European investment in armored vehicles...

Comparison of investment in new AFVs by France, Britain and Germany. France seems well organised to conduct expeditionary deployments. Britain and Germany just aren't doing enough, even before we start talking about artillery. pic.twitter.com/d7sIxJ3XcP

— Nicholas Drummond (@nicholadrummond) October 13, 2019

I'm just doing this off the top of my head and I could be totally wrong...but! Is it just my imagination or does the USMC's armored force compare favorably to what we're seeing from the Germans, the French and the Brits?

I often look across the field (metaphorically) at all the armor possessed by the US Army and marvel.

But is that the right measuring stick?

Of course we're moving to new concepts but if we were to stick to the tried and true then you'd also have to add in naval aviation to our mix (or at the very least USMC Air) and suddenly that old Marine Air Ground Task Force begins to look damn near unbeatable.

Of course if we follow this rabbit hole down to the end then we have to start looking at roles/functions and consider what is the proper size of the Marine Corps (and every other service).

I don't know what the planners are foreseeing with a fight with China but I have to wonder if this is one time where staying the course makes more sense than radical change.

Time will tell and we'll be able to make a proper assessment when we get more details of the new Commandant's plan.

One thing concerns.

Remember when Amos was in the big chair and we were told that 1k mile raids via MV-22 were the future?  Well we never got a look at the validation of those exercises and after actions on them never hit a professional journal.

This thing could be baked into the cake and the decision already made.  Time will tell.

Turkish Air Force bombed a civilian convoy (including journalists) which was under the protection of several SDF fighters. Many casualties reported

GRAPHIC: The Turkish Air Force bombed a civilian convoy (including journalists) which was under the protection of several SDF fighters. Many casualties reported https://t.co/MkEDmJRXEs

— Syrian Civil War Map (@CivilWarMap) October 13, 2019

Turkey committing war crimes in Syria?

Pentagon chief says Turkey "appears to be" committing war crimes in northern Syria https://t.co/Kj0QmQu5Zj pic.twitter.com/yD99EflKYm

— The Hill (@thehill) October 13, 2019

Hmmm.  If you've been a reader of this blog then you know that a certain reader from Turkey will deny this news.  You would also know that his view of the Kurds makes the thought of war crimes being committed against them seem well within the realm of possibilities.

The problem?

The source of this news.

We've been lied to so many times.  Agendas are so transparent and clear that common sense tells you that a reason for continued occupation, participation and support of the Kurds is probably being pushed by various factions in the DoD.

My problem?

Everyone wants to default to the CURRENT status quo.  The "brains" in the room want continued occupation in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Saudi Arabia but have NO plan for us to extricate ourselves from the region.

The only real plan I've seen on the table is to continue to do more of the same.

Late Open Comment Post. 13 Oct 2019

The Special Ops AGMS (Pandur II 6x6) rolling around Syria...

One of the AGMS patrolling yesterday in Northern Syria. Pics by @Delilsouleman pic.twitter.com/yjygDygYNd

— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) October 13, 2019

I would luv to know the modifications that Special Ops have applied to these rigs to make them viable in that meat grinder known as Syria.  On the surface it seems to be less than ideal.

At any moment you could be taken heavy machine gun fire.  The threat of IEDs is real.  Rocket propelled grenades and ATGM are passed out like candy in the region.

And that's what has me confused.

I just don't see the add-on armor, electronics to confuse or hardkill systems to defeat anti-tank missiles.  I don't even see available sensor masts to help locate and illuminate enemy formations.

The only nod toward protection is the anti-IED device but without protection built into the frame via a V-hull I'm wondering if that's enough.

Special Ops have done clever modifications cause I just can't see'em.

I-Phone freaks. Are you proud of how Apple bowed to Chinese govt demands?

via Gizmodo.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has explained why his company decided to succumb to China’s pressure and remove an app that was being used by Honk Kong pro-democracy protestors.

Protesters had been using the HKmap.live app to monitor police movement based on crowdsourced inputs. Apple removed the app a few days ago, then reinstated it, then pulled it again on Wednesday, a day after People’s Daily, China’s state-run news platform published a piece that proposed Apple was complicit in “illegal acts” by helping the protestors “engage in more violence.”

Reuters reports that Cook defended the decision in a statement posted on an internal company site. “It is no secret that technology can be used for good or for ill. This case is no different,” Cook wrote, according to Reuters, which reviewed the letter.

Later in the same article....

 The first allegation is that “the app was being used maliciously to target individual officers for violence”. This makes no sense at all. The app does not show the locations of individual officers at all. It shows general concentrations of police units, with a significant lag.

As the developer and @charlesmok, a Hong Kong legislator, have pointed out, the app aggregates reports from Telegram, Facebook and other sources. It beggars belief that a campaign to target individual officers would use a world-readable crowdsourcing format like this.

Moreover, what are these incidents where protesters have targeted individual police for a premeditated attack? Can Mr. Cook point to a single example? Can anyone?

Story here. 

First.

Apple is China's bitch.  Full stop.  It can't be denied.  Additionally if you're using an Apple product then you're complicit in helping them be China's bitch.

Second.

Remember the part of our exporting our manufacturing to China that was suppose to lead to China being more open?  More democratic?  To provide new markets for American business?

That's failed.  Spectacularly failed. 

We didn't transform China.  China transformed us.

Open Comment Post. 12 Jan 2019

This is why China will prevail against us...(UPDATED)

I'm old enough to remember when the Pentagon was drawing down in the Middle East to focus on China and Russia. https://t.co/8cWAt7eoQv

— Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) October 11, 2019

Drink it in boys.

You're seeing the seeds of failure being sown right in front of your eyes.

We were suppose to pivot to the Pacific.  We has supposedly recognized the threat that is China.

Yet we continue to engage in that tarbaby known as the Middle East.

What have we gotten for the last 20 years of our involvement?

*  Lives of our fellow countrymen either lost or their bodies horribly mangled.

*  Untold billions, maybe trillions of dollars wasted on foreign infrastructure, training forces that inevitably fail again and again, and those same foreign nationals begging for more of the same.

* Last but not least we've wasted our national strength, eroded faith in the military, in general lied to the American public and sullied our reputation as a warfighting force around the world.

We keep pumping resources into a failed project.

What makes a good business man?  He knows when to stop sinking money into a project that will not provide a return on his investment.

We're far beyond that point with the Middle East.  We're being bled slowly while our competitors gain ground.

When we lose to China you'll see historians point toward our failed efforts in the Middle East as one of many reasons why.

(Note.  Reading some of the comments it appears that people are skipping over the part where I say this will "one" of reasons future historians will say we failed.  You can add a whole host of other issues to the plate.  Failed economic policy.  Failed trade.  Failed regulation of TERRIBLE business practice. Failure to solve our budget issues/deficit spending.  Out of control focus on myriad social issues.  Massive bloat in the Pentagon.  Failed defense procurement.  The list goes on...)

I had hope that we were finally getting our heads out of the ME sands and were finally going to get ready for the future.

I was wrong.

We're giving the Chinese perfect victory.  Forget attacking us.  Forget us keeping them bottled up in the Pacific.  On the course we're on the Chinese will win without having to fire a shot.  Assuming of course they already haven't (which is a big assumption given the behavior of our so called domestic corporations with regard to their behavior toward the Chinese govt lately....I wonder who they actually fear...the US or Chinese govt...if you said US then you should be drug tested).

Modify this and you have an instant HQ MEF-Forward on wheels...

Instant home 👌pic.twitter.com/fYUDANBNsD

— CCTV IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) October 11, 2019

Yeah.  This would be nice if it could be modified into a Command Post for a MEF-Forward.  Even a fully stocked Trauma Hospital. 

We're talking about being modular right?  About being expeditionary right? Well considering all the comms and encryption gear, not to mention the reality of computers an old fashioned in the mud setup ain't gonna cut it anymore.

As much as it might pain some, we need to put our Command Element in proper conditions so they can lead the fight right.

Besides its on wheels so we can pickup and move it.  Additionally with the CH-53K coming online it shouldn't have a problem flying it to shore.

Another impression of the Bell 360 Invictus Attack / Reconnaissance helicopter

Another impression of the Bell 360 Invictus Attack / Reconnaissance helicopter. Note four Hellfire / Brimstone missiles carried internally and eight externally. The chin-mounted weapon is a 20 mm cannon. pic.twitter.com/AooWh63q1C

— Nicholas Drummond (@nicholadrummond) October 11, 2019

USS America - LHA6 in work ups..

The aviation-centric #amphibious assault ship USS #AMERICA LHA6 working up 8 Oct off the Southern California coast carrying 13 #Marine Corps F-35B #JSF Joint Strike Fighters of VMFA122. The ship will transfer this fall to Japan pic.twitter.com/yYnR4FOdJo

— Chris Cavas (@CavasShips) October 11, 2019

Did Senator Graham really admit this to Russian Prankster's playing the role of a Turkish Minister?

NOTE!  The article is from Russia Times but apparently they sourced it from Politico.

via RT.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was the latest to fall victim to Russian prankster duo “Lexus and Vovan,” who, posing as a Turkish minister, tricked the lawmaker into admitting his ‘sympathy’ for Turkey’s ‘problem’ with Kurds.

Believing he was on the line with Ankara’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, the South Carolina senator emphasized Washington’s desire to lure Turkey away from the S-400, a Russian-made missile defense system, with promises of a lucrative trade deal with “unlimited” potential. Politico obtained audio of the call, which took place in August.


“I want to make this a win-win if we can,” Graham told the so-called minister.

I don’t want to impose sanctions on our ally Turkey; I want us to move toward a free trade agreement. … The problem with the S-400 is that if Turkey activates it, other people want to buy it, and that’s really going to put pressure on our alliances. We’re pretty firm about that.

Graham has previously warned Ankara of penalties if it activated the S-400 systems purchased from Russia over the summer, and more recently introduced a bill in the Senate that would sanction Turkey over its military offensive against Kurdish fighters in Syria, however during the call the senator took credit for restraining his fellow Republicans.


“I’ve convinced my Republican colleagues to stand down,” he said, adding later: “the reason we don't have sanctions now is because I’ve helped President Trump ... say ‘no.’”

The senator also appeared to undercut his recent statements on Turkey’s incursion into Syria, telling the phony minister he wanted Washington to “make sure that Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria,” and that he is “sympathetic to the YPG problem.”

Story here. 

The public is in the land of mirrors here.  The funny room the media has us all locked into belies the reality of what we've seen (assuming you've been looking) over the past year or so.

Additionally the truths that are being said behind closed doors are never spoken about in public.

The American public is being handled like the ancient Romans handled their Plebeian Mobs.

via PBS.

Rome’s working class, the plebeians had little individual power. Grouped together, however, they became a Roman mob and had to be handled carefully.
----------
The Emperor Augustus was well aware of this risk and was keen to keep the poorest plebeians happy enough and reasonably well fed so that they would not riot. He began the system of state bribery that the writer Juvenal described as ‘bread and circuses’.

Free grain and controlled food prices meant that plebeians could not starve, while free entertainment – such as chariot races and gladiators in amphitheaters and the Circus Maximus – meant that they would not get bored and restless. Bribery it may have been, but it often worked.

Drink it in and weep. 

We, the American people, are being handled like a Roman mob.