Posts Tagged afghanistan

Chaos In Afghanistan Could Be A Positive For Gun Rights At Home

From The Truth About Guns:

Alan M. Gottlieb, the Second Amendment Foundation’s founder and executive vice president, says that out of the swirling chaos may come a silver lining for American gun owners.

“The silver lining might be that there’s such a mess going on, they won’t have time to put through their anti-gun agenda, because right now they have so much other stuff on their plate,” Gottlieb said Sunday night on Armed American Radio.

, , , , , ,

No Comments

Allies Question US Resolve After Afghanistan

From The Washington Post:

The Taliban’s stunningly swift advances across Afghanistan have sparked global alarm, reviving doubts about the credibility of U.S. foreign policy promises and drawing harsh criticisms even from some of the United States’ closest allies.

, , , , , ,

No Comments

Dr. Michael Scheuer on the Tragedy of Afghanistan That Didn’t Have To Be

From Non-intervention2.com:

There was never an easier military or diplomatic problem for the United States than post-9/11 Afghanistan. The answer to the problem was clear. With, as always, Marines in the lead, send a quarter-million man ground force with more than abundant aerial support to conduct a c. 15-month campaign of retribution. The job could have been done by early 2003.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Senate Votes Against Ending Afghan War

From The Hill:

The proposal, which was also sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), would remove troops from Afghanistan within a year and give them a $2,500 bonus. It would also repeal the 2001 authorization for the use of military force once U.S. troops have left the country. 

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Silver Star Awarded To Airman

From AirForce Times:

Tech. Sgt. Cam Kelsch, a tactical air control party airman assigned to the 17th Special Tactics Squadron at Hunter, will be awarded the nation’s third highest medal for gallantry in combat.

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Insurgencies

From Stratfor:

Most conventional Western military doctrine is built upon concepts of modern warfare that were articulated by theorists such as Carl von Clausewitz, Antoine-Henri Jomini and Napoleon Bonaparte. The basic concept behind the rapid war doctrine is to fix and engage the enemy in decisive battles that destroy its ability to wage war and sap its will to continue fighting. Years of battle with guerrillas in Afghanistan and Iraq might have forced the U.S. military to adopt a new counterinsurgency manual in 2006, but it has been difficult for American forces to break free of the mindset outlined by von Clausewitz and the like. Not all of the responsibility for this attachment to tradition rests with the military, however, as the country’s politicians and public don’t typically have much patience or long attention spans. For evidence, look no further than President George W. Bush’s May 2003 “Mission Accomplished” speech or President Barack Obama’s ostensible withdrawal from Iraq.

, , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Medal Of Honor To Be Given For Actions In 2002

From Military Times:

The U.S. Air Force has released video highlights from an overhead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft taken on March 4, 2002 that shows the final heroic moments of Tech Sgt. John Chapman, who will receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery later this month.

, , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Tactics In The Modern Age

From War on the Rocks:

The historian David Edgerton authored a book entitled The Shock of the Old in which he argues that our society’s collective obsession with rapidly changing technology often blinds us to the older tools and techniques that actually drive most of what we observe around us. We believe this logic can be applied here. The diffusion of 100-year old combat techniques, coupled with readily available technology, may create serious threats that are not currently being considered.

, , , , , ,

No Comments

Pentagon To Test More Camo For Afghanistan

From Military.com:

Remember that story about the inspector general report that said the U.S. wasted millions on HyperStealth camouflage for Afghan soldiers? Well now the Pentagon is going to do an assessment to see if there are any other camouflage patterns that work well in Afghanistan.

John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, told lawmakers today that the Defense Department spent $94 million on a proprietary camouflage pattern – known as HyperStealth Spec4ce Forest — for Afghan army forces “without determining the pattern’s effectiveness in Afghanistan compared to other available patterns.”

, , , , ,

No Comments

Marine Is First Vet On Cover Of ESPN Body Issue

Kirstie Ennis will be the first veteran to be on the cover of ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue.

From Task&Purpose:

Marine veteran, Purple Heart recipient, mountain climber, amputee athlete, and all-around badass Kirstie Ennis recently made the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s annual Body Issue, the first veteran to grace its cover. The yearly spread features nude and semi-nude photos of male and female athletes from all sports and vocations, both on and off the field, as a testament to the perseverance of both the human body and will — something Ennis captures perfectly.

 

When @espn asked me to be apart of their #BodyIssue, I was honored. When I found out I made the cover, I actually cried. Initially, I was reluctant to make myself so vulnerable by sharing my story and taking the photos. People tell me I’m strong quite often, but really Im strong because of the people around me. This ones for every man, woman, or child facing some sort of adversity. You control your circumstances, they don’t control you. Find your passion, and let it consume you. If a little one legged lady can climb rocks and chase mountains, I promise you, you can do whatever it is your heart desires. Thank you to everyone involved! #climbing #climbon #leftlegless On a lighter note, if you don’t like butt cracks or tattoos, don’t look!

A post shared by Kirstie Ennis (@kirstie_ennis) on

, , , , , , ,

No Comments

SOCOM Wants US Companies To Make Russian Rifles/Machine Guns

From National Interest:

More specifically, USSOCOM wants American companies to explore whether it is feasible to “reverse engineer or reengineer and domestically produce the following foreign-like weapons: 7.62×54R belt fed light machine gun that resembles a PKM (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovany), and a 12.7×108mm heavy machine gun that resembles a Russian-designed NSV (Nikitin, Sokolov, Volkov).”

, , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

More Weapons Fall Into Enemy Hands

From KitUp:

Fighters affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have reportedly stolen more U.S. weapons in Afghanistan, according to new images on social media.

, , ,

No Comments

The V-22 Has Proven To Be A Wise Investment

From Business Insider:

The Osprey demonstrated its worth in Afghanistan, one of the most stressing environments on earth. With few airfields, great distances between bases and sparse landing fields, the V-22 proved its versatility and value.

The combination of speed and maneuverability also made the V-22 an ideal platform for special operations missions, combat search and rescue and aeromedical evacuation. Air Force Special Operations Command has found the CV-22 variant particularly useful for deep insertion missions in complex terrain. The Osprey’s speed allows for deep penetration missions under cover of darkness.

, , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Boy Who Fought Against Taliban Dead at 12

From LA Times:

Wasil was waiting Monday at a fruit stand in Tirin Kot, the capital of southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, when he was shot dead by two gunmen. His uncle said he was 12 years old.

The boy’s death — in a conflict that began before he was born — has made national headlines and served as a grave reminder that children continue to fight and die on all sides of the enduring hostilities in Afghanistan.

, ,

No Comments

Military Looks The Other Way on Afghan Pedophilia: “It’s their culture”

From The New York Times:

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore child sexual abuse by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.

, , , , , ,

No Comments