War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

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Mongrel
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War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:57 pm

New war thread.

The first post is not for a current war, but a past one as I've got Gary Brecher unlocks on tap. This is his series on the war of 1812.

These links will be unlocked for the next 28 hours, so if you're interested read 'em now (or at least copy the text).

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Mongrel
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Sun Mar 02, 2014 6:56 pm

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François
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby François » Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:44 am

"Prototypes in the digital cloud" is one of those expressions that won't impress people who understand it and won't be understood by people whom it would impress.

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby sei » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:07 am

Incomprehensibility is how some people are impressed most.
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:50 am

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Sat May 03, 2014 10:55 am

An extensive web of assassination plots all lead back to one Paul Kagame

He's smart enough to be the sort of tinpot dictator that leaders outside of Africa will think well of, but I don't think anyone who's been paying attention has ever thought Kagame was anything other than a gigantic self-serving asshole.

Still, this is much worse and goes much further than I'd thought.
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Fri May 09, 2014 1:08 pm

Gary Brecher is writing for free again

EDIT: There are some really fucking good articles in the eight up since December. The Google Big Dog one is some great speculation and a fascinating take on where counterinsurgency warfare might go in the future, an interesting wrinkle on Occupy movement's future tactics, and of course he continues to be one of the best western sources to actually explain the shitshow of internal African conflicts.
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:53 pm

Uhhhh... so Iraq is falling apart?

(militants have taken Tikrit and Mosul)
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Classic » Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:09 pm

I know that there are people who will try and lay the blame on Obama for this one, because they see no problem in being in a state of unending war and violent military occupation.

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Büge » Wed Jun 11, 2014 8:10 pm

Who would have thought that invading a country and destroying its infrastructure would have far-reaching consequences.
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Tue Jul 01, 2014 12:55 am

Drone Pilot Quotes

This thing’s kind of climbing like a pig. Climb, you pig. . . . Boy, this is going to be tight. . . . Okay, interesting. We are falling out of the sky.
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Tue Jul 01, 2014 4:58 pm

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Thad » Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:46 pm

And somehow that's not the headline.

What the fuck, New York Times.

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mothra » Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:20 pm

Worth a read, if for nothing else than the full overview of Blackwater's "operations" in Iraq. Its as bad as you think.

The question in my mind is what the requirements for joining Blackwater/Academi are supposed to be. Do you even need military training, or can you just be some shithead in a militia and join right on up?


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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby beatbandito » Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:27 pm

Didn't Diane Sawyer used to be reputable?
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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby TedBelmont » Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:56 pm

beatbandito wrote:Didn't the American news media used to be reputable?

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Smiler » Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:14 am

No.

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Re: War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

Postby Mongrel » Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:31 pm

Now, there have been a few items making the rounds in the general news about the latest Gaza stuff. Most notably the images of settler types pulling out lawn chairs to watch the bombings like they're some kind of fireworks display, clapping and cheering with every missile strike.

That's the baseline horrifying stuff, bad enough, but almost becoming ghoulishly familiar at this point.

This however is perhaps a little more chilling:

Article about the cause of the most recent incursion into Gaza

In the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.”

That’s unusual language for a military mouthpiece. Typically they spout lines like “We will take all necessary actions” or “The state of Israel will defend its citizens.” You don’t expect to hear: “This is the politicians’ idea. They’re making us do it.”

Admittedly, demurrals on government policy by Israel’s top defense brass, once virtually unthinkable, have become almost routine in the Netanyahu era. Usually, though, there’s some measure of subtlety or discretion. This particular interview was different. Where most disagreements involve policies that might eventually lead to some future unnecessary war, this one was about an unnecessary war they were now stumbling into.

Spokesmen don’t speak for themselves. Almoz was expressing a frustration that was building in the army command for nearly a month, since the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli yeshiva boys. The crime set off a chain of events in which Israel gradually lost control of the situation, finally ending up on the brink of a war that nobody wanted — not the army, not the government, not even the enemy, Hamas.

The frustration had numerous causes. Once the boys’ disappearance was known, troops began a massive, 18-day search-and-rescue operation, entering thousands of homes, arresting and interrogating hundreds of individuals, racing against the clock. Only on July 1, after the boys’ bodies were found, did the truth come out: The government had known almost from the beginning that the boys were dead. It maintained the fiction that it hoped to find them alive as a pretext to dismantle Hamas’ West Bank operations.

The initial evidence was the recording of victim Gilad Shaer’s desperate cellphone call to Moked 100, Israel’s 911. When the tape reached the security services the next morning — neglected for hours by Moked 100 staff — the teen was heard whispering “They’ve kidnapped me” (“hatfu oti”) followed by shouts of “Heads down,” then gunfire, two groans, more shots, then singing in Arabic. That evening searchers found the kidnappers’ abandoned, torched Hyundai, with eight bullet holes and the boys’ DNA. There was no doubt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately placed a gag order on the deaths. Journalists who heard rumors were told the Shin Bet wanted the gag order to aid the search. For public consumption, the official word was that Israel was “acting on the assumption that they’re alive.” It was, simply put, a lie.

Moti Almoz, as army spokesman, was in charge of repeating the lie. True, others backed him up, including Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. But when the truth came out on July 1, Almoz bore the brunt of public derision. Critics said his credibility was shot. He’d only been spokesman since October, after a long career as a blunt-talking field commander with no media experience. Others felt professional frustration. His was personal.
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