John W. Williams II: Military

Checking in on Alternate Reality Part 2

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:22:27 GMT

This one is definitely confirmed. According to a highly placed confidential source, whose identity must remain secret, but his initials are Ronnie Kwong, this photo shows direct evidence that the United States did obtain alien technology from a crashed space ship back in 1942.

Where's the WMD?

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:16:08 GMT

In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, no significant stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction were found. What happened to the WMD? It is not my area of expertise, nor do I have access to special sources of information. Here are a few notes and links and conjectures about this important question. 1) Most intelligence agencies of the West were convinced that Iraq had WMD. There was no real "slam dunk" case, but "If it were a fact, it wouldn't be intelligence." In the 2004 election political debate, the anti-Bush camp hurls the epithet: "Bush Lied!" - but objective evidence doesn't support that. There was evidence, but no fact, there were strong suspicions, and there was fear among the Bush camp, especially advocated by Vice President DicK Cheney that the nexus between Terrorists and WMD supplying states like Iraq was not an acceptable risk for the U.S. 2) Why did Saddam not come clean with U.N. inspectors? It is possible that Saddam thought he had WMDs, and that his WMD scientists lied to him about the extent of what was being produced, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of corruption. It is also possible that Saddam disposed of most of his WMDs but did not want to admit it to the world because he saw WMD as his only hedge against his real regional opponent: Iran. However, it's hard to believe he would let his country fall to U.S. invasion while trying to secure a WMD based threat against Iran. However, it may take an understanding of Saddam's psychology and Middle Eastern culture to really judge what drove Saddam's decision. 3) There is emerging evidence that some WMD materials were shipped to Syria and or Iran before the war. Duelfer: 'A lot of material left Iraq and went to Syria A terror attack against the U.S. embassy in Jordan was foiled by Jordania police. The attack included truckloads of chemical poisons that were claimed could kill 80,000 people. Was the chemical just pesticide, or WMD from Iraq? In October 2004, news reports emerged that unbelievably large stockpiles of high explosives were missing from the AlQaQaa facility in Iraq. The quantity missing would have required convoys of trucks and laborers to remove. Presidential candidate John Kerry used this revelation to attack President George Bush with accusations of incompetence and mismanagement. However, adding more credence to the Duelfer report claim that "a lot of material went to Syria", there are also reports that these explosives may have been moved to Syria with the assistance of Russian Special Forces as part of a prewar campaign by Russia to clean up evidence of its assistance to Iraq during the period of U.N. sanctions (when they should not have been selling arms to Iraq.) It is possible that Saddam thought he could survive a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and re-emerge as the victorious leader after a period of insurgent warfare to expel the coalition forces. This might explain why he would export and preserve his WMD capability in Syria, although there is said to be a great animosity between Syria and Iraq, which would call into question how Saddam could trust Syria to support him in such a dire situation. 4) There are reports that Iraq may have cooperated with Libya, and Egypt to conduct WMD research programs outside of Iraq. This would have been a brilliant and logical strategy because the focus of WMD inspections was always restricted to within the borders of Iraq. It would also echo history, as Hitler's Germany conducted its prohibited military build up prior to World War 2 in countries like Poland and Spain. 5) The Duelfer Report cited evidence that although no large stockpiles of WMDs were found (this point latched onto by most major news media) - it was a fact that Saddam's Iraq preserved numerous research efforts to restart a WMD program once it had emerged from the U.N. Sanctions regime imposed upon it. Charles Duelfer testified before the U.S. Senate: "Saddam sought to sustain the requisite knowledge base to restart the program eventually." It is difficult to say what kind of world we would be living in if the U.S. had never invaded Iraq. Much has been made of the mismanagement of the postwar reconstruction in Iraq, and of the questionable legitimacy of the invasion if WMDs are never to be found. However, we should not forget the alternative: an Iraq which would emerge from U.N. sanctions, with WMD production capabilities destined to be restored, and with a despot who saw himself as a great leader of the Arab people. This alone would not be unacceptable, but in the post 9-11 world, and the clash of the West with radical Islam, it would have had an added dimension of looming threats to the United States and its allies.

Mon, 11 Oct 2004 10:24:15 GMT

America's Secret War is a new book by George Friedman, CEO of the private intelligence reporting consultancy stratfor.com In this new book, Friedman argues that the U.S. is winning the war against Al Qaeda, that the real target of the war in Iraq was Saudi Arabia, and that there are also other deeper motivations beyond WMD. Friedman also wrote "Future of War: Power, Technology and American World Dominance in the 21st Century" - a book about the unprecedented dominance of U.S. high tech warfare. review of Future War

Sat, 14 Aug 2004 07:07:16 GMT

New guns, new ammo coming for the U.S. military. XM-8 rifle, and XM-307 heavy machine gun. New smart ammo can "airburst" at a programmed range, which would allow the gunner to engage targets hidden behind a barrier (out of line of sight.) The link above is to the foxnews website, and includes some video reports. See also an article on Strategy Page

Mon, 14 Jun 2004 06:07:35 GMT

Here's a very thorough site in Japanese about one of my favorite war movies: Kelly's Heroes. The site has a larger content about tanks in the movies.

Wed, 28 Apr 2004 09:08:19 GMT

Military Videos . net - get your BitTorrent client ready...

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:55:56 GMT

Strategy Page reported that the Army has dispatched 8 prototype units of the M8 Armored Gun System to Iraq, to provide armor for the 82nd Airborne. The M8 has been cancelled / in limbo, and some hope that demonstration of performance by this light tank might get it back into the Army's budget. Apparently the Stryker Brigades (composed of uparmored LAVs) are performing well in Iraq, despite some initial doubts about their armor. Strategy page reports some Stryker's have sustained and survived RPG hits by guerilla fighters.

Space War, as planned by the U.S. Military

Mon, 23 Feb 2004 00:48:16 GMT

Pentagon prepares for War in Space. (and why shouldn't they? It's their job to think about these things. The efforts at "Transformation" in the military are an under reported and welcom new development in maintenance of U.S. defense strategy.)

Pentagon: Climate change is a bigger security threat than terrorism

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:24:02 GMT

[Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".]

Hmm. Time to prepare for massive climate change. (You have to ask yourself: when Fortune magazine reports that the Pentagon is seriously worried about global climate change, how much more evidence do you need that something wicked this way comes?)

Wed, 23 Jul 2003 20:02:02 GMT

U.S. forces killed Uday and Qusay Hussein during a raid in Mosul.

U.S. forces attacked a house Tuesday, 22 July 2003, where Saddam Hussein's two sons: Uday and Qusay were hiding in Mosul (northern Iraq). Both sons were killed in the attack by 200 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, which included missile attacks by Apache gunships against a heavily fortified building. The attack was launched after a tip from an Iraqi informant, who will probably receive the U.S. $15 million dollar bounty placed on the Hussein sons' heads

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 07:53:58 GMT

US launches effort to develop hypersonic strike capability

Two hours to strike anywhere on planet. This idea was around in the last days of the cold war, but ICBMs, and the end of the cold war left the idea lacking a good motivation. Now of course, in the days of war against terrorism, "strike anywhere in 2 hours" has sex appeal for rubbing out any challengers to Pax Americana.

Actually, an "atmosphere skipping glide bomber" was originally conceived in Germany in the 1930s. German scientists who came to the U.S. continued to pursue the spaceplane concept for NASA. The aircraft seen to crash in the entry sequence for the U.S. television series "The Six Million Dollar Man" was the X-24, a "lifting body" test vehicle. This was a later development based on the "dynasoar" an ICBM launched bomber that could deliver nuclear weapons from orbit (as well as perform many space shuttle like duties such as orbital reconaissance, space station & satellite service, etc.) The last direct descendant of this technology is the Lockheed X-33. Perhaps this is the design that will be used for the "Hypersonic strike aircraft"

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 08:28:20 GMT

Operation Iraqi Freedom PEO Soldier Lessons Learned

Fascinating collection of feedback on weapons and equipment performance in 2nd Gulf War

Tue, 08 Jul 2003 09:40:29 GMT

Hunt for banned weapons goes ballistic

Forget Hans Blix, the UN and inspectors schooled in the art of uncovering biological, chemical and nuclear agents. There is a quicker way to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

Gather the latest intelligence, decide where the weapons are stashed, and fire a high-velocity projectile at the target. High-tech sensors packed into the projectile will then instantly beam back confirmation that the weapons are there.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 08:23:38 GMT

1000 SDF Troops to be sent by Japan to Iraq in Oct.

The Japanese "Self Defense Forces" continue to expand their role. With the situation in North Korea, I expect hardliners in Japan welcome any opportunity to do so.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 08:17:04 GMT

Saddam's sabotage campaign uncovered

Reports of what now seems obvious in retrospect. Why would looters go after equipment in fuel refineries and power stations?

Sun, 29 Jun 2003 08:53:52 GMT

Special Forces soldier awarded Silver Star for heroism in Afghanistan

Master Sgt. Anthony S. Pryor, a team sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th SFG, received the Silver Star Medal for his gallantry in combat during the raid when he single-handedly eliminated four enemy soldiers, including one in unarmed combat, all while under intense automatic weapons fire and with a crippling injury.

Wed, 21 May 2003 07:14:15 GMT

Report from the front line

Wed, 21 May 2003 06:40:36 GMT

U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ Arms

N.Y. Times, registration required

It seems silly to debate what is proved by these trailers. Key points in the story:

Alternate uses for the mobile labs (like hydrogen production) dismissed by multiple analysts. "Why would you have a covert program for filling weather balloons?" one official said
Even if the mobile labs were not for bio weapons production, they COULD be used for that purpose, yet they were undeclared by Iraq. Since these labs are pretty damning evidence, wouldn't Iraq have wanted to make sure to declare them if they weren't for weapons use? (Especially after Colin Powell mentioned these very labs in a speech to the UN?)
The labs were cleaned by an unidentified caustic agent. (For cleaning hydrogen residue???)
Production stamps indicate these labs were manufactured in 2001-2002. They aren't left over from 10 years ago when Iraq had an admitted Bio weapons program

We can debate the scale of Iraq's WMD program (it seems to not have been as massive as the pre war rhetoric would have had us believe,) but WHY try to deny hard evidence when we have it right here?

Thu, 15 May 2003 02:34:27 GMT

Anti-personnel Laser Weapons

mostly blinding or "dazzle" type lasers, rather than the SF style death ray. More info also here at FAS's: Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) page.

In Tom Clancy's novel "Debt of Honor", two CIA agents deploy what seems to be a laser dazzling device to covertly attack Japanese AWACs aircraft as they returned to base

Tue, 13 May 2003 03:29:45 GMT

US Marine investigated for war crimes after newspaper interview

Las Vegas Marine describes shooting Iraqi soldier in back of the head (unclear if the soldier had already surrendered, but it seems to be the case...) This is the type of action that needs to be investigated, not the one about sending some poor looters on their way "in the buff"

Tue, 13 May 2003 03:22:16 GMT

Rumsfeld's Dr. Strangelove

Keith Payne says 7,000 warheads aren't enough.

Nuclear weapons are evil, but we still maintain an arsenal. Whether to eliminate, freeze, or further develop our arsenal is a decision that must be made rationally, and not based on overly paranoid, nor overly optimistic assumptions.

Tue, 13 May 2003 02:54:11 GMT

World War II Soldier Picked Up a Pencil

While other soldiers in his regiment cleaned their guns or slept fitfully in the trenches between bouts of fierce fighting with the Nazis, Sergei Yesakov found comfort in drawing sketches of what he saw nearby: fellow servicemen, war action and imposing military hardware.

Sun, 11 May 2003 09:01:07 GMT

Lessons Learned in the Iraq War

A great collection of recent articles on Strategy Page about the lessons learned in the 2003 Iraq War.

Sat, 10 May 2003 00:24:14 GMT

Deal with Iraqi Commander Opened Baghdad to Marines

Slightly old news, but lots of interesting tidbits on the wheeling and dealing done with Iraqi leaders to get them to roll over. There was much talk of this plan before the war, and during the war it appeared to have failed, but as the evidence comes out, it looks like things went mostly according to plan. Requesting Republican Guard commanders to park all their vehicles in the middle of the desert and abandon them was probably a bit too much to ask, given the political officers and Fedayeen who would have quickly executed anyone who did so. But when it came time to lay down arms, it appears that they actually did so according to plan.

Thu, 08 May 2003 01:09:55 GMT

'Shaming effect' on Arab world

Interesting comments from Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in which he is not backpedaling from the need to reduce U.S. forces in the Middle East, and turn over the government to Iraqis

For the United States in a postwar Middle East, he said, "It does seem to me there is an opportunity now to demonstrate that we are who we say we are, and we come as liberators and not as occupiers."

Per Thomas Friedman, I would like to see the U.S. live up to its promises in this adventure, so people will look back and say in retrospect "you did good" (even if Haliburton, Kellog, Brown & Root, The Carlyle Group, et al made a fortune in the process.) And I think that no matter how cynical some may be about the intents of the Iraq war, the circumstances warrant extremely careful behavior by the Bush administration, to try to disprove all the criticisms, and in the end, it is the results not the intentions that count.