Burning embers

This morning’s news about the bombing of the Askariya shrine adds to a foreboding situation throughout the middle east. The shrine is one of the holiest to Shiite Muslims and is prophesized as the place where the 12th Imam will return. The bodies of the 10th and 11th Imams are interred at the Mosque. With an increase of violence in Iraq, battles in Gaza spreading between Hamas and Fatah factions and verging on civil war and a tenuous cease fire being declared between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish government, we are heading into a tense summer.

Old tensions are increasing throughout the region and even the cold war between the US and Russia is beginning to pick up steam once again. International tensions such as this are not new but there seems to be a sense of urgency and hair-trigger response that we haven’t seen since the late 60’s and early 70’s at the height of Israeli/Arab tensions. I believe we truly are entering a phase where one event could trigger a cascade of events that sends all of us into a real world war. The idea was floated last summer at the height of the fighting between Israel and Lebanon last summer.

As usual, watch for periphery events to guide you as to what could be in store for the future. The decision to oust General Pace as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replace him with an Admiral who had a command level role in the Serb bombing campaign, who also has close career ties to the new head of CENTCOM, the US appears to be getting it's own ducks in order for more combat. The placing of Admirals Mullen and Fallon into these positions are a clear indication that a Naval-centric approach to US strategy in the middle east is coming.

My pet theory right now is that yet another "surge" or increase of troops in Iraq will occur within a year while the Navy begins a surface warfare strategy against Iran. Those troops already on the ground will need to dig in before the Navy begins its operations and hell will break loose once they do.

News - The depressing round-up of today's news stories

A daily dose of doom and gloom to get us in the mood for the Memorial Day weekend. So much is happening right now it’s tough to keep track of who’s batting, let alone who is on deck:

As I type this posting, former DoJ official Monica Goodling is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The AP has reported this morning that Goodling broke down into tears in the office of a colleague shortly after the brouhaha over the fired US Attorneys broke, saying, "All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department," My only thoughts over this revelation are that it’s a sweet sentiment to have, hon, but the DoJ is a traditionally non-political and independent department from the White House. Goodling can squirt tears over her unrequited adoration of the President but I wonder how she would feel knowing that her slavish devotion to a man and not her nation or her sworn oath has damaged this country. I think Monica needs to spend more time at match.com than trying to please a sociopathic President.

The Democrats not only failed in their attempt to end the war in Iraq, they also rolled over and allowed the President to see their soft underbelly too. No word on whether or not he scratched their bellies. The President has infamously stated that being the President is hard work, now the Democratic leadership has proven to me once again that doing the only moral thing they can do as representatives of our nation, end the war in Iraq, is hard work if you aren’t willing to take responsibility. Don't go on Meet the Press and tell us we need a bipartisan plan, damnit we need to end that miserable lie and failure that is Iraq and try to pump the water out of this sinking ship called America. If you folks in DC don't have a pair give me a call. I'll loan my cajones out to you for a few weeks as long as they don't come back shaven or pierced.

In what can only be described as an overt threat, nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, entered the Persian Gulf yesterday for “training” in the full light of day. We now have three aircraft carriers in that sandy bottom bathtub known as the Persian Gulf. Transiting the Straits of Hormuz is tricky and dangerous to begin with. Masking operational intentions and maintaining OpSec has always looked at a nighttime transit of the Strait as a necessity. Doing so in broad daylight, in formation and with such sensitive ships as carriers is a pure double-dog dare you move by this administration and a terrifying scenario waiting to happen. The stakes are far too high and tensions too strained for this sort of bullshit bravado by the sociopaths of Washington. This story actually gives me chills and it worries me a great deal.

Gas is..well..gas is like a Mylar “Happy Birthday” balloon that has broken loose and is soaring higher and higher.

The melamine and cyanuric acid story is off the radar. Apparently Americans think it’s okay and safe, otherwise, why would we be able to eat off Melamine plates if it wasn’t safe?

Barry Bonds is 10 dingers away from tying the Home Run record set by the great and beloved Henry Aaron. Aaron, I believe can be argued, was the greatest all-around pure hitter the sport has ever seen. This paper argues that it’s ok to root for Bonds, after all, he is innocent until proven guilty. I say bullshit because we the fans aren’t a sequestered jury and that defense just doesn't cut the mustard unless you are a lawyer or on trial. Bonds did the juice and we all know it so let's stop making excuses for him and call the damn strikes and balls like we see them. This pussy-footing around the issue insults the intelligence of even the casual fan and is a slap in the face for lifelong fans who have followed the sport for decades. Henry Aaron is still a great leader and has been a true gem as a pillar of the community in Atlanta since retiring from the sport. I’d wash Mr. Aaron’s car and not ask for a tip or recognbition. I wouldn’t let Bonds pump my gas.

Michael Vick has morphed from miracle working hero of Atlanta football into the worst kind of trash imaginable. If only Steve Bartkowski were 25 again.

On a positive note, Memorial Day weekend is upon us and the two greatest race spectacles known to man will be run, the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500. My weekend will be spent at home this year, saving gas, watching the two races, doing damage to my “to be read” stack of books and posting to the blog. Hurry up and get here Friday!

Anniversary of the sinking of the General Belgrano (USS Phoenix)

The USS Phoenix (later ARA General Belgrano) seen as it steams past Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

25 years ago today the British fast attack submarine HMS Conqueror made history when it became the first nuclear powered submarine to sink a surface vessel with torpedoes on a combat patrol. The sunken ship, ARA General Belgrano, began life as the USS Phoenix (CL-46) and ended it by taking 323 men with her. The controversies that rose from this action are well documented, as are details of the combat patrol made by the crew of the Conqueror.

Since the war cheerleaders rarely think beyond the "Top Gun" style of military knowledge and history, it's always good to bring out a historical tragedy from war. The hawks who parrot, like Ed Rogers, never appreciate it when you "wave that bloody rag" in their face.

News - Lockheed Martin loses LCS 3 contract

Lockheed Martin's money grab has gotten a little smaller this year as the Navy first issued a stop work order for LCS 3 and last week cancelled the contract for the ship. Work continues on LCS 1 (Lockheed Martin) and LCS 2 &4 (General Dynamics). The loss of LCS 3 combined with the deepening, but virtually off the corporate news radar, Deepwater Program and the VH-71 Presidential helicopter program scandals give us another look at the massive amounts of power and money that flow to the coffers of defense contractors.

The Deepwater Program has resulted in a DoJ investigation (Go Gonzo), 8 cracked and warped hulls which have resulted in the decommissioning of all 8 boats, a loss of hundreds of millions of tax-payers dollars and a severely reduced Coast Guard capability that may take decades to recover from. "We never forget who we're working for." is the new motto of Lockheed Martin. Oh yeah? Just who are you working for if this is a sign of your work?

I wish I had the time and resources to add up the total profit that Lockheed Martin and all the companies that it has bought over the years, have made from the US taxpayer since WWII. I'm sure it would reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars and I'm not talking about net income, I'm referring to pure profit. The talking point that politicians love to use that covers the ass of the defense contractor is the lie that we are providing the best equipment available to our troops. The Senators and Congress critters love to go tromping back to the district with money in their fists for the contractors, promising jobs for the locals and a sense of helping to protect the nation, right there in your own back yard.

As General Smedley Butler so famously said, "War is a racket." and it doesn't take a lot of work to find examples of how much cash being thrown around today. For all the change in this world some things never change and some things change only on the surface as the war profiteer learns and adapts to the environment to maximize profit.

Remember the Iowa

While there are many tragic anniversaries to remember this week, and a new one has been added with the shootings at VaTech, try to jar your memory and remember one that has fallen in the memory hole. On this day in 1989, a powder explosion in the center gun, turret 2, of the USS Iowa killed 47 sailors in the prime of their lives. The memory that most people have of this incident is the scandalous accusations made against several sailors by the NIS and the Navy’s power structure at that time. What is always forgotten is the action by the crew to save the ship and maintain its professional reaction to the tragedy.

Seven weeks after the explosion, the crew of the Iowa took their ship back to sea for a six-month deployment to the north Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. She served honorably as the 6th Fleet Flagship during that deployment, responded to contingency operations off the coast of Lebanon and for the first time in many years there was no aircraft carrier in the Med for several weeks as the Iowa proved it could handle any crisis. 6th Fleet Commander Admiral Johnson was himself so impressed with the abilities and actions of the crew that he sent letters of appreciation to the families of the entire crew while they were in the middle of this deployment.

“Support the troops” is a new mantra in this nation, that wasn’t a common sentiment 20 years ago and it seems the only time that phrase comes out is when the nation is at war. Remember the sailors, airmen, soldiers and Marines who died during peacetime and those who served at a time when wearing the uniform wasn’t portrayed as it is today. The Iowa was a special ship, manned by special men who responded to enormous stress, heartache and scrutiny by doing their jobs quietly and with honor. Remember them and their shipmates of the past, present and future.

News - NM Governor tours USS Pueblo

Coincidence can be a strange thing. Only days after Iranian officials released the 15 British Marines and Sailors that they had held captive for 15 days, NM Governor Bill Richardson was taken on a tour of the USS Pueblo while on an official visit to North Korea.

(Crew of the Pueblo display their true feelings for their North Korean captors.)







Link to article about Gov. Richardson's trip:

http://www.chieftain.com/national/1176185110/1

On it's own, the Pueblo incident is another event in the history of the Cold War which could have turned into a much more dangerous escalation of hostilities which fortunately did not occur. Happening just 6 months after the attack on the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force and Navy, and in the midst of the Vietnam conflict, the Pueblo's seizure by North Korean forces was one more link in a chain of terrible events that the US Navy endured. Five months after the capture of the Pueblo the fast attack submarine Scorpion was lost with all hands in the Azores. Six months earlier a fire aboard the carrier Forrestal took the lives of 132 crewmen. As this was going on the Navy had no idea that a massive spy ring within it's ranks was in it's infancy.

In the years since the 1985 arrest of John Walker Jr. and the members of his spy ring there has been much debate as to whether or not his activities had a connection to the capture of the Pueblo. Walker claims that he began supplying the Soviet Union with documents after the Pueblo incident occurred. However, Maj. Laura Heath presented a thesis to the US Army Command and General Staff College in 2001 where she laid out the possibility that the Pueblo was captured because the Soviets wanted to study the equipment that was described in documents that Walker had already supplied to them. http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/heath.pdf I highly recommend reading this thesis for anyone who is interested in the Walker spy case and for people who are interested in the mechanisms of intelligence agencies.