Second Worst President in US History.

[Diogenes]

Iran boasts it is capable of destroying Israel 'in less than EIGHT MINUTES' two weeks after testing missiles which can reach the state






http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... state.html


Thanks Jimmy. Thanks Obungle.

[DeltaV]

Don't forget Hillarious.

[hanelyp]

If we know where key Iranian nuclear facilities are, a strike with a few submarine launched missiles of ambiguous nationality is very tempting.

[Tom Ligon]

How ambiguous are submarine-launched missiles, exactly? Especially ones that can hit their targets.

Unless they are nuclear, the resulting frag would be identifiable. If nuclear, the list of possible nations responsible gets very short.

I like the idea of ambiguous malfunctions, explosions, fires, computer viruses, etc. Just think carefully about the delivery method.

No apparent delivery method is always the best way.

[williatw]

How ambiguous are submarine-launched missiles, exactly? Especially ones that can hit their targets.

Unless they are nuclear, the resulting frag would be identifiable. If nuclear, the list of possible nations responsible gets very short.

I like the idea of ambiguous malfunctions, explosions, fires, computer viruses, etc. Just think carefully about the delivery method.

No apparent delivery method is always the best way.

Any comment about:

When it is complete, Israel’s multibillion-dollar rocket and missile air defense system will be far superior to anything in the Middle East and will likely rival, and in some ways surpass, in speed and targeting, air defenses deployed by Europe and the United States, its developers say.

Rather or not it lives up to it's billing Versus Iran's boast of "8 minutes" we can destroy Israel; think that is the $64K question. Seems to me though that they (Iranians) are all but admitting they have nukes now; after all how could you reasonably boast you could destroy a nuclear armed country (Israel) in less than 8 minutes with just conventional arms? That would be extreme hyperbole even for the Iranians. Personally I think they scarfed up a bunch of tactical nukes from the Russians back in the late '80's early 90's.

KAHLILI: Iran already has nuclear weapons

Western intelligence has known it for years
By Reza Kahlili - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 27, 2011

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... /?page=all

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6039&hilit=tactical ... r&start=30

[ladajo]

Personally, I do not think that Iran has NUCWEPs yet. I believe this is pure rhetoric.

The hardliners just took a beating in the election, and this is their way of saying "we are still here". It, IMHO, is really just childish whining.

As for striking Iranian capabilities, I firmly believe if we wanted to do it in an attributeless way, we could.
I also think, that if we are going to do it, that we do it sooner than later. Unfortunately, that idiot in the WH will not. It really is going to take decades to undo the damage that moron has done to US standing on the world stage, if ever.
Relationships have fundamentally changed, and not in a good way.
Someone is going to screw with us soon and big, beyond what you have already seen, because they think there will be no real retribution.

[paperburn1]

Someone is going to screw with us soon and big, beyond what you have already seen, because they think there will be no real retribution.

This is a real fear in the community. Coupled with the censoring of intelligence by some allies and the real desire of some eastern community to top the twin towers event. The potential for us getting screwed is very high.

[DeltaV]

Unless they are nuclear, the resulting frag would be identifiable.

I recall reading somewhere that nukes are indeed identifiable with respect to material source(s) due to unique isotope percentages and international cataloguing of mining deposits.

[paperburn1]

sort of kind of, the tamper would be the easiest to get an idea of where it was manufactured and you could probable narrow down to a region where the material was mined. the plant it was processed at would also give a good indication. Combining all three together you could make a very good guess at where the device came from. All bets are off if the got all material from the black market

[choff]

We don't have leaders, we have managers. Leaders fix the problem, managers manage the problem, if they fixed it, they wouldn't be needed. To quote Lex Luthor, nobody wants war, they just want to keep the threat alive.

[Diogenes]

We don't have leaders, we have managers. Leaders fix the problem, managers manage the problem, if they fixed it, they wouldn't be needed. To quote Lex Luthor, nobody wants war, they just want to keep the threat alive.

That is a very good perspective from which to view what we are seeing. The theory incorporates the Military/Government/Industrial complex with which we are now dealing as an axiomatic characteristic.

It certainly explains a lot of the rent seeking that we keep seeing.

[Diogenes]

How Ayatollah Khomeini suckered Jimmy Carter

The soon-to-be Supreme Leader of Iran certainly knew a sucker when he saw one. What Carter did in response to Khomeini’s pledge is not entirely clear from the newly declassified materials, but Khomeini did return; the military either fell into line or was ruthlessly purged; and Iran switched 180 degrees from being a strategic US ally to being one of our most implacable adversaries.

http://nypost.com/2016/06/04/how-ayatol ... my-carter/


And I constantly remind everyone that a million people died as a result of the Iran/Iraq war, which would not have happened but for the takeover of Iran by the Shah.


Thank you Idiot Carter. Thank you for all the bloodshed you have caused this world because you were a naive dreamer instead of a pragmatist.

[williatw]

Navy’s Depleted Aircraft Will Take Years to Rebuild After Obama-Era Defense Cuts

Nearly two-thirds of Navy strike fighters unable to fly



A U.S. Navy fighter jet takes off from the deck of the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier

..a report released Monday that found two-thirds of the Navy's strike fighter jets are unable to fly due to maintenance problems exacerbated by several years of military budget cuts.

The Navy's aircraft arsenal is so depleted it would take several years to rebuild the fleet even if the Trump administration allotted the funding needed to repair inoperable aircraft, according to a policy expert and former Air Force pilot.

John Venable, a senior research fellow for defense policy at the Heritage Foundation, cited a report released Monday that found two-thirds of the Navy's strike fighter jets are unable to fly due to maintenance problems exacerbated by several years of military budget cuts.

Thirty-five percent of grounded fighter planes are waiting for parts, while 27 percent are undergoing major depot work, according to the report published by Defense News. A full 62 percent of F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet strike fighters are out of service, a concerning figure because of the essential role the planes fill in the fleet's combat power.

In all, more than half of the Navy's planes are grounded, including some 1,700 combat transport aircraft, patrol aircraft, planes, and helicopters.

"The throughput right now is so far behind and has such a backlog that it'll take them several years to refit, refurbish, and repair the F-18s that are in unserviceable condition," Venable told the Washington Free Beacon. "They can't catch up even if the Trump administration gave them all the money they need."

Naval and Air Force pilots have been unable to train adequately due to a shortage of operable aircraft in both services, impacting readiness levels and depriving the military of pilots who are unable to log needed flight hours.

With five months left in fiscal year 2017 and a readiness deficit across all four military branches, Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) has advocated an emergency $26 billion supplemental spending bill that would direct some of the funds to readiness training for pilots.

Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Monday the funding has become necessary after eight years of defense cuts under former President Barack Obama.

"Trying to cut our defense spending to get a peace dividend as we did in the 1990s or to pay off domestic constituencies as Obama did is a self-defeating effort," Cotton said during a panel at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

"Your enemies get wind of what's going on, their aggression becomes vulgar, and you have to pay more to rebuild the capabilities and capacity that you lost just to get back to where you were,” he continued.

Cotton said Congress needs to increase the defense budget by at least 15 percent in fiscal year 2018 to recoup the military’s losses.

"To put it briefly, we need more ships, more soldiers, more Marines, and more aircraft of virtually every kind," Cotton said. "More broadly, we need to invest in the men and women of our armed forces. We need to give them the training and equipment they need to do their jobs and we need to do this urgently."

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees will hold hearings this week on the military's readiness levels ahead of next month's National Defense Authorization Act negotiations.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... ense-cuts/

[paperburn1]

Or we could pull back a little and stop being the policemen of the middle east. Lets certain countries invest their treasure and resources into this fight

[ladajo]

This article made my circles really fast, and IMHO was timed and (in a sense) alarmist on purpose for political reasons.

That said, it is not wrong. As I stated to some in my circles when it first posted, "Peter is flat broke, and so is Paul".

We really are in a hole, and it is going to take some time to dig out. One of the key issues, is that even if we fully fund the readiness cycle, there is not capacity in the maintenance component to increase recovery of assets any faster. That part of the system is maxed due to the condition of the systems they are dealing with once they get them. What we can do with full funding is get the preventive maintenance back on track, as well as the predictive. That, over time will burn down the emergent maintenance growths that currently plague the force created by overuse, and lack of full attention at the lowest level possible. Currently, any systems entering deep maintenance are doomed to overruns and extensions as the true depth of required work becomes uncovered. The funds will also allow us to get back to the operational training levels we have forgone. It will cost about $2 Billion per year to buy back readiness for the navy, and probably take five years or maybe more to get to adequate levels / tempo.

In 2012 I reported to the then CNO that the navy was in a "Circle of Spiraling Death", vice a "Readiness Circle of Life". Nothing really changed since then, other than Peter running out of money to steal.