Workers set fire to buses in Saudi Arabia. We need to stand up a MEB HQ (FWD) on a MEU floating in the region.

Thanks to William for the link!

via AP

Employees at the Saudi Binladin Group, a construction giant, have set fire to more than seven company buses in the latest protest by disgruntled staff  over not being paid salaries for months and a large round of reported layoffs.
Maj. Nayef al-Sharif, the spokesman for the Civil Defense
in the city of Mecca, said late Saturday that firefighters put
out the blaze without any injuries reported.
The Binladin Group has not issued any statements about the
reported layoffs or the unrest. Calls and an email request for
comment to the company were not immediately returned.
For several weeks, thousands of the firm's employees have
been staging rare protests in Mecca and the Red Sea coastal city
of Jiddah, with some saying they have not been paid for six
months.
The attack on the company's buses comes a day after the
Saudi Al-Watan newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying the
company has terminated employment for 50,000 foreign workers and
issued them exit visas. Many of those workers are apparently
refusing to leave without being paid their late wages, the
newspaper reported.
Gulf-based construction firms have been among the hardest-
hit due to lower oil prices that have curbed and sometimes
delayed government spending on major infrastructure projects.
The Saudi Binladin Group is one of the world's largest
construction firms. Founded in 1931 and headquartered in Jiddah,
the firm has been behind some of Saudi Arabia's most important
projects, including roads, tunnels, airports, universities and
hotels. It has carried out expansion work throughout the holy
city of Mecca to accommodate more Muslim pilgrims, including
construction of a massive clock tower with luxury hotels.
The Binladin family has been close to Saudi Arabia's ruling
family for decades. Al-Qaida's late leader Osama bin Laden was a
renegade son of the construction firm's founder, Mohammed bin
Laden, and was disowned by the family in the 1990s.
Despite the close family ties, the Saudi government barred
the firm from acquiring new contracts after an initial
government probe found the construction company was partly
responsible for a crane collapse in Mecca's Grand Mosque last
year that killed 111 people days before the start of the annual
hajj pilgrimage.
The crane boom pierced the roof of the mosque housing
Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, bringing down slabs of
reinforced concrete and leaving bodies of worshippers lying amid
pools of blood on the mosque floors.
Saudi daily Arab News reported that the layoffs included
engineers, foremen, steel fixers, carpenters and welders at the
firm. The paper said employees were offered severance pay.
The newspaper cited various possible reasons for the
terminations, including government restrictions on the firm and
changes to Saudi labor law that have made it more difficult for
firms to hire expatriates over local Saudis.

I'm still calling the high prices we saw right after the most severe recession since the Great Depression  an artificial bubble given to us by unwarranted speculation.

Having said that, it looks like the bubble has not only burst (despite attempts by many to re-inflate it) but it looks like its going to take several nations down with it.

Economic conditions.

Poor economic conditions have been the source of war for centuries.  Its being ignored today because the new hotness is fighting over "global warming"....but it always comes back to money.

If we are seeing a new Arab Fall, then we need to be prepared for the breakdown of several nation states simultaneously.  I'm watching Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya and my sneak picks outside of the Arab Fall meme but rooted in the fraudulent oil bubble is  Venezuela (not really hard...they're melting down and only the business class is watching them), and Argentina.

The USMC needs to get ahead of this.  Time to stand up a MEB Headquarters (FWD) aboard whatever MEU we have floating in the region.  Not because I want Marines to give even more to that god forsaken region, but because we need to be prepared to protect US citizens.

Tank Shell Kills Cameraman in Jobar

And now a gif made of the incident...

A Syrian regime tank fires a shell directly at the camera in Jobar, Damascus.

Iraq Prime Minister orders the arrest of protesters...classic revolution is shaping up.

via Washington Post

Iraqi Prime Minister Haideral-Abadi on Sunday ordered that protesters who attacked parliamentarians and security forces and damaged property as they stormed the parliament building on Saturday be brought to justice.
The embattled premier called on Iraq’s ministry of interior to “chase” the troublemakers a day after they penetrated the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone demanding reform, sending Iraqi politicians fleeing.
Hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom are the followers of Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were still camped out in the Green Zone on Sunday. They had moved their demonstration to a parade ground next to the capital’s Hands of Victory monument, an arch of crossed swords constructed to commemorate the Iran-Iraq war.
Abadi’s office released pictures of him touring the ransacked parliament building on Saturday night, showing smashed windows and overturned furniture.
The turmoil has cast doubt over his ability to steer Iraq out of its political crisis, which has been simmering since street protests against corruption and government waste began last summer. Sadr is demanding an end to the quota system brought in in the wake of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, that sees political positions divided up based on sect and ethnicity. He has called for a technocratic government, but Abadi’s attempts to reshuffle his cabinet have been hampered by bickering in a divided parliament.

A crack down by Iraqi Security Forces?

This is shaping up as a classic revolution cycle.  What will be telling is if the protesters pack up and go home once the police start cracking heads.  If they do then the govt might have a chance.  If they don't....If the protesters think that they're going too far then this thing could spiral faster than we can respond.

Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militia involved in gun battles. Anti-ISIS coalition fracturing.

via CNN

Twenty-two fighters have been killed in ongoing clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militia members in northern Iraq, local security officials say, a development that complicates the fight against ISIS in the region.
Security officials said the latest clashes erupted Saturday night in Tuz Khurmatu amid increased tensions between Shiite militias and Peshmerga forces -- uneasy allies in the fight against ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State -- in recent days.

Nine Kurdish fighters and 13 militia members were killed in the ongoing clashes, security officials said. Twenty people were wounded.According to officials, the clashes erupted when Shiite militias attacked a house belonging to a Peshmerga officer. Kurdish forces retaliated, and fighting broke out in several parts of the town within hours, officials said.
Home to Shiite and Sunni Turkmen as well as Arabs and Kurds, Tuz Khurmatu is an ethnically mixed town 56 miles south of Kirkuk that is claimed by both Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

READ THE WHOLE STORY!

This is beyond disturbing.  We see a massive disturbance in Baghdad and now attacks against the Kurds by Shiite militia?

I don't believe this is a coincidence.  I'd love to know what the end game is and who's pulling the strings.

Car bomb goes off in Baghdad...CNN reports 24 dead. Iraq on the verge on collapse.

via NRIWorld

Iraq security authorities have declared a state of emergency in Baghdad, said Brig. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak to the press. Organizers of the demonstration urged protesters not to attack embassies. It is the first time that demonstrators, despite months of protests in the Iraqi capital, have breached the zone, the AP reports. Saturday's attack also comes amid a political crisis in Iraq as the country's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is under increasing public pressure after repeated failed attempts at political reform to combat corruption and waste. "We are sending a message to parliament that today is the last chance" to accept "complete governmental change", said Hassanain Ali, one of the demonstrators. The goal in replacing the parties' "quota system" would be to reduce rampant bribery and embezzlement. Al-Abadi had been expected to introduce several new ministers as part of a promise to overhaul his Cabinet and fill it with technocrats instead of politicians beholden to a party or sect. Earlier in the day, not enough lawmakers had turned up in parliament to officially convene a session in which Abadi was due to present names for a cabinet reshuffle. To Iraqis who have lived through the reign of Saddam Hussein, the USA occupation and the current turmoil, the Green Zone has long symbolized tyranny, occupation and corruption. CNN said up to 24 could be dead. "I'm with the people, no matter what they decide". Iraqi forces are tightening security in the capital after anti-government protesters breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament. The unrest kicked off minutes after Sadr ended a news conference in the holy Shia city of Najaf during which he condemned the political deadlock but did not order supporters to enter the Green Zone. Most protesters had evacuated parliament and some were preparing for a sit-in in its courtyard, he added. "Hit him, hit him", one protester shouted. Videos showed protesters on Saturday attacking a white, armoured SUV with sticks and beating a man in a grey suit.

This country as we know it is toast.

MV-22 validates ground refueling of the F-35?

via AF.mil

A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey descended on Edwards to link up with a Marine F-35B Joint Strike Fighter April 28.
Both aircraft are assigned to Marine Operational Test & Evaluation Squadron 22 (VMX-22) out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona.
VMX-22 has a detachment here where Marines are testing and evaluating their version of the JSF, which is the short take-off and vertical landing variant.
The Osprey dropped by for a quick but important test.
"The test was to validate ground refueling from an MV-22 to an F-35B, which is integral to the construct of the Marine Air Ground Task Force," said USMC Maj. Adam Geitner, pilot and VMX-22 F-35 Detachment Aircraft Maintenance officer.
The Marine Air-Ground Task Force is the organizational foundation for all missions across the range of USMC military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air-ground, combined arms task organization of Marine Corps forces under a single commander that is structured to accomplish a specific mission.
"This was the first time an MV-22 has refueled an F-35. Both ground refueling and air-to-air refueling are important pieces to the Marine Corps' MAGTF operational construct. From a tactical point of view, the MV-22 to F-35 ground refueling allows the Marine Corps to employ assets in austere environments on a short notice without having to rely on long-term planning and fixed facilities," Geitner said.
The one-hour test consisted of hooking up fuel transfer lines between the two aircraft with the MV-22 fueling up the F-35B. The test validated the equipment and procedures on both the F-35B and MV-22.
Geitner said the MV-22 Osprey has the ability to carry approximately 10,000 lbs. of fuel in its fuel containers loaded in the back of the aircraft. This is coupled with approximately 12,000 lbs. carried internally, which can either provide fuel to its own aircraft or to external aircraft in air-to-air refueling operations.
Fuel was successfully transferred to the F-35, which taxied off back to the Joint Operation Test Team area.
"The next step will be air-to-air refueling from an MV-22. This is even more significant for the MAGTF when operating F-35s from [amphibious assault ships] because it provides organic air-to-air refueling capability that vastly extends the range of the aircraft and also provides operational flexibility," said Geitner.
Previously, Marine AV-8B Harrier aircraft would require USMC KC-130s to provide air-to-air refueling capabilities. However, they are limited to land and when the amphibious assault ships are operating in either blue water operations, or in regions that deny them access to land-based air facilities, as it limits air-to-air refueling capabilities, Geitner added.
"With the MV-22 being on the ship, co-located with the F-35, all of those constraints with the KC-130 no longer apply."
The MV-22B Osprey is a tiltrotor vertical and/or short take-off and landing aircraft that serves as the medium-lift assault support aircraft for the Marines. The Osprey can operate as a helicopter or a turboprop aircraft. It can transport troops, equipment and supplies from ships and land bases for combat assault and support.
Edwards AFB hasn't seen an Osprey in the skies regularly since 2007. That's the year the 418th Flight Test Squadron said goodbye to the CV-22 Integrated Test Team after completing developmental test of the aircraft.

I'll give them credit for at least giving lip service to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force but its only that....an afterthought.

Its beyond apparent that we're seeing a schism appear between the ground and air sides of the Marine Corps.  Mark my words.  This schism will have a profound effect and will be seen as a turning point by historians when they talk about the Corps.

Having said that.

Are you seeing what I am?  In the desire to justify both the MV-22 and the F-35, we're seeing more and more missions being pushed that take them away from their raison d'être.  We've seen the F-35 being pushed as a sensor node, as quarterbacking air defense, as being aboard LHDs while leaving the ground component on the dock....we've seen the MV-22 being pushed as an aerial refueler, as a surveillance system with new mission equipment, as a communications relay platform....

Meanwhile for the F-35 we've seen no movement on whether it can provide adequate support for ground forces (it seems like a distant after thought for the Deputy Commandant) and the MV-22 still doesn't have a self defense capability for inserting into landing zones swept by fire (still waiting on that forward firing gun and the missile pods have dropped off the radar).

They haven't gotten the basics right but they continue to push more and more onto these aircraft.


Side Note:  This "validation" is so un-Marine Corps like.  How does refueling on a tarmac prove that this is valid?  Unless Marine Air is only operating from established air bases then this proves nothing.  For an organization that prides itself on operations from Austere locations this is really a "non" event.

Baghdad in state of emergency! Why haven't we evacuated our embassy?

via NBC News.

Iraqi officials declared a state of emergency for all of Baghdad on Saturday after protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government buildings and foreign embassies, including the American one.
"Iraq security authorities have declared a state of emergency in Baghdad," said Brig. Gen. Saad Mann, a spokesman for the Iraqi military. "All gates that lead to Baghdad are closed. No one is allowed to enter into Baghdad, only those who want to leave Baghdad can do so.

This govt appears ripe to fall before the weekend is over.  I hope they have evacuation plans for US forces spun up.  I hope our MEU has been turned around and our carrier is prepared to provide cover to our helos evacuating our embassy...speaking of which.  WHY HASN'T THAT ORDER BEEN GIVEN!  This could turn into a tragedy if its misplayed by the Obama Admin.

Type 95 Ha Go tank of the IJA 2nd tank division

pic via fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode Tumblr Page (Imperial Japanese Army page...some might consider a few of the images disturbing...but its history/warfare so deal with it)

A Type 95 Ha Go tank of the IJA 2nd tank division is seen destroyed by the US 37th Infantry Division at Bone Luzon, 1945. In front of the wreckage the bodies of the driver and loader can be seen, who were shot as they tried to escape the fire that started inside.

TURN ON YOUR NEWS! Iraq is melting down!

Getting  images of the protests in Iraq and it looks bad.  This is a powder keg from hell.  How do you fight ISIS from the outside and your citizenry from within?

They probably need to turn around that MEU and get ready to spin up the SPMAGTF-CR.  They're gonna be needed to evacuate that embassy...

Iraq looks poised to be the next victim of the "Arab Spring"

via New York Times

Hundreds of protesters stormed Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday and entered the Parliament building, waving Iraqi flags, snapping photographs, breaking furniture and demanding an end to corruption.
As the chaos unfolded in the afternoon, Baghdad Operations Command announced a state of emergency, deploying additional forces around the capital city. Checkpoints at city entrances were closed, even as the protests remained largely nonviolent.
The scenes of protest, circulated in photographs and videos on social media sites, were potent demonstrations of the anger that had grown during months of protests by Iraqis who have demanded that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi carry out measures to end sectarian quotas in politics and fight corruption.
One protester, speaking to the Kurdish news channel Rudaw, pointed to chocolates on the desks of lawmakers and said: “People have nothing to eat. The lawmakers are sitting here eating chocolates and mocking our pain.”
The American Embassy in Baghdad reported on Twitter on Saturday that rumors that Iraqi officials had sought safety in the embassy compound were not true, nor were reports that the embassy was evacuating personnel.
For many protesters, jubilant at having breached the blast walls and razor wire that ring the Green Zone, it was a place they had never been.
To Iraqis who have lived through the reign of Saddam Hussein, the American occupation and the current turmoil, the Green Zone has long symbolized tyranny, occupation and corruption. Above all, it has been a sign of the separation between ordinary people and a ruling elite unresponsive to the aspirations of Iraq’s citizens.
The mere presence of protesters in the halls of government on Saturday deepened a political crisis that has paralyzed Iraq’s government as it struggles to keep up the fight against the Islamic State and faces a collapse in oil prices that has sharply reduced government revenue.

The Green Zone was penetrated and the Iraqi Parliament besieged.

Is it alarmist to say that Iraq looks poised to be the next victim of the "Arab Spring"?

KA-62 flies...

Thanks to Alert 5 for the link!

via Russian Helicopters Press Release.

"The new Ka-62 will be a worthy addition to the civilian version of the honored and the most massive in the world of the Mi-8/17, covering in great demand in the niche class helicopter take-off weight of 6.7 tons."
The Ka-62 was designed for a wide range of tasks. The main areas of application include the Ka-62 transport passengers, rescue operations, as well as in oil and gas field. Thanks to the spacious and comfortable cabin of the helicopter is ideal for corporate travel. The high level of the helicopter installed power allows a wide range of heights during its operation. The Ka-62 can be used in hot climates and fly over the sea area.

This helicopter looks like a blend of a UH-60, Relentless 525 and the Eurocopter Dolphin.

Another dangerous intercept by Russian fighters...are they inching toward a shoot down?

via USA Today.

It was the latest in a series of incidents where Russian aircraft have buzzed American planes or ships operating in the region, raising concerns the maneuvers could lead to mishaps.A Russian fighter plane flew dangerously close to an American reconnaissance aircraft operating over international waters in the Baltic Sea Friday morning, the Pentagon said.
"This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved," the Pentagon said in a statement. "More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries."
The statement cited "repeated incidents over the last year" where Russian planes have come dangerously close to American aircraft or planes in the region.
The statement did not detail the type of maneuver the Russian pilot performed, but a senior defense official said the Russian aircraft flew along the U.S. aircraft and then did a "barrel roll" over the top of the aircraft, closing within 100 feet of the American RC-135. The official asked not to be named since he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
The United States has expressed concerns that the dangerous maneuvers could lead to mishaps and escalate tensions between the two countries.
Earlier this month, Russian attack planes buzzed the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook during the U.S.'s joint exercises in the Baltic Sea.

Mistakes will happen and a plane will go down.  Is anyone war gaming this to try and figure out where this could lead?  Is it just me or does it seem like they're inching toward shooting down one of our airplanes?