Psst! Go "Over There!"

In case you missed it, this is now the archives or the "junior blog." The postings have moved

OVER THERE!

Time to Move....

I've been exploring the wonders of Wordpress and my own domain. I've begun the blog over there, but find it easy to just do the simple thing here on blogger.

So, I'll be moving the bulk of my work over the www.chaoticsynapticactivity.com. I tried importing everything, but somehow a small bit of postings (like all of 2005) didn't move over. I have been hanging back, and not pounding on it lately to figure it out, but I'd just have to go back and edit a lot of links anyhow....

I haven't completely gotten up to speed on getting the right files pointing at the other right files, and I'll be fiddling with the layout for at least the next few days, so if if you're not getting there, don't give up, just try later.

I'll leave this up as the archives, and have a link at the top of the blogroll section on the new site right now. My blogroll is presently quite limited, because I just have to type them all back in (if any one has a better way to shove them into MySql, please clue me in!).

I'm looking forward to improved capabilites, such as categorizing posts, to make it easier to dig around by subject.

If you have me blogrolled, please take a few moments and update your blog templates, or what ever format you have them in.

See you on the "other side!"

I Think This Would Qualify as an "F" Ticket Ride

People with imaginations...and a copy of PhotoShop are to thank for this creation...

I'm sure Lex would agree this would break the "letter barrier" and we could refer to experiences such as this as "F ticket rides."

42 Years (and two days) Ago in a Country Far Away

Note: I did this a few days ago, but lost the post, so it's late for the anniversary, but still worth taking a moment to consider this bit of history.

It was on this day, May 7th in 1954 that the French forces in Vietnam surrendered to General Giap, culminating the "57 Days of Hell," at a place now burned into the collective military knowledge, as a seminal battle, Dien Bien Phu.

The official website for the battle is here.

There is much to study and much to learn from this battle. Some might argue that we (the US) should have been supportive the man we call Ho Chi Minh in the aftermath of WWII and the subsequent strife in the region could have been avoided. Certainly, William Lederer, a retired Navy Captian with significant experience in SE Asia, tells an interesting story in "Our Own Worst Enemy". I first found this book while at the Naval War College in 87-88 and I have recently purchased a used copy and begun re-reading it. The book was published in 1968, and he prophetically listed a number of major factors that were not going well for us. The most striking, in my reading, was our lack of our understanding of the culture and history of the Vietnamese, and the great regional history, added to the exceptionally limited number of Americans who were literate in Vietnamese. Bill Lederer, on page 54 of his book describes a chance meeting in a bomb shelter in China, while waiting out a Japanese bombing raid, with a Jesuit priest and his assistant , Mr. Nguyen. After the raid, they went to the river gun boat and provided a copy of the US declaration of Independence to this oriental gentleman, at the request of the priest. The story seems to hold together well, when you read this document from Sept 2, 1945 (less than a month after VJ Day).

It begins thusly:

All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

Those are undeniable truths.

Other reading tells us Ho Chi Minh actively supported the OSS in conducting guerilla warfare against the Japanese forces in the French Indochina region.

The net result, at the end of the war, is we didn't support freedom for all, but President Truman responded to the request of the French to allow them to return to their SE Asian colonies. The Japanese prisoners were armed and put to work ferreting out the Vietnamese nationalists, and assisting the French in re-establishing control.

Back to William Lederer. His book describes a people who once fought 1000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND) years agains the Chinese conquerors. I'd say that shows a cultural mentality of long term thought. By the way, the Vietnamese fought until they prevailed. That's a lesson in "stick to it-ness" if I ever read one.

Along the way to our effective withdrawal from the region in 1972, the French felt the fury of a people determined to be their own controlling authority. The French were overcome in a valley base of Dien Bein Phu. Bernard Fall wrote the early story of the battle, "Hell in a Very Small Place: The Seige of Dien Bien Phu". Obviously, because of the significance of a battle, where a large industrial nation's defeat by peasant farmers occured in the post WWII period, many other documents and studies have been conducted.

Miscalcualtion? Entangling alliances? Over confidence? Arrogance? Greed? It happened, its still a story in heroism and strong wills in battle.

"Proud" releases on DVD Today

Today is the day when you will be able to purchase a story of WWII, of heroism and also of the racial integration of the US Armed Forces.

Produced by Ally Hilfiger, it's a story worth studying. The movie was also shown during the Tribeca Film Festival.

The reporting this bit of history about the crew of the USS MASON (DE-529) is available today on DVD.

Here is the Amazon.Com link to order it.

I've previously blogged a little about the story in a post here.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the trackback.

Thanks to OTB for the Traffic Jam!

Butchers Who Want You to Back Off and Go Home

Disgusting and that's not strong enough a word for this blatant effort by the Islamic terrorists to make even more people cringe and turn against the war in Iraq. In fact, they want you to step back from the entire GWoT. The only problem is as you step back, they step forward.

I have regularly asked (in a virtual rhetorical format via this blog) just where are all the NOW women, and I now call to the male "feminists" as well. What's your response to the throat slitting of Atwar Buhjat?

At some point, you whiny liberal, "peace loving" people, I have bad news for you:

If you persist in your efforts to derail the free world from taking this group of criminals and sadists down, who have not perverted their religion, they are just strict adherents of the teaching of Mohammed, one day your back will be against the wall and your throat will be next.

How ironic, you call for peace, it is peace through weakness. These people were breed in a part of the world where to show a lack of strength is not only losing face, but also designates you as a target for attack. You have to study the cultural issues before you pontificate from your safe place, having grown up in a society that is full of compassion for those around them and that doesn't resort to killing anyone who sends a signal that they are a threat to the current person in power.

Most unfortunately, you cannot stop improperly used strength by having none of your own. It's a nice thought that one day we could, but while the president of Iran threatens to build nuclear weapons, and use them for no other reason then to destroy a culture he has been raised to blame for his own countries ills (sound familiar? Yep, same argument Mr. Hitler used to get into power in Germany in the 1930s....study it...it is happening again), I'd think you'd be buying plane tickets to go to hold up your daiseys in Teheran and also Sadr City, but there haven't been any news reports of a mass migration of "peace loving people" in the news. What's wrong? Afraid you'll be carted off to prison and your lawyer friends won't be able to get you out on bail before you are tortured (maybe with an electric drill) before you are summarily beheaded or shot in cold blood?

Go ahead...keep it up, they'll be sure to thank you by shaking your hands for your efforts to defeat George Bush, and any other president who will do the hard and right thing to protect us, before they place a hand around you, in order to keep you still while they take their 8" blade to your jugular arteries.

Now, a solution, for I hate "idea men" who can only complain, but not give you a way to fix it:

Your only hope, in the long run, is to not only support the troops, but to support the war. Thank the young men and women who daily sit 6000 miles from their family just for you. They may not know you, but they know you love freedom as they do, and they have the courage to raise their right hand and make the commitment for all of us.

In the short term, get your letter writing campaign to the terrorist leaders and the president of Iran. Tell them to stop, and boycott their products and services (oops! Pardon me, but just what is it they produce other than death, slavery and mahem?). How about booking your plane tickets to Israel, where you can be human shields to prevent another major event of genocide.

As for the women of the world, and Alan Alda, time to (SU)³!

Little Green Footballs reports the same story, but the comments on posts there are always good reading.

UPDATE 05/08/2006: It seems the video is not of Atwar Buhjat, who is reported to be alive and well, but the victim is a Nepalese truck driver. In some small way, that takes away from my rant above, but I still see it as a symptom of a gruop who has but one end in mind: Victory, and a will that is strong to pursue that.

H/T: Mudville Gazette.

42 Years Ago in a Country Far Away

Welcome LGF readers. Thanks for stopping by.

Now, to the featured event:

It was on this day, May 7th in 1954 that the French forces in Vietnam surrendered to General Giap, culminating the "57 Days of Hell," at a place now burned into the collective military knowledge, as a seminal battle, Dien Bien Phu.

The official website for the battle is here.

There is much to study and much to learn from this battle. Some might argue that we (the US) should have been supportive the man we call Ho Chi Minh in the aftermath of WWII and the subsequent strife in the region could have been avoided. Certainly, William Lederer, a retired Navy Captian with significant experience in SE Asia, tells an interesting story in "Our Own Worst Enemy". I first found this book while at the Naval War College in 87-88 and I have recently purchased a used copy and begun re-reading it. The book was published in 1968, and he prophetically listed a number of major factors that were not going well for us. The most striking, in my reading, was our lack of our understanding of the culture and history of the Vietnamese, and the great regional history, added to the exceptionally limited number of Americans who were literate in Vietnamese. Bill Lederer, on page 54 of his book describes a chance meeting in a bomb shelter in China, while waiting out a Japanese bombing raid, with a Jesuit priest and his assistant , Mr. Nguyen. After the raid, they went to the river gun boat and provided a copy of the US declaration of Independence to this oriental gentleman, at the request of the priest. The story seems to hold together well, when you read this document from Sept 2, 1945 (less than a month after VJ Day).

It begins thusly:

All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

Those are undeniable truths.

Other reading tells us Ho Chi Minh actively supported the OSS in conducting guerilla warfare against the Japanese forces in the French Indochina region.

The net result, at the end of the war, is we didn't support freedom for all, but President Truman responded to the request of the French to allow them to return to their SE Asian colonies. The Japanese prisoners were armed and put to work ferreting out the Vietnamese nationalists, and assisting the French in re-establishing control.

Back to William Lederer. His book describes a people who once fought 1000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND) years agains the Chinese conquerors. I'd say that shows a cultural mentality of long term thought. By the way, the Vietnamese fought until they prevailed. That's a lesson in "stick to it-ness" if I ever read one.

Along the way to our effective withdrawal from the region in 1972, the French felt the fury of a people determined to be their own controlling authority. The French were overcome in a valley base of Dien Bein Phu. Bernard Fall wrote the early story of the battle, "Hell in a Very Small Place: The Seige of Dien Bien Phu". Obviously, because of the significance of a battle, where a large industrial nation's defeat by peasant farmers occured in the post WWII period, many other documents and studies have been conducted.

Miscalcualtion? Entangling alliances? Over confidence? Arrogance? Greed? It happened, its still a story in heroism and strong wills in battle.

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the open post.

More Humorous Signage

T-Shirt sighting: "Scars are tattos with better stories" I like it....

Even if it Tastes Like Chicken...

I don't think it would go well trying to slice this banana onto your Cherrios... Located on Worth 1000.

Operation "Forward Pass" - For Graduation Time

This post has been in the mental crock pot for a few days now. While checking my sitemeter log, I saw a hit from Instapinch, a blog of a former Naval Aviator, so I chased it. His post on graduation from college and heading to the cradle of Naval Aviation for AOCS has motivated me to finish it and ask the rest of you to tossing your stuff into the pool of knowledge for the soon to be graduates in our country.

UPDATE 5/12/2006: A little more on the New & Improved blog...Yes, I'm calling for papers for this project!

In the weapons world, with one weapon system in particular I worked with, the future plan was to have the ability to fire the weapon from sea, and a forward observer, usually in an aircraft, could take control and "tweak" the flight path. The capability would be called "forward pass." I see this concept outlined below as a similar capability. Stick with me and read the post.

In my MilBlogging Conference AAR - Part II, I spent a few minutes drafting the types of military bloggers that are developing. In the case of the active duty and veteran MilBlogs, I see an opportunity I'd like you (in those two categories) to consider as we are coming up to graduation for not only high school, but also the service academies and the many colleges and universities that have ROTC departments.

And I can hear it now: "And your point is?"

Do you have any good advice for the soon to be military members, both enlisted and officer? Was there a particular "mentor" you had that gave you the best piece of advice you ever heard to help you transition into the military and you found out, by the test of time, that it was wisdom suitable for mention to those who will don the uniform behind us? Do you have antecdotes, "sea stories" or the like, that will provide some valuable insight? Your stories, posted for the next genration of warriors, is hereby dubbed "Operation Forward Pass."

Have you already taken the time to provide same to some family friend, young workmate, or relative, that you could share with the blogsphere?

If you have a well read blog, yet have no stories to pass on, but have a target audience of those who are coming up on joining, you could link to the posts that come up on other blogs? I think this would be a great topic area for blogs written by family members of current military personnel, for they most likely are already attracting a readership of parents and spouses of soon to be military members. The extention of the stories through these blogs would greatly expand the "max effective range" of such knowledge.

In the couple of years I've been reading blogs, there have been several powerfully written posts such as this, sometimes taken from email, or letters of others kind enough to send them to a blogger. There may be enough wisdom already written to quickly do a summary post of a blogs posts, linking to the good stuff used already.

There have been a few DEPers out there blogging, and they have gotten some great inputs from others. I recall last year, a USMA Cadet had a blog up, and there was lots of good stuff sent his way.

If you're a DEPer, or ROTC/Academy type and blogging, you could certainly share the advice you're received as you approach the day you will raise your right hand and swear to defend The Constitution.

Take a minute, consider the wisdom you have gained with regard to your entry into the profession of arms, and see if it's fit to recycle for the next generation. Who knows what the max effective range of your blog is...it just might turn out to be several generations...

So, what do you think? Should we begin "OFP" now? Do we need a sidebar graphic for those particpating by posting their own stories, and those who will "autocat" them? There has got to be tomes of valuable insight awaiting those who need it, in specific and generic terms.

Not only will the information alone be useful, but it will give you a chance to honor the person who took the time to help you "assimilate." To provide proper attibution will give you a public forum to thank them and to let them know, or those who google them up, that they had an impact in someone's life.

I ask you to step up and share the pieces of discrete knowledge you have.

Maybe It's Time for This: Online Integrity

A short, but common sense list of princples has been posted at Online Integrity:

# Private persons are entitled to respect for their privacy regardless of their activities online. This includes respect for the non-public nature of their personal contact information, the inviolability of their homes, and the safety of their families. No information which might lead others to invade these spaces should be posted. The separateness of private persons’ professional lives should also be respected as much as is reasonable. # Public figures are entitled to respect for the non-public nature of their personal, non-professional contact information, and their privacy with regard to their homes and families. No information which might lead others to invade these spaces should be posted. # Persons seeking anonymity or pseudonymity online should have their wishes in this regard respected as much as is reasonable. Exceptions include cases of criminal, misleading, or intentionally disruptive behavior. # Violations of these principles should be met with a lack of positive publicity and traffic.

Sound reasonable? Doing it already? Sign up...

Wow! Look at Us Bloggers Go!

Interesting analysis on "The State of the Blogosphere" using Technorati data @ Sifry Alerts Blog:
Part I and Part II.
Excerpts to tease you into reading the posts:

New blog creation continues to grow. Technorati currently tracks over 75,000 new weblogs created every day, which means that on average, a new weblog is created every second of every day - and 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.

Late last month, I gave a high-level overview of the growth of the blogosphere, covering the overall size of the data sets that Technorati tracks, the number of new blogs created each day, the number of posts per day, and the issue of splogs or spam blogs. To recap, here's the highlights of Part 1: * Technorati now tracks over 35.3 37.3 Million blogs * The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months * It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago * On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day * 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created * Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

H/T: Black Five.

101st Fighting Keyboardist Division...

The new logo off to the left is for those who desire to jump in an defend the defenders, using their keyboards as the weapon of choice...More at The Captain's Quarter's!

A Powerful Movie - "The War Tapes"

While attending the meeting at Fran O'Brian's and the MilBlogging Conference, I had the opportunity to meet Deborah Scranton and SPC Mike Moriaty. What's significant about that? Deborah, when offered the opportunity to go to Iraq as an embed, countered with "can you have the troops film their year and I'll make it a movie?" They told her, as long as she provided the cameras and got the soldiers to volunteer to help her.
The result is "The War Tapes.". This past weekend, the film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC.
The reviews seem to indicate the movie tells a powerful story, to a sold out crowd. as it was throught the eyes of three men who chose to take the cameras provided. Andi of Andi's World has her review. Note: Andi was the one who not only suggested, but made the MilBlogging Conference happen. Matt of Black Five also has a review of his sneak preview.
The movie will be making its way to theaters around the country starting in June. Get to the website and sign up in the community, so you'll get announcements on the schedule...

And Now for Some Light Humor...

Signage, in the form of bumper stickers and, in this case, a message done with white liquid shoe polish on a car's back window last Friday on the way home gave me a smile, and I'm sure the writer made one point, yet missed another: "Honk if your illiterate" heh... Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!

NY Times and Unfettered Lies - "The War Tapes"

Short intro: "The War Tapes" is the chonicling of a year in Iraq by members of the Vermont National Guard. Several soldiers did the filming, with the cameras being provided for them by the film's producer, Deborah Scranton. Well, once more, the MSM/HBM, in the form of the New York Times has the gall to just make a statement that is absolutely wrong. Read the review of "The War Tapes" movie at the Tribeca Film Festival here. It's part way down in the NY Times article, between other movie reviews from the festival, but here is the false statement from the NY Times reporter:

It is fascinating to observe how a prevailing cynicism about the war doesn't undercut the deeply felt patriotism of men who assume that its goal is not the establishment of democracy in the Middle East, but the acquisition of oil and money.

Taking a look at the website for the movie, here are comments from Mike, one of the soldiers who did the filming, and one other who were there for the year deployment:

Oil and money? Actually I never said it was for oil and money. I support the mission in Iraq and its intentions. I feel the US Military is doing a terrific job in many many areas. I do think we are moving too slowly and too delicately. Too busy being nice and treading lightly. Its a war. I had an elderly Iraqi gentlemen tell me this weekend at the conference our problem is that we lost our "angry face". He went on to educate me how the enemy insurgents in the Middle East always have and always will respond to one thing and one thing only. Brutal opponents. Hell,maybe we should take some oil while we are there. We deserve it. Posted by: Mike M. | April 25, 2006 08:32 PM Funny. I don't remember anything about oil while I was there? Do you, Mike? We never escorted oil out of the country. In fact, the only Fuel I saw was being IMPORTED from the outside. Posted by: Kinsella | April 26, 2006 10:52 AM If the war is for oil then why are gas prices so high? As far as the war supposedly being for money,thats funny. Money for who? All I saw was money being spent. I just dont see the profit here. Profit for Halliburton maybe,but someone please tell me what other company is big enough and prepared enough to replace them. Dont get me wrong KBR needs some major belt tightening as far as I'm concerned but lets get off the Cheney/Halliburton thing. Its only for the sake of trashing the administration.Dick Cheney isnt in Iraq telling KBR to fix my air conditioner 7 times in 6 days and to charge the tax payer for every visit. The problem isnt them being there,its that noone can really watch the numbers and question them. NON PRODUCTIVE folks. That kind of whining doesnt help prevent another guy from getting blasted at 50 Alpha. Posted by: Mike M. | April 26, 2006 11:58 AM

The sad part is those comments will most likely never make it to the NY Times pages as a correction to a film critic turned master strategist by watching a few films. On the bright side, I suspect people who have believed this falsehood on the war for oil will now, based on the review, go to see it in order to gather "evidence" to support their beliefs. Once they have seen it, I suspect they will have found out Mr. Holden tricked them into seeing the war in a different light than they had hoped to, spoiling their agruments from now on. I will say, if this in Mr. Holden's intention, to cause them to enter the "kill zone" and to ambush that lie, he does the world a great service by making the film more widely viewed and understood. Side note: The NY Times film critic, Stephen Holden, seems to fancy himself as an accomplished psychologist, too:

When they return in triumph, two are suffering from signs of post-traumatic stress they are reluctant to address.

I think Mr. Holden should keep his day job and get a grip on reality. Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the trackback....