Here's PI in Your Eye

The arrest of Marines Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Querubin may be the final undoing of Macapagal Arroyo. In tense situations like these, cooler heads most often prevail and brash moves tend to escalate tensions and stimulate acts of greater desparation. I am woefully ignorant of Philipine politics so I don’t know if a coup is taking place, a popular rebellion, or the makings of a civil war.

Meanwhile, the Western press is talking up civil war in Iraq as Sunday fair. I have checked the CNN website and watched it on TV, as well as Fox, and the Philpino affair is not showing up on the nominal radar.

So the Western press is talking up a civil war in Iraq while ignoring one in the Philipine Islands. The conflict in Iraq has been waged for three years. The body count in the past few days has been on a par with an average suicide bombing campaign. Yet the seminal news now is that there no distinction between victim and aggressor in this case. That there is no monoply of violence. Not the bad news that it is made out to be but instead, another example of if it bleeds Bushes’ popular support, it leads.

The second lead item on CNN.com is “Beads and Bawdiness”, the Mardi-Gras celibration and something about a mistrial for the woman who cut off her babies arm. I wonder if it was holding an apple. Perhaps we can never mind the fate of the free-world, and instead, segue to Aruba, where a latent lawyer can ask a non-involved bystander, for yet another ill-informed opinion of the where abouts of a missing American teenager.

Generation Bat

From the Belmont Club;
“Miller proudly announced the title of his next Batman book, which he will write, draw and ink. Holy Terror, Batman! is no joke. And Miller doesn't hold back on the true purpose of the book, calling it "a piece of propaganda," where 'Batman kicks al Qaeda's ass."”

After forty years of left-wing propaganda demonizing the United States it will take more than a Cape Crusader to turn the tide. But perhaps when a generation of disaffected youth rebelling against the entrenched neologisms of their aging Generation X forbearers will their patriotism counter-weigh and neutralize the birthright of hate in the Middle East. As long as Middle Eastern youth possess the unique franchise of hatred they are empowered.

If Batman is the dark fantasy of Frank Miller, then Osama Bin Laden is the dark fantasy of Wahabbi fundamentalism. One might hope that ME youth would adopt such Western heroes but I doubt it. While luxuriating in Mission Bay last summer, I was next to a large encampment of Middle Eastern beach goers grilling Shish-Kabobs and listening to twirling Egyptian music, fully clothed women waded waist deep into the water while young men ran and jumped headlong into the water arms stretched, as I would have described as ‘Superman’, they’d shout “Ali Baba!” There is little doubt to me which culture will dominate when the host culture has been sterilized like a Petri dish.

A question I grapple with is whether the murderous exploits of the likes of Assad senior are a catalyst of change or the very marrow of Islamic identification.

I am not sure what I do or don’t understand, but have the notion that Gen-X doesn’t believe in the patriotic duty to country that the Palestinians have as a birthright. I’m not sure if it so much a criticism as an observation that Western culture feels it has a responsibility to subsume its heritage to make way for a new generation of goat herding, unwashed masses. That Gen X plays any particular role in that has more to do with the fact that they were, in my estimate, the first generation to be raised at the teat of 60’s dogma, a dogma that they whole heartedly rejected, which is at my point, each successor generation must, by nature, rebel against the prudent sensibilities of their forebears.

Near Tipping

“Terrorists cannot hide the inhumanity of their ideology”. – GWB 02/09 Increasingly we must ask if the ideology isn’t too deeply imbued into the Muslim mind to be disentangled.

An interesting point; “if some skinhead burns a mosque”, perhaps this is why the FBI can be more diligent in profiling Caucasian dissidents then they seem to care about the large populations of second generation Muslim youth that have embedded themselves in American society.

If the near tipping point of the United States is destroying two of its’ most powerful symbols and damaging another, a cartoon from an obscure publication in a small, often overlooked western European country, becomes the near tipping point for Islam. Indeed, more radical elements have already declared their form of all out war on the United States, however meticulous, methodical, and plodding that war may be. The Islamists seek to activate the very tipping points of a sluggish, slow to react giant. If we were to take a home grown western terrorist where-ever we might find them, be they skinheads, militia men, or impatient end-timers, how hard would they have to strike to stir the ire of the whole of Islam? One shudders think. I long to ‘shut the book now’ but as participant of these times must watch with horror the inevitable confrontation.

Media
Media has found its purpose in bringing down supposed oppressive regimes like Nixon’s during Watergate. I recall reading Daniel Ellsberg’s memoirs. I had long believed Ellsberg was a traitorous son of a b*tch, so I looked forward to his autobiographical explanation as to why he did what he did. Although I learned to respect Ellsberg at one level, retired Marine Lieutenant who carried a Swiss K submachine gun while ‘researching’ the conflict, he never was very vocal about the war until the exact second it became Nixon’s war. Suddenly, he became an activist who would sell his country out to the New York Times. He was a traitor and a partisan hack. We lost the War on Terror the moment that man walked.

Now every hack of that era sees that the only noble purpose in life is to bring down the U.S. government. It is no coincidence that this is the very purpose of the Islamists.

The Western Media has found its purpose in creating conspiracies. The Middle Eastern citizen has found its purpose in life in consuming them.

The Hole of Islam
The ‘whole of Islam’ is something less than the 1.2 billion adherents that we are constantly reminded of. I am afraid, that those of whom we call moderates are merely the uncommitted, loosely affiliated that seem to fill the pews of most churches. I am afraid that the Islamic mind, the heroes of it’s modern warriors, the likes of Mohammad Atta, are fascinated with Western culture, immerse themselves in it, with a self-loathing attraction, then move on to complete the dastardly deed in the name of the god of whom they seek to please, and appease for their misdeeds. We have seen self-flagellation and acts of martyrdom in the early Christian sects as well.

If ‘Piss-Christ’ doesn’t offend the ‘whole of Christendom’, it certainly offends most but the more loathsome of secularists.

Somewhere, Beyond the Sea

In a modern maritime extension of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy has announced plans to track the nearly 121,000 merchant vessels around the world. (American Submariner 05). The system will employ the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), satellite, and other resources in much the same way that Soviet submarines were tracked. Existing ocean surveillance equipment will be married with certain improvements and sophisticated database methods to create a world SitRep of global maritime assets.

As a sailor I welcome the Navy’s commitment to maritime ocean surveillance. The nation needs to know the nature of the threats that present themselves to our shipping and transportation. The more they know about shipping traffic, the less they need to rely on random searches and intimidation. I was in San Pedro (Los Angeles Harbor) on September 11th 2001. To me, the sense of vulnerability of the port was palpable. In 2001 the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handled 9.65 million TEUS (Twenty-Foot-Equivalent-Units). Although efforts to screen this cargo for contraband, from Chinese illegal-immigrants to dirty bombs, of the hundreds of thousands of containers flooding into the L.A. Harbor monthly, less than 5% are being screened. But this could easily be more than enough if you knew which containers to search.

Since September 11th 2001, the presence of the Naval surveillance in Southern California has been on the increase. Aircraft carriers anchor off of San Diego. While sailing the Newport to Ensenada race in 2004, the entire fleet had to detour around an aircraft carrier that had ‘parked’ itself in the direct path of over 500 racers headed south. Just about every weekend channel 16 is spammed with constant threats at day sailors to stay from naval vessels. It borders on the absurd. In San Diego Bay I witnessed a 22 foot sailboat rental as it was reprimanded over channel 16 by a fierce navy chief. The thirty something mother and her three adolescent children were not keeping up with the drill. They had no idea that their life was in peri when they approach the insurmountable cordon of buoys that surrounded the aircraft carrier near the Coronado Bridge while affecting a dirty tack, a Navy security boat storms in with its’ 30 cals pointed at the mom and her kiddies in their Catalina 22. The fear in the womans face from the confusion of sailing turns into a look of real terror as she stares into the eyes of the Naval Security Unit that looks like it is ready to blow her out of the water. The fin keel sailboat could not be used to breach the security cordon, but orders are orders and an uneasy peace is kept at the end of a gun. National security and tourism aren’t working in San Diego Bay.

On the late morning of October the 12th, 2000, an inflatable boat approaches the U.S.S. Cole in the naval base in Aden, southern Yemen. The boat is of a familiar type and maneuvers in a manner that tender boats have approached her before; the occupants have done their homework. In the final seconds, the crew on the small boat gestures with what was described by witnesses as a salute. At the moment of impact the boat explodes. The ensuing explosion rips a large gash into the side of the Cole, the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan have nearly become the first naval power since World War II to sink a U.S. naval vessel.

On one day-sail, I am listening to the banter on channel 16. A U.S. warship asks a freighter to identify itself; “What is your destination and what are you carrying?” The warship asks again and calls out the position of the ship. Finally, realizing that they were being hailed, the sea captain answers in a thick Middle Eastern accent. “We have a few containers and a hold full of fertilizer”. I imagine the fuel-fertilizer bomb that leveled the port of Texas City in 1947 and vow not to get into the port until this potential bomb, the size of a city block, has passed. The entrance to Shelter Island where I’ll dock my sailboat is along the eastern side of Point Loma where the sub base is located. I pass the bait dock and head up into the wind to furl my headsail. Navy personnel are on the dock with a bullhorn warning me to turn away. I am waiting for the bullets to start flying but am able stow my sail before DEFCON 1 is reached. With naval facilities on both sides of the bay and a 100 yard keep away distance there is barely room to tack in San Diego Bay when naval vessels are present, which is pretty much everywhere everyday.

"San Diego Bay - Boaters must stay clear of all naval vessels. Maintain a distance of at least 100 yards from any naval vessel, and when within 500 yards of a naval vessel, boaters must maintain minimum speed.” Department of Boating and Waterways.

At 11:00pm Thursday on an October day last year, a friend of mine and I set out of San Diego Bay on a course to the South Eastern end of Catalina Island. In the darkness I became aware of a small inflatable following my boat in the shadow of the night. I watched in mild concern for a half hour or more until I can see the U.S. Coast Guard boat with a crew of three come along side my boat. They ask where I was coming from and where I was going. I tell them that I had left San Diego Bay and was following a course that would put me off of Catalina. I asked them if they hadn’t tracked me on radar. They said no. I couldn’t believe it. I have a radar reflector to help illuminate me while transiting the shipping lane. I don’t mind getting pulled over in the middle of the night on a sail but am appalled that this is the best security that can be mustered.

Random searches are chaotic and arguably a waste of time. Tracking threats from around the world has the potential of putting intelligence into security operations, but even so, intelligence alone will not ensure security. In the case of the U.S.S. Cole, while en route to the region, the NSA had information that a terrorist operation was in full swing, but this information never found itself to the Cole.

The U.S. armed services are constantly reinventing themselves to keep pace with emerging threats. While the Navy is seeking to improve its capability and reach in littoral warfare, it is also leveraging past lessons of the Cold War with new technology. Databases once developed to support intelligence analysis and data fusion have become nearly ubiquitous in the commercial computing sector. Data-mining techniques are being used increasingly to peer through the clutter and to assemble patterns of action. Link analysis can connect the dots, an arms merchant in Chechnya, a mosque in Bangladesh, and a missing merchant ship presumed lost in the South China Sea draw a picture that can lead to actionable intelligence. Advances of commercial technology combined with Cold War relics are being fused into a new force for future security.

“This is never going to be successful unless you have the interagency union with the Coast Guard and homeland defense agencies, and allies and friends around the world. And that’s the kind of effort I think we need to see, because their concerns are similar. They have problems from the sea… therefore this can also be of utility to them” Vice Admiral Joseph A. Sestak Jr.

The Dragon’s Jaw

The Thanh Hoa bridge “Dragon’s Jaw” in North Viet Nam was considered strategic to the North’s lines of supply. The bridge would stand for another seven years, withstand 871 sorties, and be the last sight of the aircrews of eleven U.S. jets before being shot down. It was on one of these such sorties in April of 1965 that a flight of four F105 Thunderchiefs were jumped by a formation of MiG 17’s. The F105 Thunderchief or as it was commonly known, the ‘Thud’, was a marvel of the famed Century Series supersonic aircraft build in the 50’s. But inspite of superior speed, the MiG’s shot down two Thuds and damaged another, the fourth pilot had been outmaneuvered by the MiG and, though twice as fast, could not shake it off his tail. It was then that he remembered the advice from a visiting captain from the Fighter Weapons School, snap roll the aircraft. The effect was counter-intuitive, the lumbering response of the Thunderchief slowed the aircraft to a standstill, the MiG swooshed by giving the pilot enough time to light the afterburner and point the aircraft for home.

The captain from the Fighter Weapons School was John Boyd, sometimes referred to as “Forty Second Boyd”. As the story goes, Boyd had a standing bet, he would start any engagement with a fighter on his tail and he could reverse the situation within ‘forty’ seconds or he would pay the challenger $40.

Boyd became critical of the US stratagem of producing faster and faster jets. In a series of maneuvers the more nimble of aircraft will incrementally gain the advantage, Boyd opined “in most situations, absolute speed is much less important than the ability to move from one state to another”. This ability to move from one state to another is what Boyd called transients.

Boyd developed a concept of the “energy maneuverability model”. It was the basis for a mathematical model that could be used to evaluate an aircrafts performance while performing a series of maneuvers. The summation of properties could be compared from one aircraft to another to determine which aircraft would have the advantage in a dogfight. These theories would eventually culminate into one of the greatest aircraft of our time, the F15 Eagle.

Developing his models, Boyd further realized that the pilot who sighted his adversary first would have the tactical advantage. The Thud was an example of an aircraft that was large and easy to see, it appeared as a spec leading a gigantic plume of smoke. This realization helped lead to ‘sleeker’ aircraft and more efficient engines. It also led to Boyd’s acclaimed principle for outmaneuvering and defeating an opponent, the OODA loop. Observe-Orient-Decision-Action. Observe your situation, your adversary, Orient yourself, get on your adversaries ‘six’, Decision, decide on a course of action and Act, execute the plan.

The idea is to see the problem and react to it faster than your adversary. To operate inside of their decision making cycle. This became the answer to the Perennial Question of Information Warfare;
“You can collect, analyze, and move your information faster than your opponent to get an edge. Or you can cutoff your opponent from his own information sources, distort his processing, or prevent him from issuing commands. You can fight the information war inside the weapon’s circuits, or inside the commander’s head. There is no single approach that is always the best, but the ultimate objective is always the same: collect, process, and apply information faster and better than your opponent. Whoever gets to the end of their OODA loop first gets to take the first shot. In modern warfare, that’s often the only shot. Information warfare is what ever you need to do to get to the end of your decision cycle before your opponent gets to the end of his.” (Bruce Berkowitz)

Seven years and over 800 sorties after the disaster at the Dragon’s Jaw, a single laser-guided bomb took out the bridge at Thanh Hoa. A new era of information warfare had been spawned.

A Cartoon Rumbles Through The Muslim Rabble…

Mohammad’s minions taunt the crass
European gentry class

Ergodan closes Muslim Ranks
EU membership? No thanks!

Death to Denmark! death to France!
Europe caves to Muslim Rants!

A cartoon reveals Islam’s Right
They wont abide a Western Slight

I promise to give more respect
When Muslims learn to genuflect