Jun 21 2007
We Don’t Walk Softly, And We Carry Big Sticks
Some reporting on the new artillery/rocket system possibly used to take out that enemy camp in Pakistand yesterday:
The six-pack can be configured to shoot a wide array of rockets and missiles, from cluster bombs to a single missile system with a range of up to 300 kilometres. Himars can fire a variety of non-cluster bomb rockets from the standard MLRS range of 32 kilometres to 300 kilometres.
The Himars launcher can also aim at a target in just 16 seconds. A crew of three operates the launcher, and it is possible for the crew to select pre-programmed targets stored in a fire control computer to increase flexibility.
The system is the new favourite of the US forces in the war against terrorism, especially when significant firepower is desired.
Hey terrorists – can you hear us now? Remember when Bush said from the top of the WTC rubble you would be hearing from us? We’re still out there explaining the reality of the pecking order in this world. And for some more on the target of our efforts to reach out and “touch someone”:
The death toll from Tuesday’s missile strike on a compound in North Waziristan has reached 34 as reports received on Wednesday belie claims that the place hit was a seminary.
People in the Datakhel area near the Afghan border denied that the compound in Mamerogha Seleria was used as a training facility and said flights by unidentified planes had been observed in the remote area.
“It was not a seminary. There were a tent and a few mud-houses on a hilltop where some 42 people had gathered,†said Mohammad Amir, who teaches at a seminary. He said only eight people had survived the attack.
Talking to Dawn by phone on Wednesday, Mr Amir said local people, particularly youngsters, used to visit the abandoned mountainous area in summer for recreation. “They had erected a tent on the top of the hill, which came under attack,†he said.He said that local people regularly went to the area which had chalghoza forests and also collected precious stones. Journalists were not allowed to visit the area.
Yeah, you can’t have journalists around when you are picking up pebbles. And those overflights were just people admiring all the shiny stoned collected! Nothing here – move along….
Update: Reader Crosspatch notes Deputy Sec of State John Negroponte is coincidentally in Pakistan as this attack is being assessed. Interesting….
Major Update: Many of the dead have been identified as Arabs and terrorists:
The terrorists who have been killed in blast in Datakhel area near the Afghan border in abandoned area of Miramshah have been identified.
Military sources while talking to Online confirmed that explosion in the suspected religious seminary in Datakhel area near the Afghan border on Wednesday claimed 33 lives out of which 27 persons including four injured have been identified as foreigners.
Military sources further confirmed that out of 23 deceased, 19 have been identified as Arab, while four belonged to Turkmenistan.
Similarly, four injured have also been identified as Arab. Now the area has been under strict security after the deployment of military personnel.
Stay tuned! Seems to have been a success. As I posted yesterday it could be we have Zawahiri or Bin Laden. The fact the area is being cordoned off by the military shows how important these targets could actually be.
There was someone big there.. You don’t risk an international incident without being sure who is there…I think we got who we were after.
—-Himars can fire a variety of non-cluster bomb rockets from the standard MLRS range of 32 kilometres to 300 kilometres.——
The Himars launcher can also aim at a target in just 16 seconds. —Osama and Zawahiri better move back from the border….we got us a new toy that can reach 300 klicks inside Pakistan….hehehe.
Well – EEEEEE-HAW, COWBOY!!!!
Violating the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation by firing missiles over their border is an act of war. Pakistan has a fragile military dictatorship sitting uneasily atop a seething fundamentalist Islamic underclass. Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons, which would fall into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists if the government were to fall.
Lobbing these rockets into Pakistan and killing tribal leaders would be a grand way of opening a whole new moronic can of worms . . .
Soothsayer
We have to proceed with caution there that is for sure. But I highly suspect that Pakistan knew what was going on and was in on it. They will not broadcast that of course but I am sure they did know
Soothie, you incorrectly assume the Pakis have a problem with this. They may on the surface and that is for show. They do not want a bunch of Chechen and Uzbek hardboys around either.
I don’t think Mushareff has a problem with it – like Bush – he doesn’t care how many Pakistani’s on the street get killed. But it wouldn’t take much for the entire powderkeg that is Pakistan to erupt – and if would only take one rogue military group to seize nukes to upset the whole house of cards.
We’ve already got two wars going on – Iraq adn Afghanistan. Imbeciles like Cheney – who would of course never risk his fat behind for anything but $$$$$ – and his neocon ilk are champfing at the bit to start another one with Iran – allegedly to prevent nukes.
Pakistan already has plenty – and the last thing we need is the idiots who gave us the Iraqi Quagmire to get us in trouble somewhere else.
Meanwhile . . .back at the ranch:
Bush poll numbers reach all-time low. Newsweek poll says:
Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
The 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.
Hey Soothie…..how about the poll numbers for the DEMOCRAT’S….Gallup has Congresses number at 14 %……..hehehe. Lawyers poll higher.
You will note that Negroponte landed in Islamabad just before the fireworks.
guess Newsweak doesn’t remember that Truman left office with a 22% approval rating
Sooth, I believe that video of the graduating class of suicide bombers on ABC “News” might be enough of a justification to plop a couple of hot ones onto Talibanistan. That was pretty much an open declaration of war against us.
Very interesting, AJ. I suspect that with the jihadis after his skin, Musharraf decided to fight back–Now, if we’d cut the crap about him stepping down and letting democracy bloom. (Same stupid mistake Rice made with Hamas.)
Hey, Jimbo, ya freakin’ idiot: “Congress” is 49% Republican.
If you could bother to check (altho you’d have to be able to read) you’d find that the indiviual approval numbers for Democrats – House and Senate – are all about double George’s.
According to my algorithm, George should bottom-out at about 17%.
As of today Bush is at 35%
Hey Soothie…nice touch name calling……just like a moonbat…..become unhinged.
I really like this idea! (found on Instapundit)
Hey Soothie, what’s the Poll numbers for Leftist Nutbag Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi/Anti-American Traitor Clowns like yourself?
Just curious!
Sad fact is, every single piece of “analysis” you post about these topics, turns out to be WRONG!
No wonder you had to leave your make-believe “Intel” job, drinking tea in the Bekaa!
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!
AJ; keep your fingers crossed, if they nailed Zawahiri, that would just be huge!
Of course, except for “Soothie”, who feels sorry for Zawahiri, and is already whining about “borders” and “sovereignty” and “tribal chiefs”!
Funny, “Soothie” didn’t seem to care when 19 Saudis violated OUR “Sovereignty”, slit the throats of Stewardesses with Box Cutters, and incinerated hundreds of passengers and murdered 3000 Americans in their Offices in the WTC and the Pentagon!
Oh, that’s right, I’m sorry; THAT’S okay, because we FORCED the poor innocent Muslims to do that, because we’re the big, bad EVIL country, and George Bush personally knew about that, and let it happen!
Yeah, that’s it…..chirp…..chirp……chirp…..
Wait for BDS-brain-damaged/afflicted Leftist Nutbag “Center”, show up to lend moral support to his fellow Traitor and Lunar Chiroptera Colony-mate, and whine about “urbacide”!
The only freaking “urbacide” that’s ever going to take place, is if I ever track down where you two nutbags actually live, and open a Big ‘Ol Can of Medieval Whoop-Ass on you both!
“nice touch name calling”
That is the typical left-wing response. If you don’t like the message, attack the messenger. I hear the NYT is working on an “investigation” of Rupert Murdoch. Same thing. They can’t argue with logic so they resort to throwing rocks. It is a perfect reflection of their emotional immaturity.
More Democrat flailing
Dale-y in Ratlanta
Soothsayer wrong? What a joke.
Your boys told us Iraq was a cakewalk over and paid for by
2004. And you—a “patriot?” You’re an amoral pagan, a
worshipper of a decaying coca-cola subcultured carcass
of hip-hop criminality with a greedy overclass of military/industrial
profiteers, corporate sponsorship of the cheap labor invasion you decry (as you call for continuing cheap labor plutocrat Bush’s war.)
All fueled by rank Jewish racism in the form of the Zionist Lobby.
You’re not a patriot, you’re a pagan confused even about the
worth of the pagan entity you wosrship, judging it on
pagan terms.
By the way, as Iraqis have killed a couple dozen of the occupiers in
the past day or two…the Saudis you mention? Your boy Bush
didn’t invade Saudi Arabia, pretender to Anthony Cordesman’s throne.
Actually Cordesman is too much an interventionist for me–
I prefer General William E. Odom’s more succinct version
of the lost war….
but compared to your fantasy world of armchair comfort
vis a vis Iraq, Anthony’s a freakin’ genius.