Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/17/2011 13:29 ||
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#1
The question is, are those of any value in a modern combat scenario: how many times will we be making an amphib landing where the primary means will be AAV, and not LCAC (with LAV and Tanks) and heliborne insertions?
If we have the kind of air superiority needed for an "Iwo" or "Normandy" style over the beach assault, then why not Heliborne putting ashore the initial infantry, then LCAC and other gator navy vessels to bring in better AFV than the EFV/AAV or their Chinese counterparts?
#8
I'm going to go ahead and speculate that we're not anticipating the need for amphibious landings against a Chinese force. The obvious example, an invasion of Taiwan, would be a defensive battle, fought mostly by Taiwanese ground forces & a mix of American and Taiwanese air assets. If it became necessary for us to make a contested landing in that scenario, the situation would be pretty much irretrievable anyways.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/17/2011 20:14 Comments ||
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#9
Gates is a US State Department and CIA invention purposefully designed to strangle DoD and harvest the defense budget. Both agencies are giving him very high marks and permitting him to speak internationally on matters of US foreign policy as well as intellgence.
#10
Don't forget JAPAN, whom currently is negotiating wid the US + considering not only "OFFENSIVE" COMBAT ROLES FOR THE JSDF, BUT ALSO TO PLACE SAME UNDER DIRECT US ANDOR UNO COMBAT COMMAND IN REGIONS + MILOPS OUTSIDE OF JAPAN + NE ASIA PROPER, besides also for natural Disasters + UN Peacekeeping.
CHINA has repor claimed that it will NOT base any PLA Milfors in NORTH KOREA save under UNO = UNSC MANDATE. BE IT MIL "OFFENSE" OR MIL "DEFENSE" ROLES, ETC. CHINA = JAPAN = BOTH WANT THE UNO SEAL-OF-APPROVAL.
* ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NASA REVEALS [futurist]STRANGE BOMBER-LIKE PLANES OF 2015 | NASA UNVEILS EXTRAORDINARY DESIGNS FOR AIRCRAFT IN 2025.
* travel at minima? 85% of Speed-of-Sound.
* 7000-Mile Range.
* 50,000-100,000 Payload.
------------
As for the EFVS + Amphib Warfare, pragmatically as long as most International Commerce is moved by OCEAN CARRIERS IN BULK, + as long as US NAVY "GATOR" AMPHIB TRANSPORTS [e.g. LDP, LHD] ARE NOT ASSIGNED TWO OR MORE DEDIC HEAVY-LIFT AIRCRAFT [Manned, UALV]AS PART OF THEIR SHIP'S AFLOAT DETACHMENT/ORGZ, THE NAVY WILL STILL NEED AAFV + LCAC, ETC. AMPHIB VEHICLES FOR A LONG WHILE TO COME YET.
No way around it for the US Navy-DOD until NT provides a CHEAP, RELIABLE OR EFFEC LIFT SOLUTION.
IT HAS long been true that California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis. But how do other American states compare with other countries? Taking the nearest equivalent country from 2009 data reveals some surprises. Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan's?
Developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt have each been of tremendous importance. If Muslim Brotherhood ideology continues to spread throughout the region, it could be a historical turning point that will greatly intensify Islamist terror and attacks on the West.
Except the Tunisian revolution wasn't instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the trouble in Lebanon is being created by Iran and their puppets Syria and Hezbollah, and the Brotherhood has been neutered in Egypt. Other than that the theory is grand.
#2
Personally Karl, I think the moderates and the sane of the Moslem faith have let the looneys and the nutjobs highjack the faith. The entire region could go up in flames.
I wonder if there is some odd parallel to the way that Russia and the Warsaw pact fell when Poland went south on them. Perchance Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are next?
James, you may be on to something, I am not sure yet if its a good thing or a bad thing but hopefully these tinhat nut job dictators and street wackos masquerading as holy men will get their just desserts and be cashiered once and for all.
It might be a nice time to send some of our clock and dagger guys in to make sure some of the troublemakers have an unfortunate accident.
Just like a vulture that circles its dead prey, General Michel Aoun's ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... eyes were alight with joy when announcing the death of the Syrian-Saudi initiative to contain the current Lebanese crisis (can anybody tell me the number of crises Leb has suffered so far?) It is the initiative which the Lebanese have dubbed the "S -- S initiative" whilst many others have stressed that there is, nor has there ever been, any such initiative. As is their custom, the Lebanese wanted to lay accountability for success or failure on others and shirk their own responsibility; this is because the Lebanese have long specialized in destruction rather than reformation. The boring and wearisome story of Lebanese problems has again come to the surface, catching everybody's attention and tuning us away from more significant and serious problems. What happened in Tunisia and Algeria, and the similar situation that is being seen in Mauritania are all warning signs that unemployment and corruption are ticking time bombs that could explode at any time. Unemployment rates in the Arab world are at a record high, and the growth and development rates being put forward by some [Arab] ministries are not believable in light of the economy's failure to produce new jobs. This is because economies with revenues that are heavily reliant on natural resources, real-estate and stock exchange are akin to virtual economies today.
Nobody can deny that the unemployment problem today is an international one and that whilst unemployment rates in industrial countries are high; these are catastrophically high in the Arab world.
Internationally, more than 300 million people are unemployed, and there is a problem with the price of goods that only serves to exacerbate the problem of unemployment. The ongoing currency war (something which one of the Arab Central Bank managers denied existed) contributes to raising unemployment rates.
China is afraid to raise the price of its currency as it is seeking to avoid inflation, which would result in the price of labor soaring and manufacturers would be unable to pay them off. This in turn would result in unemployment, as occurred in Europe and the US. Today, the US is strongly seeking to ensure that the dollar remains work, which would allow America to increase its exports, meanwhile Europe, and its threatened currency, has become China's greatest partner.
There is another serious development and that is the Euro being used to price oil, and today more than 40 percent of oil production and exports are sold in Euros, which means that the US dollar being used as the major currency for commodities is something that will need to be reviewed. This is something that will definitely have a direct impact countries ability to put its economic plans into effect, attract new investments and guarantee jobs for their citizens. However, The infamous However... this is contingent upon these countries improving the investment climate by adopting policies that ensure transparency, accountability, fairness, and scrutiny. This is not to mention promoting the judicial system, eliminating favoritism, and imposing punishment. All that remains is for countries to face the challenge of putting all of this into action. As for Leb, it is like a broken record, and if the Lebanese are not willing to at least try to solve their own problems without foreign intervention, why should foreign parties even bother, and be more concerned about Leb than the Lebanese themselves?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Lebanon and Lebanese politicians are eternally puppets in search of a master. Maronites blew their chances in '82: Hezbullah will eventully destroy the shell of the country remaining.
The year was 2007 and Jared Lee Loughner got a chance to ask his Congresswoman a question. The question was (per an article in Mother Jones),
'What is government if words have no meaning?'
Apparently Congresswoman Gifford did not have a good answer for Jared. From that time on, Jared held a grudge against the Congresswoman. Of course, if words have no meaning, there can be no good answer for that question or any other question (obviously Jared didn't get that). But who could have gotten the 'words have no meaning' trope into Jared's head.
It should be obvious. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher who died in the 1980s famously opined, in his work "Les Mots et les choses" (Foucault wanted to call it "L'Ordre des Choses" but there was a copyright problem) that words have only the meaning that the ruling class allow because they (the ruling class) control the narrative, the grammar (Jared believed the govt controlled the population via grammar), etc. For some reason, the Universities and Colleges of the U.S. (probably elsewhere) are filled with professors who believe the 'words are controlled by the ruling class through narrative' thesis (or one of the numerous corollaries or the thesis). These professors have influenced thousands (probably tens or hundreds of thousands, maybe millions) of students in this country. It seems Jared was one of them.
Thus if anyone beside Jared can be blamed for this atrocity, it should be Michel Foucault.
(this is my first original Rantburg editorial)
Well done, Lord Garth. Paul Krugman, eat your libelous heart out!
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/17/2011 00:25 ||
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#1
Well, as far as direct proximate cause goes, the only one at fault is Loughner (mentally ill or not).
But Foucault was a commie douche who doesn't get blamed for nearly enough, so I'm down with it. Nice work LG!
#2
"If words have no meaning, how can I answer your question - if indeed it is a question?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2011 11:51 Comments ||
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#3
The liberal elite must believe this. Just look at the Politically Correct changes of meaning (either redefined or prohibited) that they have been pushing on us.
#6
History just might consist of a multitude of discourses - not one univocal "true" narrative.
________________
cf. Hank Williams Jr. ballad: "If the South woulda won the war we'd of had it made!"
good point but that was written in about 1960 when a lot of people were beginning to realize that Heidegger was a Nazi symp who had never really apologized for his collaboration. Its easy to get US grad students to write papers on Commie collaborators, on Nazi collaborators - not so much.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/17/2011 21:52 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt have each been of tremendous importance. If Muslim Brotherhood ideology continues to spread throughout the region, it could be a historical turning point that will greatly intensify Islamist terror and attacks on the West.
