So, today a bridge was blown up by the Taliban that is on the main supply route to Afghanistan.
The Russians announced a multi-billion dollar aid package for Kyrgystan.
Kyrgyzstan (moments later) announces that the US airbase supporting Afghan operations should be closed post-haste.
Isn’t it just amazing the coincidences???
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Ok, I know it sounds odd, but I swear I just saw 1/2 of a Submarine go past the house on top of a barge.
Moscow was apoplectic the other day when reports filtered in that a Russian soldier had been captured by Georgian forces inside South Ossetia. They demanded his immediate return claiming he was being held against his will.
Geogian forces replied by displaying him at a local McDonalds eating a Big Mac.
“I came to the Georgian side of my own will, to ask for political asylum because I had problems with the commander of my battalion,” he said.
Russia just hasn’t been the same since the arrival of the Golden Arches. It has a very powerful and strong pull for young and starving Russian conscripts.
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Got this form the scanner mailing list:
]]>All,An amazing amount of trfc assoc with both these CAPs today.Huntress controllers are really earning their salaries today.Following freqs noted: 139.7; 228.9; 350.25; 260.9; & 135.525—as well as several A-A for the Tyndall F-15s & supporting tankers–262.85; 251.25; 326.475; 277.35Add to this the various ZNY & ZDC freqs used by the tankers and ftrs as they go into and out of the CAPs and needless to say it’s VERY BUSY here today. A prelude to what we can expect on Tuesday I guess.In addition the Customs guys on 165.2375 & 350.025 are buzzing as well.
A new US military report is asking the what if question (as military reports often do) about the possible failure of the Mexican government.
The command’s “Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)” report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. “In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.
“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”
The issue of Mexico being a ‘failed state‘ is being discussed in Washington, but this is the first US military analysis of the situation that I’ve seen. You can read the full report here
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we start to see contingency plans, including military intervention, should the government of Mexico collapse. Though I don’t foresee such a situation (i.e. the destruction of the Mexican government) anytime in the near future. But if you remember what happened with Noriega in Panama, should we start to see corruption reach the highest levels of the Mexican government, could a military ‘regime change’ be a possibility?
This will be an interesting one to watch.
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Because Natural Gas just doesn’t seem to be a viable option, given that most of the supplies are locked up in Russia and Gazprom really likes to play politics. Nearly 50% of the Ukraine’s (excessive) power consumption comes from Natural Gas, and nearly 75% of those supplies are from Russia. Ukraine has quite a bit of coal, and I’m sure the US would be willing to sell them more at a very discounted rate.
However, if the Ukraine was to go all coal, just think of the black soot they could put up in the air and left drift to the East? Or maybe they could just turn off the lights now and then:
Here is Russia Today gloating about the cutoff.
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Following the Russian invasion of South Ossetia, US military officials headed over to Georgia to do a thorough review of the Georgian military. The report, leaked to the NY Times, paints a rather unflattering picture of the military in Georgia.
Georgia’s armed forces, the report said, are highly centralized, prone to impulsive rather than deliberative decision making, undermined by unclear lines of command and led by senior officials who were selected for personal relationships rather than professional qualifications.
Moreover, according to the report, Georgia’s military lacks basic elements of a modern military bureaucracy, ranging from a sound national security doctrine to clear policies for handling classified material to a personnel-management system to guide soldiers through their careers and prepare them for their jobs.
Expect to hear more of this as Obama deals with Russia in the early days of his administration.
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ARF? Ok, obviously they aren’t directed at the English-speaking world. The Animal Rescue Foundation can get away with it, but…whatever.
The Afghan Revolutionary Front claimed responsibility for a bomb scare in Paris this morning. The sticks of dynamite, no detonator, were found in a restroom in the Paris’s Printemps Haussmann department store along with a note, according to France24.
“Send the message to your president that he must withdraw his troops from our country before the end of February 2009 or else we will take action in your capitalist department stores and this time, without warning,” the letter said.
No one has heard of ARF prior to this event. In fact searches of Altavista and Yahoo return no results. Google, which is slightly faster, links only to news reports of this incident.
France is increasing it’s role in Afghanistan, hosting a conference earlier this week between Afghanistan and its neighbors to discuss some regional security issues.
UPDATE: 7 individuals with ties to ‘known Islamic Extremist groups’ have been arrested. However, France24 is reporting they are not connected to the explosives incident. Guess it was just a ‘usual suspects’ arrest.
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Ro ro past the window where will you go?
Military Sealift Command has a number of ships up in Baltimore that you can see anytime you drive through the city. But it’s actually quite rare to see them afloat, unless you are off the coast of Iraq or some other trouble spot.
Today the USNS Mendonca, a ro-ro ship past the window with the AIS Ship plotter listing its final destination as ‘To Sea’. Maybe they sense an Obama victory and are getting the ships in place to bring back the tanks?
USNS Mendonca is one of Military Sealift Command’s nineteen Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off Ships and is part of the 21 ships in the Sealift Program Office.
• Length: 950 feet
• Beam: 106 feet
• Draft: 34 feet
• Displacement: 62,069 long tons
• Speed: 24.0 knots
• Civilian: 30 contract mariners
• Government-Owned/ Chartered:
There used to be a show called Danger UXB which told the story of the bomb defusers in the UK fighting the legacy of World War II. But here’s an interesting piece from the German side of things, published today in Der Spiegel.
In the whole of Germany, more than 2,000 tons of American and British aerial bombs and all sorts of munitions ranging from German hand grenades and tank mines to Russian artillery shells are recovered each year.
Kind of interesting is the reason some didn’t go off. Soil conditions and gravity prevented some of the chemical triggers from activating 60 years ago.
]]>An estimated 20,000 delay-action bombs were dropped on Oranienburg during the war because it had a suspected atomic bomb research site, the Heinkel aircraft factory and a pharmaceutical plant. They were designed to explode between two and 146 hours after hitting the ground, to disrupt clearing up work and cause chaos.
But many failed to go off because Oranienburg has soft soil with a hard layer of gravel underneath. That meant bombs would penetrate the earth, bounce off the gravel and come to rest underground with their tips pointing back upwards. In that position gravity stops the chemical detonators from working. They contain a vial of acetone which bursts on impact and is meant to trickle down and dissolve a celluloid disk that keeps back the cocked firing pin.
But when the bomb is pointed upwards, the acetone seeps away from the celluloid, leaving only the vapors to wear the disk down.