Weekly mortar attack on Diwaniyah

Another mortar attack on the Latvian contingent base at Diwaniyah, no casualties.

Its getting warmer there, daytime temperatures in the shade are already reaching 40°C. June/July and 50°C temperatures coming right up.

I've been noticed by the press affairs people from CENTCOM, who sent a pleasant e-mail requesting that I link to their website, and inviting me to use any material from the site. They appear to "get it".

Done, linked at the sidebar.

Gramscian narcissism

Shrinkwrapped gives a psychological explanation of the emasculation of western society after WWII, that helps explain the ability of the cancerous Gramscian meme of political correctness to penetrate the west so deeply so quickly.

Its also rather important in that political correctness is not a virulent disease in its own right, but an opportunistic infection that could only have grown in the west, in this era. No other society would have given political correctness the time or nutrients to grow and blossom, it would never even take root. Never before has such a dangerous vector (mass media) existed, that allowed it to spread quite so fast

However, the situation is unstable. Gramscian narcissism is self-negating. The key question is whether this self destruction will occur within the host, or like a cancer by killing the whole host.

Historically, technologically and culturally advanced civilizations have fallen again and again to primitive but more vigorous barbarians. Was the process something not unlike this? Except that effeminacy took centuries to finish Rome. Thanks to the PC infection, we may be seeing that process on fast forward right now.

I ruminated on this earlier, but if Shrinkwrapped is right the rot runs deeper than the media. Susan Sarandon and co are just the warped image in the mirror, reflecting the rotten side of western culture.

The Belmont Club: Who will bell the cat?

Wretchard has also noticed the essential smoke and mirrors behind the empty calls for "someone to do something" about Darfur. The numbers being discussed (10000????) are, as I have said, laughably small for effective peacekeeping in Darfur - about an order of magnitude so.

Of course a UN peace force may well use the new UN SOP from Liberia : no sex = no food. In the case of UN deployment the population will be decimated by AIDS anyway. The modern UN - a lose/lose proposition.

Latvian troops in Iraq dodge yet another IED

From the Latvian MoD webpage (my translation) :

On the morning of 4th may, as the Latvian company's second platoon was conducting a patrol near Diwaniyah, an IED was detonated on the right side of the road. No casualties were incurred.

The 2nd infantry coy/2nd infantry battalion dodges yet another IED blast without serious harm.

Again, the MoD release went completely unnoticed by the media. In this case thats probably positive, a sign of phlegmatic maturity - omnipresent danger and close calls to the troops no longer count as news.

Army genocide prevention unit?

Darfur and more stupidity again. The surprising thing is the source this time. Michael O'Hanlon writes in the Washington Times op ed column Army genocide prevention unit? :

We should create a genocide prevention division in the U.S. Army -- a Peace Corps with guns

A what?

Soldiers in the new genocide prevention division would not need to execute complex operations akin to those carried out during the invasion of Iraq or current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They would largely monitor villages and refugee camps, inspect individuals to make sure they did not have illicit weapons, and call for help if they ever came under concerted attack. Their jobs could be somewhat dangerous, and would require discipline and reasonable knowledge of some basic infantry skills -- but they would not be extremely complex.

The METL is limited to monitor, inspect and call for help. Thats certainly in line with time tested standard UN practice in Lebanon, Croatia, Bosnia and Rwanda. Apparently, coming under unconcerted attack (like IEDs or occasional ambushes) is simple. So no great skill is required to wait for air support while pinned down in an ambush deep in the African bush at night? Apparently having American flags will immediately make up for total lack of fighting capability, and thereby deter the Janjaweed from disrespecting them. Of course, on the rest of planet earth outside the UN office building, it is sincerely believed that any such force, being neither equipped, trained or prepared for combat, would be abused by anybody with the slightest interest in doing so. Little children will point, laugh and throw stones, as they always have at the impotent UN peacekeepers.

From there it gets worse :

They would begin their service with roughly 12 weeks of boot camp and 12 weeks of specialized training -- and then go to Darfur next winter.

Mhmmm. 6 months of training. None of that expensive and time consuming unit collective training seems in order. As observed, the units being US, they are apparently assumed priori not to need actual combat training. That would be OK of course if the tasks are only simple as outlined earlier, but :

....such American main combat forces would probably not have to be larger than company-size formations -- 200 to 300 troops each. Assuming several such companies would be deployed, perhaps 1,000 American soldiers and Marines from existing units would be needed countrywide, to back up the 5,000 to 10,000 new enlistees in the dedicated genocide prevention force.

Aside from "company formations of 200-300" (and thats three contradictory elements in one phrase) being "main combat forces", even if the magic US flag somehow allows them to avoid combat/prevail in combat, how would those 5000 quickly trained meat shields genocide preventers prevent genocide across all Darfur where the 10000 African Union peacekeepers failed miserably? Is it the US flags again? Plainly ridiculous.

Who is this guy? How the hell can this Michael O'Hanlon make a career in defence analysis and get published in the Washington Post when he doesn't have a clue?

Zarkawi ... terrorist try hard

I love this, from the Counterterroism Blog. CENTCOM has gained excerpts from the Zarkawi tape, and it shows him as a bumbling tryhard in comfy shoes who can't actually handle the weapons. So the master terrorist is actually just a try-hard, a wannabe.

Encore! Encore!

Imagine! You become the world's second most wanted terrorist, idol of thousands of jihadi fanatics, except .... with a gun you are more dangerous to yourself than the eeevil A-Mericans.

You have to wonder. What was he actually saying during the bit on the tape where he was studing the maps with a music over? Maybe, "Ahmed, tell me again, what is thay. That one. What is that symbol meaning? A tower? Are you sure, Ahmed? ..."

Zarkawi should go the suicide belt, much more appropriate for his skill level.