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All over the world you can find abandoned army tanks that were left behind from wars of the past. These machines were once built for destruction, but now they look quite beautiful as they’ve become part of the scenery now that they’ve embraced by mother nature.

Source: Abandoned Army Tanks That Have Become A Part Of Nature | PIXIMUS.net

I’d say this also works as an Armored Vehicle Recognition Quiz, but there’s a couple I couldn’t quite get.

Source: U.S. Apologizes — B-52 South China Sea — Signals American Weakness

On November 13, President Obama claimed that ISIS was “contained.” One day later, ISIS painted bloody red lines on Paris streets. The credibility of American foreign policy took another big hit.

Then came Saturday’s Wall Street Journal report that last week, “an American B-52 bomber on a routine mission over the South China Sea unintentionally flew within two nautical miles of an artificial island [Cuarteron] built by China.” This seemed like good news, suggesting that Obama was challenging — under cover of an “unintentional” foray — China’s imperial project in the East China and South China Seas. That would be welcome, because China’s project intends to subjugate U.S. allies, seize lucrative energy reserves, and dominate crucial trade routes. And Obama seems to realize this. At November’s APEC summit, he offered “shared commitment to the security of the waters of this region and to freedom of navigation.” In October, President Obama sent an American destroyer within twelve miles of another artificial Chinese island.

My hopes in the president were misplaced.

FORT MEADE, MD – The National Security Agency routinely intercepts children’s letters to Santa, internal agency documents have revealed.The documents describe an operation known as MILK COOKIES, based out of Fort Meade and run in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service. COOKIES is the interception of the letters while MILK feeds them through a complex series of algorithms to spot any hidden messages.

Source: NSA Intercepted Children’s Letters To Santa

You know he’s a guilty, I know he’s guilty. But it is a bedrock of our society that the accused have his day in court, and that the burden of proof is upon the state (in this case, the Army) to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Which is fine.

In the case of SGT Bergdahl, that’s lead to some interesting things. First, while he was in the hands of the enemy, he was presumed to be in a POW status. And Army regulations provide for the regular career progression of soldiers held by the enemy. That’s why then PFC Bergdahl emerged from captivity as a Sergeant. Further, his pay and allowances were continued while he was in Taliban captivity.

One of the accoutrements of the Army Service Uniform authorized by AR670-1 is the Overseas Service Bar, commonly called combat stripes. For every 6 months of service in a war zone, a gold horizontal bar is sewn to the lower right hand sleeve of the jacket.

And of course, time spent as a POW counts as service in a war zone. Here’s a screen grab of Bergdahl entering court earlier today.

That’s a hell of a lot of combat stripes.

Apparently, he’s deferred a plea, and the arraignment will continue early next year.

Interestingly, the Army could administratively rescind his promotion, and the award of combat stripes. But that could, in absence of a conviction by court martial, be seen as double jeopardy, punishment for the same bad acts twice. And so the Army has deferred all administrative actions pending court martial. Indeed, to the best of my knowledge, Bergdahl has not been under confinement or restriction of any sort since his return to US control.

There was a BBC series back in the 1970s called “Sailor” that followed one of the last deployments of HMS Ark Royal.

Here’s a 14 minute excerpt. First, look at the way the subordinate is mentoring a junior officer, pointing out the hazards and pitfalls of dealing with drunken sailors returning aboard from liberty. The Master at Arms is clearly concerned both for the welfare of the junior sailors, and with the new officer. That’s great leadership in action.

Second, let’s for a moment enjoy a bit of what the culture was like back in the 1970s. Yes, the ships officers are auctioning off a collection of Penthouse and other men’s magazines in the wardroom. That would have been a shocking breach of decorum 20 years prior, and oddly, a shocking breach of decorum 20 years later. But it was just fine in those days.

First flight on this day in 1970. Of course, the prototype would be lost on its second flight due to a hydraulic failure.

Which, yeah, probably. But take a look at this bit:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused both Moscow and Damascus of “extensive use” of banned cluster munitions in Syria.

HRW said it had documented the use of such weapons on at least 20 occasions since Syria and Russia began their joint offensive on September 30.

The New York-based rights group collected detailed information about attacks in nine locations that have killed at least 35 civilians, including five women and 17 children, and injured dozens. Two attacks hit camps for the displaced.

In a statement issued on December 20, HRW said all the recent cluster-munition attacks it had documented fell on opposition-controlled territory.

Emphasis mine.

Notice the word banned. Presumably HRW is referring the the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Which does indeed ban the use of cluster munitions.

One small problem for HRW though. Neither Russia nor Syria are signatories of the CCM. For that matter, neither is the US.

Cluster munitions are unpopular with the usual suspects because they have a significant dud rate. That is, indeed, a valid issue, though that rate can be ameliorated by care in where and how they are employed.

The fact remains that cluster munitions are militarily useful and efficient. For that matter, they can very often reduce collateral damage, while minimizing exposure of friendly forces.

For instance, right after the Paris terror attack, the US began attacking ISIS oil tanker trucks in Syria, and made a big deal of releasing video of A-10s making gun runs on the trucks, and boasting of the hundreds of trucks destroyed.

Which, the A-10 and its GAU-8 gun are spectacular. But a single pass by an F-15E Strike Eagle dropping a dozen or so CBU-103 WCMD would likely have yielded the same or better results.

So while we don’t doubt someone could find violations of the Law of War committee by Russia or Syria, this ain’t it, in spite of HRW and RFE/RFL’s best attempt to paint is so.

Anger, confusion and controversy surrounded the former Marine Corps commandant’s decision to approve a promotion for his predecessor’s son while troops under the younger officer’s command were investigated for war-zone misconduct, but the directive did not amount to preferential treatment, according to a recently unsealed Pentagon investigation.

During a ceremony at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on June 1, 2012, Maj. James Brandon Conway was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Looking on proudly as he was pinned with new rank insignia were his mother and his father, the former commandant of the Marine Corps.

But for 12 tense hours the day prior to the ceremony, at least six of the service’s most prominent generals — and perhaps dozens of legal staff and personnel specialists — raced to freeze Conway’s promotion only to then scramble again so it could proceed.

Source: Pentagon unseals secret files on the Marines’ former commandant

This is a loooong article (and well worth reading) but it boils down to this- a relatively minor infraction, through the power of social media, became an international incident, and drew the attention of the White House and the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

It also showed that while GEN Amos had the right idea- that authority is delegated, but accountability isn’t- he himself failed to follow the rules, arguably in a manner far more egregious than the Marines who urinated on the Taliban corpses.

When the Congress has passed a promotion list, the Commandant has no authority to put a hold on that promotion. That’s an authority held by the Secretary of the Navy. It’s deliberately withheld from the Commandant to prevent petty personal issues from interfering with promotions. It’s simply one more of the checks and balances in our government.

And it is quite apparent that Amos exerted undue command influence on the investigation into the original incident. Arguably, so too did the White House.

What should have happened to the snipers? Their crime was petty and stupid. They should have received some minimal punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ, and had their personnel evaluations reflect their lack of judgement. Similarly, their supervisors and chain of command failed to ensure unit standards were upheld, and that should have been reflected in their own personnel evaluations. A bad NCOER or OER (or whatever the Marines call them) would have halted the careers in question.

Had GEN Amos simply said to the public that the incident was under investigation, and to trust the military system of discipline and justice, he could have avoided multiple IG investigations, and arguably the worst tarnishment on his career.