Monday, July 28th, 2014
Not A Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor
This is the story of Operation Anaconda. The book covers it from its first planning stages in January 2002, through its conclusion in early March 2002. Up to this point, the war in Afghanistan had been conducted mainly by US Special Forces troops working with various Afghanistan groups and calling in US air assets. Anaconda was the first operation to involve large scale use of regular US forces. In this case elements of the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division. The first third of the book covers the planning and the background of the key players. This is fairly dry, but interesting and informative on why and how the fog of war effected the operation. Intelligence said that there were 200-250 Al Qaeda fighters in the intended AO. The plan was for Afghan forces, with Special Forces ‘advisers’ to confront the enemy, with ‘escape routes’ to be blocked by Afghan forces and elements of the 10th Mountain and 101st Airborne. The motto, ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’ is often referenced in various forms in this book. There were a lot more than 250 AQ fighters, estimates put it at 800 or more. They opened up the US forces almost immediately after they got out their helicopters with small arms, heavy machine guns, mortars, and in some cases artillery. The US forces responded with much more accurate fire and air strikes. Lots and lots of air strikes. From the CIA’s armed Predator drones to B-52s dropping JDAM bombs. The most effective though were the Apache helicopters, which got close enough to see the enemy and pour firepower right were it was needed. The fighting continued much longer than expected, in areas were it wasn’t expected, from a well dug in, and well supplied enemy force. Many of which got too see Allah personally. A well written book about a major operation that dispelled the common notion in early 2002, that the war in Afghanistan was almost over.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Afghanistan, book, Global War on Islamofascism, Monday Book Pick, US Military, War onTerror
Posted in Monday Book Pick, US Military | No Comments »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko
Given that the Navy anti-terrorism group, which consists of SEAL Team Members and was originally called SEAL Team Six, I’m repeating the book pick from 12/29/08
This is the autobiography of the founder of SEAL Team Six, the Navy’s anti-terrorist unit.
Written in prison to pay off his legal fees. Considering one of his jobs in the Navy was to piss off Admirals, hardly surprising.
I still say the Admirals that put there should be brought up on charges. He is exactly the kind of psycho SOB (and I mean that in a good way) that you want doing the jobs he did.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, SEAL, SEAL Team Six, US Military, US Navy, War onTerror
Posted in Monday Book Pick | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
An al-Qaida operative tried to ignite an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian native and a Muslim, attempted to ignite the device, it was the passengers who noticed that something was wrong, and did something about it.
Mark Steyn nails it:
On September 11th 2001, the government’s (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.
On December 25th 2009, the government’s (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals.
While our Dear Leader and the democrats may have forgotten 9/11, the American people have not.
Update: Our Dear Leader‘s DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was out quickly to provide the Obama administration spin on this foiled terrorist attack. Ms. Napolitano’s response shows that she is either a bold faced liar or dangerously incompetent. Neither one of those options are good for America.
DHS Secretary Napolitano kept repeating the the administration’s spin, “the system worked.” As I pointed out, that obviously is not the case. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
Ms Malkin points out:
If the “system” had “worked,” the U.S. consular officials who granted Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab a short-term visa last June would have revoked it immediately upon being informed by his father that he was a Muslim radical with al Qaeda ties.
If the “system” had “worked,” U.S. consular officials would have never granted Abdulmutallab — a rootless, young, single male — a visa in the first place in compliance with State Department visa regulation 214(b):
…
If the “system” had “worked,” Abdulmutallab would have been barred from the U.S. like he had been barred from Britain.
Epic Fail for Napolitano.
Tags: Barack Obama, democrat, Global War on Islamofascism, incompetent, Janet Napolitano, terrorist, War onTerror, Worst President Ever
Posted in Global War on Islamofascism, Our Dear Leader, Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
The far hard left extremist barking moonbats who supported our Dear Leader are not going to be happy with him. They wanted Camp X-Ray at Gitmo shut down and the terrorists released.
Well, once in the Oval Office, the leftist barking moonbat rhetoric ran straight into the brick wall of reality. First, BHO stopped calling the terrorists “enemy combatants”, so in the left’s “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” world, there were no more “enemy combatants” at Camp X-Ray.
Now, our Dear Leader is planning on continuing the military courts to try the terrorists. A policy of GWB that drove the leftist extremist moonbats out of their trees
Obama has embraced many of the same positions that liberals and Obama himself criticized. For example:
* Obama and members of his administration have embraced the use of rendition. Many of Obama’s most ardent defenders blasted progressives who criticized Obama on rendition as jumping the gun. Today, their arguments look even more problematic than in the past.
* Obama has invoked the maligned “state secrets” defense as a complete bar to lawsuits challenging potential human rights and constitutional law violations.
* Obama has argued that detainees at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan do not qualify for habeas corpus rights, even though many of the detainees at the facility were not captured in the war or in Afghanistan.
* Even though it no longer uses the phrase “enemy combatants,” the Obama administration has taken the position that the government can indefinitely detain individuals, whether or not they engaged in torture and whether or not they fought the United States on the “battlefield.” This logic combined with the denial of habeas to detainees in Afghanistan could make Bagram the functional equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.
If the New York Times article is accurate, then the use of military tribunals issue will join the list of policies that Obama has endorsed, despite the loud liberal criticism that Bush received when he did the same things.
Yup, that smell in the air is left hypocrisy. As one commenter accurately put it, “What you are really saying is that the Democrats used National Security as a political weapon strictly for gaining power.”
HT to Mr. Reynolds.
Tags: Add new tag, Barack Obama, democrat, Gitmo, Global War on Islamofascism, Islamofascism, leftitst hypocrisy, Politics, War onTerror
Posted in Barking Moonbats, Global War on Islamofascism, Our Dear Leader, Politics | 1 Comment »