Remember when I told you that the US military was going to use immigrants in the military, so they could be sure that the troops would follow orders to fire on American citizens?
Military
Using the Military to Blackmail R’s
The US military is being used as a bargaining chip against Republicans by the Biden administration. The military has announced that it doesn’t have enough money to buildup arms in the area of the middle east. That is total bullshit.
First, everyone that is in the military gets paid, fed, and treated for medical problems whether they are in the Middle East, or sitting on their asses stateside.
Second, between missing recruiting goals and all of the people they kicked out for refusing the vaccine, the military is below their budgeted personnel strength by tens of thousands, meaning that they are under budget by tens of millions of dollars.
Third, it’s the beginning of the fiscal year. They have money.
Fourth, the nuclear powered ships don’t cost anything to deploy. Their reactor fuel lasts for decades.
Fifth, the conventional ships spend more than half of their time sailing around in pointless circles. They can do that over there at the same cost as they do on this side of the world. In fact, one of the battle groups (the Eisenhower) was scheduled to be there anyway.
In the end, we are talking about a single battlegroup and a couple of aircraft squadrons. How much can that really cost? This is posturing intended to put pressure on Republicans to give Biden his budget money.
Military
Interesting
The following picture is a reason why we as a nation should stay out of our troublesome meddling.
You have to ask yourself where Hamas dude got himself an M4. I wonder if it recently came from Afghanistan.
EDITED TO ADD: BCE has a better explanation. See comments. My bad. Can’t always hit them out of the park.
Military
Out of Supplies
How will we ever be able to fight a war and expect to have enough munitions when we have so many problems getting uniforms that the Marines don’t even have enough uniforms to wear?
Military
Ghosts in the Machine
What did you watch on Saturday?
It’s what the Spec War troops are up to. How will this be used, and how is it being used, in this nation?
Military
Unimpeachable
From commenter D, we get this comment:
The state sees cops as “unimpeachable witnesses” meaning whatever they say is gospel unless you can prove otherwise.
For this reason, I will always side with my fellow citizen and give him or her the benefit of the doubt.
When I was in the Navy, we had a commanding officer who was incredibly authoritarian, Captain Macke. He was a douche, but retired after getting his fourth star. More on that in a minute. Why was he a douche? He would hold Article 15 (Captain’s Mast) like this:
They would put all of the accused on an aircraft elevator at the hanger deck level, maybe 20 or 30 of them, and the Captain would be standing behind a lectern on the flight deck. They would raise the elevator to the flight deck, and the Captain would say: “You all must be guilty, or your officers wouldn’t have sent you here. I find you guilty as charged. You are hereby reduced in rank one paygrade, fined one half pay for two months, restricted to the ship for 45 days, and 2 hours of extra duty every day for 45 days, to be served under the duty master at arms. Dismissed.” (This is the maximum punishment he can give without a courts martial)
The reason that this is important is that Macke believed that officers were absolutely unimpeachable. One of the things he used to say was, “If I have 100 enlisted men with 100 video cameras that show me 100 videos of something taking place, and I have one officer who tells me that isn’t how it happened, I will believe the officer every time.”
Of course, it’s also telling that he retired after being investigated by the Defense Department inspector general for allegations that he used military aircraft for personal trips and improperly fraternized with female subordinates while he was CINCPAC. They dropped him two paygrades for that. His new civilian job appeared to be using his military contacts and influence to arrange funding and lucrative government contracts. So much for unimpeachable officers. The best thing that I can say about the hypocritical sunovabitch is that he died last year.
So you’ll excuse me if I don’t buy into the “unimpeachable officer” trope.
Military
Pencil Pusher
The new CNO for the Navy is a diversity hire pencil pusher whose only real qualification is the possession of a vagina. Let me illustrate: She was assigned to no fewer than 9 seagoing ships and command groups during her 38 years in the Navy, but has only received 2 Sea Service Deployment ribbons. The rest of her decorations are bullshit awards for being good at ass kissing her superiors.
the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal (two awards), Legion of Merit (five awards), Meritorious Service Medal (five awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (four awards), and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards).
I was only in the Navy for six years and received three sea service deployment ribbons. My opinions on:
Military
Activating the Reserves
Most people think that you join the military for a term of 2, 3, or 4 years. What people who haven’t served in the US military usually don’t know is that everyone really signs up for 8 years. What people think of as their 2, 3, or 4 year ‘hitch’ is merely the active duty part of their contract. You can begin serving that active duty part of it immediately, or you can wait up to 12 months to report. That’s in your contract as well. When you are done with that active duty commitment, what happens to the time that is left?
The military owns your ass for it, that’s what. If they want you to come back, you come back. That is exactly what is happening to 450 unlucky people this month as Biden issues orders to call up 3,000 reservists, up to 450 of whom can be people who recently thought they were done. Where are they headed, you ask?
Europe, to join the other 100,000 troops already there. Gotta be ready for Biden’s big war in Ukraine. They are going to use the catchy name from 2014- Operation Atlantic Resolve. Can’t kill thousands of people in a military adventure without a catchy name.
Biden’s boys are careful to mention that the troops aren’t going to the Ukraine. Nope, they are joining the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team. The base that the brigade is operating from is called Camp Herkus:
I’m sure that you won’t be surprised to find out that this camp is in Pabrade, Lithuania. Now Pabrade is just 3.5 miles from Lithuania’s border with Belarus. That also places them less than 400 miles west of the suburbs of Moscow, and 110 miles from the eastern end of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The red pin is where the Brigade is based:
When you find out that the US opened the base in August of 2021, then remember that the US started moving troops into Europe at about the same time, and you can begin to understand why the Russians finally decided to get pissed off and invade Ukraine six months later. How would Americans react if the Russians decided to place an armored brigade 100 miles from the Canadian border? Perhaps Putin isn’t the dictatorial asshole he is being painted as?
Consider that an Armored Brigade Combat Team is what used to be called a heavy armored brigade. The armored brigade combat team (ABCT) is the army’s primary armored force, and is the largest brigade combat team formation with 4,743 soldiers. An ABCT includes 87 Abrams, 152 Bradley IFVs, 18 M109s and 45 armed M113 vehicles. It is a formidable unit, and carries a lot of firepower, all of it on the northern border with Belarus.
On the western border with Belarus is Poland. What’s there, you ask? The US First Army, with the potent V Corps has its headquarters there.
As a part of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), four NATO multinational battalion battlegroups are stationed in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. On the eve of the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in addition to expanding the high readiness force with 40,000. up to 300 thousand soldiers announced to increase the potential of the battle groups to the level of brigades.
Last month, Poland began moving elements of its 12th and 17th Mechanized Brigades to its eastern border with Belarus. These are the same brigades that were just upgraded to the Abrams.
With tens of thousands of NATO troops massing on the border, it makes sense that the Russians are putting tactical nukes in Belarus.
Biden is pushing for a war with Russia, and Russia will have little choice but to use nuclear weapons in the face of division sized armored forces pushing towards his capitol city. If the US does the stupid thing, there is little chance of avoiding the use of at least a few tactical nukes.
I am old enough to remember when the Democrats were opposed to nuclear war.