Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • Palestinians Restrict Militants’ Weapons

    Ha! Go ahead and file this under toothless maneuvers.

    Palestinian officials took a tentative first step toward disarming militants, banning them from carrying guns in public and requiring all weapons to be registered, according to a new directive.

    According to senior Palestinian security officials, the Interior Ministry distributed letters outlining weapons restrictions to militants in the West Bank. The AP obtained a copy of the letter Monday.

    Militants said they would not comply until Israel completes a promised withdrawal from West Bank towns.

    The move was seen as a concession to the United States and Israel, who have long demanded the Palestinians crack down on militant groups. Palestinians leader Mahmoud Abbas has preferred to use persuasion to get the gunmen to lay down their arms.

    Israel welcomed the move. After four years of bloodshed, Israel has made disarming of militants and dismantling violent groups like Hamas a precondition for progress along the U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan toward a Palestinian state.

    The directive limits militants to a single weapon and bars them from loading the weapons or carrying them in public. It also obligates militants to license the weapons with the ministry and forbids them to change the serial numbers on the guns.

    Violators actually caught, prosecuted and convicted are expected to face a time-out.

    Many militants possess more than one weapon, and gunmen have become folk heroes by brandishing their arms openly on the streets and firing in the air at marches and funerals.

    The Palestinian Interior Ministry has asked militants to sign the letter and commit to the process.

    Leaders of the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades confirmed they had received the document and said they were considering the offer.

    However, Kamel Ghannam, an al Aqsa leader in Ramallah, said militants would not sign the pledge until Israel carries out a planned military withdrawal from five West Bank cities.

    “Once Israel withdraws, we’ll be able to sign it,” Ghannam said.

    Sharon and Abbas agreed on Feb. 8 that Israel would withdraw from five West Bank towns it entered after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in September 2000: Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Tulkarem, Jericho and Bethlehem.

    Israel handed Jericho last week, and on Monday, the two sides agreed on transfer of Tlkarem on Tuesday.

    I would say that we should expect that goal line to shift as the Israeli withdrawal progresses, but that would be obvious.

    C’mon, Abbas, actually show that you care more about the building of a Palestinian future than an Israeli destruction. Control your problem children. Build a society for your people. Do not, as I fear, become another Arafatish, terrorist-loving piece of dung.

  • Army Ups Enlistment Age to 39

    Can one teach old dogs new military tricks?

    The maximum age for new recruits joining the Army Reserve and National Guard has been raised by five years to 39.

    Officials for the U.S. Army, which is struggling to meet enlistment quotas following two years of war in Iraq, announced the policy on Friday. They said raising the age expands the recruiting pool and strengthens the readiness of Reserve units. Another benefit, the Army said in a statement, is the “maturity, motivation, loyalty and patriotism” older recruits will bring to the service.

    Physical requirements will remain the same for all recruits regardless of age. Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins told FOXNews.com that the older recruits will be required to pass the same “standard batter [sic] of physical, mental and cognitive tests” and would be expected to enter any environment expected of younger soldiers.

    There are many “physically fit, health-conscious individuals in this [age] category who can serve their nation and they do right now,” Robbins said.

    The Army National Guard missed its recruiting goal for the 2004 fiscal year and is “short across the board right now” in recruiting soldiers for active duty, Reserves and Guardsman, Robbins said. But she added that recruitment during winter months is generally lower than average, while the end of the school year and summer see a jump in enlistments.

    […]

    Robbins said that the Army expected the higher enlistment age to help it reach recruitment goals, but that no specific numerical goal for the older age group was set.

    The test program applies only to new recruits and not those currently enlisted soldiers whose age requirements are determined by federal law. The age increase will run to September 2008. After the end of that period, the Army will “collect and analyze statistical data,” including how many enlistments were recruited and how many were retained.

    My guess is that this change will yield very few new recruits. After all, half of this group was still eligible to enlist on Sept. 12, 2001. Also, we’re not talking about just one weekend a month and two weeks a year. This is for new recruits who would have to march away from their civilian lives for basic and advanced training, the same training expected of active-duty recruits. Add to this the possibility of activation and I doubt there’s a substantial portion in this age bracket ready to raise their right hand for state and country.

    The people eligible again have already had opportunity to demonstrate love of country and desire to militarily serve. Will many fathers (and even grandfathers) now rally to the cause? I doubt enough even understand the threat of radical Islam and that the cause is their families.

  • Arab League Summit: More of the Same

    What? You expected progress? No, the Arab League chooses to keep their collective heads buried in the sand of the past.

    This week’s gathering of Arab leaders won’t open the doors to establishing ties with Israel because of opposition from Syria and other hard-line countries. Still, some Arab nations are moving forward with a more welcoming stance on peace.

    Some had predicted the summit, which opens Tuesday, would be “historic” in dealing with rapid changes in the Middle East: huge demonstrations in Lebanon and a Syrian military pullback there, new optimism in the peace process and increasing pressure for democratic change.

    In the end, it won’t be so daring. Arab League leaders are largely avoiding the issues of Lebanon and democratic reform, and they rejected Jordan’s proposal for a new peace strategy that would offer Israel normal relations and drop the traditional demand that it first return Arab lands. Instead, they’re likely to pay lip service to Syria’s concerns about U.S. pressure and consider reform of the Arab League itself.

    The world is changing around and among them. Despite this, the nations of the Arab League whistle the same old tiring tune that has led nowhere, demanding Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders, a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem and a resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

    Also frozen in time are the wonderful relationships between the various members.

    The gathering will be attended by only 13 of the 22 leaders. The others are staying away for health reasons or because of personal disputes.

    For example, Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, is not participating apparently because of the presence of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, whom Saudi officials accuse of involvement in a plot to kill Abdullah.

    […]

    Jordan’s King Abdullah II is staying away from the summit, apparently angered by the dismissal of his proposal. His government had argued a new stance would encourage Israel to make concessions in the peace process.

    As the Middle East nations try to maintain bouyancy above growing and tumultuous undercurrents of democracy, not all voices are silent about the nothing-new nature of the summit.

    And despite pressure from Washington for democratic reform, the summit will largely avoid the issue. Instead, the leaders are focusing on reforming the Arab League by endorsing a plan to set up an “Arab parliament” an unelected consultative body for the league.

    In an article in the Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, columnist Abdel-Rahman al-Rashid criticized the league for failing to deal with major issues facing the Middle East.

    “What is the benefit of a summit or even the League itself when it hides, waiting for each crisis to end by itself,” he wrote. “It is ridiculous that the summit has promised Arabs a big achievement, an Arab parliament. Is this what Arabs want? Another symbolic chatting council?”

    What benefit? Only the holding back of the hands of time.

  • We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

    JohnL over at TexasBestGrok has a regular installment he calls Aircraft Cheesecake in which he focuses on an particular airplane from days gone by. The latest is a look at an interesting Soviet bomber prototype from the ’30s.

    Now, Varifrank has posted some seacraft cheesecake about a couple of massive Japanese WWII submarines, the wreckage of one of which was just confirmed today. Perhaps most interesting about these two subs was that, with the fall of Japan, they were ordered to surrender while en route to attack North America … from the air. Go read about these fascinating submarines that were also submersible carriers.

  • Another Blogroll 10K Hat Tip

    Just wanted to congratulate Guy S. at Snugg Harbor for recently reaching the 10,000 hit plateau.

    Hey, we small bloggers have to stick together in celebrating every little victory we can. Besides, Snugg Harbor deserves much more attention than it currently receives.

  • Changed U.S. Military Emerges from Iraq

    Peter Grier, staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, takes an interesting look at the structure and equipment of the American military and how they are being shaped by the Iraqi campaign.

    Hard service in Iraq is wearing out some of the US military’s core weapons. Tanks, armored vehicles, and aircraft are being run at rates two to six times greater than in peacetime, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Congress earlier this month.

    The bad news here is they may need to be replaced. But there’s good news too, according to Secretary Rumsfeld: It’s possible they can be replaced with something better.

    The need to refurbish equipment “is providing an opportunity to adjust the capabilities of the force earlier than otherwise might have been the case,” Rumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee on March 10.

    Perhaps the same might be said of the military as a whole.

    […]

    The US may have gone to war with the Army it had, to paraphrase Secretary Rumsfeld. But it’s likely to leave the war with armed services that are considerably different.

    Go give it a gander. While the article looks, with varying degrees of depth, at all of the involved branches, I found myself cringing slightly at the following.

    “We have to design our armed forces for the 360-degree battlefield and not the linear battlefield,” [Gen. John Abizaid, US Central Commander,] told House Armed Services Committee members.

    I’ve written before on the ever-present problem of applying lessons learned to the military — it is all too easy to end up preparing for the previous war and find one’s self blindsided by the realities of the next war. I worry that we may go too far into this 360-degree, high mobility direction and completely lose the ability to slug it out on a more traditional battlefield.

  • Quote of the Week, 20 MAR 05

    Every citizen [should] be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and the Romans, and must be that of every free state.

    —Thomas Jefferson

  • Here There Be Dragons

    Just a quick heads up — Dragons airs tonight on Animal Planet. This looks like it’s going to be an interesting and fun show, treating the mythical beast in an animated manner, much in the spirit of the excellent “Walking with …” documentaries.

  • Save Toby

    Only you have the power to save Toby.

    Toby is the cutest little bunny on the planet. Unfortunately, he will DIE on June 30th, 2005 if you don’t help. I rescued him several months ago. I found him under my porch, soaking wet, injured from what appeared to be an attack from an alley cat. I took him in, thinking he had no chance to live from his injuries, but miraculously, he recovered. I have since spent several months nursing him to health. Toby is a fighter, that’s for sure.

    Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him.

    […]

    I don’t want to eat Toby, he is my friend, and he has always been the most loving, adorable pet. However, God as my witness, I will devour this little guy unless I receive 50,000$ USD into my account from donations or purchase of merchandise.

    Donations are at $18,462.12, as of this writing. Come on, PETA, step up to the plate and save da wabbit.

  • Out to Fest

    Running late, but now it’s time to head to …

    TexasBlogfest 2005