mm436: Blast from the Past! No. 34

July 11, 2008

MUDGE’S Musings

A lazy summer Friday. Yeah, it was a workday, one that ran the gamut between frantically sweatier than necessary (a 90-degree/90% humidity day in Northern Illinois), and Procrastination Central.

Got home, shut my eyes for a few minutes (my always tough 65 minute commute seemed tougher than usual), went off with Mrs. MUDGE to semi-fast food, Costco, ExxonMobil (gah!), and Blockbuster. Watched a recorded PVR episode of what once was a favorite guilty pleasure, “The Next Food Network Star” that has become a pale shadow of its former toothy, flavorful goodness.

By the time it became blogging hour, Friday had passed its 1,320th minute, and whatever energy that remains has been confined to cutting and pasting.

New tomorrow, promise! But, this one is a good one. And as I reminded one of my favorite bloggers, Roxy at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, earlier this week, any post you haven’t read before is new!

There’s most read, and then there’s favorite. This is a post which yr (justifiably) humble svt is, regrettably, but not regretfully, not at all humble about.

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Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From last summer, originally posted October 6, 2007, and originally titled “mm163: V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame,” the third in an occasional series in this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere©, comprising 10 parts thus far, called “The changing face of military aviation.”

The series so far…

No

Title

Link

1

U.S. pilot helped clear the fog of war

mm142

2

Go to war — Play videogames

mm155

3

Osprey: A Flying Shame

mm163

4

Abolish the Air Force

mm183

5

Proxy killers — Can you live with that?

mm211

6

A Maginot Line for the 21st Century

mm215

7

A shared obsession is a satisfying thing

mm225

8

Videogames. Real warfare. An unsettling

mm288

9

Go figure! Even our robot forces…

mm326

10

Help! Rescue that droning man!

mm369

MUDGE’S Musings

The changing face of military aviation

Third in an occasional series

As an amateur with an interest in all things aviation, history, technology, and the history of technology, we have followed the Osprey tilt-rotor story with interest and concern for close to 20 years.

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Posted by mudge

mm398: Military intelligence — time to start using some

June 2, 2008

MUDGE’s Musings

We have devoted a number of posts in this space to topics military. And why not? We are fighting wars in two far-away nations simultaneously, and have done so for nearly seven years.

That’s quite expensive, and it has been downright draining of our expensively trained manpower.

But, beyond the cost of prosecuting the “global war on terror,” we have been spending overwhelmingly on defense programs that, while lucrative to the home states of the military contractors and their congressional representatives, are impossible for a rational thinker to justify based on the nature of current and future threats.

Making this point most eloquently in an opinion piece in the LATimes was Robert Scheer, of truthdig.com.

latimes

Indefensible spending

America’s massive military budget is irrational, costly and dangerous. Why isn’t it a campaign issue?

By Robert Scheer |June 1, 2008

What should be the most important issue in this election is one that is rarely, if ever, addressed: Why is U.S. military spending at the highest point, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than at any time since the end of World War II? Why, without a sophisticated military opponent in sight, is the United States spending trillions of dollars on the development of high-tech weapons systems that lost their purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago?

You wouldn’t know it from the most-exhausting-ever presidential primary campaigns, but the 2009 defense budget commits the United States to spending more (again, in real dollars) to defeat a ragtag band of terrorists than it spent at the height of the Cold War fighting the Soviet superpower and what we alleged were its surrogates in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2008 set a post-World War II record at $625 billion, and that does not include more than $100 billion in other federal budget expenditures for homeland security, nuclear weapons and so-called black budget — or covert — operations.

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Posted by mudge

mm392: Memorial Day – so much more than sales and barbecues

May 26, 2008

MUDGE’s Musings

dreamstime_5097742

© Sandra Henderson | Dreamstime.com

The last Monday of May in the U.S. is the Memorial Day holiday. Wikipedia says,

Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (in 2008 on May 26). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

As U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying daily, totaling much more than 4,000 to date, this opinion piece from today’s Washington Post is worth reflection. It’s author, William Troy, is a general.

washingtonpost

Funeral Duty

By William Troy | Monday, May 26, 2008; Page A17

Throughout this war, the Army has maintained the practice of assigning a general officer to attend the funeral of every soldier who falls in service to our country. I’ve had this duty many times. The intensity of each funeral leaves me struggling to understand the enormousness of the sacrifice to which I have been a witness.

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5 Comments | "War on Terrorism", Air Force, Army, History, Iraq occupation, Marines, Navy, War | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mudge

mm371: Ever wonder why the U.S. is using more robots?

May 6, 2008

MUDGE’s Musings

Well, most of our robotic forces are air forces these days, but we keep learning about “spiders” and the like that are meant to assist ground troops.

It’s not just about protecting precious lives, although heaven knows that should be a sufficient rationale for investing in this sci-fi like technology.

It’s about substituting for Army and Marine ground troops that simply aren’t available.

Fred Kaplan, who writes most cogently on military affairs for Slate.com, has an intriguing analysis.

slate

The Army’s Math Problem

We don’t have any more soldiers to send to Afghanistan unless we take some out of Iraq.

By Fred Kaplan | Posted Monday, May 5, 2008, at 4:56 PM ET

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants to send 7,000 more U.S. troops—about two brigades—to Afghanistan, according to the May 3 New York Times. But there’s a problem, which the story underplays: We don’t have any more troops to send. The Army is in a zero-sum state: No more soldiers can be sent to Afghanistan without a one-for-one reduction of soldiers in Iraq.

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3 Comments | "War on Terrorism", Afghanistan, Air Force, Army, Geopolitics, Iraq occupation, Marines, Military affairs, Technology, War | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mudge

mm344: Welcome to interesting times

April 11, 2008

MUDGE’s Musings

This is not the Navy related story I expected to write. But, as always, real life changed my plans.

More than many, the MUDGE household has been observing this past week’s American Airlines MD-80 debacle with more than passing interest.

There have been myriad news stories, in print and on line, much television (I’m told – I never watch TV news). It’s a topic that anyone who flies can relate to.

As it happens, we’re headed off on a much needed vacation next week to see the grandMUDGElets in L.A., and, as American most frequently protects that route with this disappointingly tiny (in the context of: traversing 2/3 of the continent), not to speak of disappointingly elderly (in the context of: acquired cheaply when American absorbed what was left of the once proud TWA many years ago), sardine can (in the context of: so small, there’s never been audio entertainment available, much less an in-flight movie. Not that this is much of a hardship, but, it is a 4-hour flight). It’s an awful flight, in the best of circumstances, especially for a somewhat larger than life person such as yr (justifiably) humble svt. You guessed it: we’ve got tickets on an MD-80 flight.

Q: What’s worse than flying an American Airlines MD-80 to Los Angeles?

A: NOT flying an American Airlines MD-80 to Los Angeles because the flight’s among 1,000 that they’ve been forced to cancel due to inadequate maintenance procedures finally catching up to them.

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2 Comments | "War on Terrorism", Air Force, Army, Business, Economic depression, Economy, Marines, Navy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mudge