Update: Haditha

UAV video and radio traffic seems to confirm the USMC's version of what really happened at Haditha. This should be about as surprising as the discovery of WMD in Iraq. I sincerely hope that the marines involved will end up being cleared and allowed to serve Murtha his road-baked crow personally.

For more, read Clarice Feldman's post over at AT.

Treason from the Times

NYT exposes financial tracking designed to help twart terrorists even though it admits that the program seems to be working. Bill Keller just thought you ought to know about it regardless of the impact to national security. Lex has an outstanding post on the whole thing so go read.

Comment Spam

Be careful what you ask for! I remember wishing more readers would leave comments. Seems some spam generators have found my little site so I 've set some filters which unfortunately will result in an extra step if you do wish to comment and a delay before you see your comment posted.

If you go through the process to leave a comment (and I hope you do) you will be asked to enter a scrambled series of letters provided by security software. I know this is a pain but it defeats auto-spammers since they can't read and type.

The delay is due to my decision to enable comment moderation. Your post won't appear until I've had a chance to read it and make sure it's not spam. Comments will not be rejected based on content as long as they pertain to the subject matter.

Thanks for your understanding.

Where is the Outrage?

I’ve waited for a week and have yet to see an appropriate reaction out of our media following the torture and gruesome killing of two American POW’s in Iraq. They were tortured and then brutally killed at the hands of their captors. If the situation had been reversed, Americans committing war crimes against Iraqis or even insurgents, the media would still be on the rampage. Apparently crimes committed against our soldiers are not newsworthy yet accusations of criminal behavior by them demand that every talking head with a half-baked opinion pass judgment.

The two soldiers taken captive should have been treated as POW’s under the guidelines of the Geneva Convention. We would expect no less from a civilized foe. Therein lies the problem: we are not at war with a civilized nation, we are not even battling a nation. We are fighting against barbarians who don’t fight under a flag or a uniform, instead they fight for a fundamentalist religion that has not changed since battles were fought with swords and camels. Civilized warfare, a seemingly oxymoronic term to many who are paid handsomely to bring us the news, is the conflict of governments through standing armies and when one force succumbs to the other, the killing stops. Civilized men, moral men value human life even the life of their enemy. When a fighting force lays down its arms because it is outnumbered, out-gunned and the sensible thing to do is to preserve human life, that force is no longer an army. The same applies when you forcibly disarm your opponent. If he is disarmed and held captive he is no longer a threat. Terrorists, insurgents, Muslim guerrillas – whatever label you put on our current opponents – do not adhere to this logic. Their doctrine tells them that the only good infidel is one who has been “struck about the head” (their words, not mine).

I find it very disturbing that the media, our government, and the United Nations have not been more vocal about the criminal loss of these two lives. The same media that has been all too quiet on these murders is ready to crucify our soldiers and marines in an impossibly complex battlefield where mistakes will undoubtedly happen. This is not the beaches of Normandy where anybody on the bluffs is a legitimate target. This is urban conflict against an enemy that chooses to blend in with innocent civilians using them as cover and turning our own moral values against us. We cannot expect our troops to fight a surgical war in this environment knowing in the back of their mind that if they are taken captive they will be tortured and brutally murdered. This type of urban conflict is not laser surgery, it is more like chemotherapy: you hope to kill the bad cells and minimize damage to the good ones yet you know you will lose some good ones in the battle to save the host. What does it say to our enemy when we scrutinize our military so critically and barely mention when they are murdered in captivity?

Indeed, where is the outrage?

Gas Mileage Improvement

Subtitle: Why isn't this simple upgrade standard equipment?

Driving a big SUV is decidedly not PC nor is it “green” or easy on the wallet. But when your life requires hauling and towing capacities greater than the size and weight of most hybrid vehicles, you don’t have many options. The old neighborhood adage, “Everyone is your friend when you own a truck” has never been more true. After all, why own one when you can borrow one? Well, you borrow it and it damn well better come home with at least as much fuel as it left with. These days bringing it home empty is more than just bad manners, it’s $75.

But I digress, back to my point. The standard engine for the entire line of GM trucks for the last six years has been the 5.3 liter V-8. GM engineers have fiddled and tweaked that motor to the point where the ’06 trucks get about 19-20 mpg on the highway. My 2001 Yukon XL only yielded 16 mpg highway until a few weeks ago. I installed an Air Raid high flow air filter system. The first two tanks after the install didn’t indicate any noticeable improvement and I sadly thought I had wasted $200. What I didn’t realize is that it takes a while for the computer to adjust various parameters to compensate for the increased airflow. On the third tank I was convinced I was looking at a sticking gas gauge sending unit: it was still showing over half a tank remaining while the trip odometer was at 250 miles plus. I always back up the fuel gauge by resetting the trip odometer when I fill up. Old aviator thing I guess, wanting redundant indications of fuel remaining. Normally I’m showing about an eighth of a tank remaining when the odometer reads about 350 miles. So I dropped the fuel gauge out of my scan – must be unreliable – and watched the miles per tank. I filled up at about 350 miles but it didn’t take as much fuel as usual. The gauge was correct. The ECU had recalibrated for the airflow and my highway mileage had increased to 19 mpg.

An increase of 3 mpg for an investment of $200, figure an average of $3/gal, resultant savings of $.03/mile and the payback is about 6666 miles. The Air Raid system simply replaces the restrictive plastic OEM filter box and disposable paper filter with a much more open filter shield and a reusable K&N type fabric filter. Some assembly required and you must periodically remove the filter, clean it, and re-install it but if you can work a screwdriver and socket ratchet you can install and maintain this filter. The only down side to this modification is a higher noise level in the cabin when you really put your foot in it. That wide open air box doesn’t muffle the noise as well coming back out of the intake at full throttle, gives it a deeper growl out of the hole. It’s not nearly as noticeable as the “sport exhaust” that Dodge is selling on some of their trucks, the factory version of the popular NASCAR mod: dual exhaust with high flow (reads “loud”) non-mufflers. The trucks that beg the question: “Why?” I can accept a little muffled growling from under the hood for a 19% gain in fuel efficiency.

Politicians keep calling for higher mpg ratings to be imposed on Detroit and Motown keeps countering with complaints about technical limitations and various other reasons why they can’t make it happen. I’d have to say that’s a load of BS: I just improved my highway mileage by 19% by swapping out the filter system. No changes that adversely affect emissions. Simply let the beast breathe better. The next test will involve an aftermarket throttle body spacer that is supposed to further improve airflow and increase mileage.

Hello, Detroit. Anybody listening? If I can improve gas mileage using commercially available parts why are you not incorporating such simple improvements into your designs? Get with the program.

Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary depending on vehicle type, condition of engine, driving habits, tire pressure, hair color, and any prescription meds you are currently taking (among other things – the possibilities are endless).

Second disclaimer: This is not a paid endorsement and the author’s results were unscientifically obtained during actual highway driving. No warranties or guarantees are implied or stated. Product contains materials known to be fatal to Norwegian lab rats domiciled in the state of California at elevations greater than five thousand feet and forced to survive on consumption of said material at a rate of ten times their body weight per day.

Where in the World

Back in Maine, working on the book. The following is an article that I just submitted to Down East Magazine. It should give you a feel for why I'm up here. (Ed: "Camp" is a northern term used to describe a small place out at the lake not suitable for winter use, for those of you south of the line just substitute "lake house" but think small.)

The Camp

My grandfather built the place several years before I was born and forever biased my opinion regarding what a lake camp should be. Many of my early summers were spent on that beautiful lake outside Houlton, Maine. It’s where I learned to swim and that my little brother didn’t float. He survived his informal baptism and we both became water rats. We eventually outgrew my mother’s lifejacket restriction that resulted from brother’s sinking episode. We also learned to canoe, sail, build rafts, fish, hike, and many other outdoor activities. In short, it was the perfect place to grow up. That was back before the internet, cell phones, cable TV, X-box, Game Boy, etc. Entertainment was self-made but the possibilities seemed endless; who would want to be inside? My grandmother’s worst nightmare was a rainy day. Her only hope of keeping us entertained (quiet) was the small black and white TV wired to an antenna in the top of a tree out back. Options were slim with only three cannels (one Canadian).

Grampy built the place in the late 1950’s from a cedar log home kit, finishing out the interior with knotty pine tongue and grove board paneling. Exposed beams and trusses with shellac-coated wood everywhere, it was like being inside a giant tree. Its original intent was simply as an escape from the heat in town and the phone. My grandfather was a manager at the local oil company and the owners would call him for everything, anytime. The phone line that runs along the shore road still bypasses our camp. He figured if they needed him bad enough on his time off then they could drive out and get him. Apparently his strategy worked fairly well. The layout of the cabin was perfect for my grandparents, having just sent their youngest off to college: a large living/dining area at one end with a master bedroom at the other separated by a central kitchen, bath, and pantry. Occasional guests could be accommodated on the pull-out couch. A few years later their daughter graduated, married my father, and started a family of her own. All of a sudden the floor plan was lacking. My grandfather added a small bedroom off the end of the original structure and decided the boathouse could double as a bunkhouse. The tiny bathroom was Grammy’s domain, literally: the septic/holding tank was small, its size limited by surrounding granite, so the rest of us had to trek into the woods out back to the outhouse. Dark, creepy, and full of mosquitoes, the outhouse is my only bad memory from my childhood summers in Maine.

The lake is typical of northern New England: cold and clear, fed by streams and brooks carrying forest run-off. It’s home to brown trout, perch, pickerel, and even a few land-locked salmon. On any given day you may see bald eagles, osprey, loons, and occasionally a moose if you take the trouble to paddle quietly back into the shallow flowage.

Thus my definition of a proper camp was formed by my childhood: a log cabin surrounded by white birch trees and granite boulders on a gravel track through the woods barely wide enough to drive down, all sitting on a lake so clean that it was your water source. Then I moved south, far south to the land of red clay and brown lakes where “camp” was a place you sent your kids for two weeks. I still remember my first reaction to the southern version of a lake: “I can’t possibly swim in that hot, brown stuff.” I’ve adapted although I still return to the family camp in Maine every summer for my fix. Heading north on I-95 out of Bangor the traffic starts to thin, the unmistakable smells of the northwoods permeate the car and my life slows down to a much healthier pace. I’m headed to the camp where the sounds of the wind in the trees, the water on the rocks, and the laughter of children playing are guaranteed to refresh the soul. Twenty minutes from town and more importantly, equidistant from some great trout streams where more often than not you’re the only one fishing.

The lake has changed over the years. Many of the camps have been replaced or converted into year-round residences and the local power company has had to upgrade service to the lake to keep pace with demand. But for the most part it hasn’t changed all that much: Houlton is small and so is the lake, facts which protect it from the development pressures seen by larger bodies of water in more heavily populated areas. We still get three channels, one Canadian, via the old antenna tied in the top of the tree, although they’re now in color and there’s a hook-up for the portable DVD player in case of rain.

Dog Blogging

Moose at 4 months/40 pounds. Thinks he's an otter, collects things you'd rather he didn't and hides them where you'll never find them again, excellent at shredding, in short - a Lab. What did you expect? He can't drive the Yukon yet but we're working on it.

Honor, Respect and Tradition

I'm not sure when this was shot but it's a beautiful example of the timeless tradition of manning the rails as the USS Reagan passes the USS Arizona memorial.

More on Technology

I’m on the road or, more accurately, I was on the road. There is nothing more distressing on a long road trip than the unmistakable call of nature. None of the options are good: notoriously disgusting gas station restrooms, heavily used rest stops, equally nasty facilities at the fast food chains, or the woods just off the shoulder. The warning signs hit me about mid way across the George Washington Bridge in NYC headed north on I-95... and in no big hurry since it was 5:00pm on a weekday. Those of you that have taken that route already know the predicament that I was facing. Stop in the Bronx? No. It is quite a ways into Connecticut before you start to see exits stocked with the usual options. I was hurting.

Finally a service center, that efficient northeastern answer to traffic congestion, land-use crowding, and the travelers’ desire for fast access to food, fuel, and relief. It was going to be a close call. Dive bomb or paper the seat? No time, I was in distress but I made it just in time. However, my personal distress (how shall I put this delicately?) was painfully obvious to anyone not currently afflicted with an acute sinus attack. Now at this point you’ve got to be wondering about the title. And here comes the tie-in: sitting in the next stall apparently done with his business and oblivious to the olfactory assault resulting from mine was someone so engrossed in his text messaging efforts that he failed to notice the evacuation taking place all around him. Beep, beep, click, beep, click, click. What the hell could be so important that he would want to hang around for bonus time in a public restroom?

I really don’t understand text messaging: you send a message by hitting the numbered keys on your cell phone until the desired letters appear and when you’re done composing you send it to the recipient’s cell phone. A sort of cell to cell email? Why not just call? If they are too busy to talk you’ll get their voice mail and you can leave a message – in a fraction of the time it takes to type it out using your keypad. And I really don’t understand text messaging from a public restroom.

Technology

Ain't it great? Spent all last weekend attempting to install Wordpress and it was the old computer tango: one step forward, forty the other way. As each obstacle was detected, examined, and overcome another would rise to take its place. I swear I could hear someone laughing through the computer speakers. No Wordpress yet, it'll just have to wait.

Sometimes I feel like there's a black cloud following me around. Got tired of throwing parts at the manual transmission in my '86 Jeep, found a rebuilt unit from a reputable guy on Ebay (Uh oh, that computer thing again). Good price, great reputation, 12 month warranty, fast shipping, looked brand new. But... something didn't feel quite right. Got on the phone, told the seller what was happening, "all normal, put it in, it'll be fine". I can feel the doubt creeping in but he knows what he's doing so I drop the powertrain from the clutch back, swap the transmissions, put it all back together again, and go for a drive. 2nd through 5th sound like a box of marbles. Towed it to the local off-road shop and let them handle the re-swap. The seller's taking care of fixing it but all my work is down the tube.

Now the wife tells me that Outlook has vanished from the home computer. No desktop icon, nowhere to be found in Programs. Gone!?! How could this be? What did I do to deserve such pain and inconvenience?

Done bitching now. Hope your week is going better.

Haditha: In Context

When examined within proper context Haditha may not be what the media would like to believe. Michael Yon has posted a "must read" dispatch that rightly warns of the fallout from speculation of late.

In the absence of clear facts, most people know that a rush to judgment serves no one. What word, then, properly characterizes the recent media coverage of Haditha, when analysis stretches beyond shotgun conclusions to actually attributing motive and assigning blame? No rational process supports a statement like: “We don’t know what happened, but we know why it happened and whose fault it is.”

Read the entire dispatch here.

Bird Flu Humor

Here's a little humor to balance today's material:

D-Day Links

From the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force: General Eisenhower's message to the troops.

And here is a clever essay by William Mayer describing what today's media would be broadcasting right about now had they been embedded with the troops 62 years ago. Thank God they were not! Think about it.

Update:Blackfive has the roundup for all of today's material pertaining to the Normandy Invasion. Some really outstanding material and I'm honored to be included. Take the time to go do some reading and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice by remembering them.

June 6, 1944

Today is the anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy that marked the turning point of WWII on the European front. A full two years in planning, the sheer mass of manpower and equipment from the combined US, British, and Canadian forces pushed the Germans from their heavily fortified positions along "The Atlantic Wall." From Stephen E. Ambrose's D-Day:

Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied France in June 1944, was staggering in its scope. In one night and one day, 175,000 fighting men and their equipment, including 50,000 vehicles of all types, ranging from motorcycles to tanks and armored bulldozers, were transported across sixty to a hundred miles of open water and landed on a hostile shore against intense opposition. They were either carried by or supported by 5,333 ships and craft of all types and almost 11,000 airplanes.

The numbers are certainly impressive as the image above hints but equally staggering are the losses suffered by the allied invasion force, estimated at 4900 on that first day and of those over 2,000 were on Omaha beach alone. Almost five thousand men killed in the initial offensive. What is truly amazing, given the task of penetrating The Wall, an imposing combination of obstacles, wire, trenches, fortifications and guns which the Germans spent four years constructing, is that the number of casualties was not grossly higher. We've all seen the movies, up to and including Saving Private Ryan; the men storming those beaches were boys, eighteen to twenty years old, and most had never seen combat before. What they faced when the landing craft ramps dropped is unimaginable. Yet out they went. And they kept going, men dropping left and right, until they had penetrated Hitler's wall. All along those beaches young men, mostly volunteer soldiers, fought their way across the bloody beach, up the cliffs, through the trenches, pill boxes, and gun mounts until their section was secure. They could have turned back or taken cover numerous times and any sane man could not have blamed them for doing so. But they pushed forward at great peril to their own lives so that democracy would not be overrun. Over the ensuing months they continued the push until the beast was back in pandora's box.

We owe those young men more than most of us appreciate. Again, from D-Day:

But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were soldiers of democracy. They were the men of D-Day, and to them we owe our freedom.

Think about what could have been had Hitler gone on unchecked. To the men who so bravely and selflessly gave their lives on this day so many years ago, and to their families, our eternal thanks. Without their sacrifice the world would be a much darker place today. Let's do what we must within the context of our generation to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain. May we have the same strength they had to stand up and press ever forward against the evil that threatens democracy.

The News You Don't Hear

With all the negative sensationalist material being doled out by the MSM majors, posting good news out of Iraq feels like bootlegging. Major P over at OP-FOR already referenced this article but I feel it's important that material like this gets spread far and wide. To my knowledge, none of the big boys picked this up which is consistent with their slant. The Roanoke Times published a letter last Sunday from Major John Phillips currently in Iraq. He gives us a refreshing peek at the war and our mission.

Read it.

Then pay it forward.

Political Mudslinging

As the primaries draw closer here in Alabama we're being inundated with negative political ads. So much so that it would seem that the choice comes down to selecting the lesser of two evils not one based on voting for a candidate who shares your beliefs on important issues. There is something fundamentally wrong with basing an entire campaign strategy on attacking your opponent. I would like the opportunity to elect my public servants based on my perception of their ability to get the job done in a manner consistent with my expectations. If I'm going to pay someone to represent me I want to know who they are and what they stand for not what kind of dirt their hacks managed to dig up on their opponent. That said, please don't feed me some over-played obtuse PC generic statement such as: "Stands for conservative family values." That gives me nothing.

If you want my vote then tell me, who are you? What's your stand on:

Taxes
Tort reform
Crime
Drugs
Education
Marriage
Gun control
The global war on terror
Immigration reform/enforcement
Our involvement in Iraq
A nuclear Iran
Energy
The economy

The list of possible topics is endless. Pick any or all and give me something substantial. If I agree with most of your positions, you'll get my vote. It's that simple. Or at least it should be.

Give me the material I need to make an informed decision and may the best candidate win. These days it would seem that we're expected to accept the inverse: may the worst candidate lose.

Trial by Media

Haditha, Iraq, is all the buzz lately. If you’ve had your head in the sand, a few months back Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas was killed when an IED took out his Humvee. Allegedly some of his fellow Marines took revenge on some civilians. The media and its poster child, Rep. John Murtha (an ex-Marine), have been loudly condemning the accused prior to guilt being determined. They have tried, convicted, and all but executed these Marines. Trial by media. Not appropriate here or anywhere else for that matter. Brings to mind images of witches burning at the stake. I’ll stand by the concept of innocent until proven guilty that this country was founded upon.

Did these Marines actually do what they are accused of? I don’t know.
Were they simply returning fire in a hostile area where death was behind every door? I don’t know.
Were insurgents in the mix, using the civilians as cover? Again, don’t know.
What really happened that day? I’m not sure, (pay attention, Murtha) I WASN’T THERE and neither were you, John.

If the Marines involved did indeed unleash lethal force inappropriately then they will be held accountable in accordance with the UCMJ. The media, with its insatiable appetite for the negative, is certainly assisting the anti-war movement with their coverage. I’m sure the enemy is also taking notes and will work yet another of our sensitivities into their tactics.

Our soldiers walk a fine line in an extremely difficult environment where it is often difficult to distinguish the enemy from the non-combatants. I can't imagine being in an intense fire-fight in an urban area and having to make snap decisions on who is and is not a threat. Not an easy situation by any stretch of the imagination. Let's let the military justice system work through this incident and keep the emotional media at bay so the truth can be uncovered. The leaks coming out of the investigation are also inappropriate, much like throwing meat to wolves in hopes that they will have their fill and move on.

For more:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005300.htm
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2006/05/31/haditha/
http://www.neptunuslex.com/2006/06/01/fighting-the-good-fight-part-i/

For a clinical look at urban combat and house clearing etc. read Uncle J:
http://www.madison.com/post/blogs/militarymatters/85715

The Dog Ate My Homework

Had a nice post going until Blogger burped. Gone. Black hole. Who knows where. Wordpress is looking more attractive every day.

I'm trying to reconstruct but the second draft is never as good as the first.