Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) - Syria and Peleliu

This week a State Department program dedicated to eliminating the dangers of explosive remnants of war (ERWs) continues to remove bombs, landmines and canisters seventy four years after WWII in Palau Island group.

This week and last week Secretary of State John Kerry has made the rounds of TV news, cable and the United States Congress to make the case of  adding explosives to the surface of Syria.

Syria is a former French colony in the Middle East that evolved to become government for the Assad family of tall male John Cleese look-alikes given to looting and killing Syrians as well as Israel.  The Palua Island group is a lush volcanic chain of islands in the Pacific of which Peleliu is memorable for being turned into charcoal biquet and gave of thousands of Americans in 1944.

In Palau, the non-governmental organization Cleared Ground Demining (CGD) operates a program centered on the island of Peleliu, where for 74 fierce days in late 1944, American forces battled the island’s Japanese defenders.  The scorched earth, and the charred remains of trees and vehicles have long since given way to lush greenery on Peleliu.  A few pillboxes and artillery emplacements still stand, and oil drums, canteens and other war relics still litter the jungle.  However, ERW remain the most dangerous reminders of the fierce combat that swept over the island.  Loose bullets, machine gun bands, mortars and large aerial bombs contrast with the beautiful scenery on land and in the waters around Peleliu, making this picturesque landscape dangerous for the locals, for development and for tourists.  U.S. funding helps CGD to build local capacity to deal with the negative effects of ERW by training Palauan teams to conduct battle area clearance, explosive ordnance disposal spot tasks, and risk education campaigns.  U.S. funding has supported the clearance of suspected hazardous land adjacent to Peleliu’s only power plant, and this coming year, CGD will clear unexploded ordnance (UXO) along a planned pipeline that will supply the residents of Peleliu with running water. -  

The Battle Peleliu was a horrific strategic miscalculation described by military historians as 'unavoidable and unnecessary.' WWII memorrialist Eugene Sledge wrote, " The 1st Marine Division was ordered to seize Peleliu in the Palau Islands, to secure General Douglas MacArthur's right flank for his return to the Philippines. D-Day was 15 September 1944. Our commanding general predicted a three-day battle?a gross miscalculation. The Peleliu campaign turned into one of the bloodiest, most vicious battles of World War II."

Syria has been an Arab Spring meat-grinder for years.  The Assad Family has long been allied to Russia and the Soviet Union before that.  Since Jimmy Carter's American Malaise foreign policy of the late 1970's, Syria has been as tight as ticks with Ayatollah's of Iran.  The Ayatollah's spent their exile years away from the Shah in Paris melding Marxism with Mohammad.  Syria is chock full of chemical weapons, just like the ones used by Saddam Hussein on the Kurds of Iraq.

President Obama is now aware of those Weapons of Mass Destruction and is determined to drop ordinance on Syria.  John Kerry, who dined and cocktailed with Mr. & Mrs. Assad,  is doing his patrician best to see that President Obama gets his wish.

John Kerry's State Department task force on ERWs is cleaning up Peleliu's ordinance.

Peleliu and Syria share the month of September.  The strategists who demanded the invasion Peleliu on Sept 15, 1944 are not unlike the folks who can not give straight answer on the Benghazi massacre that took place on September 11th 2012. Peleliu was taken only with valor and blood in a redundant exercise of ego.

The awful struggle was a testament to the skill and bravery of the Marines against a tenacious foe. But our division intelligence section lacked critical information regarding:

• The large coral ridge complex, containing more than 500 connecting caves.
• The enemy plan to conserve manpower and fight a battle of attrition.
• Enemy plans for intensive night infiltration, greater than Marines had previously experienced.

There had never been anything like Peleliu in the Pacific. It set the stage for the bloodbaths of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. But they had strategic significance. As it turned out, MacArthur walked into the Philippines with little opposition. I shall always harbor a deep sense of bitterness and grief over the suffering and loss of so many fine Marines on Peleliu for no good reason. It was my privilege to fight alongside them, fine, courageous, loyal and dependable men who filled the ranks of the finest division in World War II.
We must never forget them. (emphasis my own)

Sadly, Professor Sledge, the people we elect remember nothing.


Oil paintings of Peleiu by WWII combat artist Tom Lea - I asked my Congressman Dan Lipinski (D 3rd) to vote against this looming Syrian Peleliu.

President Diminished Capacity -'Horses and Bayonets and Battleship' Oh My!

Sailors have used bayonets, but Governor Romney was talking about ships, Mr. President.

"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916," Obama said. "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed.
"We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go under water, nuclear submarines," he said.
Obama even evoked a children's military role-playing board game, "Battleship," to bash his rival.
"The question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting ships," he said.

I am sure that 'horses and bayonets' will resonate with the Journolists, MSNBC, OWS, and Soledad crowd.

Ships, if I recall, are nautical weapons platforms.

Horses and bayonets are of some use to ground forces and certainly are being used in Afghanistan.

President Obama's snotty crack, like most snotty cracks, missed the mark and the point made by Governor Romney entirely.  The issue was the diminished capacity of the United States Navy.

Mitt Romney got under the President's skin with the fact that the US NAVY has fewer ships to serve the world and protect our shores than it did when Woodrow Wilson, the first Progressive, was President. President Obama went snotty, purile and true to his character.

This is a President of diminished capacity and he did not bring much to the table from the get-go.   Vote.

President Fears a Lindy?

"Okay, Lindy; now. are you now, or have you ever been 'disgruntled?' I'll take that as a 'No.' Now, how did your pants get the mumps?"

Washington - US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that a "lone wolf" terror attack in the US is more likely than a major co-ordinated effort like the September 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.... Asked if Americans do not have to worry about a nuclear or radiological attack or some other "spectacular" event, Obama said: "Look, as president of the United States, I worry about all of it.

"But I think the most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well-co-ordinated terrorist attack.

Presidents used to fret about Fascist Italy, Germany, Imperial Japan, the Soviet Russian led monolithic Communists of Red China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and later Islamist Hamas, Al Queda and the network of the Islamic Brotherhood. Pish Posh.

The assault on America by Islamist terrorists from Eygpt, Saudi Arabia and the Emerites on 9/11 after flying lessons in Florida and ATM privileges around the nation, notwithstanding; America faces a far great challenge from the disgruntled.

The disgruntled, formerly US Postal Workers, can be found cutting in line at County Fair Foods, drinking your beer glass's bottom slimes while you hit the jakes at Keegan's Pub, or predicting the flight of pigeons, bumbles bees, the wakes of Asian Carp in loud voices at CTA bus terminals all over Chicago.

The disgruntled are our home grown threat. Your dog got out while you were at work and dropped a load on his lawn. You made eye contact with her and nodded a smiling 'Good Morning' -"You DON't KNOW Me!"

Our President is unprecedented. In order to stop illegal immigration, President Obama sics Eric Holder on border states. In order to finally kill Bin Laden, he makes his unprecedented Middle East apology tour and makes nice with the Brotherhood who are burning Christian churches in Eygpt, Iraq and elsewhere. In order to create jobs for folks, President Obama's folks call the working folks at Tea Party rallies domestic terrorists. Unprecedented.

America voted for Change in 2008. We have that Change and change. Unlike other Presidents who daffily identified concerted and coordinated threats upon our Nation's safety and welfare, President Obama identifies the 'Lone Wolf' threat. The disgruntled, or perhaps that kid who saw one too many Harry Potter and Matrix movies.

I wonder if America's Lone Wolf , Slim, Lucky Lindy, Oberst Charles Augustus Linbergh, Luftwaffe Commander Cross and Order of the German Eagle was more of threat to America than we give him credit for? He had a gassed up plane with a dubious flight plan. He landed in foreign nation -France. Did Lindy have his passport on him? He later ditched France for Gemütlichkeit with gents like Ernst Heinkel, Adolf Baeumaker and Dr. Willy Messerschmitt, and Ace Hermann Göring.

Lindy was a huge fan of Planned Parenthood, a singularly vile anti-Semite, and Old Joe Kennedy's acolyte for making nice with the Third Reich.

Naw, the Lone Wolf was a Progressive.

A threat to America probably watches Fox, can't find work, goes to Church, owns a hunting rifle, would get patted down by TSA if he/she could afford to go anywhere, and waits in line at County Fair Foods.

Yep, them folks need to have Janet Napolitano's eyes on them. They are.

What Was the Last Thing to Go Through Osama Bin Laden's Mind? A Bullet. President Obama Stands Twenty Feet Tall!

The old saying 'A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste' no longer applies. The wasted noodle of Osama Bin Laden is just dandy.

The billionaire Islamist Recluse who produced Al Qaeda's War on Civilization, ordered the murder of thousands of Americans on 9/11, orchestrated terror worldwide and continued his kideny dialysis treatments somehow, was introduced to Justice by a team of American heroes ( Navy Seal Team # 6 and CIA paramilitary commandos).

President Obama took down Bin Laden and was classy enough to phone the much maligned President GW Bush.

This is a nice start to May.

Well done Mr. President! God Bless the young people who took the war to Bin Laden up close and personal.