Two men from the IED cell padded silently down the road. Abdul and Roshanullah had two 107mm rocket warheads, a cell-phone detonator, and detailed instructions, including a sketch map of their emplacement point. The rest of their cell waited for them to return.
At a point where the road crossed a filled area, the two HIG men — many Afghans changed allegiances more frequently than their shalwar kameez, but once you were Gulbuddin Hekmatayar’s man, you were always Gulbuddin’s man — slipped down the side of the fill to the mouth of the culvert. This one hadn’t been fitted with a grating yet, but even if it had, they had been prepared.
There was just enough starlight for Abdul to see Roshan’s grin. This was going to be easy! First, the blessing: “Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem,” In the Name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful…
High on a hill facing the culvert, nearly half a mile away, a sniper team leader whispered, “Send ’em.”
The wind was fortuitously towards the hill, and at the culvert, all that there was to hear was the thwack of bullet impacts. Then one of the men — Roshanullah, not grinning any more — groaned and moved.
Thwack.
All was still.
An hour before sunrise it was visibly getting light in the valley, and the five armed men who came down the road moved from cover to cover, nervously. They were breaking every tactical rule that had kept them alive this long, but their leader wanted to lay his own eyes and hands on the IED team.
They all died within the span of one and a half seconds. With five targets, both snipers, the spotters, and the team leader had all taken one. That was breaking a tactical rule too, but the difference was, the rulebreaking worked for the ISAF snipers. They recovered their 360º observation as soon as the shots were sent, also.
The team met the road clearance unit for a ride into the FOB. Intelligence collected from the dead laid bare the workings of the cell, and the telephone carried by the deceased IED cell leader allowed the Afghan NDS to identify two key HIG facilitators; one fled to Peshawar and the protection of ISI, but the other was reputed to be singing like a canary.
It was a successful operation until the Staff Judge Advocate spoke up, taking, as usual, the side of the enemy, and demanded the snipers be charged with war crimes — for shooting armed unlawful combatants carrying out combat operations!
Believe it or not, Army lawyers have defined this tactic as a “baited ambush” and have worked hard, if not to make it a “war crime,” at least to create a grey area in which it is the slightly less felonious “violation of the laws of war” and possibly a “war crime.” Lawyers, of course, love grey areas which take decisions out of the hands of decision-makers and deliver them, instead, to the captivity of cabals of, what else, lawyers.
For example, Army judge advocate LTC Chris Jenks — clearly, from his writing, the sort of SJA who joined the Army for personal gain, hostile to the guys with guns who make up the actual Army part of the Army — wrote in The Army Lawyer1 that this tactic “comes close to, if not enters, the law of war violation continuum….”2
Certainly this is an example of why it is impossible to win a war without first staking out the enemy’s fifth columnists, to wit, about 95% of SJAs, on culverts like the ones in our hypothetical, and letting the enemy have their way with them.
Jenks also doesn’t think the troops should enjoy a victory: More at the link The judge advocate should be required to spend some time on convoy duty...
#2
I bet he couldn't specify which law of war was actually violated, and is depending on an examination of a penumbra of a lump of pity the pulled out of his behind.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/27/2016 8:39 Comments ||
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#3
Most of the Army lawyers I know are conservative - Jenks is an fobbit aberraton. Next posting - 9 months of convoy commander duty - front truck.
#4
I witnessed an almost identical situation south of Kandahar. Stay-behind sniper team took out two armed border crosser's on a yes....red honda motorbike.
High-fives, sharing of fotos, and much frivolity in the TOC. Not so much the next day when an 06 helo'd in for a 3 day visit to collect over 30 sworn statements.
That was the last of the stay-behind missions. Sojurs don't like discussing such matters with 06's or signing sworn statements. Both the brigade and battalion commanders clearly got the message.
h/t Gates of Vienna
According to most polls taken since last month’s party conventions, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton enjoys an insurmountable lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump. Consequently, a number of commentators on both sides of the partisan divide have declared the race over. Clinton, they say, has won.
There are several problems with this conclusion.
First of all, the "official campaign," won’t begin until September 26, when Clinton and Trump face off in their first presidential debate. Clinton is not a stellar debater and Trump, a seasoned entertainer excels in these formats.
Second, recent polls indicate that Trump is closing the gap. Whereas until this past week Clinton enjoyed a 6-8 point lead in the polls, in two polls taken this week, her lead had contracted to a mere 1-3 points.
Third, it is quite possible that Clinton’s problems have only begun. Her peak popularity may be behind her. Since her nomination, barely a day has passed without another stunning expose of apparently corrupt behavior on the part of Clinton and her closest advisors. This week’s AP report that half of Clinton’s non-official visitors during her tenure as secretary of state were donors to the Clinton Foundation was merely the latest blow.
...On the eve of his 2008 electoral victory, Barack Obama pledged to "fundamentally transform," America.
He kept his word.
...Trump is no Billy Sunday. He is not a champion of free trade or social conservativism. He isn’t a neoconservative interventionist. Trump is the bar brawler who says things no one else will say. And the people who lack faith in the country’s ability to help them, who have lost hope that things that used to work can work again adore him for it.
This brings us to the issue of the lessons that will be learned by Republican voters if Trump loses as the NeverTrumpsters hope and expect.
#4
Trump has an appealing message. However, I'm not sure G_D himself could straighten out the mess in Washington. It is time to be done with the Bush and Clinton political dynasties. Give someone new a try.
#5
Indeed, JohnQC. We've been doing the Bush/Clinton thing since 1988 and since then the country has been on a long, slow, gradual decline. It is time to try something else.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/27/2016 12:29 Comments ||
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#6
Nobody points out the elephant in the room, and that is that the US govt is bankrupt and insolvent, except for the ability to create dollars out of thin air and sell them as T-bills.
Once direct bank to bank foreign currency transactions are widespread, nobody will need the US dollar as a reserve currency. The value of the dollar collapses, then the US govt collapses.
The presidential election is just Kabuki Theater.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/27/2016 13:57 Comments ||
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#7
The government is bankrupt -- why not a president with experience with bankruptcy?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/27/2016 14:16 Comments ||
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#8
Rob---that is the most compelling reason for Trump, heh! Besides being the only alternative to a massive criminal enterprise.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/27/2016 16:30 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In his foreword in Fouad Ajami’s book "The Syrian Rebellion," Charles Hill, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, quotes historian Arnold Toynbee as saying: "Syria is the roundabout in which all the forces face one another and spin off consequences - for good or ill ‐ around the compass."
The photos of Omran Daqneesh and Aylan Kurdi, and the diplomatic chaos that has accompanied developments in Syria, have become the topic of prominent American intellectuals and observers. Ajami has criticized the White House’s tiredness, and considers the administration of President Barack Obama The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person... "hopeless" because there is no international community without a US role.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
When isolationism dominates upcoming US policy, and when the necessity to intervene is ignored, there will be more regional unrest.
You are damned if you do and damned if you don't. With an 18 Trillion dollar debt to make you all play nice, it's not possible anymore. Go ask the Chinese for help (heh).
#2
I may disagree with a number of Trump's positions but he is spot on with one thing. Moving forward the US should only support the countries and organizations that openly support the US in kind. And that starts with so-called friends and allies.
[DAWN] FOR many years now, the Pak military has been criticised for supporting violent jihadi groups. And liberals can be forgiven for having strong feelings on the subject. During the 1990s, when the Kashmire insurgency was in full swing, the liberals repeatedly predicted a backlash. The number of people killed by jihadists since then -- including many in the army -- shows that the liberals’ warnings were well founded.
But the military has not been alone in indulging the men of violence. Civilian leaders too have cut deals with jihadis who, if circumstances permitted, would like to see those politicians not only out of power but dead and buried too. And this is not a point that favours one party over the others: all the mainstream parties have made compromises with the murderous Moslems.
The most obvious recent example concerns the decision of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... provincial administration to grant $3 million to Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... ’s Haqqani madressah. Lest anyone be in any doubt about where Samiul Haq stands on matters of contemporary politics, his recently published book claims that the Afghan Taliban provided good government; that the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... was an "ideal man" and that Al Qaeda was a figment of the Western imagination.
Perhaps more importantly, some of those who assassinated Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... met in his madressah whilst planning the attack. And Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... has form in this area. When, in 2013, he agreed to head up the Pakistain Taliban’s negotiating team he demonstrated not only that he thought peace could be achieved through dialogue but also that he was willing to represent and speak for the TTP.
But it is not fair to single out the PTI leader. After all, in 2010 the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... provincial administration gave $1m to institutions linked to Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... . In the same year, files recovered from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... reportedly revealed that as Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... suggested the Pakistain government was ready to re-establish "normal relations" with the Pak Taliban as long as it did not conduct operations in Punjab. And there have been compromises within Punjab as well. In the run-up to the 2013 election there were widespread reports of a seat adjustment deal between the PML-N and ASWJ. Faced with criticism about these arrangements, some PML-N spokesmen did not issue a denial but argued instead that PPP exhibited a blatant double standard on the issue because it had done much the same thing in 2008.
Certainly, the PPP has on occasion helped hardliners. Given what happened in Islamabad in 2007, it is astonishing that, today, Abdul Aziz Ghazi is not only back in charge of the Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... but also drawing a state salary. As a recent independent documentary, Among the Believers, has recorded, it is not as if Abdul Aziz Ghazi has changed his view on the need to overthrow the government and impose Sharia: "if you think you can change us, forget it," he said.
And yet while Asif Ali Zardari was president the authorities not only oversaw the rehabilitation of Abdul Aziz Ghazi but went as far as offering him land for a new madressah on the edge of Islamabad. The idea, it seems, was that Lal Masjid needed to be compensated for the destruction it had brought upon itself.
These examples of civilian willingness to do business with violent jihadis suggest that they should not be taken too seriously when they criticise the army for doing much the same thing. Yet there is an important difference between the two. Ever since 1947-48, when the state connived in allowing Pakhtun rustics to go on jihad in Kashmire, the military has perceived the jihadis as a strategic asset that can help achieve various policy objectives. And some objectives have been achieved. The successful Mujahideen campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan demonstrated that the violent jihadis can serve a purpose.
The politicians have different motives. Some are simply trying to protect themselves. After all, anyone extending favours to the jihadi leadership must calculate that there will be an improved chance that they won’t be the victim of an attack. But it’s not just a case of avoiding physical harm. There is also the grubby business of political advantage. Politicians on all sides have calculated that if securing power depends on reaching a deal with the religious hardliners then it’s a price well worth paying.
For millions of Paks who are not at the top of the various power structures, it might seem obvious enough that people who use violence to secure their objectives should be opposed. But most of those who have held power in Pakistain seem to have seen it differently. And while the military is often criticised for sponsoring jihadis, it’s only fair to point out that the politicians have themselves repeatedly appeased them.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] COULD he have been joking? Maybe, there was an element of irony or cynicism in his comments about the hegemony of privilege. But the more we analyse media reports of a Senate meeting on Thursday, the clearer it becomes that the august member of the upper house Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasar was not in a jovial mood. Nor can his remarks be seen as an attempt at bringing out the disparity between the poverty-stricken and the privileged strata. His was an earnest evaluation as he saw it from his perch that, fortunately for him, exists at a considerable distance from the homes of the poor. Only complete ignorance on his part can explain the nonchalance that his words conveyed.
Sardar Nasar appears to think that if everyone were to become rich there would be no one to labour and till the land -- this is far from an original assertion but always a timely one. According to the reports, he was ready to stand his ground as some of his colleagues in the house tried to make him take a more balanced and politically correct view of the issue. Maybe he will be brought around to accepting their advice and eventually concede that he had been indiscreet. That would be desirable for the system but even if that does not happen, some merit can be found in the senator’s comments. By speaking his mind he did provide a more realistic measure of the problem that those who have been struggling for various kinds of equalities continue to face. Such reality checks are perhaps necessary from time to time. They are better than having 10 revered personalities debating just how cruel the world is to the underprivileged, while being convinced deep down that their speeches are not likely to change the status quo and create an impression about a benevolent world where none exists. One can thank the senator for reminding us of a mindset that will continue to hold society back.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Wash Times] The Russian foreign minister made comments Tuesday on the whereabouts and wisdom of the United States providing shoulder-fired ManPAD anti-aircraft missiles to groups in Libya. The comments were reported by the Russian state news agency TASS.
"To all appearances, our Western colleagues have not yet become fully aware of the consequences of their military operations of the past few years in the countries of the Middle East and Africa. They believed that they would destroy the regimes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi and immediately democracy would triumph in Iraq and Libya. Instead, chaos came to reign there and army depots and arsenals abandoned by the military were ransacked there." All the weapons, including shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile systems and hundreds of tons of ammunition "have disappeared without a trace," Sergey Lavrov said.
"Now fratricidal wars are raging in these states and no end to them can be seen so far. Unfortunately, the situation was predictable and the Russian president warned about this numerously."
In Libya alone, no less than 500 Strela and Igla shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile systems have disappeared.
"The first alarm bell rang in Mali where militants shot down a governmental MiG-21 plane from a portable antiaircraft missile in 2012. No one knows in the hands of which terrorist groupings these systems most dangerous for civil aviation may end up -- the ISIL, Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda. Likewise, no one knows when and where these weapons will be used next time. In Iraq, hardly anyone --hundreds of thousands of those killed or millions of people living in the conditions of a civil war -- has felt more at ease that the Britons have found after a probe that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair had actually deceived the parliament, pushing through a decision to involve the UK army in the invasion together with the Americans.
"It goes without saying that the effects could have been far more ruinous, if Russia three years ago had not prevented a US strike on Syria persuading Assad to give up his chemical weapons. One cannot but feel horror at the thought in whose hands portable antiaircraft missiles, other conventional weapons and chemical weapons stockpiles might have ended up now," Mr. Lavrov said.
#1
...I've said this before, but it bears repeating - Stingers are remarkably high-maintenance beasts. Add to that the fact that the batteries have a limited shelf life, and the threat decreases considerably though it doesn't disappear entirely. Unless those missiles are stored properly (not likely in the Libyan desert) and maintained well (not likely in a culture where Inshallah is a guiding concept) we don't have as much to worry about as one would think. Myself, I think ol' Sergey is covering for the MANPADS they gave the bad guys.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/27/2016 8:54 Comments ||
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[LI] The "Movement for Black Lives," a coalition of approximately 50 Black Lives Matter groups, recently issued a policy platform which raised issues such as mass incarceration, policing, and other issues of importance.
Yet in that platform were included deranged libelous accusations against one and only one foreign country - Israel. That section of the platform was not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to our coverage of how anti-Israel activists methodically and deliberately set out years ago to stoke racial tension against Israel by falsely accusing Israel of being responsible for local police shootings of blacks in the U.S. That effort went into overdrive during the Ferguson riots after the Michael Brown shooting in the summer of 2014.
Since then, redirecting the U.S. Black Lives Matters movement to turn it as a weapon against Israel has been a top priority for anti-Israel activists, including those working under the banner of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
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.
Ref #4, a bit of trivia. Type of rifle that made the shots. In excess of 350m on moving targets, in near darkness by the way. (stock photo) 
the 
[LI] The "Movement for Black Lives," a coalition of approximately 50 Black Lives Matter groups, recently issued a policy platform which raised issues such as mass incarceration, policing, and other issues of importance.
