A mental health issue masquerading as a gun control issue

Cartoon: Nate Beeler 

(Title borrowed from a Facebook comment)

The tragic deaths of twelve people at the Washington Navy yard has in the eyes of gun grabbers and the liberal media, created a new platform for them to pursue their authoritarian agenda.

The usual politicians such as Diane Feinstein, President Obama and others are demanding action on gun control.  Obama has threatened to use Executive Orders to bring this about.  For those outside the US, executive authority is the US equivalent of the old British concept of the divine right of kings, which the Brits themselves, gradually abandoned in the years following the beheading of Charles the First.

Piers Morgan, the British journalist has weighed in with a diatribe on how bad the AR 15 is, despite the fact that the only one of these involved was the one that shot the killer.  Piers though, may have been confused over the CNN report that the shooter used an “AR 15 shotgun,” but Americans love to hear a cultured voice, especially British talking down to them.

One fact to bear in mind, is that these days the US military are not trusted with firearms other than out in the field, and US bases are essentially gun free zones apart from security personnel and MPs.  Bill Clinton, for whatever reason decided to disarm servicemen: 

Clinton's actions birthed Army regulations "forbidding military personnel from carrying their personal firearms and making it almost impossible for commanders to issue firearms to soldiers in the U.S. for personal protection." 

In other words, thanks to Clinton, citizens who join the military to use guns to defend liberty abroad cannot practice their constitutional right to keep and bear arms while on active duty at home.  

As the Times editorial board put it: "Because of Mr. Clinton, terrorists would face more return fire if they attacked a Texas Wal-Mart than the gunman faced at Fort Hood." 

The same theme ran true at the Navy Yard in DC on September 16. Police were called after the shooter opened fired, and reports indicate it took approximately three to seven minutes for them to arrive. Each minute is an eternity when a lunatic with a weapon decides the "gun free zone" rules do not apply to him.

So, like every other massacre in the States, it occurred in a gun free zone.  Once the killer had caught the guards by surprise and shot them, he had a clear run to a position where it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

The second major issue is that police warned the Navy that the gunman was mentally unstable some time ago: 

In the document, the officer said that on August 7, he was sent to a local hotel to check out a suspicious person report involving Alexis, who told him he was a naval contractor and travelled often. 

The report said Alexis told the officer that while flying from Virginia to Rhode Island, he got into an argument with someone else at the airport who he believed had sent three people to follow him and keep him awake by talking to him and sending vibrations into his body.

He also said he thought he heard these three people – two black males and a black female–talking to him through a wall of his hotel room and through the walls, floors and ceiling of a hotel on the Navy base. 

Alexis told the officer the trio was using “some sort of microwave machine” to keep him awake.

The authorities allowed this person a secret clearance and easy access to a base despite:

• A history of disciplinary problems in the service;
• Two arrests for firearms offences;
• And a report of serious mental health issues.

It seems that those calling for gun control are pushing the argument that average Americans can’t be trusted with guns on the basis that they tolerate idiots to organize their security.

Palin slaps down NSA

The head of the National Security Agency (NSA Gen. Keith Alexander has claimed that the need for wholesale violations of Fourth Amendment rights was done in the wake of 9/11 owing to an absence of information on terrorists involved.  He has claimed a need to be able to track back on contacts of suspects which means treating everybody as a suspect. 

Sarah Palin, who we have not featured for some time has slapped down any contention that this action is keeping Americans safe, claiming that the NSA couldn’t stop two ‘pot smoking deadbeats with terrorist ties’: 

“Our government spied on every single one of your phone calls but couldn’t find two pot-smoking deadbeat Bostonians with a hotline to terrorist central in Chechnya. Really?… And it’s built an apparatus to sneak into all of the good guys’ communications but…whoopsi-daisy… It missed the Fort Hood murderer of our own troops despite this Islamic terrorist declaring his ideology in numerous army counselling sessions and on his own business cards. But, whoops, no red flags there. Really?"

The Boston bombing could have been prevented had the authorities followed up on Russian requests for information on possible terrorist links of one of the perpetrators. 

9/11 was in part allowed to occur by the same people failing to address suspicions of flying schools over gentlemen of Middle Eastern appearance who wanted to fly airliners but had no interest in takeoffs or landings.

It is highly unlikely that those who missed such simple clues are competent to get useful intelligence out of such a complex operation.  If they do, they will probably screw it up again.

WTF was Ron Paul thinking

Image: Tweet by Ron Paul

Ron Paul has probably done more to spread the libertarian message than anyone else on the planet.  Unfortunately his brand of non-interventionism is tends to go to the extremes that often make him appear more of a crank than a serious politician, and probably does the movement more harm than good.

While most sane people oppose war and violence, it can be necessary to go there in order to deal with aggressive regimes.  Disagreeing with a war is fine, but the way to do it is to take it up with the government that declares it, not the soldiers who do the fighting.

Image: Westbro Baptists, not much difference in thinking.

Chris Kyle was an exceptional servicemen who excelled at his duties then dedicated himself to helping former servicemen to deal with the psychological affects of war, namely post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.)  One of the people he was trying to help murdered him.

The reason for taking them out on shooting ranges was to place them in a familiar environment that they were competent with: 

"A lot of people are asking why are you taking somebody who is struggling out to go shooting? Well shooting for guys like us in the military is a very very familiar skill set. It's like taking a basketball player out to shoot hoops, you know? So shooting with military veterans who are trying to re-adjust can be very healing and Chris really used that well to his advantage to help people."

UPDATE: Breitbart reports that Paul has ‘walked back’ from his remarks: 

In a Facebook post meant to clarify the tweet, Paul wrote, "As a veteran, I certainly recognize that this weekend's violence and killing of Chris Kyle were a tragic and sad event."  

"My condolences and prayers go out to Mr. Kyle’s family. Unconstitutional and unnecessary wars have endless unintended consequences," Paul wrote in his post. "A policy of non-violence, as Christ preached, would have prevented this and similar tragedies."

Acknowledging the feelings of the family is welcome, but the original remark should never have been made.  Ron should repudiate it in the interests of common decency.  

Gary Johnson responds to Libya murders

LP Nominee Governor Gary Johnson has responded to the killings of four Americans, including the Ambassador in the Libyan attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi. Washington Times reports:

Former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Gary Johnson added his voice to the growing outrage over the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in the Benghazi embassy raid in Libya.

“It is tragic when Americans serving their country are murdered, and we both mourn their loss and honor their service,” the Libertarian presidential candidate announced in a press release. “Part of honoring that service is to ask the obvious question: What U.S. interest is being served by putting our people – and our money – in places where U.S. personnel can be killed by extremists over a video? We launched millions of dollars worth of missiles to bring down Gaddafi, and this is what we get.”

Johnson went on to assert “Protecting America with a strong national defense and a rational foreign policy is our leaders’ most basic responsibility. But let us not confuse national security with senseless intervention where our interests are clearly not being served.”

Gary Johnson’s statement raises a profound point that an increasing number of frustrated Americans agree with. In 2011, bipartisan calls for intervention in Libya were both manic and deafening in spite of concerns that assisting the rebel uprising against Qaddafi could have disastrous implications for the stability of Northern Africa.

Obama’s implementation of Operation: Odyssey Dawn purely on the basis of U.N. Resolution 1973 was erroneously compared and praised by both conservative and liberal voices alike to Ronald Reagan’s Operation: El Dorado Canyon (1986). In reality, the Nixon, Carter and Reagan Administrations opposed Qaddafi’s regime for reasons vastly different and more legitimate than the Obama Administration.

Contrary to popular belief, neither Carter nor Reagan opposed Qaddafi for the internal affairs of his country. The real reason American forces were at odds with the Libyan regime was that just four years after Colonel Qaddafi’s coup, the Libyan leader declared his territorial waters stretched out nearly 100 kilometers from his shore in defiance of traditional international law which recognized a 19 kilometer maritime border. …

Delaware Libertarian has mentioned an increasing incidence of reporting in the press of the LP campaign. It was mentioned that there has even been an increasing coverage of statements by LP VP Nominee, Judge Jin Gray which is highly unusual in the case of a third party. The Washington Times has not only published Johnson’s press release, but gone on with an extensive article covering Libya policy.

More kudos to them.

Russia contradicts Obama

Cartoon: By Jerry Holbert

Some time ago Mitt Romney stated that Russia remained the worst strategic threat to US security. Whether it is or not is a matter of conjecture, however Vladimir Putin appears to have a great deal of nostalgia for the good old days of the Soviet empire, a propensity for authoritarianism, and a desire to cultivate like minded regimes hostile to the West. Throw in an extensive nuclear arsenal and it would be a bad mistake to underestimate them.

Obama had a slap at him over it in his acceptance speech, but now old Vlad seems to want a massive build up of the armaments industry:

Russia needs a "leap forward" to rejuvenate its sprawling defense industry, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, harkening back to the ambitious industrialization carried out by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the run-up to World War Two.

"We should carry out the same powerful, all-embracing leap forward in modernization of the defense industry as the one carried out in the 1930s," Putin told his Security Council, without mentioning Stalin by name. Stalin, who ruled the Soviet empire with an iron fist for 27 years, is blamed for the death of about six million people but also is praised by many Russians for winning the war and industrializing the country.

Putin made renewed industrialization a priority during his third term in the Kremlin which started in May amid the largest protests of his 12-year rule. He conceded that the defense industry, once the heart of the Soviet economy, was in tatters. …

Putin's top defense industry official Dmitry Rogozin posted on his Facebook page a copy of a 1940 letter from Stalin to gun factory managers and accompanied it with a sarcastic warning: "Such methods of improving discipline also exist." Stalin's letter to the managers said: "I give you two or three days to launch mass production of machinegun cartridges... If production does not start on time, the government will take over control of the plant and shoot all the rascals there.”

Putin plans to spend $680 billion in the next eight years to modernize the military, with the bulk of the money going to 1,350 defense plants which employ about 2 million Russians. Many defense sector workers backed Putin during the election.

But don’t worry, he is going green:

He sees the sector as a new growth driver for the stagnating economy which can help wean Russia off its dependency on energy. He promised to open up the sector to private businesses.

Russia has some concerns with China building rapidly on its Eastern border and a growing militancy among some of the Islamic provinces in the South. In order to cover the cost ($680 Billion over four years) it is a fair bet that much of the new production will go into export arms sales.

Still, you have to wonder how all of those tanks, trucks, aircraft, and ballistic missiles are going to reduce energy dependency. None of them has a lot of potential to be driven by solar or wind.

Aussie troops murdered playing poker

Last week three Australian soldiers, Lance Corporal Stjepan 'Rick' Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate were murdered by an Afghan sergeant in a so-called green on blue incident at a patrol base in Oruzgan province. While no motive has been suggested, the troops were having a friendly game of poker when the attack occurred. Gambling is banned under Islam:

The troops were relaxing before bed with a friendly game of poker at two tables when Afghan sergeant Hekmatullah entered the tent brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle. Six Diggers were seated at one table and five at the second.

Hekmatullah opened fire, killing his first victim instantly. Two soldiers at the second table stood up and went for their weapons and were instantly shot dead. Three other men were wounded, including one seriously, from other shots fired before Hekmatullah fled the tent and escaped over the Hesco defence barrier of Patrol Base Wahab, about 20km north of Tarin Kowt.

It is not clear why the "guardian angel'' assigned to stand guard over the men did not respond to the attack. Despite an intense hunt, Hekmatullah has not been caught and Australian defence officials believe he has already escaped from the province.

While it is not clear that the card game was what motivated the attack, there seems to be little in the way of other reasonable motivations for it. The Taliban are a particularly extreme element of Islam and have no compunction about killing to set an example. It is only a couple of weeks ago that seventeen partygoers were murdered by beheading for violating the code.

It is hard enough on our troops fighting to keep the Taliban at bay while training unreliable local troops who are likely to turn on them at the drop of a hat. It is outrageous that they cannot enjoy traditional Western pursuits in their off duty hours without being murdered by these maniacs.

Karzai’s Aussie troop meltdown; so why are we still in this shithole

Image: Three soldiers were murdered and two died in a chopper crash.

In the wake of the green on blue killing of three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, the first reports of an action by Australian troops in the village of Sola village in Uruzgan, was a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, expressing ‘outrage’ at the actions of our troops hunting the killer. He was claiming that troops acted outside their authority and killed a 70-year-old man and his son:

He claimed that the troops had acted outside the agreement with the coalition on how to conduct night raids. This agreement states that all such operations must be Afghan-led. He went on to claim that the Australian troops launched the raid "unilaterally. It now appears that Karzai seems to be getting his information from the Taliban and ignoring the facts:

A Western diplomat in Kabul described Mr. Karzai's statement as "insensitive.” (A senior NATO source described President Karzai's statement as "bizarre" and they were speculating about his motivation.) A spokesman for the coalition insisted that the Friday operation involved Afghan and Australian forces working "side by side.”

There were 12 Afghans detained and "two insurgents were killed during a small arms engagement as coalition troops entered a compound," said coalition spokesman Charlie Stadtlander. On Saturday, he added, all the Afghans detainees were released except for one, believed to be a "facilitator" who enabled the insider attack on the Australians and was also responsible for placing roadside bombs in the area.

A tribal elder in Sola village in Uruzgan, where the operation occurred, said he witnessed the raid and saw the presence of Afghan forces alongside Australian troops. According to Mr. Stadtlander, the two Afghans killed in the raid were insurgents, aged roughly 50 and 30 years old.

Mr. Karzai, by contrast, described the two dead men as innocent civilians—a "70-year-old man, Haji Raz Mohammad, and his 30-year-old son, Abdul Jalil.”

While our politicians are telling us that we ‘have to stay the course’, the Australian public are becoming increasingly sick of seeing our troops arriving home in coffins as result of the actions of our so called friends.

It is especially galling though that this piece of shit is quite relaxed and comfortable about attacking the integrity of our forces that are keeping him in his palace, that he doesn’t even bother checking the facts before he lets fly with an outburst. He appears to have swallowed the story of the other side lock, stock, and barrel, without bothering to discover the facts.

He has probably recruited another thousand Taliban with this statement.

Stop laughing, it probably happens here.

Image and H/t; Courtesy, The Peoples Comrade.


“Never hold an inquiry unless you know what the result will be” – Sir Russell Hinze and Sir Humphrey Appleby.

We in Australia are used to inquiries being held as a sure fire method of making an issue go away, or at least kicking the can down the road far enough to make it somebody else’s problem. We are also not unused to inquiries into inquiries, or multiple inquiries on the same issue.

We have this from the (US) ABC. This is fair dinkum, you just can’t make this stuff up:

The Pentagon was inundated with so many studies in 2010 that it commissioned a study to determine how much it cost to produce all those studies. Now the Government Accountability Office has reviewed the Pentagon’s study and concluded in a report this week that it’s a flop.

The study of a study of studies began in 2010 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained that his department was “awash in taskings for reports and studies.” He wanted to know how much they cost.

Two years later, the Pentagon review is still continuing, which prompted Congress to ask the GAO to look over the Pentagon’s shoulder. What they found lacked military precision. The GAO found only nine studies that had been scrutinized by the Pentagon review, but the military was unable to “readily retrieve documentation” for six of the reports. …

The cost of the study of the study of the studies was not available from the GAO.

Enough said.

Anzac Day, with a tribute to Kapyong.

Map: Battle of Kapyong.

Korean war veterans tend to feel that they fought in a forgotten war. This is probably an overstatement as it gets mentions, but probably less attention than it deserves. Perhaps the fact that it sits between two longer wars – WW2 and Vietnam may have something to do with it.

The defining battle for Australians in Korea was the Battle of Kapyong, fought on the night of 23Apr 51 and through the following day. The 24th of April is officially ‘Kapyong Day’ but it is generally overshadowed by Anzac Day on the 25th. The Battle of Long Tan which was smaller, less significant, but no less courageous, has fared better with its day on the 18th of August.

At Kapyong the Australian 3rd Battalion and the Canadian 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry set up defensive positions on hills either side of the Kapyong Valley to block the Chinese spring offensive from reaching Seoul, and with some American tanks and New Zealand artillery were able to block a Chinese Division after heavy fighting.

The following transcript gives an idea of the situation:

Early in the evening, retreating South Koreans streamed past the Commonwealth position, with Chinese forces closely intermingled. Soon afterwards a platoon of American tanks supporting 3 RAR was overrun. The Kapyong valley was too large an area to defend with the forces available, and the brigade was spread very thinly.

Throughout the night the Chinese repeatedly pressed the Australian positions, attacking in waves over their own dead and wounded.

At dawn, A Company, under the command of Major Bernard "Ben" O'Dowd, found that the Chinese had infiltrated its position, but a counter-attack was able to eject them. Meanwhile B Company, which had spent the night on a hill near the riiver, discovered Chinese occupying some old bunkers on a small knoll. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued with grenades and bayonets. C Company, under the command of Captain Reg Saunders, was in position to reinforce both A and B Companies.

"Major O'Dowd then directed the radio operator to contact anyone. The American 1st Marine Division answered but their operator refused to believe who our operator was speaking for. Major O'Dowd took the phone and demanded to speak to the commanding officer. The general in charge of the [Marine] division came on the phone and told O'Dowd we didn't exist as we had been wiped out the night before. Major O'Dowd said, 'I've got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.”

Both the Australian and Canadian Battalions were awarded the US Presidential Unit Citation for their actions (Image left).

Another Kiwi shoots his mouth off.

Image; Australian troops advancing on German strongpoint.

Yesterday, New Zealand radio panelist Jock Anderson unleashed his extensive knowledge of the Australian military, which he apparently gained from Kiwi ex soldiers on the piss. Among his claims were:

"The Aussies have been reluctant soldiers at the best of times, and they've been essentially lazy bludgers, some of them - excellent black-marketeers, scavengers, poachers and thieves," he told the panel.

"Occasionally, they've actually been quite good soldiers, but there was no way that they can hold a candle, in my opinion, to the Kiwis.”

This left international audiences asking the obvious question, “What is New Zealand?” As a service to our extensive readership, we will put you in the picture.

• New Zealand, or The Shivery Isles is a nation consisting of two small islands off the East coast of Australia, too far away to be worth annexing. It is populated by wonderful, friendly, hard working, and generous spirited people. There is also a substantial white population there, which in the interests of friendship we will say no more about.

• The people speak an odd dialect based on English, but with confused vowel sounds. This tends to leave other English speakers with the impression that the Kiwi speaker is busting for a crap.

• European settlement was initially started by mariners who loved the place as the natural ground movement enabled them to go ashore and back to sea without the problematic sea legs/land legs transition.

• Often referred to as the Poms of the South Pacific, Kiwis were always reluctant to cut ties to the Old Country. The Brits for their part were never convinced that the Kiwis were ready for independence. The reason it was granted was that after offering the place to all the other major powers and getting no takers, it seemed to be the only way of getting shot of them.

The reality is that Australia and New Zealand have had an extensive shared military history going right back to the colonial era with mutual respect on both sides. The statement above has upset veterans from both countries and has been disowned by the New Zealand Prime Minister and government.

With all due respect to veterans, they are probably not the most reliable source of information on the qualities of allied troops they fought beside, especially after a few pots. No matter what country they came from, they all have the impression that their army was the one that pulled all the others out of the shit and they were the best damn soldiers on the face of the earth.

The comments were just plain silly and should be ignored.

Nuclear submarines for Australia?

This suggestion is similar to LDP policy.

The Australian government and Defense Department have been thrashing around for some time over replacing the rather problematic Collins Class submarines. The discussion at present still revolves around conventional powered craft; Australia still suffers from a Luddite obsession with all things non nuclear.

Former senior Defense official Ross Babbage has called for this option to be put on the table and offers reasons why this is a good idea:

If directly threatened, coerced or attacked, this country needs credible means of deterring and countering even a major power. It needs one or more powerful instruments with a capacity to stop a belligerent country in its tracks. Advanced submarines are one of very few capabilities that can contribute meaningfully to this.

To do this, Australia needs more than just small submarines to serve as crocodiles in the ditch of our immediate approaches. We need vessels that can travel rapidly to East Asia and to the distant reaches of the Indian Ocean to maneuver there with high security for extended periods.

In a crisis, the new boats should not only be able to sink ships and destroy maritime installations but also fire cruise missiles to precisely strike high-value targets well inland. The right submarine force can give Australia this credible deterrence. That is why getting the submarine decision right is vital. …

Option five is to buy or lease Virginia-class submarines from the US. The Virginias are fast and have almost unlimited endurance. They carry sensors with extraordinary performance such that they can routinely see potential opponents well before they themselves can be detected, often at trans-oceanic distances. They have also been designed from scratch to be very flexible and perform a broader range of functions that would deliver Australia strong deterrence power even against a major power.

The Virginia class is in series production, hence the project risks are low. The contract for the 14th Virginia has been signed for a price of $1.2bn, but by the time they are fully fitted out, the sail-away price is $2.5bn. These boats are demonstrating exceptional operational performance and high reliability and would provide class-wide training and upgrade programs. Operating RAN and USN Virginias in close partnership would also take the ANZUS alliance to a new level.

It is not known whether the US would be willing to do this deal although Canada is interested in doing the same thing. What is remarkable is that the only political party that has proposed the acquisition of nuclear powered submarines is the pro defense libertarian, Liberal Democratic Party which has had this as a major policy plank for several years. The LDP argues that without the carrier capacity to give air cover to a surface fleet, we would lose such a fleet in the opening volleys of hostilities:

Consistent with similar provisions in the 2009 White Paper, the LDP would concentrate resources into key areas in support of a maritime defence strategy.

The LDP believes the focus of our full-time military should be on the three strategic capabilities able to achieve long distance force projection. These comprise a strategic bomber capability, an effective submarine fleet, and a rapid reaction, air-mobile expeditionary force including Special Forces.

Concurrently, the LDP believes that primary responsibility for the defence of Australia’s landmass should be transferred to a part-time force.

To achieve this the LDP supports proceeding with the F35 fighter purchase but would also replace the F-111 fleet with a squadron of B-1B strategic bombers, paid for in part by a reduction in our order of F-35s.

The LDP would replace the current six-boat Collins Class submarine fleet with a greater number of new submarines. Ideally this would be twelve small nuclear submarines (similar to the French Rubis design), but if these are not procurable or affordable then eighteen submarines with air independent conventional propulsion equipped with land attack cruise missiles.

The Virginia Class is somewhat bigger than the Rubis Class, but comes with the advantage of being the same as is used by our greatest ally. European nations are not really reliable suppliers given their distance, trade barriers, and approaching insolvency. Clearly, the first requirement would to be electing a government with a big enough pair to implement such an initiative.