It’s still stealing

“If you steal, you’re gonna lie, if you lie, you’re gonna steal.”
1SG at Fort Jackson, 2004

“WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court cited First Amendment free-speech rights in striking down a law that made it a federal crime to falsely claim to have been awarded military medals.

The 6-3 majority opinion upheld a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that had declared unconstitutional the Stolen Valor Act, a 2006 statute Congress passed “to protect the reputation and meaning” of military honors.”
“Court: You Can Tell Lies About Being a War Hero “, By EVAN PEREZ, WSJ.com

So the law was poorly written. It doesn’t matter. People will lie about being war heroes, phoney soldiers and facebook commandos seeking things they didn’t earn. Like jobs. A democrat claims to be a “Green Beret”, when called out he throws a tantrum. Another wanted music stardom, so he faked being a hero. One woman duped a college into a free ride before she was caught. Another was a comic book author and “anti-war” activist. None of them have seen combat.

They got what was coming to them, the morons were exposed. Good riddance.

It’s not a game. People assume that a soldier, marine, sailor or airman has skills. That someone who has been in “combat” is brave enough for a job as a police officer, firefighter or news correspondent. They lie to get a job that they have no right to have, they are stealing. The left loves phonies, so they were the loudest ones to scream about the Stolen Valor act. It would expose all those “veterans” that march in their protests.

The law will get re-written. In the meantime we have teh interwebs. Keep blogging and writing. Thieves are like cockroaches, they hate sunlight.

Liberalism’s fall: the left will go insane

If the Democrats lose the Whitehouse we’ll see the left explode in rage and craziness not seen since the 2000 election.

• ‘Shut that Jan Brewer bitch up’: Left targets Arizona governor with vile slurs after SCOTUS immigration ruling: Twitchy.com
• Arron Walker: Instapundit on why he matters (and his battle with Bret Kimberlin)
• New tone: Tolerant Left spews slurs, wishes Justice Scalia be put on ‘kill list,’ hopes other Justices die:Twitchy.com
• Ace on why James Fallows has gone nuts. Althouse says he’s still nuts even if he tries to change the title of his article.
• RS McCain agrees, from an undisclosed location due to Bret Kimberlin’s minions.
• Hollywood screen writer makes vile anti-American shit up and the press don’t care.
• Alhouse on why the left wants to pack the Supreme Court…yeah that worked for FDR.
• Don’t like that Fast and Furious led to deaths in Mexico? Blame the US! (hotair)

When elections don’t go the left’s way, they file lawsuits. When a president or candidate they don’t like becomes popular, they ridicule them in the media. When bloggers blog, journalists ask questions or people want answers: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK.

The left has a narrative. One where JFk and 9/11 were plots of a vast right-wing conspiracy, and the left is some shining beacon of hope. The truth is that JFK was the victim of a left-wing nut, Islamists planned the 9/11 attacks, and the left has been shilling the same message for decades.

But like a child who refused to give up Santa Claus, the left loves it’s narrative. They need that narrative. If the truth comes out, they have to admit that they failed. That we can’t afford the welfare state they sold us. Admit that we need to prepare for a hostile world not cower or appease those who want to kill us.

There will be fiction, protests, another “Occupy” movement, more SWATings, more deranged acts disguised as “dissent”. They will not accept change lightly. We must be ready. The crazy is coming, brace yourselves.

Reforming Defense: Lockheed makes a “jeep”

“Lockheed Martin would like you to know that just because it’s an aerospace titan that moonlights as a shipbuilder, that doesn’t mean it can’t also build a new fleet of ground vehicles for the Army and Marine Corps.”
High stakes in the JLTV competition: By Philip Ewing, DoD Buzz.com
—

There are companies building the replacement for the HMMWv, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). It’s a new jeep for the military.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the Humvee was too light. It was a soft skinned taxi for soldiers and a whip for commanders. There were “up armored” versions, but they are rollover queens. I used to drive a command post variant. After upgrades, our M1113 was 500 lbs away from both axles snapping and was top heavy. The JLTV is designed from the ground up to be an armored anything: taxi, truck, command post, ambulance or gun truck.

Now Lockheed has some issues with building things for the military. There was the scandals over foreign military sales. Yet this same company built the SR-71 and F-117.

JLTV three variants during the Technology Development phase

Judging from the comments in the DOD Buzz article, some just don’t have faith that Lock-Mart won’t screw the truck up:

tee June 22nd, 2012 at 7:35 pm

“With LM’s current recorder as a benchmark if they get it, it will be way over budget and years behind schedule.“

And that’s the tamest one.

I for one welcome out of the box thinking. I do have doubts however. Boeing decided to get into the lucrative jetfoil business, the Future Combat Systems and the KC-767 lease. They ended well, in that jetfoils are forgotten, the FCS was canceled and the KC-767 lease sent an Air Force official to prison.

What’s needed is out of the box thinking, but not so out of the box people lose their minds. I hope Lockheed Martin delivers the goods. If they are making junk, they deserve to lose. It’s not the 80’s anymore, political connections, pork barrel politics or lobbying shouldn’t decide who builds what. Make stuff that works.

Why We Should Use Technology

In National Review, Clifford D. May writes:

Wars of the future will be very different from wars of the past. Everyone gets that. What many do not grasp: The present war also is very different from wars of the past.

Among the ways: Those defending the West try hard to abide by the laws of war. Those attacking the West say clearly that they will not be bound by any “infidel” rules. They are committed to what they call a “Koranic concept of war.”

It’s not just uniforms and ID tags/cards. It’s not shooting civilians. Not flying jets into buildings. Europe frets over kill lists but that’s because they want to appease the evil hordes at the door.

The French used to find terrorist camps and level them. They’d send their commandos in, they’d kill the terrorists and take as much as they could carry. This put an end to a lot of terrorist groups. The SAS hit the Irish Republican Army hard. Between bad publicity and bullets to the head, the IRA has committed to disarming it’s stockpile.

But special forces raids are risky. Bunkers full of equipment need to be hit somehow.

Cyber warfare was discussed, too. Indira Lakshmanan, a generally sensible Bloomberg reporter, argued that if Americans use cyber weapons, “let’s not think that the Iranians themselves won’t learn from what we’ve done to them and couldn’t release similar bugs on us with potentially devastating consequences. So that’s something we really need to think about.” Yes, and let’s start by considering whether it is remotely plausible that Iran’s rulers, the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism, would conclude that it’s not quite cricket to use such weapons — if only Americans would refrain from using them first.

Lakshmanan’s thinking was befuddled on another score as well: “If we’re sitting at the table with [Iranians] in Moscow next week, how are they going to believe that we’re actually trying to negotiate a nuclear deal with them if at the same time we’re admitting openly that we’re engaged in outright cyber warfare with them?”

Fighting fairly went out with kings and princes. Chivalry is dead. We have laws of warfare, but it’s assumed that all sides will agree to the rules. Terrorists, communists (yes there are still commies), drug lords and other “non-state” actors. China and North Korea don’t take prisoners. African and Middle Eastern regimes are famous for using missiles and artillery to settle disputes.

We don’t fight wars by lining up men, stacking numbers against numbers.

We have stealth jets and stand-off weapons to overcome the numbers of anti-aircraft missiles. We use tanks, APC’s and IFV’s that are part of a network. A Marine Corporal or Army Sergeant can call on the radio and bring the rain. He or she has access to firepower that Patton or MacArthur could only dream about. Sensors, firepower, communications, the “strategic corporal” is the tip of the spear. And a diplomat, and an aid worker.

Forrest Gump is roadkill on the modern battlefield.

So what if we use “cyberwarfare”? Do those lefites with a case of the vapors want US troops to go and dig out nuclear bunkers? Every Predator drone means less pilots and troops at risk. If a computer virus can disable a WMD lab, that means no shooting, no dead Americans paraded through downtown Durka-Durkastan.

JLENS is a radar and optical combo that looks down. It can see cruise missiles and aircraft trying to hide. It can also see enemy troops on the ground many miles away. That means no scout aircraft getting shot at. It means US and Allies have early warning.

The left loves the myth of the underdog. That somehow the Vietcong, Iraqi insurgents and the Taliban are some ragtag “army”. Bull.

Most “non-state” actors are scum. The Lybian and Egyptain revolution have devolved into Islamist takeovers, as the Arab Spring turns into a Fascist Winter. Syria is a hell of advanced weapons and a mad regime desperate to hold on to power.

We use out technology to decimate the enemy. There is no fair in warfare. We respect the enemy, but we’re gonna rain fire down on him. Non-combatants are protected. Those who fight are gonna get set on fire, in uniform or not. From standoff weapons, drones and cyber “weapons”, the bad guys are in for a world of hurt.

Terrorists are only victims in the twisted logic of the left. To us in uniform, they’re targets.

Reforming Defense: Tempting Fate

Some words of wisdom in this time of crisis:

• “No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.”
• “An Army is a team; lives, sleeps, eats, fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is a lot of crap.”
• “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
• “Wars might be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who leads that gains the victory.”

—GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, JR. QUOTATIONS

---

“In his book, Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers, David Johnson (who just took over Army CHief of Staff Odierno’s Strategic Studies Group) asks why nothing remotely like “Blitzkrieg” tactics and innovations emerged inside the U.S. Army. What Johnson discovered is worth remembering. A combination of factors ensured the Army was the wrong force for war in 1942. Of these, the most significant was not a lack of funding. First, there was almost total ignorance in Congress about what was really happening inside the Army. And, second, it was the intellectual — not the fiscal — deficit that obstructed useful change in the Army. As for those who argued after World War II that if the Army had been better resourced a different army would have emerged, Johnson discovered it was not true. Had more money been available, Johnson concluded, the Army’s generals would have simply done more of the same. The American people don’t need more of the same and the American Taxpayer cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. Military institutions, grounded as they are in the past, are not particularly adept at dealing with the future. This is especially true for the Army. Congress can and must ask the tough questions and demand real answers, not platitudes before increasingly scarce funds are lost on yet another wrongheaded Army program, yet another false start.”
–“Congress: Don’t Let Army Botch GCV, The Bradley Replacement“:By Doug Macgregor, AOL defense.

Brad brings us the tale of woe concerning the Army’s quest to field a new APC.

The first try was the FCS. It was so awesome it was canceled for being over budget. Before that there was this:

Back to the present. The Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) prototypes wound up at 70+ tons. About as much as an Abrams. The C-17 can lift one, the C-5 only 2 Abrams or 1 M-1 and two M-2 Bradleys. So much for the mobile Army. Now before you think I’m picking on the treadheads, the Marines had their Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) and ADA had Medium Extended Air Defense System(MEADS). In each case, specs were changed, then changed again. Since they were new programs, they needed new systems and new software. That means training, contractors and new parts. That means mucho dinero. Big Army is trying hard to keep costs down by looking at existing designs this time.

But I fear this is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Are there 80-90 ton tanks and APC’s rolling off Russian and Chinese factories? No. In fact “smart” anti-armor weapons are getting cheaper. Every tango, technical and two bit militaman will have missiles, IED’s and perhaps UAV’s. No layer of armor will be sufficient. No network will save you if the radios don’t work and your computer crashes. And contractors just add more money to any program they touch.

The FCS and EFV failed due to rising costs. The FCS had software problems, just like the Joint Tactical Radio. MEADS died because of costs and complexity. A MEADS battery has 3 radars to Patriot’s one.

What is needed are review boards. In college, experiments with human or animal subjects had a review board of about 3-5 members. At least one board member was from a department that didn’t use animals (i.e. the Physics Dept). So if the biology department wanted to cut up mice or frogs, the prof or grad student had to have a good explanation. And a budget, and safeguards. This oversight keep all experiments above board.

I know, Uncle Sam’s children in uniform tend to not get along, but we can’t afford more of the same. No more field grades sitting in an air-conditioned office, ducking deployments yet designing the gear and systems for those downrange.

I propose the following:

Each new weapons program should undergo a review by a review board with:
• 10 senior members and five junior enlisted members.
• They will be nominated by the Chief of Staff for each service, selected by the President and confirmed by Congress.
• The ten voting members are current, retired or former Field Grade officers (0-4 and up) and senior NCOs (E-6 and up)
• The five junior enlisted members are junior enlisted chosen on a rotational basis. They are Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airmen of the year picked from posts assigned to a major command. All must have at least 15 months combat/overseas experience. At least two should be married.
• The senior board members will not have any ties to a contractor or current unit.
• All proceedings will be public, the press will be invited.
• The board will report to Congress.
• Special Operations and “black” projects are exempt. This is for line units only.
• Military aid to other countries is also exempt, there is Congressional oversight for that.

Why junior enlisted? Those of us E-4 and below turn the wrenches. We’re the ones stuck with the “good ideas” of the E-ring. If the program office or defense contractor can’t explain why their reasons to a private, what business to they have selling to the DoD? By making the process transparent and concurrent with the development, we can avoid the mistakes of the past.

It’s a start at least. What do you guys think?

A civics lesson for the left:

Why the electoral college? Zo and Whittle take us to school:

RESIGN, HOLDER

Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry
1970 – 2010

“Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to fully disclose the documents associated with Operation Fast and Furious and President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege serves to compound this tragedy. It denies the Terry family and the American people the truth. Our son, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, was killed by members of a Mexican drug cartel armed with weapons from this failed Justice Department gun trafficking investigation. For more than 18 months we have been asking our federal government for justice and accountability. The documents sought by the House Oversight Committee and associated with Operation Fast and Furious should be produced and turned over to the committee. Our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious.”
— Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s parents, Josephine Terry and Kent Terry Sr.

RESIGN, HOLDER

RESIGN, HOLDER

RESIGN, HOLDER

Fixing our broken military

Defense Blogs I follow:

• This Ain’t Hell,
• Brad,
• CDR Salamander,
• In from the Cold,
• ELP,
• DOD Buzz
• AOL Defense.

I tend to nag and complain about the budget problem facing our military. However complaining doesn’t fix the problem. The worst are filling with a passionate intensity. From going over budget on weapons system to cutting needed programs, the good idea fairy has been busy. Some would say that the SMA and Chief of Staff can’t see forest (retention and the future of the army) for the trees (grooming standards, pt and other nit picks).

What’s needed is a conversation about IDEAS. Good ideas. Not “army stupid” like quibbling over tats or making a bigger tank. What should the future army look like? Grooming? PT? Do we need a new rifle/tank/radio/etc..?

What is to be done?

Let the conversation begin.

< *puts on ACH* >

Chickenhawks

“The sofa samurai and ivory-tower warriors are in full war cry over Syria. Washington should do something! It’s time to recreate the Lincoln Brigade so they can go to war without dragging America into yet another unnecessary conflict.
…
When then United Nations ambassador Madeleine Albright asked General Colin Powell, “What are you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can’t use it?,” he should have offered her a top position in the about-to-be-formed Second Chance Brigade.”
—A Lincoln Brigade for Syria: Doug Bandow, June 15, 2012, The National Interest. (h/t: hotair.com)

Bush got almost a decade of hate over Iraq and Afghanistan. Ronnie was vilified for being a cowboy. The GOP is seen as the part of war. War of course somehow benefits the Fortune 500.
The left loves to hate the military. All soldiers are psychos who are too dumb for college goes the meme.

It’s not surprising that the left wants to run to the military it says it hates to save a nation most college students can’t find on a map. The taxpayers bailed out failing green companies. The courts fix things when public opinion doesn’t go their way. The left hates America until they need help.

While I’m not in favor of a draft, it would be nice to see leftists shoulder a rifle and fight for what they believe in instead of forcing the rest of us to act our there schemes.

Old media is old

Bill Mauldin tells it like it is.

“There is a lesson to be learned here. Crying Man is just the latest in a trend of rabidly delusional liberals who shed all sense of logic and reality in favor of the perception that they’re “right” … they must be right because everything in whatever media they watch or read or listen to proves that they’re right. Their faith in the infallibility of their belief system, to wit, the left side of the left-leaning media, prevents them from even conceiving that there are other perspectives or — gasp — other truths than their own.”

–“We’ve Got the Narrative, Now Don’t Get Cocky“, Posted By Dan Naden, PJmedia.com.

“Do you think American evangelicals are, in general, turning away from the political right and toward the left, as regards Israel and other issues?
The left-wing media want you to – and it appears some of the reporters and opinion-writers for the mainstream media do too. An example that seems to have crossed a new line was Sunday’s edition of 60 Minutes, in which veteran reporter Bob Simon framed the plight of Arab Christians in the West Bank as a problem caused by Israel. ”
–“Themage*: 60 Minutes, Media Matters, and media narrative-building on Christians and Israel”:Hotair.com

Establishment fall down go boom. The hippies and the left raged against the establishment and the man[tm]. Then they became the man. And it was good. With only 3 networks and PBS in their corner (funded by the taxpayers), print media on their side the national conversation was what they wanted it to be.

Suddenly internet.

We must be careful. The blogs, twitter and forums are out of anyone’s control. However they are open to nutjobs and cranks. The birthers, the 9/11 “truth” movement, racists and anti-Semites know no political loyalty they just want an audience. Thankfully this weakness cuts both ways. For every wack statement and gaffe on the right there are gaffes on the left. The left hates it when those gaffes expose their ideology for what it is. Elizabeth Warren isn’t Native American, until she has to apply for a job. For every nutjob on the right, there are violent terrorists on the left.

We mustn’t get cocky. The left is getting desperate. They are getting violent. We need to expose racism to take that away from the left. We need to ignore the Washington establishment. They care more about their retirement than helping the country. Old media will shrink but that’s okay. It’s evolution. Newspapers are losing readers, the TV news has to compete with people in their pajamas and they are losing.

Many will not like this change. My father didn’t trust the internet. He got e-mail half a year before he died. This from a man who built two TRS-80 computers from kits and helped me fix two of mine. To his generation, newspapers and TV news were part of the landscape and mail came to the mailbox. When I left for college he used e-mail because it was faster then letters and cheaper than long distance.

The left will try to exploit those resistant to change. They’ll use FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) to cower them. When that doesn’t work they have violence. They have been trying to get us to shut up for decades. Humor and ridicule was one face of the monster that is the left, violence is just the other side of the coin.

While this may work for people who don’t know how to use a computer or the blue-haired AARP set, most of America isn’t buying it. The economy is sour, there’s still war in the Middle East and the US is still hated by the “Third World”. The Occupy Movement failed because they had to allies. Without control of the message, they couldn’t cover up the rapes and other crimes they committed. With blogs and Fox news reporting the truth, America shrugged and Occupy joined the Weathermen in the ash heap of history. They may try to smear and lie but truth wins out every time.

Maybe if the media talked with us instead of to us, maybe if they let us be a part of the conversation instead of complaining that blogs have no standards of ethics, they wouldn’t be losing their influence in the national discourse. Blogs do have standards, you know. If I make a mistake, you people have no problem telling me about it, and I correct it. If the Washington Post makes a mistake, there’s virtually no way to tell them about it, and, if by some miracle, we get through, they sniff and haw about how we must mistaken.
—Sally Quinn; irrelevant and tearful, This Aint Hell.

We fail the country if we adopt the lie. If we let nutjobs or the violent hijack our movement. If we let nutjobs or lazy politicans cloak themselves in our movement. It we cry and scream if an election doesn’t go our way. Our candidates are winning, but if they lose they lose. There’s always next election.

The truth hurts in the way that eating right and exercising hurts. Lies are like junk food, they taste good now but they hurt later. We need to stick to the truth.

It’s never a good time to spike the football or coast on past achievements. War, economic crisis, crime..it never ends. We need to have our heads on swivels. There is always some lefty with the easy answer. Some new ‘ism’ or some Marxist bullshit that tempts the young or the chattering classes. Or some nutjob who thinks that “tea party”, “conservative”, or “Patriot” can be put on like the surplus uniform he’s trying to wear.

The left’s choking on their junk food. We need to keep eating right.