BlackFive

Here is the story of how curiosity killed the jihadis as told via the FLIR video of a smart bomb.  It shows some Taliban checking out a bomb crater, little suspecting that bombs can strike twice in the same place.

Extreme Makeover asked Ranger Up to help them find military families that need help with their homes. Families must own their own home (which can’t be in foreclosure or have a lien). They must have children and the home must be in rough shape.

Please email [email protected] with the family you think needs this help! Include family name, pictures, story, and contact info!

I noted the other day to someone that once Gadhafi’s forces figured out how to adapt to the coalition presence and tactics, they’d probably begin to swing the momentum back to their side.  Why?  Because they’re better trained and equipped than the “rebels”.  According to AP that has already begun:

Gadhafi's forces have adopted a new tactic in light of the pounding that airstrikes have given their tanks and armored vehicles, a senior U.S. intelligence official said. They've left some of those weapons behind in favor of a "gaggle" of "battle wagons": minivans, sedans and SUVs fitted with weapons, said the official, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss sensitive U.S. intelligence on the condition and capabilities of rebel and regime forces. Rebel fighters also said Gadhafi's troops were increasingly using civilian vehicles in battle.

The change not only makes it harder to distinguish Gadhafi's forces from the rebels, it also requires less logistical support, the official said.

This was both predictable and inevitable.

Think about it - what is the hardest thing to distinguish?  Whether or not a civilian vehicle is occupied by good guys or bad guys – or neither.  Make your side pretty much identical from the air to the other side or just regular civilians and it makes the job the coalition has undertaken much harder.  That’s precisely what the Gadhafi troops have done.

AP also throws this out there:

The shift in momentum back to the government's side is hardening a U.S. view that the poorly equipped opposition is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention - either an all-out U.S.-led military assault on regime forces or a decision to arm the rebels.

I hear a lot of talk about the US (or others) arming the rebels and how that will make the difference.  Nonsense.  While not having the weaponry that the other side has is indeed a disadvantage, it isn’t the rebel alliance’s biggest problem.  Their biggest problem is they’re an untrained and undisciplined rabble.  And an untrained and undisciplined rabble confronting even marginally trained troops with at least a modicum of discipline are going to lose if all else is equal.

While weapons may help, they certainly won’t make the difference. 

So:

The battlefield setbacks are hardening a U.S. view that the opposition is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

I assume our “unique capabilities” will again be in demand as others “volunteer us” to be a part of the “intervention” that seems inevitable.  However, if there are NATO “boots on the ground” in the future, there won’t be any Arab League in the coalition.

Obviously Obama doesn’t want this going on for long but it appears that Gadhafi and his supporters have both the will and the means to defy Obama’s wish.  That leaves the US with the specter of a long and drawn out civil war with the coalition ineffectively hanging out at 30,000 feet trying to decide which minivan is a bad guy.

Finally, we find out today that the CIA is operating among the rebels.  Given their huge history of success in these sorts of endeavors, that has to give you a warm fuzzy feeling, huh?  And while I wouldn’t technically claim it violates Obama’s “no boots on the ground” pledge, it does stretch it a bit.

Well, well, well perhaps I have misunderestimated the venerable warrior Barack the Obama. Hmmmmm.

Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter.

Now of course this is yet another leak of classified info for political gains. But who did it and why? It could be an Obamanaut making sure the country knows he is not a complete muppet. It could also be someone trying to derail the multinational hugs and love fest (with a few bombs) that Barry had sent our military over to run. If we are covertly, well I guess more overtly now, helping the rebels then the whole bold-faced lie he told on television was a bold-faced lie. I mean you can call it misdirection or discretion and you would be correct. But you can dang sure call it a prime time prevarication and it makes it impossible to pretend we are just refueling some planes for our buddies the French.

So I am against whoever leaked it doing so to either help or hinder Obama. I think it is kinda interesting that there are reasons for both to do so. But hey let's enjoy this rare moment of transparency and just be happy that O is willing to allow the skulking about with satchels of cash and supressed weapons that really makes the best diplomacy. I just assume his aides are reading B5 for their strategery needs.

OK now on to some serious stuff. I have seen fit to authorize the raising of a Digital Assassins Guild for the purposes of furthering the art of the online beatdown, the vitriolic rant, the profanity-laced tirade and of course the viciously, scathing ad hominem attack. These vital forms of communication have come under fire by the civility hypocrites who project their own powerless rage and desire to flail out personally at those of us who chose to practice the fine art of digital devastation.

So I make a call for nominations to DAG! These must include citation of qualifying works of Full Frontal Fisking, Expert use of the Clue Bat, Citations of Douchebaggery and Beclownment bestowed, Hypocrisy Hammering, Beatdowns for Ball-washing and other examples of the kind of the quality Digital Assassinry I believe the internets demand.I will answer the under overwhelming call and serve as Guild Master until fairly deposed.

So nominate away, from the left or the right and I will simplify things a little by keeping this to folks who write for mostly online sources. Also accepting ideas for taglines.

 DAG! You might wanna put a tourniquet on that

DAG! Decomissioning douchebags so you don't have to

DAG! You don't mind if I quote you on that?

DAG! Submission due to online Mata Leon

The patriots at Liberty Rocks are urging our war-mongering President to go ahead and try some of the evil bastards we have already caught in the detention and trial facility we built specifically for that purpose on the island paradise of Comrade Fidel's Cuba, well our little poke-in-your-eye bit of it.

Please sign our petition demanding that President Obama immediately begin the 9/11 trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, at Guantanamo, by military commission.

There are hearings next week and they would like to get a hundred thousand or so signatures and then print them all out, roll them up real small and poke them into the eyes of the idiots who are trying to bring these losers to America.

Not somewhere I would want to be...

Regardless of your individual opinion of Michael Yon, this story is drawing fire from about every hasty and prepared firing position that can reach it from their sector. 

Evidently, Rolling Stone magazine is doing it's level best to attract more mouth-breathing leftist lunatics to the ranks of their subscribers by attempting to take what has been called President Obama's "Abu Ghraib" (with virtually ZERO coverage in the Old Media BTW) and mold it and shape it to fit their warped libturd world view.  Not that anyone would be surprised by this, but this steaming pile of cat guano that passes for something the editors at Rolling Stone blessed off on as acceptable for general consumption for all and called by the title "journalism" is being called out.

As it should be.  By someone who was there and can stand to rebut such rubbish...

Seldom do I waste time with rebutting articles, and especially not from publications like Rolling Stone. Today, numerous people sent links to the latest Rolling Stone tripe. The story is titled “THE KILL TEAM, THE FULL STORY.” It should be titled: “BULLSHIT, from Rolling Stone.”

The story—not really an “article”—covers Soldiers from 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) in Afghanistan. A handful of Soldiers were accused of murder. It does in fact appear that a tiny group of rogues committed premeditated murder. I was embedded with the 5/2 SBCT and was afforded incredible access to the brigade by the Commander, Colonel Harry Tunnell, and the brigade Command Sergeant Major, Robb Prosser. I know Robb from Iraq. Colonel Tunnell had been shot in Iraq.

The brigade gave me open access. I could go anywhere, anytime, so long as I could find a ride, which never was a problem beyond normal combat problems. If they had something to hide, it was limited and I didn’t find it. I was not with the Soldiers accused of murder and had no knowledge of this. It is important to note that the murder allegations were not discovered by media vigilance, but by, for instance, at least one Soldier in that tiny unit who was appalled by the behavior. A brigade is a big place with thousands of Soldiers, and in Afghanistan they were spread thinly across several provinces because we decided to wage war with too few troops. Those Soldiers accused of being involved in (or who should have been knowledgeable of) the murders could fit into a minivan. You would need ten 747s for the rest of the Brigade who did their duty. I was with many other Soldiers from 5/2 SBCT. My overall impression was very positive. After scratching my memory for negative impressions from 5/2 Soldiers, I can’t think of any, actually, other than the tiny Kill Team who, to my knowledge, I never set eyes upon.

Steel on target Michael.  These court jesters running wild in their asshaters menagerie needed to be called out and given the good news that there is definitely another side to this whole story. A story about how everyone else seemed to be able to do their duty, except these warts on the behind of the US Armed Forces who decided the line between "combat" and "murder" was a wee bit too blurry for them to care about the difference.

And for all you fellas in the head shed that stop by here now and then to check on us and what we are doing; FFS, why in the world, if the military wants to be the ones controlling the message and deciding through occuptions like PSYOPS, INFOSEC, INFO OPS, Civil Affairs and such, would they let people from such low rent publications like Rolling Stone be embedded, have press access or have any access at all to do these kinds of stories.  Asshats like Matt Taibbi and his ilk over there have an agenda, and it definitely isn't to tell the whole truth, nor to keep it in the larger context.

Everyone else "manages the message" so why not the US Military?  Hello... is this thing on?  If you need some help in running something like this I can send over my resume...

I would prefer that the hacks at Rolling Stone went back to things that have no taste in and no talent for; music.  Let the grown ups do the work of digging for the truth and telling the stories.  I can't believe Earth First lets them kill trees to print their bovine scatology.  Without naked pictures of stars from a vampire show on cable TV, Rolling Stone would be even more irrelevant... 

On the plus side, I think I found a substitute for the liner in Mrs. Deebow's kitty's privy... 

From our good friends at Pundit Review Radio (the best show on Boston Talk Radio), here is some information about supporting the Medal Of Honor awardee, Jared C. Monti, with a scholarship fund provided through a poker tournament in Massachusets:

You can listen to our tribute to Jared, done as part of Someone You Should Know, back in 2007 which includes a Father’s Day interview with Paul, here.

Jared’s family and friends are keeping his memory alive through a scholarship that is funded through an annual Poker Tournament. Details about how you can support this great cause, dedicated to this great man, are below.

5TH ANNUAL SFC JARED C. MONTI POKER TOURNAMENT
SATURDAY, APRIL 16TH, 2011
4pm Registration, 5pm Start
2:30pm Satellites – 8:00pm Live Auction
American Legion Post #405
291 Mill Road, Raynham, MA

If you missed all the brilliant pre-fight hype orchestrated by the whack jobs at Ranger Up prior to Jorge Rivera fighting Michael Bisping, then you cheated yourself. In the fight, Bisping cheated with an illegal knee to the head and the fight should have ended there, but Jorge didn't want to cheat the fans. So he went on and Bisping prevailed over a damaged Jorge.

Now the whole point of the hype campaign was to get Bisping to fight and to get in his head. It worked a little too well, and Bisping stepped way out of line with the knee and then by spitting at Jorge's corner. Yes you guessed it, Bisping is a Doucheasaurus erectus. Here are Nick Palmisciano and Jorge talking about the campaign. Well done gentlemen, a brilliant job of grassroots viral marketing. Don't stop before you get to Nick's clarification on Bisping's bestiality (seriously).

Kanani Fong sends a note about this conference in LA.

The Soldiers Project Presents...

CONFERENCE ON WOMEN AND WAR

Hidden Strengths, Hidden Wounds

April 15-16, 2011

Keynote speaker: Helen Benedict author of: The Lonely Soldier- 

The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq

The Davidson Conference Center

University of Southern California
3415 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, California 90089-0871

Opening reception: Friday April 15, 2011 6 -9 PM

Screening: POSTER GIRL; Academy award nominee

Q and A with Sara Nesson and Robynn Murray

Conference: Saturday April 16, 2011 8 AM - 6 PM

(full breakfast, lunch & refreshments)