An F-14D Tomcat, aircraft number 100, assigned to the "Tomcatters" of Fighter Squadron Three One (VF-31) makes a near supersonic fly-by above the flight deck of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). The F-14 will officially retire in September 2006, after 32 years of service to the fleet. Theodore Roosevelt is completing Joint Task Force Exercises with USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). www.navy.mil

A U.S. Navy F-14D Tomcat aircraft assigned to Fighter Squadron Three One sits on the flight deck of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) July 27, 2006. Roosevelt is under way in the Atlantic Ocean maintaining qualifications as part of the fleet response plan. www.navy.mil

For The Record

As the War-Of-Terror has escalated to Israel with the terror attacks by Hezbollah with Katuysha rockets fired from Lebanon, it is time to establish a certain position that may not have been made known from my previous writings. I completely support Israel as a sovereign nation and support the Jewish people as the distinct and "chosen" people of God. As goes the Jews, so goes the Gentiles. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race and Moses is the father of the Jewish nation and this dichotomy is completely intertwined with their future in the years to come.

As a Christian, as an Ambassador in Christ, it gives me the greatest pleasure to inform you that God's promises given to both Abraham and Moses concerning the Jewish/Israeli heritage is still extant, not extinct as some might have you believe. The first Christians were Jews. The first persecutors of Christians were Jews. As Christianity spread from Jerusalem and into Asia Minor and then on into the Roman Empire, the Gentiles would embrace Christianity and ultimately Gentiles themselves would come to persecute Christians. For nearly 2000 years now we have been in an era known as the Church Age in which Christianity has been the primary vehicle of evangilization throughout the world. This really should have been the Age of Israel but because they rejected their Messiah, that age has been put in a form of stasis if you will preserved for another time.

Salvation has always been predicated on the power of God to do all the work for you. The mechanics of salvation is based on one's non-meritorious act of faith in the Lord and that the Lord is Jesus Christ who is the only visible member of the Godhead. By acknowledging your allegiance to him through faith then God the Father can impute to your soul his own seal of approval, divine righteousness. This imputation of divine righteousness has always been the way of salvation since Adam and Eve. However, since the fall of Adam and Eve some 6000 years ago, man has taken upon himself the work of salvation by vainly and arrogantly creating his own version of divine righteousness, not by accepting the imputation from God but by substitution - he has returned the free gift of God and has declared his own self-righteousness as the basis of propitiation.

God therefore created a separate royal family to proclaim the way of the Lord. Israel was established for the glory of God and as God's human heralds proclaiming the necessity of repentance from sin and salvation in the Lord for an eternal heavenly relationship. And yet, slowly and over time Israel would come to neglect the Grace of God and wander away from their divine mission. The Apostle Paul writes:

1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes...

16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"[h] 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."[i] 19Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."[j] 20And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."[k] 21But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."[l] Romans 10

Does this mean because the Jews rejected Christ as their savior and king that God will not keep his promises to Israel? The Jewish reaction to God is no different than the Gentile reaction to God and thus Gentiles must not assume that they are better than the Jew nor has the Church replaced Israel or inherited their promises. The Apostle Paul continues:

1I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"[a]? 4And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."[b] 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.[c] ...

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is[f] my covenant with them when I take away their sins."[g]

28As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now[h] receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Romans 11

Over time, God has created two distinct royal families united by the imputation of divine righteousness and connected to each other by Jesus Christ. The Age of the Church will come to a close and the Age of Israel will resume with the Second Advent of Christ. The Catholic Church nor the Mohammedan can claim the promises of God that are distinctly given to Israel. They are indeed irrevocable. The Church and the Jew therefore have a destiny they will share together and compliment each other in their own order as set forth by God.

May God continue to bless Israel.

The upper bow unit Pre Commissioning Unit (PCU) George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) is lifted into place at Northrop Grumman Newport News. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is under construction at Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. CVN-77 the tenth and last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Navy in late 2008. www.navy.mil

The Virginia-class submarine North Carolina, SSN 777, under construction at Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard. North Carolina is the fourth Virginia-Class submarine and is scheduled to join the fleet in 2008. www.navy.mil

Conundrum

Our enemies understand the West hates to wage war with infantry. Ever since WWI, Western nations have been reluctant to wage war with massed infantry attacks that will result in more casualties than the an air war or naval blockade. The notable exception to this rule was Germany and America. After WWII, Germany was no longer on the world stage and that left America as really the only western fighting force willing to use the Army/Marines to any great effect in war. However, after Vietnam this paradigm was overthrown and the United States since 1973 has been holding back its infantry divisions and letting the US Air Force do the bulk of its fighting.

The First Gulf War in 1991 and the liberation of Kuwait was instructive in that it appeared that America had returned to the "old way of waging war" with Army and Marine Corps infantry regiments and divisions massing in Saudi Arabia during the last months of 1990. A ground war looked inevitable, however after the Alpha Signal was sounded to commence hostilities it was the US Air Force that formed the not only the spearhead but also the shaft of the spear itself against Saddam and his irrelevant Iraqi army. The Army and Marines were not allowed to be the "first responders" against the Iraqi forces for fear of "high" casaulties but were simply there to mop up what was left of the Iraqi army. The US Air Force did a magnificent job destroying the enemy from the air and casualties were kept at a very minimum in the Army and Marines and yet, due to the requirements set forth by the UN and America's ruling elite back in Washington, the Army and Marines were not allowed to follow thru and defeat Saddam on his soil back in Baghdad in 1991. The preponderance of air forces at the expense of army/marine forces had thus not gone unnoticed by our enemies.

Yes, America may respond with small operations involving a few hundred/thousand Army or Marines but usually with limited objectives involving the least amount of fighting as possible. This has resulted in defacto defensive actions that may defeat our enemies in the short run but certainly over time they are able to re-group and form up for another attack later on since we are unwilling to occupy the high ground with army/marine infantrymen as they may and will incur greater casualties. As a result, America and the West in general, have ceded the high ground to our enemies in the vain hope that our air forces will pick up the slack. This is a failed policy.

The attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11 did change the Air Force/Army dichotomy for a short time in Afghanistan and Iraq as both the Army and Marines took on the bulk of the fighting. The results were fantastic and beyond our most optimistic assessments. Both regimes collapsed under the weight of our combined ground and air forces and with "boots on the ground" we actually changed the outcome on the battlefield as the enemy was no longer able to "re-group" for a second attack since we took their battlespace away from them. These offensive operations thus have yielded greater flexibility for America to launch attacks on further targets such as Iran and Syria. The ongoing terror attacks in Iraq is largely confined to the Sunni Triangle and is being fed by both the Syrian and Iranian regimes. The only solution to this problem is occupation of Syria and Iran by American Army/Marine Divisions.

And yet, this very necessity is nearly an unthinkable proposition for our ruling elites. Americans will suffer greater casualties as ground operations are always bloodier and more expensive than the liberal use of our United States Air Force but ground operations always yield victory in war. America will support this Administration or any adminstration for that matter if they understand the necessity of waging a ground war and the losses that will in fact be felt. Half hearted measures using air assets will not be supported by Americans for very long. Air forces are essential for winning wars but cannot replace the queen of the battlefield, the infantry, for ultimately changing the outcome of any war in our favor. The use of the Air Force as the sole fighting arm against our enemies is thus a short term answer to a long term problem.

If we are to be victorious in Operation WARTS (War Against Rogue & Terror States) as envisioned by President Bush with the War-On-Terror then we must steel ourselves to the notion that the US Army and Marines will have to form the backbone of our response and that it will in fact result in greater casualties on our side. The dividends however will serve as the cement of Pax Americana in the Middle East and beyond.

An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle basks in a desert sunset at Balad Air Base, Iraq, on July 9. Assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, the Predator is the most requested weapons system in the U.S. Central Command theater. www.af.mil

The Return of Bomber Harris

On the eve of a major Israeli offensive after the failure of the Oslo Peace Accords and the wanton disregard of Iran's and Syria's proxies in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza in throwing away any attempt at self government and peace with Jerusalem, its quite obvious we in the free-world partucular Israel and the United States are going to have to accept the fact that this is a fight to the finish, total war. The Bombai attack on July 11th seems already forgotten by a feeble Western predeliction to avoid any form of conflict. But, the Middle East reminds us that life is short and peace is as illusory as a mirage in the desert.

I've just recently come to the conclusion that the Islamic peoples have no qualms in attacking civilian targets for both terror and sadistic purposes. They naturally will say that the West vis a vis Israel has already killed their civilian populations by aircraft and cruise missles and whether we killed their peoples accidentally or not is inconsequential as far as they are concerned. Hence, the attacks on innocent civilians in bus stations and subways is justified with the Mohammedans. If then this is their modus operandi, then can we not also resort to such tactics in like manner? Yes, we can and history is our guide. When the Germans started WWII they were the ones who first bombed Warsaw, Rotterdam and London and various other towns and cities to reign down terror and destruction upon their enemies. Well, England responded in kind and Germany too were visited with bombers and came to endure nighttime and eventually daylight bombing raids from both British and American Air Forces.

Let us return to the days of yore and understand the man who "instituted" carpet bombing of German cities for the Allied cause during WWII and all the controversies it entailed. From Wikipedia:

Marshall of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris, and often within the RAF as "Butcher" Harris[1], was commander of RAF Bomber Command and later a Marshal of the Royal Air Force during the latter half of World War II. In 1942 the Cabinet agreed to the aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing. Harris implemented the policy vigorously and encouraged the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively. He was the architect of Great Britain's most devastatingly effective attacks against the Nazi infrastructure at a time when the country was limited in its resources and manpower.

Harris's preference for strategic area bombing over strategic precision targeting in the last year of the war remains controversial, because by this time in the war most of the senior Allied air commanders thought it less effective than precision targeting[2] and by others for the large number of civilian casualties and destruction this strategy caused in Continental Europe. Nevertheless, in a conflict where attacks on civilian targets had not only been initiated by the enemy but considered a largely acceptable aspect of 'total war', Harris' strategy was coherent and certainly dealt great damage to the Axis heartland.

Why do I bring this rather morbid subject up at all? My friends, we have come to a crossroads in dealing with Islamic Terorrism and the states that support them. If they will not desist from these actions then we must return to them a hundredfold what they have first brought to us. If we must choose who should perish, our kinsfolk or theirs, then why should we suffer when we have the power to bring death and destruction upon their cities as in the days of old. They have indeed embraced death over life and now we must become the Angel of Death in order to save them. Crazy you say? Then you have forgotten the past.

Harris was born in Cheltenham in 1892 during a visit by his parents to England, while his father was on leave from the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at All Hallows School in Dorset, his brothers were educated at Sherborne and Eton. Not considered academically gifted by his parents, he was given the choice of "either army or the colonies"[3] at the age of 16. He chose the colonies and went to Rhodesia (now Zimbabewa and Zambia), where over the next few years he flourished earning his living "gold mining, driving coaches [and] general farming"[3].

In 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment as a bugler, and served with them in South Africa and in the German colony of Southwest Africa (now Namibia). In 1915 he returned to England and joined the Royal Flying Corps, serving with distinction on the home front and in France during 1917 as a flight commander and ultimately CO of No. 45 Squadron flying the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter and Sopwith Camel. He claimed 5 enemy aicraft destroyed before he returned to England to command No. 44 Squadron on Home Defence duties and was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC).[4]

After the war he chose to remain in the newly formed Royal Air Force. In the RAF he served in different functions in India, Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Syria), and Persia (now Iran). He said of his service in India that he first got involved in bombing in the usual annual North West Frontier tribesmen trouble. In Mesopotamia he commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron. "We cut a hole in the nose and rigged up our own bomb racks and I turned those machines into the heaviest and best bombers in the command"[5]. Harris also contributed at this time to the development of bombing using delay-action bombs, which were then applied to keep down uprisings of the Mesopotamian tribes fighting against British occupation. Despite the many civilian victims of these air raids, Harris is recorded as having remarked "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."

Rather prescient I have to say. The West has been awfully "gentle" in dealing with these terror states such as Syria and Iran. They have called our bluff and believe we will back down in the face of terrorism. They could be right. But if they are wrong then woe unto them for their sad miscalculations.

Harris quickly rose through the RAF hierarchy. In 1941 he was promoted to Air Marshal and Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of Bomber Command in February 1942[7]. At the time, the RAF's night bombing role had had little effect on the German economy. By 1942, however, larger numbers of four-engined heavy bombers were becoming available, allowing for a change in tactics.

Professor Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill. Churchill appointed him the British government's leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942, Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the Cabinet advocating the area bombing of German cities in a strategic bombing campaign. It was accepted by the Cabinet and Harris was appointed to carry out the task. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany. Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centres in order to deliberately destroy as many homes and houses as possible. Working class housing areas were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and disrupt and reduce their ability to work. Calculations showed that the RAF Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly.

The plan was highly controversial even before it started, but the Cabinet thought that bombing was the only option available to directly attack Germany (as a major invasion of the continent was years away), and the Soviets were demanding that the Western Allies do something to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Front.

Harris said at the start of the bombing campaign that he was unleashing on Germany "The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind." In his memoirs he writes "In spite of all that happened at Hamburg, bombing proved a relatively humane method".

It doesn't have to be this way but I'm afraid the Moslem may have reached a point of no return. May God have mercy upon their souls.

U.S. Army sniper team with 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment fires their assigned weapons at practice targets during a night-fire exercise on Memorial Range, Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq, June 29, 2006. The Soldiers from the 1st are practicing long-range shooting with various types of sniper rifles and automatic weapons. www.defenselink.mil

Enigma

As you may not know I view Russia as a separate and distinct entity on the world stage and even though the West wishes to integrate the entire world into one economic and political system there are forces at work in Moscow that will not abide by this Western paradigm. We should not be surprised by this anymore than we would accept an Asian or Middle Eastern modus vivendi imposed upon us in Europe or America at the expense of our culture. I know that it is questionable whether we live in a "uni-polar" world in which the United States of America is the only power that can wield enough political, economic and military influence and come out on top and yet I believe that even though America is very powerful we indeed do live in a "multi-polar" world as evidenced by other political/cultural systems still extant throughout the world that are in direct opposition to our well laid plans.

Leftists and sometimes conservatives will often accuse the West of conspiracy to "rule the world" however, I wouldn't necessarily call it a conspiracy as it is an agenda. All great powers have agendas and operations to enhance their position in the world either through political, economic or military means. Just because the West has their agenda doesn't mean we are the bad guys on the world stage. Everyone is attempting to wrest control from the other either through peaceful or warlike means and it has been this way for thousands of years. It is simply the nature of man.

When it comes to Russia, they too have their agenda(s) and I believe their prime objective whether under the Czar or a Khan-like communist party leader has essentially been the same: control of the Middle East. In addition, I believe Russia has either been the catalyst or has assisted in being the catalyst for 3 major world wars in the last 100 years: World War I started by Russia when the Czar moblized millions of soldiers to support Serbia; World War II started when Russia signed a secret non-aggression pact with Germany to equally carve up Poland between the two; the Cold War started when Russia reached the nadir of their power in 1945 and felt compelled or tempted to intimidate the exhausted West into submission or subserviance to Moscow. Is another World War upon us with a revitalized and vengeful Russia? I believe the signs point in that direction.

Ironically, Russia is the only communist nation to renounce communism. Communism began in Moscow and it was they under Gorbachev who threw off at least the edifice of this evil system while keeping the party members in control of the levers of power. No other communist nation has followed the footsteps of Moscow. The question is why? Communism is alive and well in Latin and South America, in Asia and Africa but not so in Europe in any meaningful way. Curious. Is Russia jettisoning the old armor of communism and donning a new uniform or suit of armor for the next great world war?

A great article from National Journal covers the perplexing nature of Russia in the 21st Century and is a must-read. Here is a little excerpt to get you going:

A Russian businessman once offered me his view of the Russian national character. It went like this: "Russians are like small children. Generally they are sweet and lovable and innocent -- but now and then, without warning, without provocation, without any discernable reason, they bite you on the neck. Don't even ask them to explain why -- they would have no idea themselves; the question would be meaningless." He chuckled. "Yes, they've done this to me," he admitted.

The search for a Russian national type, for any kind of "national character," is probably fruitless -- a nation is not a single personality, for one thing. Nevertheless, it says something about the Russians that anecdotes like this one are common; I've heard many variations in a dozen-odd years of travels in and about the country. Whether Russians lend themselves to such essentialist interpretations is beside the point -- the point is, Russians feel themselves to be something quite distinct. And such sentiments create a hard reality of their own.

And indeed, as the cradle of a rich language using an alphabet created by a Byzantine missionary, as a centuries-old guardian of Orthodox Christian religious culture, as a vast country with a proud if often tortured past, Russia can be viewed not merely as a state but, like America or China, as a repository of distinctive ideas and traditions -- something like a civilization. Westerners are occasionally possessed of the odd idea that Russia can be plastic to the touch. But those, including Washington policy makers, who underestimate Russia's sense of separateness, its determination to be itself, are doomed to get Russia wrong...

A Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) launches from the aft Vertical Launching System (VLS) aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer USS O'Kane (DDG 77). The launch was part of a live fire exercise while participating in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2006. Eight nations are participating in RIMPAC, the world's largest biennial maritime exercise. Conducted in the waters off Hawaii, RIMPAC brings together military forces from Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. www.navy.mil

Song of the Free

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

A ceremonial ships bell displayed during a dedication ceremony honoring the eleven U.S. Navy SEALs (Sea, Air and Land) killed during a rescue mission in Kumar Province, Afghanistan, June 28, 2005. www.navy.mil