Auspundits

Today's funny line

Courtesy of Michael White who quotes an MI-6 agent on the pre-Iraq war claim that Iraq was looking to acquire yellowcake from Niger:

Niger exports two products, chickens and yellow cake. The Iraqis weren't in Niger to buy chickens.

For more serious stuff, read the link. Very informative, albeit fakely conciliatory toward the end.

On The Next War

Thomas P.M. Barnett argues that Bob Gates has begun to shift the Department of Defense's thinking on force structure and the likely form of America's enemies in the coming century. In particular, Gates poo-poos "next-war-itis", the idea that the armed forces should be organised and equipped for the next war with a great power (take your pick: China, Russia &c) saying "it is hard to conceive of any country confronting the United States directly in conventional terms".

The Five Faces Of Darkness

Despite the setbacks that God has inflicted upon us, these painful blows will mark the beginning of the wiping out of America and the infidel West after the passing of tens of years, God willing. - Osama bin Laden, 17 December 2001

Iraqi Jihadi Gets Some

Warning: Graphic. A different kind of splodydope.

Day For Optimism

A friend suggested that I needed to be more positive. In line with the recommendation, a very heart-warming photo-essay out of Iraq at The Long War Journal.

The 5/7 Cav brought in an Iraqi doctor and two Arabic-speaking nurses, as well as a number of Army medics. They examined more than 550 people, and gave all of them hygiene supplies like soap and shampoo, vitamins for the youngsters, and prescriptions as needed for actual medical problems...Soon, there will be similar gatherings with dentists and veterinarians. Sayafiyah is a brand-new rebuilding enterprise, and 5/7 Cav is at the forefront.

Occupiers indeed.

Yon Reports: AQI Being Dealt Death Blow

Yon reports from Iraq that Al Qaeda in Iraq is under systematic attack in northern Iraq by Coalition troops in what posterity may consider its death knell:

Major operations against al Qaeda have begun in northern Iraq. Al Qaeda is in serious trouble. These are not ad hoc operations, but are deliberate, systematic, well-planned and working. I’ve been watching this unfold for months but have not reported due to sensitivity, but the real shooting has started and Maliki has announced it. There is every indication that this series of operations could be the death blow for al Qaeda in Iraq.

When The Surge's first dividends were being paid in the form of reduced violence, Yon was very cautious in pronouncing the tide in Iraq was turning. Given his Special Ops background and his circumspect analysis in the past, I would give his commentary high credibility. One front in this "War on Terror" is being clearly won. But poor leadership has blinded the West to the broader battle which is being arguably lost. Hence Guiliani's demise. What's the inversion of the old adage "Every cloud has a silver lining"?

Agility: Tactical and Bureacratic

From Bill Whittle. Read this and then this:

Taking a few moments to understand what this odd man [John Boyd] learned about airplanes and aerial combat will pay rich dividends later. Because John Boyd – Pope John, The High Priest of the Fighter Mafia, the Mad Major, the Ghetto Colonel – Forty Second Boyd not only wrote the revolutionary tactics manuals that gave American pilots the keys to air-to-air victory… and with it the essential and undisputed control of the battlespace. Nor was his achievement limited to the design of the phenomenally successful F-15 and F-16 fighters. Nor was it merely the codifying of physics and thermodynamics to make a science out of an art form. That John Boyd saw all of these things for the first time would have made him a legend. But this was quite the lesser of his two great achievements. For Boyd not only saw how to perfect the sword. He saw too how to perfect the swordsman.

And for that, Forty Second Boyd may turn out to be one of the most important men of the Twenty-First Century.

Why? Click through to the links (in order).

Operation Iraqi Freedom - Succeeding?

I am seeing more and more signs of success in the graveyard known as Iraq. Hitchens goes through some of these whilst Michael Yon provides wonderful anecdotes supporting this thesis. Add to this on-the-ground reports that Iraqi ambulance drivers have had it relatively easy in recent times and that Baghdad nightlife has been revived. Osama bin Ladin despairing about the failure of the jihad in Iraq. How sustainable is this?

The Bias in the News Media

The Associated Press is trumpeting news that Army desertion rates are the highest than they have been since 1980.

Saturday Night Link Dump

Been shopping for a Gaia-destroying four-wheel mode of transportation and reading Philip Bobbit's, difficult-to-read yet revolutionary tome, The Shield of Achilles: