Mad

I normally take the side of police in such matters until the police decide to criminally cover up an illegal shooting. A former Marine Jose Guerena gets gunned down by police in his own home and the police try to cover it up. I do not want to make political hash out of this (some have already started) but a severe injustice was done by a political Sheriff and what appears to be an incompetent SWAT unit. This young man did exactly what I would do if my wife was screaming someone was breaking into our home. I would have done grabbed my AR15 and waited. While I do not know the home defense laws in AZ, where I live you can start blasting if you can clearly explain a threat. Seeing armed men in my house is a threat I would have started shooting. This young man as NOW admitted by police had the fire discipline not to fire probably when he recognized they were police. Do you know how they responded by firing 71 rounds 71! at one man hitting him 60 and then let him bleed out for over an hour before letting paramedics onto the scene. I am not just mad because this young man was a Marine I am mad because of the incompetence of this Sheriff and his SWAT team. The Sheriff and every member of that SWAT team should be in prison in shackles and every day be made to apologize to this young mans widow and child. Now the wife rightfully so has hired a of lawyer and I hope they bankrupt Pima County, AZ.

Thankfully in this case the Marine Corps gave this young man the full military funeral that he deserved. His home country killed him when two tours in Iraq did not.

Fresh attack in Pakistan

Since the killing of bin Laden a couple of weeks ago the Taliban and AQ have been swearing their revenge. It has started off a little pitiful to be hones a couple of attacks on soft Pakistani targets and attempt on some US diplomatic personnel. These have caused only civilian Pakistani deaths and have not produced the Western or even Pakistani security service deaths they have to be striving for. However today terrorists (Taliban) are in the midst of an attack on a Pakistani Navy base in Karachi . Update from Pakistani news, 2 P3 patrol planes has been destroyed along with four Pakistani Naval personnel and a Ranger killed so far with the attack still ongoing....

A new force is rising in East Europe

The Visegrad group of Poland, Slovakia, The Czech Republic and Hungry have formed a military and political alliance outside of the EU and NATO. What is interesting about the countries is Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech have combat experienced troops as they have rotated in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan in particular. Poland is leading a battlegroup that will be outside of NATO command and control...I think this is very interesting for a group of countries on not the best of terms with Russia, making a name for themselves outside of old Europe and not on the best of terms with the Muslim world.

You Knew it was Coming

The Pakistanis are ticked off and their feelings are a little bit hurt. Of course being embarrassed in front of the whole world will do that.

1. They claim that they did not know where bin Laden was living. Considering that he was only 800 meters from their West Point it is hard to believe.
2. That the U.S. was able to fly in spend 40 minutes on the ground and not only not detect the SEAL team but were not able to respond at all. Even though there was gunfire and explosions going on.

Pakistan's army chief Gen. Kayani is ordering a probe into Pakistan's duel intelligence failures. Pakistani media is openly challenging the military and ISI which is often unsafe to do.

Meanwhile in other you knew it had to be coming news the Europeans are all in an uproar now that they are playing Monday morning quarterback and say we should have captured and tried him. Surprisingly it is the French who are on our side the the British both right and left and of course the Germans who are having a litter of kittens. My vote pull all troops out of Europe except to maintain our bases there. I am sick and tired of floating Europe's security bill let them pull their own weight for a change. But I digress..Oh one more thing are we going to have to defend Europe from their growing Islamic problem because right now they barely acknowledge there is a problem from their Asian immigrants.

This whole ordeal while cause a shift in Pakistani and American relations and it may well change things inside of Pakistan. Of course the Military and ISI may close ranks and nothing changes but maybe just maybe civilians can start to have more of a say in how those organizations are run.

UBL

I have been silent this last little bit while trying my hand at gunsmithing and generally watching the Middle East and the Magreb got to hell.

I am pleased as punch the OBL is dead as a hammer and could really care less that the Euro-weeny press with the exception of France is having a litter of kittens. What I do wonder about is why the narrative the the attack keeps changing? Maybe the administration should have waited on the debriefing before spouting off at the head. Also my friend over at Captains Journal raises a heck of a point when he says we can unleash a SEAL team on UBL and kill every man in the place but we try to hold snipers accountable for shooting an unarmed Taliban commander or tie Marine and Soldiers hands behind their back with very restrictive ROEs.

My brother made it safely back from another trip across the sea and he has some very unkind things to say about working with NATO. My reaction was "they were supposed to stop the Red Horde from taking over Europe?" Sadly as bad off as the Warsaw Pact was NATO might have been worse.

I digress did you know that the Iranian government through their Revolutionary Guard Corps is involved with something like $12 Billion dollars a year in smuggling a lot of that involving drugs out of Lebanon and Central and South America. $12 Billion is a ton of money and would make the IRGC pretty much financially independent of the Iranian government.

Syria

Why would Europe and the US intervene in Libya but just now want to start more sanctions against Syria. The same Syria that wiped and entire town that was rebelling off of the map 20 years ago. Now Assad is moving mechanized units into towns and killing people wholesale. I think it has to do with Syria's ties to Iran which also gets a free pass to kill their own citizens as well.

Our country does not have a foreign policy in place to hold the rouge regimes to task. The world waits for our leadership meanwhile our CnC plays golf.

Libya

As reported here previously NATO with out U.S. involvement cannot decisively deal with Gadhafi's troops. This is evidenced by today's statement from Paris which lamented the limited U.S. military role in Libya and chided Germany for its lack of involvement. In a dire analysis, France's defense minister acknowledged that without full American participation in the combat operation, the West probably can't stop Gadhafi's attacks on besieged rebel cities. (Where are is NATO's further involvement in Afghanistan when we asked for it?) Britain and France do not have the air power to drop the tonnage of bombs needed to stop and degrade Libya's military to the point that the very poorly armed rebels can an effective attack against Tripoli. Britain only has a total of 136 GR4 Tornado not all of which are being used for this operation. In addition the Royal Navy operations around 110 GR9 Harriers in the ground attack and anti-air role. While the Typhoon can perform the air to ground function there is no indication they are being used. France operates a combined 306 Mirage 2000, Mirage F1, and Rafale multi-role aircraft. This is fewer than the aircraft in the U.S. Air National Guard and Reserve. The U.S. if it wanted to could put 100+ heavy bombers in the air all delivering precision guided munitions. Add F15, F16, F18, Harriers, AC-130 gunship, and A10s. If the U.S. decided to use its un-deployed aircraft in an air offensive it could dwarf the aircraft being currently used again Libya. What the politicians and rebels do not understand is that to wage an air campaign that would cripple Gadhafi Libya's infrastructure would have to be destroyed as well as it manufacturing base. This will leave little for the rebels to take over. Those that think destroying equipment works got the wrong impression from Kosovo during that air campaign Serbia's infrastructure was also hit causing civilian casualties and lots of hard feelings among the civilian population.