From Friend in KF OR, not an SFFer
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Posted:Apr 26, 2017 6:12 pm
Last Updated:Sep 20, 2017 6:11 am 2842 Views
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I wasn't part of the front line forces...
How Desert Storm Destroyed the US Military
The US military that won Desert Storm or Gulf War I in 1991 was a spectacular military, a gargantuan industrial age military with high tech weaponry and well trained personnel, that when called upon, achieved victory with the speed of Patton and the elan of Teddy Roosevelt.
Overlooking the vast eight mile carnage on the Highway of Death in Kuwait, destruction that was caused by a US Air Force and Navy that bore almost no resemblance to the two services today, a sergeant in the 7th US Cavalry remarked, “America sure got its money’s worth from those Joes.”
In 44 days, the largest military force assembled by the US and its allies since Normandy destroyed the world’s fourth largest army in a brilliantly led, fabulously executed air and ground war in the sands of the Middle East.
The ghosts of Vietnam were vanquished by men who had experienced the horrors and strategic errors of that war and who inculcated those lessons to the personnel they led. Both General Colin Powell and the late General Norman Schwarzkopf had both served multiple tours in Vietnam and their experiences there made them highly skeptical of the press/Media and its intentions.
Therefore, no reporters were embedded with combat units during the war.
The civilian world was given a Nintendo video game, sanitized version of a war; while albeit short, had many elements of the nastiness of wars past, but appeared to be nothing more than a high tech cake walk.
Because there were no journalists/talking heads in the field, the world never saw H.R McMaster, the President’s National Security Adviser, who was then a captain in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, fighting the Tawakalna Division of the Saddam's Republican Guard at a now famous grid line dubbed the 73 Easting. On McMaster’s left flank, the scouts from the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry were also battling the Tawakalna and the ghosts of the Little Big Horn, at a nameless speck of desert landscape known as Phase Line Bu!!!et.
Later that night, grunts and tankers from the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, hit the Guard at Objective Norfolk and before the night was over, found themselves engaged in close quarters fighting with fanatical Iraqi Republican Guardsmen in a place most of them want to forget, but can’t. Two days before, the Big Red One had spent the opening hours of the war burying Iraqis in the trenches alive with bulldozers.
On G Day +3, the US 1st Armored Division hammered the Iraqi Al-Medina Division of the Republican Guard at a place now known as Medina Ridge. The Battle of Medina Ridge was to date the largest tank battle since Kursk in 1943.
Yet, the world saw none of those battles being fought as they saw no Marines storming through Kuwait. There were no journalists/media talking heads; hence no video, no film, no photos; nothing to show the world except a few shots of B Roll of the Iraqi Army surrendering to Marines on the border. Social Media and the internet had not been invented, just 1-hour photo shops with rolls of pictures showing contorted bodies burned to a crisp, smoking heaps that were once vehicles, abandoned Iraqi tanks, etc. To the American public, the Iraqis were surrendering en masse, when in actuality the Republican Guard was going down with the ship. For example, the 10,000 man Tawakalna Division was virtually annihilated, including the division commander who died in an artillery barrage on the night of February 26, 1991.
While General Schwarkopf’s power point presentations enlightened the world, the soldiers and Marines found themselves in a Dante’s Inferno, with smoldering vehicles, dead Iraqi soldiers strewn over tank turrets in a man-made darkness of oil fires that smothered any sunlight and the vast remnants of an army, which littered the battlefield: rifles, helmets, sundry equipment and arms and legs that were picked at by packs of roving wild dogs. War is hell…but the American public never knew. Again, no Social Media and no talking heads.
The day Desert Storm ended, the death of the US military commenced.
The Pentagon, basking in glory and bowing to pressure from the public and crackpot feminists like Patricia Schroeder, started drinking the Kool Aid and they’ve never stopped. The war was a video game, a clean, quick rout. Modern war was now sanitized, where the bad guys would die at stand-off ranges of a mile or two and explode in little black and white pixels on Pentagon TV screens. In fact, war was now so quick and so easy that women should be allowed to serve in the combat arms and Special Forces.
During Viet Nam, returning soldiers were spit upon by liberals, and since Persian Gulf War, the liberals have, figuratively spit upon and marginalized our military. Our victory in Desert Storm became the catalyst for every left wing wacko to hack at the military with a meat cleaver.
Since, 1991, the US military has been slowly coming apart at the seams. Stress cards, open homosexuality, transgenders on active duty, sensitivity training, pregnancy simulators for male troopers, lactation stations in the field, babies born on US ships of war, female graduates of Ranger School, including a 37 year old mother (it’s funny how the women looked so well fed), women in the SEALs, women in Marine infantry units and females in the field artillery (even though most cannot carry a 155mm round) are just some of the insanity that has taken place in the last 26 years, but which snowballed into hell under the Obama administration.
A social revolution engulfed the military, starting with Tailhook and continuing to this day. Warriors were forced out and feather merchants and PC flag bearers were promoted. Girl power was in and masculinity was out. The assumption is that "electronics" can easily replace "brute strength, testosterone, and a disciplined mind" was now the culture. The warrior culture was buried and a new culture was reborn that resembles corporate America, not the US military of yesteryear.
No, General Kennedy, it’s not your father’s army and that’s a problem, a big, festering problem.
And, now, with the world in flames, with ISIS blowing up Europe, with Putin pumping weights in the Artic while he watches his BMP’s on skis roll by, with Kim Jong-Loon on the loose with a toy chest of nukes and missiles and with Iran figuring out that Trump ain’t Barney Fife, the US military needs to be rougher and tougher and more ready for a fight than ever.
And, we ain’t. And, that’s the fact, Jack.
Many are waiting for Mad Mattis to stick a pike in the heart of the military’s social engineering forever. We are still waiting…
Perhaps, Secretary Mattis is so busy dealing with the thugs on the planet, that he has forgotten that the armed forces that will be engaging the thugs is still in trouble.
Secretary Mattis must once and for all shut down the feminist fantasy of women in the combat arms. There are thousands of jobs for truly competent, talented women in the military where they can serve honorably and be promoted, without, in Mattis’ own words, ‘setting themselves up for failure in combat.’
Mattis also needs to get rid of the perfumed princes, and the feckless duds who have infested the senior ranks of the armed forces. I would rather have a sergeant with guts running a division than a two star coward who is more worried about his pension and future job on cable news than the mission and the troops.
The US military is still being led by people who believe that the military is nothing different than working for Google, except that the military has uniforms and weapons. When you eschew the glorious traditions of the military and combine that with ludicrous social engineering, you are setting yourself up for massive failure.
While the US military interpreted the results of Desert Storm incorrectly, the real lessons from that conflict are crystal clear. The US military functioned well in an environment that focused on the mission, not on political correctness, LGBT rights, day care centers on submarines and breastfeeding Rangers.
With our enemies stacking up against us, time is running out to fix the problems which were initially caused by a victory 26 years ago, in a war that has largely been forgotten
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Oroville
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Posted:Mar 2, 2017 11:51 am
Last Updated:Sep 20, 2017 6:12 am 4455 Views
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Disclaimer... I never been there, 2 hour drive away, and I don't know of anyone I know involved. A private citizen Juan Browne aka "blancolirio" on YouTube has been putting out some great info & pictures and running commentary on the whole situation, which BTW would be dire if the rain had continued. It is an interesting situation to say the least. The takeaway for me is 2-fold. The voters in CA voted in a railroad to nowhere that is billions over budget already instead of maintaining dam spillways, for instance. I blame the media for being complicit in the deception promoting such a boondoggle. Secondly, the clear-cutting of timber is more extensive than I realized, even though I have ranted about the trees by the truckload going towards the ports on I-80 continuously. So, where have all the tree huggers been. As an aside 'my union' brought this to my attention after they assisted Ami Bera elected, then he sold out the unions and CA sending this resource overseas. The clearcut is in the high country where the water flow begins into the reservoirs. I am all for cutting trees and milling them HERE, and cutting conservatively. As far as Climate change is concerned, the Govt may have been diddling with the weather for a lot of years, and IF there is anything crazy going on it is Mother Nature pushing back, NOT 'Ranger' (and others) driving SUVs. It so fits for a guy like AlGore to fabricate a distraction to take the people's mind away from reality. You can see it TODAY in all the FAKE NEWS 
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tribute to Sully
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Posted:Sep 12, 2016 1:52 pm
Last Updated:Aug 5, 2018 1:36 pm 7293 Views
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today on a radio ad hearing Hanks methodically read a script, I decided this is another movie I can't wait to miss.
"Fly by Wire: The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson"… by William Langewiesche tells the story in detail. Granted it has been awhile since I read this, but is an interesting look at the miracle that was that day, rather than more emotional mastrabation from Hollywood (and i reserve the right to change my mind if i ever see the movie and find it compelling)
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“sanctity of life”
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Posted:Jun 12, 2016 1:23 pm
Last Updated:Aug 5, 2018 1:38 pm 6768 Views
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so what do you do when one "sacred cow" kills many "sacred cows". I guess we see what we want. "Would you care to explain your comment??" No, I think it is self evident. Its bigger than our feelings narratives and opinions
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what happened in your town today
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Posted:Apr 23, 2016 5:25 pm
Last Updated:Apr 28, 2016 8:28 pm 6521 Views
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Was a nice day here, cool, sunny. Lawnmowers, leaf blower (no, an actual one), a few sirens, people talking, cars, motorcycles, the 'Solar Impulse' (.com) on the way here. Well, landing 70 miles away from here or so, as the glider flies. In contrast to the Space Shuttle that circles the globe a time or two on its landing approach, the Solar Impulse is doing about 31.5 knots groundspeed last time I looked. I had forgotten about it after the landing in Hawaii months ago and heard today he took off 2 days ago on leg niner of the electric powered record setting flight around the earth. From France I think. Along for the ride of course the banner for climate change, based (in my opinion) on the generosity of the sponsors necessary to make such a bold and remarkable machine and event reality. Fascinating to me but I will probably sleep through the midnight landing and wish them well
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gathering storm
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Posted:Mar 18, 2016 12:23 pm
Last Updated:Mar 19, 2016 11:00 am 6505 Views
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if you want things to continue along as they are, and peacefulness, vote Democrat (or loser GOP candidate). Chances are you are a pacifistic and irrelevant and your only hope of a future is someone going to war at some point on your behalf, no matter the scale. Trump may have much more to worry about than fact checker gut punches, a deceptive media and ridicule. And the rub is a Trump vote is not necessarily one intended to go to blows. Trumps' 'opposition' are his 'devotees' definition of their frustration. Of course some think Trump would be just another Democrat.. then why the gathering storm and fierce opposition from the momentum machine of Obama
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"Death or Oogabooga?"
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Posted:Mar 3, 2016 10:24 am
Last Updated:Aug 3, 2017 9:18 pm 6562 Views
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Three men were flying in a small plane over the ocean, when all of a sudden the engines cut out and they are forced to make an emergency landing near a small island. They are then greeted by some very hostile natives who take them before the big chief. The big chief asks the 1st man, "Death or Oogabooga?" The 1st man says, "I don't know what the hell Oogabooga is, but it's got to be better than death, so I choose Oogabooga." The chief then orders all the native men to sodomize the 1st man. The chief then asks the second man, "Death or Oogabooga?" The 2nd man doesn't like the sound of either one now, but still chooses Oogabooga over being killed, and he to is sodomized. Finally the chief asks the 3rd man, "Death or Oogabooga?" He has already decided that he would rather die than to be sodomized, so he says confidently, "DEATH!" So big chief says, "OK, death by Oogabooga!"
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Hope & Change
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Posted:Mar 1, 2016 10:41 am
Last Updated:May 8, 2017 12:54 pm 6322 Views
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RUSH is hitting on all 8 cylinders today. And it came to me listening, that since GWB it has been 'us' who have been consumed with hope/chg. McCain, Romney, Now.. that is all we got! H&C. Again BHO has bested us with HIS slogan. During GWB huge momentum was gained by the demoncrats and in 2008 the REAL slogan was "Lets keep it going!". And that is exactly what Hilda is saying out loud. Trump is the only one being taken serious as.. "Lets turn this around". Like him or not. It is coming down to a choice, such as Sophie's.. (no gender reference intended) not a comfortable one
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Trump defense
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Posted:Feb 29, 2016 1:12 pm
Last Updated:Aug 3, 2017 9:28 pm 6313 Views
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A movie line from a Clint Eastwood directed movie in Savannah goes something like "..he pisses off all the right people.." Why do you guys feel at this stage of the games that you have to join the biased media ridiculing Trump? It is obvious to everybody he comes across as a buffoon, but look at the terror he has brought BHO and Hildabeaste. Sounded like BHO had a hard time reading his lines in the photo op today. And who can deny the terror in the GOP by the RNO machine. Trump is the ONLY candidate on the table that can beat Hillary
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Canada offense
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Posted:Feb 29, 2016 1:04 pm
Last Updated:Aug 3, 2017 9:22 pm 6379 Views
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I heard on a local radio show this morning it is against the law in Canada to criticize their government publicly. If not true can someone say something they don't like about Canada's government besides criticizing the neighbors south. Similar law in Great Britain?
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