The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Where Have I Been?

by Smitty I’ve been in Mazar-i-Sharif for a couple of weeks. Camp Marmal, as it’s called, is on the east side of town. The Germans actually run this, and it’s highly international. Which means a lot of weird little rules, and lousy internet connectivity. After three tries, I finally found a card that logs me […]

‘USA! USA! USA!’ (I’m Just Saying That Because It Bothers Liberals So Much)

It is unfortunately predictable that the success of the U.S. effort that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan would result in finger-pointing, one-upsmanship and needless politicization. For example, Nate Silver at the New York Times: To state the obvious, this is good news for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. I can’t imagine a single, atomized piece […]

How Smitty Killed Osama bin Laden

By now, you’ve seen the headlines at Memeorandum: Osama bin Laden Killed by U.S. Strike Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says  Sources: Al-Qaida head bin Laden dead  BREAKING: BIN LADEN DEAD Osama Bin Ladin Loses Popularity and 30cc of Brain and Skull But Mostly 30cc of Brain and Skull Everyone was suspicious last year when […]

Obligatory Osama Post

by Smitty Expressed in image form, I’m weighing in somewhere around here: One suspects that this is The Real Deal. The political cost of Type II error, which would come in the form of a valid “Neener, neener, neener” tape from bin Laden, would be in the catastrophic range. This is good news, obviously. Let […]

One Of The Cooler Things In Afghanistan

by Smitty Lovely day in the Hindu Kush. I’m working around CJITF-435, commanded by VADM Harward, who is one of those guys who is such a Bad Mike Foxtrot that he simply doesn’t have to prove anything, emitting quiet, calm competence instead. In front of the head shed, he has a deck cool enough to […]

Is The Wisconsion Union Self-Aware Enough To Grasp That It Is Behaving In The Taliban Fashion?

by Smitty (h/t Protein Wisdom) Here in Afghanistan, the various terrorist networks use night letters to intimidate the populace. It seems that word of this approach has reached Wisconsin and somehow been deemed acceptable: The missive concludes by noting that, “With that we’d ask that you reconsider taking a sign and stance to support public […]

Answer: Because I Really Do Not Need A Rocket Suppository

by Smitty Ace asks: “Why Is the Media Covering Up The Kill Team Story?“. It was quite wrong for the media to endanger troops in the W era over Abu Ghraib. If you’ve let your emotional horses out of the barn, and feel that news of what a handful of twistos have done should be […]

Your Bagram Accommodations

by Smitty 5 seconds of video takes half an hour to push to YouTube through YouStraw, but this is what it looks like back in the hooch: More pictures and notes below the fold:

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