SCRATCH ONE TANGO

OSAMA BIN LADEN DIES OF NATURAL CAUSES FOLLOWING 5.56mm ROUNDS TO THE HEAD

Americans go hogwild in wanton celebration, while ivory towered academics, elitists and pseudo-intellectuals choke on their lattes.

That's right Intelligentsia - it's a real world out there, full of evil people who only want to do you harm, and Osama bin Laden was their poster child. Even your darling Community-Organizer-in-Chief with his weirdo Muslim name could not hold back the forces of freedom.

Details continue to emerge about the operation - a classic raid incorporating the principles of speed, shock, surprise and violence of action.

Bin Laden was shot in the head, officials said, after he and his bodyguards resisted the assault.

Three adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons, whom officials did not name (one of bin Laden's sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaida). A woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, in keeping with cowardly terrorist modus operandii.


AN AMERICAN VICTORY IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR

Witness the celebrations in city squares, ballparks across America; at Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the Whitehouse, and at Ground Zero:

An unidentified celebrant climbs a light pole as crowds celebrate on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, early Monday, May 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Crowds at Ground Zero in New York City in the early hours today, shortly after President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations Forces in Pakistan

Americans waved flags and sang the Star Spangled Banner, while others chanted 'USA! USA!' and 'Na-Na-Na-Na - Na-Na-Na-Na . . . Hey, hey, goodbye . . . '


This is what Americans want - following decades of death and destruction visited upon us by al Qaeda - the monster Osama bin Laden killed in direct, personal combat by American warriors.

Americans don't want NASA transformed into a 'Muslim Outreach Program' - EFF THAT - we want to be told that Osama was tracked to his lair by NASA space-based assets so we could "smoke him out of his hole" and ventilate his skull.

Proud to be an American: the scene at Times Square early today, with many American flags waving in celebration


MESSAGE TO FREEDOM's ENEMIES:

We will get you.

You have attacked us where we were weakest, most vulnerable; 9/11, and before that the embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. Early frustrations in our operations against you in Tora Bora - some of the hardest terrain on Earth - gave way to the liberation the countries that harbored your evil forces. We have killed and captured the top terrorist leadership - those of you we captured alive sit rotting in Guantanamo - and now the charismatic spiritual leader of your sick, twisted ideology is dead and his body tossed over the side of an American aircraft carrier. Osama bin Laden is fish food at the bottom of the sea - YEAH ! ! !

You can run, but you can't hide. We will get you in the end - we always do, and we always will.

And with our allies - the great UK/AUS/CAN/NZ Commonwealth; NATO, and the rest of the Free World - we will continue track you down, find you, fight you and kill you; one by one for now until the end of time if need be until your Evil is expunged from the face of the Earth.

We will never surrender to terror.



"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning . . ."

- Winston Churchill, after the first Allied victory against the Axis at El Alamein, 4 Nov 1942.




Today's Babe HERE


.

TWO FINGER SALUTE

Steve McQueen gives the "Two Finger Salute" at LeMans

TWO FINGER SALUTE, Le MANS 1971

Where did Steve McQueen get the idea for the "Two Finger Salute" at Le Mans?

Apparently, Maston Gregory, who was a friend of Steve's, seems to have used this gesture after winning Le Mans several years before the movie was released. Maston Gregory won in 1965 but the film was made in 1971. I wouldn't say McQueen was copying Gregory, but maybe there was an element of an in-joke in the gesture, especially as Gregory was driving in the race that year and is credited in the film. Why Gregory was pulling a V sign in 1965 - who knows?



Being from the Commonwealth, I can explain: this gesture is English in origin, or more correctly, Welsh, from hundreds of years ago when the French and English were at war.

Following the rout of French knighthood at Crecy and Agincourt, the French so hated and feared the Welsh Longbowmen (in the employ of the English Army) that if they ever captured one of them, they would cut off the first two fingers so they could no longer draw their bows. Therefore, on the field of battle, the Welsh bowmen would taunt the French across enemy lines, as a way of mocking the French by saying "I've still got my fingers".

The tradition continued long after the relevance of having a middle finger to draw a bow. The "Two-Fingered Salute" essentially became the British gesture for "F*ck You".

A proper English gentleman expressing his patriotism.

By World War II it took on a second meaning: "V" for Victory.

During World War II Winston Churchill used the gesture during the height of the Blitz, to tell the Germans F.U. - We Won't Quit!

Churchill - two-fingered salute.

It is the opposite of the Victory sign, which Churchill used when England won a battle:

Churchill - V for Victory.

The Two Fingered Salute is well known in the European military and all of the drivers at La Mans in the 1960s would have understood it. As the Second World War was within living memory, it was a fitting salute for when McQueen beat a German, in such a close race.

Many people also believe that the modern "middle figure" gesture is derived from that "V":

The Man in Black, tellin' it to the Peaceniks

.

ANZAC DAY

Anzac, the landing 1915 by George Lambert, 1922 shows the landing at Anzac Cove, 25 April 1915


ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day – 25 April – marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

This day special to Australians -

In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders.

What was planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships.


Over 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed in obscure, far-off places with strange sounding names: Suvla, Anzac Cove, Lone Pine. The Gallipoli Campaign made a profound impact on Australians; 25 April has become the day on which Australians remember the sacrifice of their honored war dead.





ANZAC Day 2010 marks the official one-year anniversary of Blog STORMBRINGER. The following is reprinted from last year's ANZAC Day post:



The Dardanelles / Gallipoli campaign of 1915 set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the allied navies, via the straits of the Dardanelles. The plan was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany.

This was the Operation Enduring Freedom (Iraq War) of its day; what had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. But while Operation Enduring Freedom actually achieved its tactical objectives, Gallipoli was a tactical and strategic defeat for Allied forces.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill was credited with developing the overall strategy; the campaign's failure led to Churchill’s demotion and contributed to the collapse of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's government.

On 15 November 1915 Churchill resigned from the government, and though remaining an MP, served for several months on the Western Front commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, under the rank of Colonel. This is the equivalent of a Bush Administration cabinet-level Secretary – or a serving Congressman - participating in a front-line capacity in the battles of Fallujah or Rumallah.

The campaign began in February 1915 with a series of naval actions in which aging British and French battleships attempted to force the straits. These actions proved disastrous after mines sank two British battleships.

Commonwealth & French forces landed at Gallipoli on 25 April against fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. At the end of 1915 allied forces evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships.


A trench at Lone Pine after the battle, showing Australian and Turkish dead on the parapet


In all, the Gallipoli Campaign cost the Allies 141,113 killed and wounded and the Turks 195,000. Over 11,200 Australian and New Zealander soldiers were killed and approximately 23,700 were wounded in Gallipoli, of which some 2000+ were permanently maimed (as attested in the patriotic song ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’).

The Australian and New Zealand casualty figures represented a significant percentage of the overall military-age population:

• Approximately 40% of the available men of military age of Australia and New Zealand (about 10% of the total population of both countries) served in World War I.

• Of the total casualties 1914-1918, almost 15% of all Australians and New Zealanders killed in action (KIA) during the First World War died during a six-month time period in a very small place called Gallipoli.

By direct comparison to the current American men-of-military-age demographic, this would represent an approximate figure of 600,000-plus KIA across any single six-month period 2003 to present, in an area of operations less than 7 miles wide by 25 miles long. I have always maintained that “body count math” is a sick science that absorbs defeatists, but this ratio certainly puts our current engagements into a perspective that even the most cynical critic of the current conflict must appreciate.

References –

The Australian War Memorial website

New Zealand History Online




The memorial at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli.


.

". . . WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER !"

Of the maxims of the Philosophy of STORMBRINGER:


'When you find yourself in a fight, the stupidest thing to do is ANYTHING BUT try to win, by whatever means possible.




When you and your team become involved in battle, you MUST have the mindset that there is NOTHING ELSE BUT to win, for the alternative is unacceptable.




When a nation finds itself in a war, to do ANYTHING BUT whatever it takes to win is beyond criminal; it is unconscionable.'


The United States of America is the greatest nation in the entire history of the World. We are a Beacon of Hope and Freedom to untold millions, billions. We have the support of our honorable Allies, throughout the family of civilized, free nations. To date, we are the single nation capable of planting its flag on another Heavenly body.






Are we to believe that we cannot prevail against a movement of illiterates, led by a nihilist, inspired by a creed straight out of the Dark Ages?





We can win, we will win, because we MUST win - the alternative is UNTHINKABLE.


"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender . . . "

- Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940


My series of posts on paramilitary security contractors uncovered another supporter out there; STORMBRINGER welcomes Donald Douglas to the fold of Victory-minded individuals.

" . . . a pro-victory Associate Professor of Political Science teaching in Southern California. I love my country, and I fully support current U.S. military operations around the world. I despise the hard-left radical agenda and discourse. I also abhor irrationalism in argumentation. I welcome comments and debate, and I'll defend my positions vigorously. Yet in friendship, you'll find no one more trustworthy nor loyal; in battle you'll find an umatched competitor whose tactical elan would make Machiavelli proud . . ."






Check out his Worthy Site AMERICAN POWER







I told Donald that when I retired from active duty, I considered going into education. But it occurred to me that a conservative, ex-Green Beret would survive MAYBE a semester or two in that liberal environment . . . I respect Donald for holding his own in the rarified atmosphere of modern American academia. - S.L.

.

MISSION STATEMENT

STORMBRINGER provides direct reporting from military sources, analysis, cultural phenomena and unique anecdotes from all around our amazing modern world.

A long-term project of Team STORMBRINGER is to explore strategy and tactics, the principles and philosophy of conflict as applied to the dynamics of the marketplace and the modern corporate environment.

The writings and inspired quotes of the great Captains of History are presented: Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Julius Caeser, Von Clausewitz, Washington, Jackson, Rommel, Patton, Churchill, Giap, and more.

Occasional forays into spiritualism, the arts, travel and adventure round out the STORMBRINGER experience.