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| A coalition force member watches as the Launch Module on the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) raises during precision fire support training drills at Bagram Air Field, Parwan province, Afghanistan, March 13, 2014. This training helps troops maintain a state of readiness that enables them to quickly execute their fire support missions. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Ricardo Hernandez-Arocho/ Source) |
JB knocks it out of the park -
Random related tidbits.History is still important. The Russkies remember, even if we have forgotten, that American (and Brit, French, and assorted other) troops were fighting against the Bolsheviks on Russian soil in the Murmansk/Archangel "Northern Russia" expedition in 1918-1919, and in the "Siberian Expedition" 1918-1922 which extended from Vladivostok hundreds of miles westward along the Trans Siberian Railroad [not Orchestra].The Germans (and Central Power allies) forced the Russians into humiliating terms with an independent armistice and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk in February 1918. Basically, it forced Russia into recognizing the independence of Ukraine, Georgia and Finland; gave up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary; and ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey. So, yeah, the Russkies think of those places as rightfully belonging to the Russian Empire. Throw in post 11/11/1918 fighting in Ukraine against the Bolsheviks, and the WW2 three way brawl with assorted Ukrainians fighting (simultaneously or separately) with or against Germany and/or Russia and there are a lot of old unsettled scores and animosity lurking about.Now, we cannot ignore that fact that while we are emptying our bunkers of (most? nearly all?) of our war reserve stocks of conventional munitions, and many of our weapons systems (HIMARS/ M777 howitzers, Stingers, etc., etc.) we are doing little to replenish that inventory. Someone reported that the conventional artillery shell consumption is at WW1 levels, and UKR is using more shells in a day than we fired in a month in AFG. And, the Russians are making the rubble bounce with multiple times that. Over 50,000 rounds PER DAY, IIRC, and they too are running low. They also reported that we are buying 155mm shells at something like 1,500 a month to refill our bunkers. Do the math.Meanwhile, the Mullahs are wary of their intimidated subjects, Kim (and sister/daughter) control their impoverished neighbors while building nukes and missiles, and Chinese masses are restless, while Xi covets Taiwan, and may not let a good crisis go to waste where he could shift internal unrest into nationalistic pride by recovering that pesky breakaway province. All these folks are keeping an eye on the Great Satan, our leadership, and our military assets.All the while, the insane clown posse running our country bumbles about making everything they touch worse, with their ineptitude, dotage, and fixation on environmental nonsense hidden by a news media which is less reliable than Pravda.Hey, I like the UKR folks, and they are kinda sorta our friends, but they are NOT a vital U.S. national interest. We need to remember we are $31 Trillion in debt, and cannot afford to just shovel cash into their hands (where endemic corruption will magically make a lot of it vanish). We need to get our own spending in order, and pay off our debt before we can be so generous.Interesting times.Merry Christmas, all y'all.John Blackshoe
Sound wisdom that.
Thanks JB.
- OAFS
Good idea to post a comment like that Sarge. The useful fools in Congress don't give a da#$ about the USA being so far in debt.
ReplyDeleteI thought it needed wider play.
DeleteAll true, but I have no hope of a positive resolution for us. There are too many benefiting from our current mess with too much power to be successfully opposed. We, and most likely the rest of the world, are on an unstoppable death spiral that ends in darkness, a darkness that could last for decades if not centuries. With nothing resembling the USA left. As an amateur historian I have read of such events going back to the early days of the twelve hundreds BC. Now that we are living through such an event, it is a lot less amusing.
ReplyDeleteNot that there aren't plenty of good people with the right desires and instincts, we are just out numbered by the grasping and slothful. In my home state a constitutional amendment was passed during the last electoral comedy show ensuring that crooked elections are a permanent fixture and the challenges to them are legally limited.
Normalcy bias will only carry one so far.
My natural optimism is starting to flag. Too many criminals with their hands on the controls, too many idiots content with that.
DeleteThank you, John Blackshoe.
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteI’m sure the ‘west’ will come to the right decision eventually (after it’s tried all the wrong ones first)
ReplyDelete"Tried all the wrong ones first," sadly, it is the Way.
DeleteThings my grandfathers were known to have said.
DeleteProbably their grandfathers said it as well.
DeleteI did not know about the American involvement in the Russian Civil War until high school, when I did a research project on it. Pretty eye opening to me at the time. History does matter.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most concerning (other than "Are there - anywhere - adults in the room?") is the fact that we are throwing around arms and money like candy without any sort of accounting or accountability. My mind boggles at the amount of both we are simply giving away based on, for lack of a better word, trust. Yes, I get the "Better to confront Russia over there than over here" (and the audience here will remember that was precisely the same argument presented in 2003 which led, ultimately, to us destabilizing not one but two countries and leaving gold and guns - a lot of them - in Afghanistan with literally nothing to show for it), but this is not like candy, an endless supply that can be readily re-purchased at the nearest Family Dollar Tree Store along with toilet paper.
And then, of course, you now introduce the fact that "we" (our leadership) has egos involved. Much like the aforementioned Iraq and Afghanistan, anything currently that does not look like total victory when your leadership has invested in it is just an excuse to double down on the insanity. Even more so as in this case, no American lives are (currently) involved, just arms and money. Even less real to most Americans than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the war was reduced to pictures on a screen and perhaps knowing a friend that had a family that had a cousin that had served.
A good comment indeed, Sarge. A tragedy that no-one that actually needs to read it will.
Our alleged "leaders" are unqualified, uninformed, and corrupt. I'm starting to think that there is no hope, none at all.
DeleteThere is certainly no hope for the soegennant "leadership". There are certainly egos involved, but even that factor pales in the scale and extent of the corruption.
DeleteIn "normal times" the ammunition and weapon expenditures would be worrisome; now my thought is "less for them to throw at us". A foreign invader will likely come with the collusion of, if not outright invitation from, the corruptocrats currently in power.
Boat Guy
They'll probably even have visas.
DeleteI learned a new word. And new parts of history. Wow.
DeleteLearning is good.
DeleteWhich is why I ALWAYS read both the topic article AND the comments!! Cause I learn ALL sorts of neat, nifty, interesting, cool stuff!!
DeleteI love comments. This is why.
DeleteSuz - This is the power of the Social Internet. We all learn from each other. Why I am such a huge of fan of it (and this blog, of course).
DeleteWell said, TB.
DeleteExcellent article. This old(er) Blackshoe approves.
ReplyDelete"Old(er)." Well played Cap'n, well played.
DeleteThank you for re-printing Mr. Blackshoe's Russian history lesson. The only part I find disconcerting is "...the insane clown posse running our country ... with their ineptitude...". I find I am unable to ascribe to ineptitude what is so obviously malevolent intent?
ReplyDeleteI tend to apply Hanlon's Razor: "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
DeleteThere is adequate proof over the years to support both positions for many of the individuals involved, i.e., they are evil AND inept.
Thanks John! Dead on point!
ReplyDelete👍
Delete[Blushing] Proof that it is true if you put enough monkeys in a room with keyboards, they can produce Shakespeare, or something Sarge will allow on his page.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of Will Rogers "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
I jut hope and pray our future is not as dystopian as it appears.
John Blackshoe
I have that same prayer.
Delete(Anytime you get the urge to write, let me know. As juvat, Tuna, and Beans can attest, the pay sucks and the benefits are non-existent, but you do get to post.)
Same prayers here. Every day.
DeleteThat's not how I'm betting. I recently sent a clip from "The Pacific" to friend showing the likely apocryphal meeting between Leckie and Sledge where Leckie replies "I believe in ammunition". Kinda sums it up for me at the moment.
Boat Guy
Yup, keep your powder dry.
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteJohn BlackShoe was correct in his history lesson, and I will add a few musings to his post. Besides sending our war stock over there, and we don't seem to be replacing it as fast as we are sending it, plus the money, the running joke if there is one is that the Ukraine is one huge money laundry operation for the powers that be in the West, I want the Ukrainians to win, having the Russians invade was a major suck for them and the Russians ain't doing as good as their propaganda made them out to be. but I care more about my country and our problems and we have the Chinese having a lot of internal problems and they would love to distract everyone by invading Taiwan and getting everyone all pumped up in a nationalistic fervor. I have no faith in the current crop of flag officers to do what is correct and honorable because they are totally venal and career orientated to the detriment of the service and the Nation. I don't know what the endgame is but we can't go like we are going, if this continues,i see the new Dark ages coming that will last for decades if not centuries.
I fear much the same, MrG.
DeleteAt the risk of repeating myself, right now I'll look on venal and otherwise untalented flags and reduced ammo inventories as an advantage given the increasing likelihood of them coming against us; you know, the "threats to our Democracy".
DeleteBG
You want your opponent to be incompetent, that's for sure.
Delete