Our Military & Morale

pettyfog · Nov 7, 2007

Our Navy rescues, provides medical aid to North Koreans:

It all began on October 30th, when a North Koreas merchant ship, the Dai Hong Dan, was boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The North Koreans managed to get off a distress message. The ship was in international waters, 108 kilometers off the coast, unloading sugar to smaller boats. This offshore unloading arrangement was supposed to protect the North Koreans from pirates. The gunmen who had took over the Dai Hong Dan were actually armed guards hired to protect the crew from real pirates during this unloading operation.

An American destroyer, the USS James E. Williams, was nearby, and rushed to the scene. When the U.S. warship got there, they demanded that the pirates surrender. Meanwhile, on the ship, part of the North Korean crew had managed to barricade themselves in the engine room, where they controlled the speed and direction the ship could move. But the seven pirates had taken control of the bridge, and refused to surrender. Seeing this, most of the 43 man North Korean crew stormed the bridge, killing two of the seven pirates. Three crew members were badly wounded, and the destroyer captain, using a Korean-American sailor as a translator, offered to treat them. The North Korean captain agreed, and the destroyers helicopter was sent to get the wounded men. American sailors came aboard, applied first aid, and the three wounded North Koreans were transferred to the destroyer for further treatment.

After things had settled down, the North Korean captain announced he was going to abandon the five surviving pirates in a rubber dingy and let them paddle back to shore, if they could. The U.S. destroyer captain warned that this sort of thing was against international law, and suggested that the five pirates be turned over to police at the Dai Hong Dan's next port of call.

{1} The North Korean captain agreed, and steamed off. The U.S. destroyer followed, to make sure the pirates did not suffer some kind of accident before they could be turned over to police.

{2} Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy was asked to detain another North Korean ship, and bring it to Kenya to be searched for contraband. The North Korean ship was believed to be engaged in smuggling. The U.S. declined.
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- From Strategypage.com

Both {bracketed} incidents illustrate the military professionalism of the US Navy.

The decompression resulting from the success of the surge on the ground, however is taking a toll; not only on Marines, who have asked to be moved to Afghanistan.. but on fighter pilots, as well:

One F-16 squadron has been here for two months, and has made no (as in zero) attacks. The pilots have been busy, however, constantly using their targeting pods to act as aerial scouts for ground troops. But they have not come across any bad guys the G.I.s couldn't handle. The infantry have plenty of guided missiles and "smart" artillery (GPS guided shells and rockets) available. The pilots are beginning to feel unneeded.
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Clevelandmo · Nov 7, 2007

24/7 news coverage and you dont hear anything about this.

HatterDon · Nov 7, 2007

and that's because of the vast liberal-Hollywood-MSM Bush hating machine, right?

Clevelandmo · Nov 7, 2007

Re: RE: Our Military & Morale

HatterDon said:

and that's because of the vast liberal-Hollywood-MSM Bush hating machine, right?
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Don, I'm sure if you were running CNN or NBC you would find more than three stories a day to cover.

jaxcottager · Nov 7, 2007

RE: Re: RE: Our Military & Morale

I saw a story enumerating the benefits of breast feeding, not any of this.

HatterDon · Nov 7, 2007

RE: Re: RE: Our Military & Morale

just pointing out that if "you never hear any of this," that means you don't hear it on Fox Noise or on Rush Limbaugh's program either.

jaxcottager · Nov 8, 2007

RE: Re: RE: Our Military & Morale

Who said never? The implication is broadcast news. After reading your posts for some time, I thought you were better than that Hatter.

Fern72 · Nov 9, 2007

RE: Re: RE: Our Military & Morale

There is no time for war, and rumors of war. We have to hear about Brittney Spears, or some other actor caught up in something more important. GOD help this nation of TMZ.

pettyfog · Nov 9, 2007

In the start of the new Congress, the Dems pounded on the need for a 'Change of Direction' in Iraq.

Well, there was no denying there was a huge amount of death and destruction waged by 'Iraqi Insurgents and AQI' ... so Bush asked his commanders what could be done, Rumfeld was dumped and Petraeus put in charge.

So we changed direction to what should have been done in the first place.

And it's been a success.

Now what do we hear from our 'loyal opposition'?

'We need a change in direction'
- Nancy Pelosi, Nov 7 2007

And the Dem talking heads on news networks?
"We never should have been there in the first place... we need to get out NOW!"

Yep... let's declare 'forfeit'!

pettyfog · Nov 14, 2007

And the Dems miss a great opportunity:

How the anti-warriors make the warriors do better

IOW: I'll show you, you anti-military putz!

Unlike many with similar loyalties to his, who describe all this as a Western weakness, Hanson sees it as a major Western strength. Yes it is messy, and yes it is often monstrously unjust. Yes, it often results in serious mistakes and failures, especially in the short run. Yes the questions put to returning generals and presiding politicians are often crass, stupid and trivial. But the effect of all this post-mortemising and second-guessing and media grandstanding and general bitching and grumbling is to keep the West's military leaders on their metal in a way that simply does not happen in non-Western cultures.

It must really concentrate the mind of a general to know that there are literally millions of people back home who are just waiting for him to screw up, so they can crow: we told you so.

It also results in Western armies filled with people who know quite well what the plan is and what the score is, having just spent the last few hours, days, weeks or even years arguing about it all. Western armies invariably contain barrack room lawyers and grumblers, to say nothing of people who sincerely believe that they could do better than their own commanders and who say so, courtesy of those interfering journalists.

.....

Under heavy political pressure, President Bush switched in Iraq from a failing Plan A to what now looks as if it could be a successful Plan B. Would this switch have happened without all the pressure? Maybe, but it is surely reasonable to doubt it. The next commenter after the one quoted above says that it is still not too late for the Dems to do a switch of their own, and to start claiming that had it not been for them and all their grumbling, the switch by Bush from failure to success would never have happened. If and when they do start talking like that, they will surely have a point.
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So there.

pettyfog · Dec 10, 2007

Fallujah Retrospective

Michael J Totten

“How do you feel about the people who live here?” I said.

“My opinion of the people here has changed, too,” he said. “Originally, because of the shape the city was in, I didn't have a whole lot of respect for the people. But now, after seeing how much these people have changed, and understanding that they were under a dictatorship...I didn't really understand what a dictatorship was. These people are working hard. They have good family values. Their religious faith is incredible compared to how people are in the States. Even people who think they're religious in the States, they're nothing compared to the people here. They have city-wide prayers every day, you know? Honestly, I have a lot of respect for the people here.”
. . . . .
In my experience, though, contempt for Iraqi culture specifically, and Arabs and Islam more generally, is far more prevalent in the American civilian population, even in liberal coastal cities, than it is among American soldiers and Marines who interact with Iraqis every day, forge sometimes intense personal bonds with Iraqis, eat Iraqi food, and speak at least a little Arabic. Stereotypes about racist and psychotic Marines, as well as fanatical and psychotic Iraqis, can't survive a lengthy trip to Fallujah, at least not to the Fallujah of late 2007.
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chirobob · Dec 11, 2007

RE: Fallujah Retrospective

The ironic thing is I go to the BBC or Reuters web site to find out what is going on in the US. I read about US-China trade negotiations on the BBC site, I thought it would be big news. No mention on the CNN web site.

Forum	Title	Date
Miscellaneous	Military Futures: Next Admin	Jul 1, 2008
Miscellaneous	Harkin: McCain 'Too Military', 'scary'	May 17, 2008
Miscellaneous	Pride in YOUR Military!	May 14, 2008
Miscellaneous	Informative: Military Channel	Aug 22, 2007
Miscellaneous	Forget the military, send in the 'Freudians'!	Sep 12, 2006

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