April 30 MISCELLANY!

[maxomai]

• The official White House line on drone strikes and civilian casualties: "Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population. That's a real quote, kids. Never mind that those drone strikes are mostly taking place in nations where we're not actually at war, such as Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Fortunately for this policy, Somalia has no government to speak of, Yemen is undergoing a revolution, and relations with Pakistan have severely soured since last year's assassination of Osama bin Laden. Meaning, we soon may very well be at war with two of those nations with no reason to particularly care what the third thinks.
  
  At least we're not invading. Right?


• I think the Romney campaign has found a winning strategy: take credit for everything Obama did that worked, even if Mitt Romney opposed them repeatedly and loudly. Today it's the auto bailouts. In a few weeks, I bet it will be the raid on Bin Laden's compound. (EDIT: Well, that was fast!) I wonder when he'll take credit for health care reform?
  
• In case you're wondering, yes, the Obama administration has been going after Kony (of KONY 2012/hipster fame) for about six months now, and no, they haven't found him. More here.


• The prospect of anti-NATO protests in Chicago during the May 20-21 NATO summit has authorities worried sick. They have already made plans to open the shuttered prison in Joliet to detain those charged with "serious offenses." They also have made plans to possibly evacuate Chicago in case of a "major event." Please note: I'm using mainstream, corporate media sources here. It's enough to make me wonder how they got this information and why someone would "leak" it. For more information on anti-NATO protests in Chicago on May 20-21, go here.


• "Are they Christian Arabs or Muslim Arabs?" - HanzelundGretylZN 10 months ago
  
  "the kind of Arabs you don't like." - detoxlb in reply to HanzelundGretylZN 9 months ago
  
  More from Lebanese punk band Detox here.


• You've heard of Dominic Deiter, right? You know, the Ohio DJ who suggested that a father have his gay daughter raped until she became heterosexual? Jesus's General makes a very generous offer to Mr. Dominic Deiter here - basically, to let Mr. Deiter prove his theories about rape changing sexual orientation by putting his own ass on the line.

Comments

USAF is a menace

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

I've said time and time again that the United States Air Force has, almost from its beginning, been America's largest producer of war crimes.

The entire intent of the Rules of War is to:
* Limit escalation of force so that surrender is take so there is no need to fight to the death.
* Focus force upon -->appropriate,-- military targets.
* And first and foremost TO LIMIT CASUALTIES TO CIVILIANS. (This also means to limit disrupting their lives)

Sadly USAF lives in a mindset of industrial warfare first seen in the ACW. There are no civilians anymore, simply potential war producing workers. Everything has military value be it a bridge, a power-plant, or a radio tower. If the military *can* use it (not if they are, just that they can) then USAF wants to blow it up. It doesn't matter if we need to; USAF lives in a world of targets for their bombs and missiles. Since they do not take or hold ground, they feel they have to justify their reason to exist...and suck money from taxpayers.

USAF has been pushing the idea for a long, long time that you don't need guys on the ground. They've been doing this because their main job people think of (suppression of enemy air) hasn't really been much of a fight for over a half century. The last recorded instance of U.S. ground forces coming under enemy air attack was back in Korea! Gone is the need for vast bomber fleets or nuclear missile bases. Frankly, USAF could pretty much be folded back into the Army with only a high level "Theater" level bomber group left.

History has shown from WW II to Bosnia that their "precision" air strikes do far less than advertised and end up making the disruption for civilians after the war is over disastrous. (Trust me; I've had some briefings about USAF's "precision" in Bosnia that would sicken you) You're better off having an Army or Marine division go through your city then catch the eye of USAF. Pictures from Google Earth were suppressed because the government didn't want anyone to see the "Before" and "After" of what we did to Falujah. USAF mostly blew it up before the Marines ever set foot into it.

Anyone who believes the way we use drones is an effective means of combat hasn't been in combat. I have and frankly USAF sucks at war-fighting. Their troops are poorly trained in interpersonal relations, many are just as pampered as the stereotypical jokes about them say, they complain, and they DO NOT SUPPORT THE REST OF US. The contingent sent to the 201st RCAG to assist the Marines were "sent back" after only a month because the Marines could deal with their shit. While I got lucky with my two 'zoomies' as a whole, our USAF types were a pain. Many were great people but really weren't much in the way of use to us other than bodies. The Navy people were much more useful and able to integrate.

When they aren't out blowing up civilians, they don't come when we called, didn't support us in basic functions like weather forecasting (I had to use the Internet) and worst of all would not seem to have a plan for when things went wrong! When we'd get told that 'our birds can't fly due to the weather' and I could check and find Baghram was sunny w/no dust storms, then we all began to wonder if there was some base volleyball tournament going on (it happened at least once I knew about) so instead of coming and bombing people our guys on the ground are asking for, they'd rather play their little Nintendo games, make these recruiting commercials that make them look cool while in reality their kill ratio is about on par with the Taliban: they probably kill 4+ innocents for every bad guy they do kill.

People need to understand that doctrinally the United States Air Force has and is a slap in the face of what most rational and moral people would say they would want nations to fight. "Oops! My bad!" is NOT an excuse. However it almost seems to be the USAF motto.

Plus, it is easy for guys playing their Nintendo games from Kuwait or Qatar to just say, "My Bad!" because THEY aren't the fucking ones who are actually in the shit and will get blown up when grieving relatives of the dead want revenge. Oh no, that falls on the grunts and leathernecks. But their just dumb foot soldiers right? They *did* sign up for it, right? (/sarcasm)