The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG 63) operates as Plane Guard in support of the conventionally powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) during evening flight operations. Used primarily at night, the mission of the Plane Guard ship is to aid and rescue aircrew if they have to eject from their aircraft upon landing on the aircraft carrier. Cowpens and Kitty Hawk are currently operating in the Coral Sea in support of the combined exercise Talisman Sabre 2005. - DefenseLINK

The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG 63) fires a round from one of her two MK-45 5-inch guns during a joint exercise with vessels assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) Carrier Strike Group. The MK-45 lightweight gun provides surface combatants accurate naval gunfire against fast, highly maneuverable surface targets, air threats and shore batteries during amphibious operations. - DefenseLINK

Lost In Translation

What is with these Democrats? I recently blogged that the liberal mindset is so blind they cannot even conceive that the War on Terror is a worldwide campaign and has both tactical and strategic operations with all of its comcomitant reprecussions. There is only one war but there are many battles in Operation WARTS (War on Terror-States). Afghanistan and Iraq are examples of battles that we have clearly won. Both regimes were vanquished and our armies control those regions. In fact, you may have several battles in the same region over a period of time before that area may become pacific. Clearly, the enemy is still throwing men and material into the cauldren that is Iraq but time is against them. Suicide bombing against civilians and government authorities should not be classified as a "battle" as far as our military engagement is concerned. It may be a campaign of terror but not a battle of armies. So in retrospect, even though those battles in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, the war still continues.

Nevertheless, the Democrats under House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, insists the "WAR" is over! What? Is she kidding? She insists that the detainees in Guantanomo Bay, CUBA should be set free because she wants to play dumb. She apparently cannot distinguish the difference between a battle and a war. She was recently asked to clarify her position in regards to GTMO and this is what she said from the Washington Times:

Mrs. Pelosi said it is past time that the administration established a policy on determining the fates of the detainees at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arguing that most are from Afghanistan and that the conflict there has ended. "I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?" she said to a reporter. A few moments later, she said: "This isn't about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over."

Oh really? Does she even know what she has just said? I doubt it. So, when we prevailed against the Germans and Italians in North Africa in 1943, was World War II over? Of course not. Morons!! We cannot abide by a POLICY of state-sanctioned-terrorism as a means of war or politics. Period. End of story. We have been on the receiving end of this policy since 1993 when the first WTC attack occurred in New York. How many Americans must die before Democrats wake up and smell the coffee?

The war is not over by any stretch of the imagination. Battles have been won, but it is just the beginning. Future battles await us and the longer we wait the more bloodier they will be. I prefer a Declaration of War as a signal to all the nations of the world that we mean business. However, for political reasons this road was not taken. Nevertheless, the Islamic states that support this method of war or politics must be convinced that this is not a wise policy to pursue. If they don't change their minds, then the policy of the United States Armed Forces will supercede their policy of state-sanctioned-terrorism.

Soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team calibrate their rifles at the Udairi Range Complex, Kuwait, in preparations for movement into Iraq. - DefenseLINK

War is Hell

I recently had a discussion with a mother of a veteran who just returned to the United States from the battlefield of Iraq. She stated with me that indeed her son has changed. The experiences of combat that her son endured, with the loss of friends, has irrevocably changed him beyond what she could have imagined. He is alive but the war has taken its toll. For this, may I speak for the those of us who do care for our servicemen, we are eternally grateful. We cannot give back to him what has been lost. Along with other veterans, he will heal in time enough to carry on in this society as millions of Americans have in the past.

Her son is worthy of all praise for the sacrifices he has made for his country, his family and for himself and his Marine buddies. We Americans who have not endured the crucible of combat cannot fully understand or know the level of pain you have suffered and we shall never know. You have entered the Fraternity of Warriors who have down through the ages distinguished themselves in great and small ways both publically and in private the necessity to defend those who cannot defend themselves.

Know this, you are loved and envied by us who have not experienced war and all of its destructive reprecussions. An envy born of ignorance and perhaps even a bit shortsighted, but we who sit in comfort and safety are in awe of your courage and your loyalty to duty to defend this great nation. I pray that Christ the Lord may heal your wounded mind and that you may sleep soundly once more. Cast all your cares upon the Lord, for he careth for you.

Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Douglas A. Kontra acts as a safety observer during the launching and recovering of Landing Craft, Air Cushions (LCAC) during well deck certification aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp (LHD 1). Wasp was recently outfitted with an experimental lighting configuration and is currently testing its effectiveness during her well deck certification. - DefenseLINK

The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) shown underway with all eight MV-22 Osprey assigned to Marine Tlitrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 22 (VMX-22), turning and ready for takeoff. VMX-22 is conducting the final operational test phase of the tiltrotor aircraft. The MV-22 is an advanced technology, vertical/short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) multipurpose tactical aircraft, and is scheduled to replace aging CH-46E Sea Knight and CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters currently in service. - DefenseLINK

The Arleigh Burke Flight IIA-class guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge (DDG 96) shown conducting a missile exercise (MISSILEX). Some new features of the Flight IIA-class critical to littoral war fighting effectiveness include the incorporation of embarked helicopters (SH-60), an organic mine-hunting capability and the introduction of area theater ballistic missile defense capabilities to protect near coastal airfields and seaports essential to the flow of forces into theater in time of conflict. - DefenseLINK

Several 2,000 pound laser-guided bombs (GBU-10) are fired on Raynham Island from Royal Australian Air Force F-111 "Pigs" and F/A-18 Hornets during exercise Talisman Sabre 2005. Talisman Sabre is an exercise jointly sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command and Australian Defense Force Joint Operations Command, and designed to train the U.S. Seventh Fleet commander's staff and Australian Joint Operations staff as a designated Combined Task Force (CTF) headquarters. - DefenseLINK

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Afloat Lab, YP-679, Starfish, pulls alongside the Iowa-class battleship USS Wisconsin (BB 64), located at The National Maritime Center Nauticus on the Elizabeth River waterfront of downtown Norfolk, Va. - DefenseLINK

Twentieth Century: Apex of Savagery - Part 1: The Beginning of Woes

The "40 Years- War" between WWI and WWII saw the greatest inhumanity to man ever. One would be hard pressed to find a similar epoch in human history to compare the total depravity of man as expressed during the first half of the 2oth century. Empires fell, millions of people were murdered by the state, wars ensued on nearly every continent, personages arose and fell as the fortunes of their countries rose and fell. How did it all start?

World War I essentially started because Russia activated their armies on Germany's Eastern Front as a way to politically and militarily lend support to Serbia. Considering that Russia had a pact with France to wage war as allies against Germany this was a very volatile situation. With two very large countries on both the Western and Eastern Fronts, the Kaiser had to act quickly and yet he sent communique's to the Czar to stand down before making the final plunge into conflict. Unfortunately, this was met with silence. Therefore, Germany had to activate their reserves for fear of a Russian Invasion of Prussia. Which in fact did come. The rest is history. Russia's attempt at brinksmanship started World War One and when it began who could know how the entire world would change, and change for the worse, in just 5 short years.

Millions perished on the battlefields of Europe. Russians suffered nearly 4 million dead and left the Czar completely open to domestic political chaos. The men that normally would have protected the Czar during any other time were now dead in Poland and Ukraine. Germany unleashed an evil not yet comprehended in the form of Lenin. His advent in Russian history would bring to fruition 100 years of socialist thought and utopian philosophy that would come to enslave billions of people! Socialism would come to be imposed upon vast populations at the point of a bayonet and the stockbutt of the rifle. The Russian Revolution which ushered in Communism was but the beginning of woes.

In spite of the losses in dead and wounded, by 1918 Germany had won World War I. On every front, Germany was victorious by any standard when compared to the British, French, Italian, Austrian and Russian casualties. The Russian army was decimated by war and simply melted away leaving the Russian frontier completely open to German advancement. The Germans walked, thats right, walked into Ukraine unopposed. The French Army, by 1917, had completely given up and rebelled against their Army High Command and refused en masse and in typical French fashion to go on the offensive. Their armies simply sat and waited for the war to come to an end. Yes, Paris had been saved by the combined armies of Britain and France, however they were in no position to move forward and reclaim the French territories taken by Germany. The Western Front had ground to a halt.

Italy, which showed so much passion to punish Austria ended up in the end to be a liability for the British and French. Italy, at first boldly attacked Austria in an attempt to take back territory they felt was occupied unjustly by the Austrians, however the Italians could not sustain themselves against the combined armies of Germany and Austria once they were counterattacked and thus Italy too was bitterly routed with Rome left dangerously open to German occupation. The British had to peel off troops from the Western Front to hedge up the weak defenses on the Italian front.

In the middle of this vast conflaguration of war was Austria. The axel upon which the wheel turned, she was the victim of a Slavic plot to undermine and perhaps overthrow this ancient kingdom with the murder of the ArchDuke of Austria-Hungary in 1914 and yet, could not muster the power to defeat Russia or Italy during the Great War thus relying more and more on the more masterful German Army to stay alive. Her destruction and fall would end up breaking Eastern Europe into defenseless petty states that would become the pawns for the next World War.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) conducts a passing exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self Defense (JDS) force vessels, JDS Akebono (DDG 109), JDS Makinami (DDG 112) and JDS Myoko (DDG 175). The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Benfold (DDG 65) and USS Shoup (DDG 86), along with the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) and Military Sealift Command (MSC) fast combat support ship USNS Rainier (T-AOE 7) also participate in the exercise. - DefenseLINK

Two F/A-22 Raptors assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing taxi down the runway at Langley Air Force Base, Va., on June 8, 2005. - DefenseLINK

End Game

Isn't it interesting that the left always wants a justification for any action taken to defend the United States since we were attacked on that fateful day nearly 4 years ago? They allegedly supported the first battle of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and yet I'm hard-pressed to find anything in the archives showing one ounce of support from them in 2001. However, the battle in Iraq was definitely the clarion call for socialists and leftists all over the world to rally against the United States and thus they spoke out vociferiously against our diplomatic and military offensive and in fact are still speaking out against it. Every American killed in action in Iraq is essentially one more notch scratched into their self-righteous pedestal. What are we to make of this?

When the United States was attacked by Japan on December 7th, 1941 did FDR have to justify every action taken to prosecute the war to its end? Was the press constantly demanding "answers" or the "reasons" to invade a particular country or region around the world? FDR was not questioned when North Africa was invaded was he? Surely, North Africa was no where near Germany and Hitler certainly wasn't holed up in some beduine tent in Libya was he? FDR was not questioned when we invaded Sicily or Tarawa or Saipan. And yet, today, when we invade a certain country or region that is not part of the Axis of Evil or the "War on Osama", it is the USA that is portrayed as the bad guy by our own media institutions. For the Left, the War on Terror began and ended with Afghanistan. Any other action taken beyond the "War on Osama" is considered to be unjust in their myopic world of liberal thought. Is the Left saying that they would send the entire United States Military just after Osama bin Laden only? 150,000 American Army and Marines sitting in Tora Bora waiting for Osama to come out? Do you see how short-sighted that Jimmy Carter like policy would leave the USA open to another attack on our own soil if not the unthinkable defeat of our armies overseas in the ancient mountians of Afghanistan? They are fools!

The President should present the Left in this country with a fait accompli: A declaration of war! We should declare war on the remaining members of the Axis of Evil, Iran and N. Korea and then choose the place and time of our war. Once we have declared war then those countries that are in our cross-hairs will go to a "war footing" which in turn will consume their pitiful resources while they "wait" for our invasion. The President then can really sock it to the libs in this country by declaring a resumption of the Draft. We may not really need to draw up more troops in this manner but it will be there neverthesless. The President can throw down the gauntlet at all left-wingers, both foreign and domestic, and they will faint with fear! A declaration of war sends a clear signal to all adversaries that we are committed to Total War and indeed we have the resources and the will to wage war until the end. No amount of casualties will dispel our will to conquer our enemies.

A declaration of war gives the President leverage against the Fourth Estate which uses their power to undo the power of the Presidency. The main stream media is completely delusional and must be humbled in order to win this epic war on Islamic State Supported Terrorism.

An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the "Argonauts" of Strike Fighter Squadron One Four Seven (VFA-147) rolls into a turn while performing operations over Iraq. The Argonauts are attached to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). - DefenseLINK

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) displays exceptional pride and patriotism as the battle flag is unfurled on her way through the Persian Gulf. - DefenseLINK

Daqin meets Seres

It has come to my attention that China apparently is big in the news lately. With their industrial capacity, their industrious mulititudes of people and their rising technical prowess, its becoming more clear that China is ready to shed its 20th century political wardrobe of communism for something more silky: western culture.

What you may not have known, however, was how long ago western civilization actually came into contact with Cathay. Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia regarding Romes embassies to China in the 2nd Century AD:

Sino-Roman relations started first on an indirect basis with the opening of the Silk Road during the 2nd Century BC. China and Rome progressively inched closer with the embassies of Zhang Quin in 130 BC and the military expeditions of China to Central Asia, until general Ban Chao attempted to send an envoy to Rome around 100. Several Roman embassies to China were recorded by a number of ancient Chinese historians. The first one on record came from the Roman Emporer Antoninus Pius and arrived in AD 166.

Now doesn't that just get your juices flowing? We can only speculate how history might have changed if say Christianity took root in China instead of in the West as it did in the church's early history. There is more:

Intense trade with Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees:

"The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves... So manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public" (Pliny the Elder (23-79, The Natural History).

The Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral:

"I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body" (Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC - AD 65, Declamations Vol. I).

And you thought only Americans were puritan in spirit and body. Once again from the Roman point of view:

The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys, including Seres (Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who reigned between 27 - 14 BC:

"Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations. Thus even Scythians and Sarmations sent envoys to seek the friendship of Rome. Nay, the Seres came likewise, and the Indians who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants, but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours." ("Cathey and the way thither", Henry Yule).

From the Chinese point of view:

In 97, the Chinese general Ban Chao crossed the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains with an army of 70,000 men in a campaign against the Xiongnu (Huns). He went as far west as the Caspian Sea and the region of Ukraine, reaching the territory of Parthia, upon which event he reportedly also sent an envoy named Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome).

Gan Ying left an account on Rome, which may have relied on second-hand sources. He locates it to the west of the sea:

"Its territory covers several thousand Li (a li is around half a kilometre), it has over 400 walled cities. Several tens of small states are subject to it. The outer walls of the cities are made of stones. They have established posting stations... There are pines and cypresses." (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

He also describes the Roman practice of democracy, their physical appearance and riches:

"As for the king, he is not a permanent figure but is chosen as the man most worthy... The people in this country are tall and regularly featured. They resemble the Chinese, and that is why the country is called Da Qin (The "Great" Qin)... The soil produced lots of gold, silver and rare jewels, including the jewel which shines at night.. they sew embroidered tissues with gold threads to form tapestries and damask of many colours, and make a gold-painted cloth, and a "cloth washed-in-the-fire" (asbestos)." (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

Thus the Orient meets the Occident nearly 2000 years ago. Perhaps as the 21st century progresses we too will see the Chinese embrace democracy and look towards the West which ultimately and ironically could bring both civilizations together, possibly even as allies against a far greater enemy that has yet to be revealed.

A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier conducts a vertical landing on the flight deck aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) during flight operations. Kearsarge and embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit are on a scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism and are currently conducting Maritime Security Operations in the Persian Gulf.

A U.S. Navy small boat comes alongside the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) to transfer personnel and equipment while underway in the Persian Gulf.

Borderland

This "illegal immigrant" canard by both Republicans and Democrats is such a red herring. This is not an issue of "immigration" whatsoever, its about "the law"; nothing more and nothing less.

Most Americans have no problems that Mexicans want to work in our glorious empire, however, we want and expect all "aliens" to register with the Federal and State government vis a vis a green card and/or "guest" worker card.

Crossing the border without informing the government is unacceptable and unforgivable. End of story. If these aliens, regardless where they come from, will not participate in the ORDERLY function of our society, then these ALIENS must be removed from our land. Every alien; man, woman and child that is here without their "papers" must be subject to deportation post haste.

We don't need "more border control agents" per se, however, the current agents on patrol now need "MORE AUTHORITY" to arrest and deport them from whence they came. The whole system, from top - down, needs to be revamped to favor LEGAL IMMIGRATION not rewarding the lawless ILLEGAL ALIEN that is exposing America to another 9/11 terror attack.