Table 2: 10 Largest U.S. Cities as of July 1, 2002.
Swopa from Needlenose points out this excellent LA Times article(registration required, try using twotears/bucket) by Rich Connell and Robert J. Lopez. It also includes some interesting maps.
The article covers the action in An Nasiriyah that resulted in the deaths of the Marines we posted about earlier.
The existing theory we had been working under was that the Marines of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade(now known as Charlie Company, thanks to the LAT article) was involved somehow in the attempted rescue of the 507th Maintenance. As the article makes clear, Charlie Company was not attempting to rescue the 507th, but their armored support(i.e. tanks) had been dispatched to help rescue the 507th, and was just returning from that mission, out of fuel, when Charlie Co. was sent into combat. The armor was sent to the rear to refuel just as Charlie Company was preparing to push north.
It's apparent that the men of Charlie Co. fought like cornered rabid wolverines. It's good to see someone in the media taking notice of their bravery and their losses.
There also appears to be at least one and maybe two incidents of friendly fire involving an A-10 Warthog strafing Charlie Co. These things are always tragic for everyone involved, and the only good thing that can come from them is if the military services involved can find out exactly what happened, and do their best to ensure that it never happens again. It will, of course, but maybe less often.
This whole incident is an almost textbook example of how the chaos of war can produce the absolute shittiest situations imaginable to man. The next time someone suggests "let loose the dogs of war", let's try to remember that we are entering into a world where no person can control what will happen. You may win the war, but you will have to send men through battles like the one at An Nasiriyah. So heed the counsel of men that have been there, and remember when they say that it is hell.
I had a reader point out a post, and questioned why I stated what I did.
Now I was shocked, mainly because there was a reader of this blog. I have no idea how that happened.
I explained what I stated and why, but then looked it over a little more, and decided it was just a really bad post. It was unclear, overly broad, and to top it off, not fair at all to the person who was the subject of the post.
So I deleted it.
I suppose that might be a big deal to some people writing these things, but frankly, nobody will miss that post, I'm a tech not a writer, and I'm not interested in saving something of which I wasn't very proud.
One reader, and he's already made me a better blogger. Thanks, Tom. I'll try to do better, but you make sure to let me know when I fall short.
I recall somebody said that being made of stainless steel and concrete, the most likely item to be stared at in awe by a fur-wearing 20th generation removed relative of a survivalist was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
Just imagine some dark ages retreads, wandering the then-empty prarie, and encountering a gleaming 630 foot arch.
A post on Metafilter broaches the subject of what would be left of us "after", and what would be needed to build again. I think it's attempting to go for the big picture, as opposed to the "diesel generator and a quality axe" picture. What is it that you value of your culture and your technology that makes it worthwhile to maintain and perhaps fight your way back to?
The battery is not that advanced as technologies go. I suspect you'll see a market pricing preference for DC powered devices among the elites attempting to access our optically stored electronic data, mostly to access manuals for operating things like oil pumps and portable water purification plants. As in 10 boxes of shotgun shells for one portable dvd drive. Power would equal knowledge, this time.
Of course, all techs will be slaves to Isaac Hayes, and haunted by the realization that they are played by Harry Dean Stanton, but there's that whole Adrienne Barbeau thing going for you, which is probably more than the rest of the guys in the garbage gladiator pit bleachers will ever get.
Current Administration: "We should walk off this cliff."
Reasonable Person: "Won't the laws of physics impose a severe penalty for following your suggestion?"
Current Administration: "Your irrational hatred for George Bush, and your incessant bashing of the President's policies for your own partisan reasons will fail to impress the American voter next year."
We all remember the mobile labs found in Iraq that were to be used to produce chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction, right?
And those quisling liberals said that the Iraqi's were using them for the production of hydrogen for weather ballons. Weather balloons, can you believe that? Liberals are so trusting when the sources are anything other than the American government, because liberals hate America.
Yeah, so the Defense Intelligence Agency produced it's report on what the trailers were actually used for, and guess what? It turns out those Iraqi's were making hydrogen for weather balloons.
Fucking liberals, so smug with their condescending opinions.