Military

Bravado

As I said, too many morons like to talk about manpower. The thing is, manpower means exactly nothing when they don’t have supplies or transportation. The US military is quite good at using force multipliers. Once all of the infrastructure is blown up, those million troops on the other side of the ocean are useless, as are the 40 million unarmed civilians sitting less than 100 miles from the US border.

Most on the left know nothing about warfare or anything, really. That doesn’t mean all of them are clueless, but the vast majority are. They have no idea what such a war would mean.

By Divemedic, ago

This is so Last Week

I know this is from last week and the left has since moved on, but below is a great video on the EF-18 Growler.

When I was in the Navy, we still had the EA-6B Prowler, affectionally called the “Queer.” The Growler has the same job, it’s just been modernized. There were 2 squadrons of these in the Venezuela theater: one was carrier based, the other was located in Puerto Rico.

There was a legend going around when I was in the service about a Prowler that had turned its jamming equipment on over Washington state and shut down everything: radars, radio, television, all of it for almost 15 minutes. Don’t know if it is true, but it certainly is within this plane’s capabilities. The jamming pod these aircraft carries is the AN/ALQ-99, which can jam all RF signals between 64 MHz and 20GHz.

In the run up to the Venezuela attacks, those Growlers would have shut down all radio and radar. No missiles, no tracking or seeing aircraft, and no issuing of orders to anti-aircraft batteries. All command, control, and communications (C3) would have been shut down. All radars inoperable. Anything that tried to shoot or track anyhow would have been eliminated by the F-35s that were operating over the country.

An entire nation’s air defense, shut down in a couple of minutes.

By Divemedic, ago

It’s Coming

The left is ramping up their resistance of Trump, and now even local government officials and law enforcement are joining in the resistance.

The left is dumb, in that they are making this look more and more like an insurrection. Here is the insurrection act (pdf not hosted here at this site).

Trump will keep goading them, and they will stupidly continue their idiocy, until it reaches a level that permits him to use military force to suppress the insurrection.

By Divemedic, ago

Message Sent

Trump used the military to eliminate a burr under his saddle. The ruler of Venezuela openly defied and taunted him, as did the rulers of several other nations (Cuba, Columbia, Mexico, and Canada).

Trump doesn’t do subtle. Well, he did during his first term, but no one got the message. This second term is about sending messages that can’t be ignored, and if they are, well… This is what he had to say about Mexico:

“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman,” Trump told Fox & Friends Saturday. “But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”

Then there was the message to Colombian President Gustavo Petro:

“He has cocaine mills, he has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement: He’s making cocaine. They’re sending it to the United States. So he does have to watch his ass.”

Trump also labeled Cuba, which relies on Venezuelan oil and furnished Maduro with security guards, and its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a “failing nation.”

This is about a subtle as a kick in the nads. This is a clear message that the carrot of negotiation hasn’t worked, so now it’s time for the big stick of unlubed diplomacy. In my opinion, Venezuela was the fastest, easiest, and most likely to succeed. Still, the entire operation only took a few hours. That sends a clear message that SHOULD be sending shockwaves through the hemisphere, but it doesn’t. Military power in the area:

  • Brazil: Approximately 360,000 active-duty personnel. It is the largest military in South America and ranks 11th globally in overall military power.  Brazil maintains the largest inventory of armored vehicles (including nearly 300 tanks and over 22,000 armored vehicles) and the largest air force in South America, with over 600 aircraft.
  • Mexico: Approximately 412,000 personnel, the largest standing force in Latin America. Still, the largest problem with Mexico is the cartels, which effectively run the country. It would require a full scale invasion and a long term occupation to quell the issues there.
  • Columbia: Approximately 310,000 active personnel. 
  • Venezuela: Approximately 120,000 active personnel, but we saw how long that lasted.

For all of the public bluster coming from those nations, I am sure that they are taking note of what Trump just did. This will give Trump some leverage at the negotiating table.

EDITED TO ADD:

Because I found it to be funny as hell, here you go:

By Divemedic, ago

Regime Change

President Donald Trump has activated hundreds of Texas National Guard troops and federalized 300 Illinois National Guard troops for duty in Illinois despite the governor’s objections. The left is bitching because they have suddenly rediscovered states’ rights.

Once again, they are deploying our troops into a combat zone with no strategy, no clear definition of what a victory would look like, and worse yet no exit plan. All to yet again just to prop up another failed regime that will never become a true democracy…………

By Divemedic, ago

Airstrikes

The left is losing their collective shit over Trump’s bombing of Iran. They are claiming that it’s unconstitutional. There are, as usual, Democrats claiming he should be impeached for it. DJT can’t take a dump without someone trying to impeach him for it. As far as it being unconstitutional, I would simply point out that every President since at least Eisenhower has taken military action without seeking the permission of Congress. The law simply says that he has to notify Congress within 48 hours. It doesn’t say HOW he has to notify them. I would send them a letter by certified mail. The courts have ruled that, when the law requires a notification be sent or given, that notification is complete upon mailing. Done. Keep the receipt.

There are also those on both sides who are making the claim that Iran is peaceful, not pursuing nukes, and the US shouldn’t be doing Israel’s bidding. Let’s talk about that. First, on Iran being peaceful. I was in the military for many of these incidents, and was actually there for some of them:

They are constantly holding the world hostage by capturing shipping as it passes through the Persian Gulf, mining the Persian Gulf, and supporting terrorism.

The claim that Iran isn’t pursuing nukes is simply wrong. They have enriched Uranium to more than 60%. There is no use for that level of enrichment, except for use as a weapon. Even the IAEA reports that Iran had 2700 centrifuges in place there, which was a violation of the Obama nuclear agreement. Sure, the Obama administration had the Iranians pinky swear that they wouldn’t make a nuclear bomb, and the Iranians would never lie, would they?

As you can see, Iran has been attacking US forces for more than 50 years. In this case, Israeli interests and US interests happen to be the same in this case, and I don’t have a problem with someone finally dealing with those assholes. Sure, we need to try for peace, but you can’t let other nations continually attack you and pretend that it isn’t happening.

Trump has used the US military exactly four times: Against Iran in 2025, Isis in 2025, ISIS in 2020, and LA in 2025. That’s far fewer than any of the last Presidents going all the way back to Herbert Hoover.

To those who would tell me that if I support this, I should go serve? I already did. I was in for six years, and did 2 combat tours. In the late 80s, I was in a bar less than an hour before it was bombed by terrorists. (I couldn’t find a link to the story.) I’ve been there. Look, most of the times that the US military has been used in the past 70 years, it was an unnecessary use of military force, and that includes the 1990 Gulf War. This case? I don’t have a problem with it. Iran needs to be brought to heel. Instead of taking half measures designed to “teach them a lesson” which they obviously aren’t learning, they need to have their war making factories destroyed.

By Divemedic, ago

Article 88

Colonel Sheyla Baez Ramirez. Ramirez assumed command of the Fort McCoy Garrison in Wisconsin in 2024. Ramirez is a left wing political activist who refuses to display the official photographs of the Secretary of Defense, President, and the Vice President.

There is a growing movement in the US military of Commissioned officers who are refusing to display the photos of the President, Vice President, and SecDef. Many of them are being relieved of command. The left is claiming that the Free Speech rights of these officers is being violated to soothe Trump’s ego.

They are wrong. Military personnel are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Article 88 has this to say:

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

This is important, because the US military MUST be subservient to civilian control. Allowing officers to oppose that civilian control carries with it a large risk of military coup. Seldom is it seen for Generals to engage in military coups. Usually, it is colonels who do those sorts of things.

  • olonel Reza Khan’s 1921 coup that brought the Pahlavi dynasty to power in Iran
  • The 1931 coup attempts by the Japanese Army (led by Lieutenant Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto)
  • The 1967 coup by a group of colonels in Greece that established the military junta
  • The 1969 Libyan coup d’état in which Colonel Muammar Gaddafi took power
  • The successful coup in Mali by Colonel Assimi Goita

Generals are inherently political creatures, and they are therefore close to the existing power structure the coup intends to overthrow. They got their position through connections, potentially through patronage, and they themselves enjoy powers of patronage and influence. In this case, many of the officers who oppose Trump are there because Biden put them there through DEI programs. They remain loyal to the left.

An example needs to be made of a couple of these mutinous assholes. Start an Article 31 investigation and court martial a couple of them. Reduce them in rank to the lowest you can get away with, toss them in jail for a year or so, and give them a BCD.

By Divemedic, ago

Barbary, Islam, and Jizya

Let me lay out a few thoughts with regard to the current conflict in the Red Sea.

The Quasi War

The very first test of the new United States was just a decade after the ratification of the Constitution. France was at war with England, as it seems they have been more often than not. When the Republic of France went to war with Great Britain and the European coalition in 1792, the United States declared its neutrality, and the French didn’t like the fact that the new nation was neutral.

This was made worse from the French point of view when the US signed the Jay treaty with Britain, opening trade between the new nation and the British colonies in the Carribbean. As a matter of policy, France began permitting privateering against US shipping. This sparked the formation of a new US Navy to take on French privateers in a conflict called the Quasi War. In the beginning, merchant ships were converted to Naval service while the US built its first six frigates. The conflict ended in 1800. This is an important conflict because it was waged by President George Washington until he retired in 1799 and Congress never declared war.

Jizya

It should be well known to my readers that non-Muslims living in areas controlled by Muslim rule are referred to as dhimmi. The term dhimmi means “one whose responsibility has been taken” and refers to those who must be ruled over by those of the Muslim faith. Muslims believe that dhimmi must convert to Islam, serve Muslims as laborers or in their military, or pay tribute referred to as jizya.

This was the premise behind the Barbary pirates. The Barbary states were a collection of Muslim nations on the north coast of Africa: Morocco was an independent kingdom, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli owed a loose allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. The naval forces of the Barbary states were capturing US ships and holding the crews for ransom, some for more than a decade. They were doing this because they were Muslim and were demanding the US pay jizya in exchange for their ships being protected from the Barbary states themselves.

As we have posted above, and in previous posts, the practice of state-supported piracy and ransoming of captives was not wholly unusual at the time. International law said that pirates could be executed on sight. Granting a letter of marque made a pirate a legitimate member of a nation’s policy and not a pirate. This is where the Constitutional clause allowing letters of Marque came from.

Since the US was busy fighting off the French privateers at the time, they decided that it was cheaper to pay the jizya to the Barbary states than it was to fight them as well as the French. That’s what they did until 1801, when the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, citing late payments of tribute, demanded additional tribute and declared war on the United States. The US chose to stop paying the jizya and instead sent their new Navy. The Marines still sing about the resulting military action to this day. The US negotiated a halt to the raids in 1817, but they continued raiding shipping of other nations until the French finally invaded Algiers and leveled the place.

Continued Problems

What we are seeing in the Red Sea is a continuation of the Muslim desire to force everyone to either convert or pay tribute. That is why piracy is a problem in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden. The Muslims in Yemen and Iran have decided that people either pay tribute or serve them in their desires. Those morons wouldn’t be able to do anything if it weren’t for the Iranians supplying them weapons. Note that European nations’ shipping is being left alone. I wonder what that is…

The US has long taken the position that the open ocean is free for navigation. We can either try to fight another forever war of insurgency against Yemen, or we can cut their weapons off at the source- tell Iran to stop supplying missiles to terrorists or else. No need to engage in a long war- tell them to stop selling weapons to them. If the weapons continue to flow, then take out the Iranian navy. If they want to continue after that, we can bomb the missile factories. If we don’t want to do it, all we have to do is tell Israel that we will no longer hold them back from doing it themselves.

By Divemedic, ago

PLAN

The Chinese, on the other hand, are a much more credible threat. PLAN (the Chinese Navy) is large, modern, and growing. Six modern, recent nuclear submarines. The diesel submarines that can’t do well in the open ocean work quite well in the shallow waters of the China sea, and PLAN has 45 of them.

They have 46 new destroyers, 44 frigates, and 3 carriers with more under construction.

Contrast that with the US Navy. We have :

  • 11 carriers (8 of them are more than 25 years old)
  • 9 amphibious assault ships (aka baby carriers, and half of them are more than 25 years old),
  • 9 cruisers (all of them are more than 30 years old),
  • 75 destroyers (a third of them are older than 25 years), and
  • 51 submarines (half of them are more than 25 years old, but all are nuclear).

Also keep in mind that we have to monitor 2 oceans. PLAN only has to cover one. Our Navy still has a decided advantage, but the Chinese are building a lot of ships, and the US isn’t.

Nuclear Weapons

The Chinese own an estimated 600 nuclear weapons and they are expected to have double that number by 2030. It is also estimated that only 24 of them are actually deployed on delivery devices. In both cases, I say estimated because no one really knows for sure. Since they are producing roughly 120 warheads a year, they are quickly growing in capability.

Contrast that with the US stockpile of 3700 operational warheads. That seems impressive until you realize that over 1900 of those warheads are in storage and are not available for use. While the tactical nuclear arsenal could once be deployed on NATO-designated aircraft within minutes, today the readiness level is measured in months. Since 2010, when Obama signed a new nuclear policy, the US has committed to not developing new warheads. He wanted to push us to a near unilateral nuclear disarmament.

For those reasons, China will be a near peer in deliverable nuclear warheads within the next 5 to 7 years.

Too Little, Too Late?

Forcing NATO to begin providing for their own defense and providing their own nuclear umbrella is a wise move, and one that I would like to see Trump continue to pursue. China is our most dangerous and most credible adversary. Russia is in the middle of asking for North Korean assistance in order to invade Ukraine. They just aren’t in a position to threaten the entire world.

China has all of the people it needs. They are in the middle of securing access to minerals and other natural resources worldwide. There are tons of natural resources just to their north, and the only reason that they haven’t gone to go get it is that those resources belong a strong nuclear power. Once Russia collapses, it is theirs for the taking. Opposing Russia and trying to get Europe and the US to fight them is exactly what China wants.

The time to begin producing systems to defend ourselves is now, but we are too busy seeing our tax money syphoned off by greedy, corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle for that to happen.

The largest threat to the US is, in my opinion, the internal threat posed by the insurgent movement being backed by our own intelligence agencies/bureaucrats. China is our largest external threat.

By Divemedic, ago