materials to Syria immediately prior to the war, the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and elsewhere, and the overwhelming sense of virtually every Western intelligence agency that Sadamn had WMD, were what some would call "key indicators."
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"
"The Shadow knows."
I think the Shadow has retired, so analysts make their best calls based upon all available indicators and then leadership, informed with that information, makes the call.
Like Thomas Barnett said at TED in Feb 2005 Address"A New Map for Peace" "Sadamn was a bad actor with multiple priors, he had to be taken down." (Barnett's presentation five years on, remains very pertinent, please see: http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_barnett_draws_a_new_map_for_peace.html )
Personally, I was "for" the Second Gulf War before it was decided. I thought that hanging the reason for the campaign on the threat of WMD, while valid, was not the main point. As has been well documented elsewhere, there were some 15-20 reasons across the inter-agency spectrum but the one reason that the most could agree on, was the threat from WMD.
What happened here, Sunday. 7 March 2010, the second round of elections in Iraq, is the real reason. Changing the political operating system from a dictatorship to something representing participatory government in the heart of Middle East was the ultimate goal, imo. This is the crux of the effort. Once Muslims and Muslim Arabs are as invested in the development of their own governance as we are in ours, perhaps when they enjoy some of the same political freedoms that are enjoyed in the West, they will be less likely to fall under the spell of messianic and dictatorial leadership.
The jury is still out, sure. But, observe the valiant efforts of the (admittedly Persian) Muslims in Tehran, trying to develop a system similar to what the American, Coalition and Iraqi sacrifice in Iraq has begotten. Imagine, Arabs with participatory governance and yet the Persians do not have such? Wow.
It just might work still.
Take good care,
nb: If problem with spell check, just write your note in a word processor that has spell check, then copy-paste.
PS: talking about Rough Men, I am glad the Orwell quote was posted; was going to do that myself. Reminded me of Jack Nicholson as Col Jessep in the movie "A few Good Men", which is Hollywood's manifestation—I guess.
In my googleing I found this by American Thinker's Poet Laureate, Russ Vaughn:
December 16, 2004
Rough men – a poem
By Russ Vaughn
There's a character trait that's decided by fate
Comes (sadly) to many, far too faint, far too late.
They won't face the aggressor, stand up to his ire
They have not the will to fight his fire with fire.
So they bend over backwards to see all sides as fair,
Till they're faced with dragon breath fire in their hair.
Like our brethren in France, who'd know better than we,
Yet seem never to learn, seem doomed never to see.
Yes, it seems there are some who're determined by fate,
To possess not the courage to step up to the plate,
Who shrink from all threat because nothing's worth war.
But how can they know lest they've been there before?
Thank God some have courage, the will, yes, the grace,
To stand for the shirkers, stand strong in their place.
Thank God we have stalwarts who'll stand for us all,
Who will rise to the challenge at their nation's call.
The faint—hearted, who fear, whose reaction is flight,
Have no comprehension of those who will fight.
To hide their own trepidation they attempt to demean
The rough men, who defend them, as barbaric, obscene.
Yet these rough men stand ready, hard weapons to hand,
To put placaters behind them, draw a line in the sand,
To preserve for the peaceniks what they won't defend,
So their own unearned freedom won't perish, won't end.
To appeasers, rough men are coarse government tools.
To rough men, appeasers are dumb delusional fools.
Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65—66
Russ Vaughn is the Poet Laureate of The American Think
54. Charles
55. onesimus:
Yeah, I've heard that quote attributed to Lee Kuan Yew before.
It is encouraging. Might even be true. Seems Lee Kuan Yew also believed in the domino theory. The chinese did change policies after the gang of four were driven out in the 70′s and I've heard that some red big shot of the time like Zhou Enlai or Deng Xiaoping was mightily impressed that Lee Kuan Yew was both of chinese extraction and that he ran a modern economy.
My understanding is that Lee Kuan Yew's mandarin isn't so good. So after the fun of chatting with a fellow chinese wore off he has chaffed at doing the imperial cringe for people who speak mandarin well.
55. Habu
Since I used the word sacrifice let me dilate on my usage.
Prior to my actual service I was a Marine brat as we called ourselves. This encompassed my entire life from birth until college when I too joined the Corps. My father was an All American at UGA and had pro offers from five major league teams. Instead he fulfilled his ROTC obligation and remained in the Marine Corps given that he had graduated in June 1941 and war was delivered to us in December.
Sacrifice. During his career we moved 18 times and I attended 22 different schools all over the country. He could have gotten out after the war a la Ted Williams and had a pro career but he loved flying. So how does that figure in MY sacrifice. You can judge that but once I was commissioned I did what few in my generation did. I volunteered to go get shot at in Vietnam so that the free speech rights of war protestors could go uncensored. That is sacrifice for the greater good of this nation. Then the CIA recruited me and I went without the cover of the Geneva Convention to places most of you couldn't locate on a map. Each time in harm's way….was that sacrifice when an easy chair in an office fit the ass of most of the "Boomer" generation, many who still to this day revile the military? …in my book yeah.
When service men and women have to use food stamps to make ends meet so some welfare Cadillac Harlem daddy can get candy from Uncle Sam for his vote…that's part of the sacrifice the service men and women are guarding…..and it is a gauling sacrifice. So for those of you who try to finesse the fact that service men and women don't sacrifice a "normal" life you're simply lying to yourselves. Believe me when you are in the military you give some freedoms away for the good of service to the country, and some give all for the safety of this nation.
56. onesimus
Perhaps more on topic,
The Barack Boom has been generations in the making:
Constant erosion on the foundations of our society by the ACLU, NEA (National Education Association), Academia, the Entertainment Establishment, etc.
So, will our getting left of the boom be a generational undertaking?
57. michaelhoskins
Or, we could get all the way to the left. Islam itself must be attacked. Islam, by its adherence to Sharia and dedication to armed over throw of government is in direct conflict with the US Constitution and therefore should be proscribed. Islam does not meet the requirements of religion in the West. (Requirements that are, admittedly, muddy.)
Go after not just the root, but the nurture of the root.March 10, 2010 - 10:25 am Link to this Comment
58. Bruce
One more thought on human IED detection. I attended a fascinating seminar on digital forensics a couple of years ago. It was pointed out that the human eye/brain was incredible at differentiating between pictures of actual people and CG effects. Sometimes it was easier to spot the CG people by flipping through pictures quickly (<2 sec per image) than when you had lots of time to stare and think about it. Generally makes me think there are some who have a knack for spotting IEDs. I'm sure they're not perfect, but I'd feel better having one in my squad all the same.March 10, 2010 - 10:40 am Link to this Comment
Re: 55. onesimus
That is all well and good. And I for one appreciate the gesture.
However, in 1969/70 in the Que Son Valley I was little concerned with the actual politics of the war. I and my fellow Marines cared about keeping each other alive and taking out VC/NVA before they took us out.
I was honored and privileged to serve with those fine young Marines and cherish the experiences good & bad.March 10, 2010 - 10:41 am Link to this Comment
60. Papa Ray
1 Salt Lick
Great link, thanks…lets spread it around!
I would also like to share this link with everybody.
"Some things don't need Embellishment"
Papa RayMarch 10, 2010 - 10:43 am Link to this Comment
61. onesimus
I thank you for your service.
Your nation called, you responded, you served.
You did not bug out to Canada.
Thank you,
onesimusMarch 10, 2010 - 10:53 am Link to this Comment
62. michaelhoskins
Habu @ 59. Ya beat me by four. As a third generation Navy brat I attended only 18 schools before college.
63. Marie Claude
Mais on t'aime BuBu, t'es notre Superman
64. Habu
66. michaelhoskins
It certainly steels one for lifes travails, doesn't it?
67. Marie Claude:
Non, juste un homme.March 10, 2010 - 11:32 am Link to this Comment
65. RagnarD
How not to make a boom.
Based on systems developed to do mine field detection and removal for humanitarian demining.
The gist of wretchards thoughts are missed by most. How do you get inside the OODA loop of the guys making trouble. THAT is much harder.March 10, 2010 - 12:28 pm Link to this Comment
66. Eggplant
onesimus @ 55 quoted:
"If Lee Kuan Yew is to be believed, then, the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was a major factor is achieving the West's overall victory in the Cold War."
IMHO, Lee Kuan Yew is one of the brightest politicians who ever lived (in the same league with Jefferson, Churchill and Bismark). Once in a while, Lee Kuan Yew makes a mistake but normally he's correct.
Off topic but interesting:
It appears that not only is Obama double-downing on Obamacare but he's about to double-down on Global Warming as well, refer to:
It appears that our glorious leader has decoupled from political reality and gone into thermal runaway. This could lead to the political implosion of the Democratic Party's far-left faction. I'm also hoping it pulls down some of the MSM along with it. Of course the $64,000 question: Can the country survive 3 more years with the Messiah as President?
67. Ari Tai
re: Boyington. For those that fly into or through Dulles (IAD), give yourself a half-day layover and take the bus to the Udvar-Hazy museum of flight (take the bus else you'll pay airport parking rates, even at the museum). It's a real treat. May also be a sad reminder someday soon of a time past that the ingenuity of U.S. citizens and their enterprise had no military equal.
Boyington signed the undercarriage of the Corsair hanging in the museum. The chiefs tell stories about how he'd insist on taking the most questionable plane in a flight up – which meant there were fewer questions of what problems were to be fixed with the work reviewed by the boss, and Boyington as often as not worked alongside the mechanics.
68. Papa Ray
Yes I think I understand what Habu was getting at and appriciate the commnets by others about our military and it's Warriors. Now even those pounding the keys of a computer are in the fight altho in a different but just as important way.
One of my grandsons is in the US Air Force and he fights electrons and electronic gremlins each and ever waking hour and he does it in a dangerous environment, not only dangerous because of the airframes, equipment, weather but because at anytime his base could (and has) come under enemy fire. He has more than once said that he might re-up and get into the fight close and personal just to get back at the bastards. I remind him of his new wife and the kids that he needs to have so I can be a great grampa.
My service started as just my contribution, then it became personal as my friends were killed. They made the untimate sacrifice and for years I had guilt at being able to come home and continue my life.
It became more personal after hearing and reading about how we were treated upon returning. I came back through Walter Reed and a bus ride home (in civies) so I missed that personal heart felt homecoming.
Yes there are wolves out there and always will be and the Sheepdogs will always be needed. America has an abundance of those selfless Sheepdogs as America will always have.
More links:
Obama Bets the Farm on American Stupidity
Papa RayMarch 10, 2010 - 1:54 pm Link to this Comment
69. Gordon
Papa/72–Here's a come-home story that'll warm your heart:
One of my corpsmen at Camp Lejeune was from Ohio, weighed 235 and had been all-state linebacker in high school. In the RVN he was at Khe Sahn until something exploded at his hooch, killing all inside except him. He sustained a severe cerebral concussion injury and was medevacced.
As expected, he recovered except for memory problems, headaches, mood swings, etc. So he was sent back to The World.
At the airport in the Bay Area, he was in a phone booth when a hippie threw a tomato at him. Even tho by now he only weighed about 180, still a big mistake–almost fatal.
He threw the guy to the ground and was banging his head on the floor. Luckily, two cops happened to be nearby and arrested him. They took him away and called a local provost somewhere. The two cops were Viet vets themselves.
His 30-day leave was cancelled and he was whisked off to Lejeune to more or less stay under wraps for a while, restricted to base, and taking regular psychological tests. For me he was an excellent corpsman, regaining weight and his normal, sunny personality.
Epilogue: eventually being as big and strong as he had been, he decided to try out for the Quantico Marines' football team–didn't even make the first cut. When he got back, his eyes were as big as saucers: "Those guys were like pros!! College all-conference, everything! They had one 2nd Lt who almost killed a couple of guys!"
I don't think he expected such a thing from an officer. Personally, I was glad because I was worried about him getting his head banged around some more, even talked to the Chief about not letting him go.March 10, 2010 - 2:22 pm Link to this Comment
70. Lifeofthemind
OT and then I will try to work back towards the topic.
Rasmussen has Obama overall at 43% favorable and the strong opinions are down to a -21% dissaproval. His meltdown is starting to look like one of two seemingly contradictory things. First it looks like flailing, as the media finally begins to reveal the stunning incompetence of people who never should have been allowed near power. Second it looks like a rigidity that expresses less a steely resolve than a lack of imagination and a deep distrust of all information that is externally generated, as opposed to invented internally. That later phenomenum may describe a form of mental disease where the mind relies on perceptions generated internally rather than by observations delivered by the sensory organs.
Perhaps part of the problem with the Leftists is that the are so devoted to large structures and state power that they become inflexible and predictable. That makes them good at their chosen expertise which is getting inside of their enemies OODA loops and being disruptive, to "Smash the Machine." Unfortunately they only do so to further their dream of installing a bigger machine. That is completely contrary to the theoretical goals they espouse but there are few penalties for inconsistency.
The success of the American systems, both political and military, has been based on four things:
1. a wealth generating system that produced sufficent resources, that is design margin, to overwhelm problems,
2. strong institutions that can marshal those resources and focus for long enough to change the conditions that created the problems,
3. a culture of entrepeurship or a distrust of institutions strong enough to permit flexibility in responding when the institution is invested in a static or inappropriate response,
4. a set of values and moral beliefs that produced leaders and a population supportive of creating wealth, maintaining the institutions and of honoring the rule breakers and entrepeneurs, by honoring their reputations. The Islamists have had thier advantages but they do not have a combination of these factors working for them. Unfortunately the Left has to some extent degraded our capabilities in each category.
This relates the current thread to the previous one because those qualities of informal innovation and reliance on reputation both allow the US to get inside the enemies OODA loop and serve as a firewall protecting us. Rigid systems are easily penetrated by those purporting to be in authority. There was a good illustration of that in the movie Von Ryan's Express where the Padre dresses up in an SS uniform and bluffs his way past the Germans by threatening to send them to the Russian Front.
On a completely unrelated topic last night I attended a meeting about the "Peace Process" in Nepal. The sincere process people acknowledge the failure of the Maoists to renounce violence as a core value. They also insist that there must be a comprehensive peace that includes all factions. They insist that China and India will both support a free and peaceful Nepal because they want it to. Tough luck for the Tibetans though in their perspective. The disconnect from reality was partly illustrated by the insistence that the good news for Nepal included the maintenance of high remittence levels from an expatriate community in Malaysia and Qattar. The consideration that the economic winds and the rivalries between China and India may alter their predictions simply could not be admitted. When asked if the elections in Iraq, under American occupation was a model they could emulate or if there was another such model they had no reply. There was some ranting about how all their problems was caused by the evil Americans. That was provided by an American wearing a WBAI button and produced some embarrased looks on the part of the foriegn Socialists present.
I am unaware of any case of a Civil War being peacefully ended and inclusively keeping both parties present still contesting the issues that precipitated the fight and with one totalitarian party left alive. In fact I am unaware of any Civil War resolving with a reconciliation instead of an internal victory as happened in the cases of America and England or by having a external solution imposed.
BTW, no spell check here.March 10, 2010 - 3:02 pm Link to this Comment
71. Papa Ray
I may have posted this. But for those that didn't see it, you need to know:
A snippet…
"Put simply as possible: Slaughter is writing a bill that, if approve, would magically "pass" a later bill, without anyone having seen it or voted on the later bill.
Maybe that's what Nancy Pelosi was talking about when she said, "we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it."
The fix one way or the other is in, which means that ACORN and affiliates have their work cut out to make sure that the crats stay in power. They and the democrat controlled States are going to make sure your vote doesn't count or is countered with two fake/illegal votes.
Mark my Words.
Papa Ray
P.S. There is a video there also.March 10, 2010 - 6:34 pm Link to this Comment
72. Papa Ray
One more last link, as it looks like this link is deader than a doornail.
How many lives does Planned Parenthood take in one year?
Don't bother reading it if you have a short temper or high blood pressure.
I don't want to you to damage yourself or something around you.
Video at link…
Papa RayMarch 10, 2010 - 7:05 pm Link to this Comment
73. dwall
Hollyweird has been left forever and has not changed for 2010. they and uncle walter snatched defeat in Vietnam and have continued to trash us and our country.
If they are not forced to change we will continue to be less than we can be.
Somehow we must to boycott till they change. It is really suicidal to send them our money to watch their insanity twisting our culture. If we can find how to hurt their pocketbook they will adapt and find other leading men than damon, afleck, penn, clooney, etc. Who in the hollywood far left has the money, stone cold commies??
Sure there was some good stuff in hurt locker, bonding and all. But that was not why they coughed up their best.
They wanted to point out our military leaders are still blood thirsty, gung-ho, random killers and individual troopers were anti-social, violent and driven for the next adrenaline rush. Just like the homeland security report said.
Oh yeah the black guy and the sensitive educated guy were ok but in danger if hanging out with the rough trailer trash.
Just another click in their plan.
It is a joke that matt Damon is viewed as an America Hero in the movies. Just found out his mentor and closest friend was commie Howard Zinn. The new Green Zone is criminal anti-war and anti-America. Boycott. I will miss bourne.
And what was with bullucks making an inspiring movie and then acting like a lesbo with Meryl Streep? another click locking us down.
We have the internet, how to start the revolution against hollyweird. We are continually are under attack from their psychic IED's but are fighting previous wars.
We are fighting them right now in Texas over text books, how did that happen. My best friend's kids took a freshman anthropology class at Univ IL this year and had to argue against a text and teacher saying our founders were crap and Constitution needs to change. Ayers secretly impacted our education system while we were working and the teachers went along with it, but it is open now.
Can it be changed before Soros, progressive insurance Lewis, sandlers, center for american progress, jones and friends move us to OSI or worse? Dept of education just bought 20 new shotguns.March 10, 2010 - 9:20 pm Link to this Comment
74. Bohemond
"As well as the devices of HF/DF, improved ASDIC, Hedgehog, better numbers of escorts and experience in sub hunting, there was also the breaking of the 4 rotor Enigma to give the needed intelligence data."
Yes, but (as Wretchrd suggests)- the fruition of all the intel and reconnaisance effort was *action*- not simply the passive, reactive effort of escorted convoys, but the proactive strategy of forming Hunter-Killer Groups tasked with sinking the U-boats before they ever reached a convoy.March 11, 2010 - 8:30 am Link to this Comment
75. Fletcher Christian
Papa Ray – I would very very interested in seeing somewhat less crude figures. Specifically, a breakdown of abortion numbers into categories. How many of them were very early (10 weeks or less, for the sake of argument)? How many were performed on women who had a significant chance of death or permanent damage if they didn't have them? How many abortions were of lethally defective foetuses?
This issue is not black and white. I am somewhat irritated with those that think, or pretend, that it is.March 11, 2010 - 2:53 pm Link to this Comment
76. Heathen
Classic post Wretchard – a novel look at an interesting issue. A spot-on historical analogy, a well-reasoned take and in insightful lesson gleaned: "Experience is perhaps the only thing with real shelf-life a world of rapid technological change."
Allow me to paraphrase your penultimate sentence: "Quality of thought is perhaps the only true measure of value in a world of information."
That quality of thought is why I read Belmont Club.March 11, 2010 - 3:58 pm Link to this Comment
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
There are skeletons in every Housewives' closet, and Lisa Vanderpump is no exception, sadly (or happily if you like boobs). A clip from Killer's Moon, a cheesy horror flick Vanderpump starred in in the '70s, reveals a topless Lisa Vanderpump. Straight up. No bra. No silky lingerie thingie. Just her boobs. And I've gotta say: Lisa shouldn't be too embarrassed. Don't mean to get weird here, but -- her boobs are nice!
Okay, so, save for Brandi Glanville, most moms wouldn't be thrilled that their boobs from another life were all over the Internet for their kids and friends to see. And I'm sure, initially, Lisa was feeling mildly silly for the overall cheesiness of the film (a group of insane asylum inmates terrorize a group of schoolgirls -- yeah). But they're just boobs! And it was a long time ago. It isn't like she pulled a Farrah Abraham and hired a porn star to shoot a sex tape with her. It was during her "acting career".
If anyone's going to be cool with this, and handle it gracefully, it's Lisa. I imagine if she's ever asked about it on Watch What Happens Live, she'll give some cheeky quintessential response, punctuated with her signature throaty, British laugh.
Damn you, Lisa Vanderpump. You really can do no wrong, can you? I think it's your accent. Or maybe it's Giggy.
Image via Splash
It is what it is ,a movie .The human body is a wonderful thing .No one should B ashamed of it .ppl make way 2 much out of little things .she don't care anyways .I'm sure she is like well I had to do it 4 the movie darling .


text:
1. Agave
You say, "great tastes, great tequilas, fair prices" and "Incredible selection, quite tasty and out of town friends are always impressed."
2. Pure
3. Taqueria del Sol
4. Nuevo Laredo Cantina
5. Pozole
1. Agave
We say, "A good margarita is all about quality ingredients, starting with the tart pop of fresh lime juice. That's what you'll get at Agave, where you can turn anything on Agave's impressive list of tequilas into a traditional margarita for just 50 cents more — or just order one of the specialty margaritas. You really can't go wrong."
2. Alma Cocina
3. Pure
4. Inc. Street Food
5. Escorpion


text:
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