The new Battle for Guadalcanal? Tip to Instapundit.
While most of the Russian regional volunteer units are worthless, "the Russians are trying is to take the most promising of the recently recruited regional battalions and organizing them into the 3rd Corps, which has the most modern tanks and IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles), small arms and equipment in general and paying these new soldiers well and on time to be shock troops able to actually push the Ukrainians back." I assume the "corps" is a division-sized force. And it won't be very good.
I have never understood why Democrats say Republicans are hypocrites for taking advantage of government programs Republicans oppose. Those Republicans also pay taxes they oppose. And Democrats who want higher taxes don't voluntarily pay more--which they can do--absent a law establishing that higher tax. Laws apply to everyone. Or should, anyway.
Russia claims Western sanctions are not working and that Russia is fine. Is it a Potemkin defense industry?
Yeah, I don't pin my hopes on Putin losing power/dying. A replacement could be worse. Don't count on a democrat rising from that power structure. Just hope someone unwilling to bolster Putin's glory and instead cut Russia's losses. Remember, restoring economic ties can be the "reward" for retreating and accepting Ukraine's victory.
Well that's awkward: "Russia is losing control of the 20 percent of Ukrainian territory they occupy. Even in areas (Crimea and Donbas) occupied since 2014) the inhabitants are refusing to support the Russian war effort. Currently, few Ukrainians or Russians living in Crimea or Donbas are willing to join the military or police."
Are Russian KIA higher than thought? Ukraine now believes Russia's wounded-to-killed ratio is 2:1. Which reflects exploding tanks and really poor medical care. Ukraine says its own ratio is 4.5:1. Or the wounded are far fewer than we think. Russia hides the information for a reason.
That's disturbing: "[It appears Russia cannot obtain enough troops to win in Ukraine, much
less stop the Ukrainian offensive. The Russian response is to
deliberately target economic targets. If the Russians can’t have it, the
Russians are trying to ensure that the Ukrainians can’t either." If Ukraine pushes Russia out, Russia will have done what I thought made more sense than a big invasion.
Russia is holding its big Vostok military drills focused on "potential threat from the direction of the Pacific Ocean." I bet. For the first time China is sending air, ground, and naval forces to participate in Vostok. This is not a sign of alliance. This is China getting a closer look at how bad Russia's forces in the Far East are. Opportunity is knocking.
Via Instapundit, Kazakhstan is halting all military exports for a year. I guess Kazakhstan really doesn't want to be next on Putin's list. Does Kazakhstan have much of a defense industry? Moments later after a quick search, huh.
The seduction of the flag officers. I'm worried. Sadly, I don't expect the logical solution.
How Iran fights Israel to the last Arab. To be fair, those particular Arabs are eager to kill Jews.
So our government experts were afraid of offending gay men by giving Monkeypox advice that the gay men figured out and are doing. What would we do without experts?
The government-formation stalemate has come to this: "Explosions and rocket fire blasted Baghdad's Green Zone on August 29 after hundreds of supporters of influential Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed government buildings as tensions soared between Sadrists and rival Iran-backed Shi'ite groups." Phase IX of the Battle for Iraq continues. And Sadr is supposed to be the good guy in this. We'll see. The least-bad, I'll concede, given Iran is on the other side. But no retreat from our embassy.
Will America help Ukraine enough to win? Sometimes I wonder if the level is intended to absolve the administration of blame. That may not be fair given how much we have helped. And I've been pleasantly surprised. But I can't shake that worry.
India and Russia don't need dollars to trade. That works as long as the trade is fairly balanced. Piling up the other's currency in vaults doesn't seem that valuable.
Indeed: "Clashes between U.S. troops and Iran-backed militias in Syria this month have prompted new scrutiny of the Pentagon’s mission in Syria, as tit-for-tat strikes threaten to escalate tensions in the region." Americans should decide why our troops might fight and die there.
"All" the military aid America has sent to Ukraine. Javelins are not surface-to-air missiles. They are anti-tank missiles.
At least the Army isn't recruiting from prisons. So we've got that going for us.
Exoskeletons for troops handling heavy loads. That sounds good. What won't work is one for marching infantry. If the exoskeleton allows troops to carry 100 pounds more, senior officers will add 100 more pounds of equipment and supplies to carry. And when the exoskeleton breaks ...
Terrorists rise in Afghanistan.
Committing war crimes to try to suppress growing Ukrainian civilian resistance to Russia.
The lunatics are in charge: "Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold says Republicans plan to
attack Americans' right to vote if they are able to win this year's
midterm elections."
As I've said for a long time now, the most significant election "rigging" in 2020 was the media's cooperation with Democrats to hurt Trump and sustain the meat sack hiding in the basement with a (D) after his name.
India balances between the West and Russia over Ukraine. I give India some slack. India needs Russian weapons to face China. And India might be the power that can "flip" Russia. India is seeking relevant lessons, of course.
AFRICOM has a lot to do. And it's the economy-of-force command.
Would somebody please alert the Marines? "The Solomon Islands will no longer allow U.S. naval vessels access to its ports pending "updates in protocol procedures," according to the U.S. Embassy in Australia." Is China updating the protocol? #Smart Diplomacy®
I still don't understand why America isn't pumping and digging up as much fossil fuel energy as we can to help Europe this winter. Is Europe telling us they'll be fine? And even if true, what about poorer countries? How will they do without sufficient energy?
I'd love to blame Biden, but I don't think that flooding Ukraine with weapons before Russia invaded would have deterred Russia. Putin, backed by his intelligence people, believed Ukraine would welcome Russian troops. Putin would have just thought he'd do better than the Taliban in grabbing American weapons.
Good: "Russia has faced technical problems with Iranian-made drones acquired from Tehran this month for use in its war with Ukraine, according to Biden administration officials."
This TDI post is interesting and in part mirrors my 2004 amateur efforts on Iraqi insurgent effectiveness (you have to go to the September 14, 2004 entry in this massive monthly compilation):
His measure said there was a big drop after the November battle for Fallujah. I believe I ended my effort when I read definitions of "attacks" changed. But the methodology was in the right direction. And yeah, as I followed the war I figured we were defeating the insurgencies (Lord, my posts could be long then). Do read it all.
Uh oh. How long can I delay buying gasoline?
I'm so old I remember when it was horrible to question the Patriotism of the other political party. Let's go, Brandon! Unless the Democrats want to use the speech to 25th Amendment the man.
Heads should roll in the Pentagon if we haven't ramped up ammunition production to replenish stocks sent to Ukraine since the war began six months ago. We have been granted the gift of knowing a weakness. Fix it.
Via Instapundit, Britain's carrier Prince of Wales has broken down and will be out for repairs for "a significant period". The British have organized their shrinking fleet around a carrier task force. What's left when the carrier is gone?
Iran captured an American sea drone in the Persian Gulf but dropped their tow only when American forces showed up. That's a problem, as I noted: "How does an unmanned ship react to an Iranian boarding party? The unmanned vessels should have the ability to detonate. Perhaps Iran losing a boarding party will deter future efforts to take one of them."
Can we double-crop a lot of our fields for more food? I know way too little to know if we should do this all the time or whether soil is depleted too much for more than an emergency situation. What about the fertilizer for that? Isn't that a problem now, too? And why don't we have the same urgency for fossil fuels?
Tigray rebels vowed to keep fighting Ethiopia's government.
The Coast Guard is helping African countries with coastal water control skills.
Gorbachev died. Yes, let's all be grateful that the last communist ruler of the USSR didn't unleash a global nuclear war to defend a hideous, brutal, failing system. Excuse me if I don't fling panties at his memory. May he rot in the Hell he so richly deserves with the rest of his Marxist predecessors.
Huh: "Environment officials from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations met Wednesday on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali for talks on climate action[.]" Question. Did they all fly there?
Germany says it is prepared to get through the winter despite Russia throttling energy imports. Other Europeans seem cautiously optimistic. Good.
Yeah: "For all my disagreements with the MAGA folks, they’re not the American Taliban. If they were the Taliban, Biden would’ve already surrendered."
I strictly follow the DiCaprio dating rule. Now if only women would agree with me.
Good: "Fincantieri Marinette Marine will officially start building the first Constellation-class frigate at its yard in Marinette, Wis., today." Fingers crossed that we can still build surface ships in America.
Via Instapundit, the Air Force on Guam will stop using gender pronouns in certain written documents to improve "lethality". I stand corrected:
I had forgotten that the revenue to the government from student loans being repaid would help fund Obamacare. Oh well. No worries, those new IRS agents will squeeze it out of the blue collar workers being taxed to pay rich people's student loans. It all evens out. Via Instapundit.
NATO is learning lessons from the Russian invasion of war, especially the speed of weapons and ammunition use. Indeed. NATO is learning a lot from Ukraine's fight.
Are the Ukrainians preparing to counterattack in the Donbas? Ukrainians say the Russians attack in platoon or smaller elements. Which is weak. Neither side can be strong everywhere. How do forces match up across the front?
Judging Putin: "For a man who was perceived for decades as playing a masterful game of geopolitical chess, [invading Ukraine] was an 'own goal' of biblical proportions." Russia effed up. I was never impressed.
China is furious about a UN report on China's treatment of its Uighur minority. I heard the UN official released the report before quitting.
It seems clear that society influences stated sexual orientation. That is not to say orientation isn't something you are born with. Who knows? And it isn't to say that past lower rates for identifying as LGBT are the natural base rate. I have no idea how to interpret the data. Or the accuracy of the data. More importantly, I reject the years span for Boomers. The man who defined Gen X put me in that cohort and that's where I'm staying. Identity that. Tip to Instapundit.
How is it constitutional not to have one-person, one vote to decide a federal election? Tip to Instapundit.
The new 105mm howitzer for American aerial gunships. This is confusing to me. Howitzer are indirect weapons with steep trajectories. While using existing howitzers made sense originally, why not use direct-fire cannons for the new one? Is it a recoil issue? What don't I understand? And I assume it is something I'm just ignorant about, to be clear.
Why can't Germany produce more weapons? And I'd like to point out something from the article that I've droned on about annoyingly for decades: "The United States, which is both rich and strong, has to defend Europe because the wealth, technology and knowledge of Europe in the hands of other states might imperil the United States."
Fuck the teacher unions that did this to our children. Tip to Treacher.
More on China's small space planes. Tip to Instapundit.
False patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. When the Federation finds out what Biden has done here on Earth, they'll be pissed:
Seriously, is Biden going to increase the rhetoric and legal system harassment of Republicans until he provokes a riot? A riot he'll claim "proves" his warning? A riot that means none of Biden's failures and mental deterioration matter? Is this the Democrats' 2022 election strategy?
Free from EU shackles, Britain aims for space. And China.
The trouble with Moqtada al-Sadr. I thought it was because he's a three-time insurrectionist and a past(?) hand puppet of Iran. I fear we'll rue the day we didn't arrest or kill him when we had the chance.
Western nations seem to be resigned to a long war in Ukraine. Will support to Ukraine continue? Or will Russia outlast Western resolve?
Let's go, Brandon. And the donkey he rode in on.
Say, is this full fascism or just semi-fascism? Tip to Treacher. And curse him for spoiling a meme I already have scheduled to publish in a week.
The stupid! It burns! Tip to Instapundit.
If Biden's dark, dangerous, and hate-filled speech didn't give Democrats all the excuse they need to 25th Amendment him, what would?
Ben Shapiro cracked me up (thank you) when he said Biden's dark and hate-filled "soul of the nation" speech "sounded better in the original German." Sums it up.
South Korea is canceling their CVX light carrier project to focus on North Korea. Blue water ambitions postponed.
Ukraine doesn't have that many HIMARS. But Ukraine does have a lot of dummy launchers to be missile magnets.
Not to sound pro-Russian--I've advocated sending body bags back to Russia since 2014--but I don't understand the outrage of Europeans over Russia halting energy exports. Europe is--rightly--arming and helping Ukraine send those body bags back to Russia.
I'd apologize for a heavier dose of politics this week. But rule of law really does seem like it is being strained to its design limits.
Iranians grabbed two American sea drones in the Red Sea--until the U.S. Navy showed up. We should rig the drones to blow up on command. Or directly sink the Iranian vessels committing piracy on the high seas.
After attempting to seize American sea drones, Iran is ramping up war fears at home.
The myth of growing income inequality. There has actually been a great leveling of the bottom 60% based largely on government spending. It has long annoyed me that statistics of financial well being always neglect the massive government anti-poverty spending. Which has actually reduced the income inequality by raising up the bottom. Of course, there has been predictable collateral damage for the poorest, too. Tip to Instapundit.
It's bad enough for Russia that Putin made the country a vassal of China. But now the war Putin began with Ukraine has given Iran the upper hand over Russia. Strategery.
The details of the article don't sustain the damning headline about Trump. Trump was contrasting Biden's incapacity to rule with Xi's and Putin's capacity. And he was actually damning of Xi Jinping by saying he basically had to rule harshly to maintain control. That said, Trump should just steer clear of those things given the ability of news bodies to quote individual Trump words out of context in the article writer's sentences. Hell, I cringed when I initially read the headline.
I assumed providing 105mm howitzers to Ukraine indicated they were for airmobile units. But this article--while noting the past airmobile angle here--says they were sent because America is short of 155mm pieces and the production line is shut down. We're not reopening that line? FFS.
Interesting: "Ukrainian special forces are reportedly increasingly able to conduct minor raids across the border into Russia, possibly disrupting Russian logistics and forcing Russian forces to redeploy to secure the border."
At the beginning of the Mar-a-Lago FBI raid, I actually hoped Trump had done something wrong because I'd prefer to think Trump violated a serious law than think our federal law enforcement system has been corrupted for political purposes. While I've seen nothing to undermine the banana republic worry, I actually am open to the possibility that this could change. But after Democrats cried "Trump!" so many times, I'm going to need persuading that this time the wolf was snagged. Despite my long history of not liking Trump, since 2016 the Democrats have acted so much worse.
