Can You Spell M-I-S-S-I-O-N C-R-E-E-P ?

It's the ultimate Noble Cause - we're going to war against an Evil Duck ! ! !

U.S. GENERAL: GROUND TROOPS NOT IDEAL, BUT MAY BE CONSIDERED IN LIBYA

Army Gen. Carter Ham says some in U.S. may weigh sending in ground troops as part of an international force to aid rebels, but doesn't endorse move.


This was s-o-o-o predictable . . . we should be keeping an office pool on when & how many . . .


"WHEN THE GOING GETS WEIRD, THE WEIRD TURN PRO." - Hunter S. Thompson

Notice to all active-duty servicemen - refer your eyes to the imagery below, these are our unlikely allies in the Global War on Terror:

It's like those heady revolutionary days of the Sixties and the Seventies never went away!

Vehicle Recognition: that's an early-model Toyota Landcruiser, done in Seventies harvest Orange that matches your mom's kitchen in the Seventies - note the pre-Gaddafi era flag; the rebels' insignia.

Friend or foe? The quintessential dilemma of guerrilla warfare.

I too studied the great guerrilla warrior Che . . . I wonder if this gentleman knows how Che met defeat after violating his own principles?

For what it's worth - I'll go . . . if the money's right . . . I've already got the wardrobe.

PROSPECTS FADE FOR A MILITARY OVERTHROW OF GADDAFI

Prospects faded that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi would be ousted by the armed revolt and NATO leaders acknowledged the limits of their air power, which has caused rather than broken a military stalemate.


OF COURSE Quaddaffi Duck isn't going to go quietly - we've already telegraphed out bottom line: A) we said we weren't going to commit to ground troops; English translation: our hearts aren't in this thing, and B) Gaddafi knows if he gives up, he ends up in a monkey cage on a show trial in front of his sworn enemies; i.e. all of Western Civilization.

We've given the man no choice; Gaddafi HAS to fight to the death, and nothing fights harder than a cornered rat. Little voice in the back of my head tells me nobody put very much thought or analysis into this thing in the run-up.


Of course here at STORMBRINGER we always like to share Hero Dog stories - Check out the saga of the Mighty Mutt of the Garbage Chute

A-W-W-W-W . . . CUTE ! ! !

SAMANTHA HENRY, AP – 08 April 2011

NEWARK, N.J. – When an emaciated pit bull found at the bottom of a trash chute in New Jersey was rushed to a veterinary emergency room last month, doctors there thought he would be dead within the hour.

Instead, the scrappy pup, nicknamed Patrick, has defied the odds and is getting stronger by the day.


Check it out - they named that pup after MY MIDDLE NAME ! ! ! S.L. a.k.a. "Jean-Pierre" in the Cote d'Ivoire


OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS DEPT:


The BIRDS OF STORMBRINGER are BACK ! ! ! =D


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THE LIBYA THING

So what exactly are we going to call this thing? Used to be we had heroic names for wars:

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR . . . . . . THE WHISKEY REBELLION . . .

. . . THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR . . . . . . THE BOXER REBELLION . . . . . .


Somewhere between World War II (a.k.a. THE BIG ONE) and Vietnam I guess we just ran out of names, sort of like modern car companies with their meaningless Prius and Altimas.

Back when everything was real.

There was a bit of hope there for awhile when they called my generation's Big One THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR but that was too cool for the current Occupier of the Whitehouse - in one of his first official acts Barry Soetero downgraded our Great and Glorious Patriotic War to the pragmatic "Overseas Contingency Operations" . . .


. . . how Zen-like . . . how PC . . . how lacking in macho and crotch-o . . . the antithesis of everything a war is supposed to be all about.


Somewhere along the line, even cool names for campaigns - OPERATION OVERLORD - the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II . . . OPERATION POWER PACK - the U.S. invasion and occupation of Dominican Republic 1965-66. . . OPERATION URGENT FURY the United States intervention in Grenada, 1983 . . . political correctness took over and the Panama Invasion of 1989- the largest Airborne invasion in history was dubbed OPERATION JUST CAUSE - and just as quickly re-named "OPERATION JUST BECAUSE" by the sarcastic G.I.'s who participated in the combat jump.

Eighty-Deuce Bustin' Loose!

For a brief moment of time there OPERATION ODYSSEY DAWN had some promise . . . the name ain't so bad; a cross between Homer's great adventures of Ulysses and ZULU DAWN. Of course that was too heroic, it could never last. How intriguing that the minute the Canadians are nominally put in charge its re-flagged OPERATION UNIFIED PROTECTOR . . . sounds like some kind of United Nations birth control campaign . . .


Of course I say "nominally" because everybody knows NATO is an American club; if it wasn't for the United States, the Soviet Union would still be going strong and the F-4 Phantom would be the state-of-the-art European fighter.


Never mind the name, this thing has been wrong and disingenuous from the start. Under the Constitution, the President of the United States has the power to commit U.S. military forces - but only when U.S. national interests are threatened.

THIS is how a President sends Americans into harms way.

For this Libya business, Obama should have gone to Congress . . . instead he went to the United Nations . . . doesn't pass the smell test and worse - a dangerous move toward downgrading United States sovereignty and prestige on the world stage.

Hello, Rio! Alô, Cidade Maravilhosa!

From lack of threat to our national interest it was a quick step to total lack of anything resembling a plan, let alone an overall objective - this led me to exclaim that what we have here is not a war; it is a series of war-like actions.


Certainly it has the parts and pieces of a war - things are being broken and people are being killed - but to what end? What is our over-arching national strategic objective? Well . . . lemme see here . . . we don't have one ! ! !


THIS IS NOT A WAR . . .


. . . we haven't had one since 1945. A war is more than just killing things and breaking people . . . in war the theoretical objective is to defeat the enemy population's will to wage war - Clauswitz. The concept of War is naturally associated with words like "Capture the Flag," "Victory" and "Unconditional Surrender."


What are we doing in Libya? Somebody? Anybody?

OK it's for oil - I'm okay with that.

"Oil is the lifeblood of Democracy" - Churchill. Or are we there because France can't handle any more Muslims? TO HELL WITH THAT - let the Froggies deal with their matters themselves; we could use a couple fighter wings of F-18s down on the Arizona border to deal with our own illegal immigrant situation.


OK let's back up and throw some analysis on this thing because we've been at it for a couple weeks now and people are getting hurt . . . this one-man state ("L'etat c'est moi!") Gadhafi is an international bad guy and an overall pig . . . not that we have any shortage of THOSE these days . . . Kim Jong Il anybody? Hugo Chavez? Achmedinnijad? These are the shitheads, the haters, guys who wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell if you put them in the dock at the Hague . . . never mind THOSE pigs - right now the Libyan rebels won the PR war; they are the cause celebre du jour ergo Barack appeases his social conscience and enhances his stature with the amongst nations of the Third World at the same time.


We don't have a plan and we don't have a stated objective but what's that to stop us? We've got . . . MISSION CREEP! "No boots on the ground" quickly morphed in to Special Operations painting targets with lasers, staging assets for CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue), and providing support to the CIA in their mission borrowed from NASA; "Muslim Outreach."


This is doctrinal, of course, and totally predictable. It's also mission creep; does OPERATION RESTORE HOPE ring any bells? This was the yawn-fest code-name for the U.S. food-parcel handout mission into Somalia - which quickly evolved into the heaviest combat operations for U.S. forces since Vietnam, some twenty-odd years earlier.

By conveniently announcing to the world that our mission does not involve regime-change, this telegraphs to Muamar the Mad that all he has to do is hang in there and take the punishment from the sky - sooner or later the round-eyes will exit stage left and anyway, surrender is not an option; he saw what happened to his buddy Saddam.



POLITICS ENDS AT THE WATERS EDGE DEPT.


Linnane's First Principle of Warfare states: "When you find yourself involved in a war, you must commit to certain victory in as short a time as possible with every resource available; to do anything else equals criminal negligence."

We de-humanize our enemies; it makes them easier to kill.

Americans are in harms way - we pray for them, we wish them Godspeed in this honorable fight against a bona-fide bad guy, Gadhafi Duck, and we certainly hope this thing ends quickly, and honorably.


And it must; "We will not deploy any U.S. troops on the ground," the president said, and called the strikes "limited military" intervention.


Pronouncements like these are from the "We'll bring the boys home by Christmas" genre -

. . . and we all know how THAT worked out in 1914.

. . . SEAN LINNANE SENDS




Today's bird HERE



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NOSE ART WAR

Iran's Attempt to Modernize Its Fighter Planes as Member of IFAPSA Alliance Fails to Win Nose-Art War.

This ingenious piece of brilliance is courtesy Friend of STORMBRINGER Jim Wrenn of the Worthy Blog PoliSat.Com

As a member of the IFAPSA (Islamo-Fascist and Paleo-Stalinist Alliance) desperately needing a fighter plane that would at least have a remote chance against an F-22 Raptor, Iran is modernizing its air force. However, according to Jane's, the internationally recognized authority on military-weapons, Iran's most advanced fighter doesn't even have a prayer of winning even the Nose-Art War in that category . . .

. . . for the rest of this awesomeness click HERE



Theo and I corresponded yesterday -


STORMBRINGER: Post this wisdom Theo -


Solution to the problem in Libya:

They want a new Muslim leader.

I say, give them ours.

That solves 2 problems.


THEO: Have finally posted. Need some analysis on Libya and middle east. Had a rant last night.


STORMBRINGER: Yes I read it & I agree - right wrong or indifferent we're in it now; Linnane's First Principle of Warfare states: "When you find yourself involved in a war, you must commit to certain victory in as short a time as possible with every resource available; to do anything else equals criminal negligence."


THEO: So are we going to nobble Gadaffi or spend the next decade pissing about in the middle east. You have been there and done it . What are your thoughts on how we should proceed? Can use a pseudonym if you want to let rip.


STORMBRINGER: "Sean Linnane" IS a pseudonym . . . and I WILL let it rip . . .


THEO: Yes I know Sean is a pseudonym but if you really want to let rip use another.


This is too easy; sharpshooting the current Occupier of the Whitehouse - ESPECIALLY on this foreign military adventure - is the philosophical equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel . . .

. . . then events of the day overcame - I know it's incredible to imagine but yes I have a life & a career outside of Blog STORMBRINGER - and now it's going to have to wait until the weekend . . . Friday morning at the earliest . . . BUT I will end with a nice photo of our new allies:

. . . SEAN LINNANE SENDS



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THE ONGOING DRUMBEAT

This week's significant events:

HOMELAND SECURITY EXERCISE IN TREYNOR, IOWA

Treynor High School

School children were sent home with permission slips to participate in an exercise by the Pottawatamie County and Homeland Security with the Treynor, IA Community Schools to simulate a school shooting. The premise of the mock shooting suggested that a student, whose white, Conservative parents oppose illegal immigration, comes to school with a gun and shoots a Latino Student.

Treynor High School student made up as a roleplayer for the exercise.


This is nothing less than a thinly-disguised propaganda exercise for the Department of Homeland Security; part of the continual, deliberate campaign by Liberals to stigmatize, marginalize law-abiding citizenry - the ultimate goal being to constrain and restrict our God-given right to self-defense as inscribed in the 2d Amendment of the United States Constitution.

They cancelled this outrage after the Citizenry alerted on it; then used this opportunity to twist law-abiding citizen's concerns into "threats to their employees and buildings due to the planned 'active shooter' exercise."

Twist the truth and milk it for all it's worth - energize the mob, play upon their fears and anxieties - the doctrine of propaganda straight out of Saul Alinsky and Joseph Goebbels.



OPERATION ODDYSEY DAWN: UNITED STATES ALLIES ITSELF WITH AL QAEDA IN LIBYAN NON-WAR

Let's apply the basic beginning steps of analysis and planning:


WHO are we supporting? U.S. backed anti-government forces in Libya are being led by al-Qaeda fighters.

- Brilliant. Just brilliant.


WHAT's the plan? WHERE is this thing going?

Like many observers, I’m skeptical of how Operation Odyssey Dawn has been conceived, implemented, and explained. - James M. Lindsay, Council on Foreign Relations


WHEN do we get out? US OFFICIALS: LIBYAN OPERATIONS COULD LAST MONTHS.

I once got branded a racist for using the "tarbaby" cliche -
the term has nothing to do with race; it means violence that develops into sticky mess you can't get yourself out of.


WHY are we there?

President Barack Hussein Obama took a break from important carnival activities in Rio de Janiero to issue to following statement on 19 March 2011:

"Our consensus was strong and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act and to act with urgency."


So why are we there and not the Darfur, Ivory Coast, or maybe even Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba?


HOW LONG will the Gadster hang in there? Gaddafi vows "Long War"

When you have secured the area, make sure to inform the enemy. - Murphy's Law of Combat #27

Gaddafi is seen here in a recent photo with a member of his elite female-suicide-sex-commando-bodyguard.(Getty Images)



MEANWHILE Hamas makes good use of that $500 million in humanitarian aid the Obama Administration threw their way:

HAMAS ROCKET ATTACKS ON ISRAEL GO PRACTICALLY UNNOTICED.




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NOW IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING

LIBYAN REBELS ARREST MAN SUSPECTED UK POLICE CONSTABLE MURDER 27 YEARS AGO.

PC Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London in April 1984 and died shortly after. Photograph: PA


The man suspected of murdering PC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984 has been arrested by rebel forces in the country and is in custody in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher lies dying in officer's arms.


Fletcher was helping to control a small demonstration outside the embassy in St. James's Square on 17 April 1984 when shots were fired from the first floor of the building at the protestors. She was shot in the stomach and died in hospital.

Campaigners welcomed the arrest and expressed the hope that Omar Ahmed Sodani would face trial in Britain.

Entire story HERE


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WAR BY OTHER MEANS

- Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments

"War is diplomacy by other means." - Clauzwitz


The first strikes of the British-French-US coalition have at last taken place against the Gaddafi regime. Given the intensity of the attacks and the hardware involved, it is predictable the situation be proclaimed "War #3".

To proclaim this a 'war' is premature, however. What we are engaged in over Libya is to War what driving your daily highway commute is to NASCAR. I will explain this analogy:

In his announcement approving US missile strikes on Libya, President Obama warned Muammar Gaddafi that "actions have consequences", while at the same time stressing that no US ground troops would deploy to the region. This self-imposed constraint tells the world that the United States has limited objectives in the current military actions. More significantly, this encourages Gaddafi to hang in there; we're not coming after him.

This is not War; there is no causal series of events, no clear objective. This is your typical United Nations episode choreographed by committee with the intent on freezing events at a single historic period of time - now - like every other United Nations success story around the world; Korea, Cyprus, Iraq . . . no, wait; the UN bolted out of Iraq and then and only then did any progress occur toward defeating Evil and liberating the population.

Again, Clauswitz: "War . . . is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will."

Unless our will is to allow Gaddafi to remain in power and to continue his reign of terror, there is no evidence yet that we have committed ourselves to war in North Africa. Instead, what is taking place are war-like actions; the international military version of a SWAT team. In other words, a police action.

Critics of my analysis will say that Libya is sparsely populated, there are few targets - we will bomb the tyrant to smithereens within a few weeks. In professional military circles, this is referred to as "underestimating your enemy".


"You are a professional, but the world is full of dangerous amateurs." - Murphy's Law of Combat


Consider Vietnam. We dropped more ordinance on that tiny country than we did over the entire European Theater of Operations during World War II, so much so that we ran out of targets to bomb. And yet the Communist leadership knew that unless we were willing to invade and occupy the North, all they had to do was hang in there and sooner or later we'd tire of the effort, take our bat and ball and go home.

But Vietnam had a worldwide Communist Bloc backing it up, with direct lines of supply from Red China straight down to the southern battlefields; Libya does not have this. Au contraire - Libya is backed by the entire continent of Africa - an amazing continent of unfounded natural resources and almost limitless manpower - and Gaddafi has spent forty years investing in those assets.

It will be interesting to see how and when mission creep evolves toward assisting the rebel forces toward a genuine war of movement, and what other players appear on the battlefield. Reminder - the Muslim Brotherhood holds tenuous sway over the street mobs of Cairo, a day's drive across the desert to the East. A principle of war is Momentum. Will a power vacuum develop, such as took place in Iraq in the spring of '03?

Whether or not this is how it plays out in Libya, today Gaddafi listens to Obama's words and what he hears is that he's been given breathing room. Consider Gaddafi's actions of the past week - the man has nothing to lose. He realizes there is no villa waiting for him in the south of France; this is it - all or nothing. If Gaddafi has to pack his bags and go, his next stop is a cell in the Hague. To Hell with that - Gaddafi is a Satanic bazillionaire with an evil army and air force at his disposal. From his point of view, all Gaddafi had to do was give the UN a little lip service and keep on slaying his opponents; the rat infestation in his barn had gotten so out of hand the only way to control it was with a flamethrower.


- SEAN LINNANE SENDS



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ZE PLANE BOSS ! ZE PLANE ! ! !

Dramatic footage of what appears to be a MIG-25 FOXBAT being shot down by rebel groundpounder MANPAD over Benghazi:

In an episode earlier in the month, the future Defense Minister of the Libyan New People's Republic explains how he scored a lethal hit on a Gaddafi's SU 24 FENCER with a defective ZSU-25-2:

MIG-25 FOXBAT supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance-bomber.

SU 24 FENCER Variable-wing ground attack bomber.



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FRANCE, UK TAKE LEAD IN LIBYA; US WAITS FOR WORLD TO ACT

Rebel Benghazi to get French Ambassador

Sarkozy steps up to the plate, displays leadership.

In a major diplomatic victory for the Libyan opposition, France has become the first country to formally recognize Libya’s rebel leadership, pledging to exchange ambassadors between Paris and the Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

The recognition comes as European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels Thursday and defense ministers of NATO’s 28 member states also gathered in the Belgian capital to consider the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya.

Ahead of the Brussels meeting, AFP reported that Sarkozy would propose “targeted airstrikes” in Libya as a way to end the violence.

Details HERE



I remember there was once a time when the United States was leader of the Free World, and American Power was respected and feared.

Instead we shake hands with these bastards . . .

. . . then we quibble and obfuscate when the little people are being slaughtered like livestock and the time has clearly come for decision-making and action.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet Libya opposition, assess needs.

* Warns against any US action without int'l authorization.

* U.S. cool to suggestions for no-fly zone.


Details HERE

This guy needs to go as well . . .

. . . instead we're lifting the embargo, 

because the Democrats have never met a dictator they don't love.

- SEAN LINNANE SENDS

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