Politics

[Altitude sickness]

Here are the Cliffsnotes

The three main ideas from The Communist Manifesto are class conflict, ephemeral capitalism, and inevitable revolution. Marx and Engel focused on class conflict.

Rich and poor
Black and White
LGBTQ
Men competing with women

 

[Altitude sickness]

Now let’s take it out of DC

Here are the Evil orange man’s kids. Their father will end the Republic

I won’t even show you our other candidate son. We’ve all seen that disaster

I know which candidate or the offspring I would sit in a room and have a beer with And who I would politely stand up and walk out.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

US Navy helicopters destroy Houthi boats in Red Sea after attempted hijack

The US military says it responded after a vessel came under attack near Yemen twice in 24 hours.

www.bbc.com

 

[Altitude sickness]

.375 Ruger,
Our Navy is pretty much on autopilot for this contingency. This is why they exist. And I’ll guarantee they are eating it up. With the exception of being on a 6-10 month West-PAC. Being away from family

https://media.defense.gov/2020/Dec/16/2002553074/-1/-1/0/TRISERVICESTRATEGY.PDF

 

[cash_tx]

US Navy helicopters destroy Houthi boats in Red Sea after attempted hijack

The US military says it responded after a vessel came under attack near Yemen twice in 24 hours.

www.bbc.com

The part of this that bothers me is the apparently restrictive rules of engagement. Did our helicopters really have to wait until they themselves were fired upon before firing; why could they not engage immediately upon seeing a civilian commercial shipping vessel under attack? Or am I just not reading this right?

 

[Altitude sickness]

It would depend on the exact location. International waters or not and if the US ship was threatened.

If it’s a merchant ship, they would need to ask for help. The U.S. Navy are not hired Pinkerton’s.

But there to protect the open sea lanes. Then it’s up to the ships captain to make the call and answer for it.

 

[Red Leg]

US Navy helicopters destroy Houthi boats in Red Sea after attempted hijack

The US military says it responded after a vessel came under attack near Yemen twice in 24 hours.

www.bbc.com

Our Arliegh-Burke class destroyers have performed brilliantly to date swatting down drones and anti-ship missiles. However, as long as we continue to play shortstop, one will eventually get through.

I am certain the targeting of the missile and drone launch and storage points is extraordinarily thorough and updated by the minute. Reconnaissance has been following those small boats in and out of their harbor launch points. The command and control nodes used by the Houthi leadership and local commanders have been pinpointed to the centimeter. I am equally certain that both Admiral Cooper (Commander of Fifth Fleet) and General Kurilla (CENTCOM) are begging permission to strike those targets - something that could and would be done with cruise missiles and JDAMs at very low risk.

Regrettably, we do not have a Commander of Chief making those decisions. Instead, his National Security Advisor seems entrusted with that role. As evidenced in Ukraine, he is extraordinarily cautious. It is not, I suppose, surprising. He has no military or diplomatic experience. He is an election lawyer and strategists. For him conflict is seen through the prism of the next presidential election. Along with every other consideration going into a strike decision, the effect of "starting a war" on the election in November is very high on his concern list.

To be fair, the political impact would be on any National Security Advisor's mind as recommendations were made to the President. However, their primary concern, based on the typical experience of a NSA would be polmil and not purely political.

 

[Altitude sickness]

^^^^^^ !!!!!

 

[flying sailor]

My half cent opinion. You have to wonder with all the press attacks on Trump, constantly, how bad is he? Never heard these attacks on the Clintons or Obama, even with all the rumors swirling around before and after the elections. The Soviets have a saying which has much truth in it-" The fish rots from the head."

 

[John Wasmuth]

My only beef with Trump is he just doesn’t know when to rearrange the words coming out of his mouth. He did a lot of good things while in office. He failed by not prosecuting HRC, by not firing every hold over from the previous administration, by not prosecuting Comey and the rest of them. I’ve yet to see him actually say “I’ll spend my entire second term prosecuting my enemies”, because it’s fiction and I don’t believe half of the bull shit speed by the TDS crowd. He’s being persecuted by the left, by the right and those in the middle. I think somebody is just butt hurt cause he fired some bodies friends cause they were full of shit……

 

[flatwater bill]

New Year's eve:.........
Anyone here remember 4 years of peace?
Blessings to all.............FWB

 

[Red Leg]

I can't think of any since Eisenhower's second term. Clinton had the whole Eastern European experience, along with selective strikes at Afghanistan and Somalia. Bush of course initiated our post 911 adventures. Obama was custodian to those and did shepherd Iraq to some level of post-war stability. Trump inherited Afghanistan and initiated our kinetic relationship with Syria with attacks on Syrian airbases, ISIS cadres, and even a battle with Wagner forces. He also initiated the conditions that led to our eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan. But happy New Year.

 

[Corey0372]

I am not sure. Maybe the Clinton administration? Obviously no one post 911. Even Trump still had Afghanistan on his plate and initiated our kinetic interest in Syria while engaging ISIS and the Syrian government.

Technically not even the Clinton admin if you include the Balkan Wars and Somalia,

 

[Red Leg]

Technically not even the Clinton admin if you include the Balkan Wars and Somalia,

You are correct and just changed it while you were posting. Hell, I was even over there for a couple of weeks working out how MLRS ATACMS could support Apache deep ops.

 

[Corey0372]

I can't think of any since Eisenhower's second term. Clinton had the whole Eastern European experience, along with selective strikes at Afghanistan and Somalia. Bush of course initiated our post 911 adventures. Obama was custodian to those and did shepherd Iraq to some level of post-war stability. Trump inherited Afghanistan and initiated our kinetic relationship with Syria with attacks on Syrian airbases, ISIS cadres, and even a battle with Wagner forces. He also initiated the conditions that led to our eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan. But happy New Year.

I would also say Trump didn't initiate kinetic operations in Syria, that he inherited as well,

 

[mark-hunter]

But there to protect the open sea lanes. Then it’s up to the ships captain to make the call and answer for it.

Now is 10 nations Navy coalition fleet there.
Generally, yes, ship master sends mayday call, when under attack.

During piracy crises in Aden, reporting was different, so they could implement other ways of reporting in this situation.

During Aden Piracy crisis (immediate post Captain Phillips time)
Voluntary reporting scheme was to send security information in advance to coalition fleet center, with ship details, spec, planned route, crew details and anti piracy internal contingency plan.
Coalition warships could be called any time.
Reporting of suspect pirate vessels to the coalition warships fleet, enforced.

There was an option to navigate in convoys under Navy escort.
Voluntary sailing in convoys formed based on vessels speed, at agreed time (8 kts. 10 kts, etc) under Navy escort.
It was known that slow speed vessels are high risk to be attacked. Majority of ships attacks was against tankers and bulkers up to 12 knots.
Pirats successful boarding on vessels up to 15 knots, attempts to board 18 knots.
Vessels over 18 kts, low risk.

 

[Red Leg]

Back to Ukraine, and another of these monumentally stupid Russian assaults. It is hard to decide who is the least competent - the battalion or brigade commander who ordered it or the captain attempting to carry it out. In this case, four BMPs are sent into the attack across open ground in broad daylight. Each BMP is carrying 6-8 infantrymen inside plus the three-man crew.

Vehicle one hits a mine and the explosion is large enough to have killed or wounded everyone aboard. Vehicle two continues forward drives to one side of the destroyed vehicle and hits another anti-tank mine with almost certainly similar results. Vehicle three pulls up behind the other two, stops and is promptly hit with an anti-tank missile or RPG. Three or four of these troops are able to bail out, but come under immediate direct automatic weapons fire. The fourth BMP turns around and attempts to flee, only to be nailed by a Ukrainian tank that emerges from the tree-line to clean up the remnants of the attacking force. The tank then makes a hell of a thousand yard shot at a moving target. It too was catastrophically destroyed with everyone on board that one being incinerated in the resulting ammunition and fuel fire.

Criminal use of soldiers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/18vu88l

 

[Altitude sickness]

Doesn’t that show you that the forward control is non existent. Either there were no experienced soldiers/leaders in those vehicles or leading them from behind.

Could they have been poorly trained civilians pressed into action?

 

[flying sailor]

My only beef with Trump is he just doesn’t know when to rearrange the words coming out of his mouth. He did a lot of good things while in office. He failed by not prosecuting HRC, by not firing every hold over from the previous administration, by not prosecuting Comey and the rest of them. I’ve yet to see him actually say “I’ll spend my entire second term prosecuting my enemies”, because it’s fiction and I don’t believe half of the bull shit speed by the TDS crowd. He’s being persecuted by the left, by the right and those in the middle. I think somebody is just butt hurt cause he fired some bodies friends cause they were full of shit……

You have nailed it right on the head.

 

[cash_tx]

Back to Ukraine, and another of these monumentally stupid Russian assaults. It is hard to decide who is the least competent - the battalion or brigade commander who ordered it or the captain attempting to carry it out. In this case, four BMPs are sent into the attack across open ground in broad daylight. Each BMP is carrying 6-8 infantrymen inside plus the three-man crew.

Vehicle one hits a mine and the explosion is large enough to have killed or wounded everyone aboard. Vehicle two continues forward drives to one side of the destroyed vehicle and hits another anti-tank mine with almost certainly similar results. Vehicle three pulls up behind the other two, stops and is promptly hit with an anti-tank missile or RPG. Three or four of these troops are able to bail out, but come under immediate direct automatic weapons fire. The fourth BMP turns around and attempts to flee, only to be nailed by a Ukrainian tank that emerges from the tree-line to clean up the remnants of the attacking force. The tank then makes a hell of a thousand yard shot at a moving target. It too was catastrophically destroyed with everyone on board that one being incinerated in the resulting ammunition and fuel fire.

Criminal use of soldiers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/18vu88l

When that first vehicle blew, it was crazy to see that dark piece of something go flying for what appeared to be a couple hundred yards. Wow!