Kidnap.

This is coolbert:

Also from the latest edition of the DEBKAfile news letter and as described a conclusion to an item that was previously the subject of a prior blog entry.

"Soleimeni received $50m cut of large Qatar payout to release hostages"

29 April

"Qatar paid at least $275m to terrorist and Iranian officials to free nine members of its royal family and 16 other citizens kidnapped during a hunting trip in southern Iraq, the Washington Post reports. The individuals who cashed in on an additional app. $150m of the Qatar payout were named as Iran's Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani - $50m; Hizballah-Iraq chief Abu Hussain - $25m, an Iranian official called 'Banhai' - $20m and a Sulaymaniyah provincial government official - $50m."

See also other previous blog entries as germane to the topic:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/04/ransom.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/12/bustard_21.html

coolbert.

Preparations!

This is coolbert:

From the latest edition of the DEBKAfile newsletter.

Everyone is now making ready and in a big way?

Confrontation and mortal combat between Israeli military forces and those various foreign interventionists in the Syrian Civil War is at hand. So it can be reasonably inferred?

All extracts here dated 30 April.

1. 'Unusually heavy Israeli military traffic heads north"

"since Monday midday, columns of IDF tank-hauling trucks were seen heading north along the national Highway 6."

2. "Two Israeli opposition parties withdraw no confidence due to security situation"

"Two leading opposition parties, Yesh Atid (Future) and the Zionist Union (former Labor), decided to withdraw the motions of no confidence in the government they were due to table Monday, in consideration of the security situation."

3. "Northern Israeli air space closed to civilian traffic"

"Israel has just announced that the skies over the Golan, Upper Galilee and areas east of the Jordanian River will be closed to civilian traffic up until the end of May."

4. "The Knesset empowers PM and Defense Minister to declare war"

"A law empowering the security cabinet to authorize a war or order a substantial military operation without recourse to the full cabinet passed its second and third reading in the Knesset Monday night. The text contained a clause that vests in the prime minister and defense minister the authority to commit the country to fighting a war or conducting a major military operation without prior approval by the full cabinet or the security panel."

5. "Israel's security cabinet in urgent session"

"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called ministers to attend an urgent meeting of the security cabinet on Monday [30 April] at 1.30 p.m. in Tel Aviv. The session was convened in the wake of the string attacks Sunday night on pro-Iranian targets in Syria. A visit by cabinet members at the homeland security command scheduled for Tuesday has been cancelled."

All the precursors and specific indicators are present. Some big-time military action on the part of Israel is going to occur?

Stay-tuned and hold on to your hats!

coolbert.

CF.

 This is coolbert:

I am very confused about all this. Devoted readers to the blog can offer assistance?

Counterfactual history versus alternative history. And what is the difference?

"Counterfactual history, also sometimes referred to as virtual history, is a form of historiography that attempts to answer 'what if' questions known as counterfactuals . . . 'It is, at the very root, the idea of conjecturing on what did not happen, or what might have happened, in order to understand what did happen.'"

COUNTERFACTUAL NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ALTERNATIVE HISTORY SO WE ARE TOLD!

1. "On Counterfactual History"


2. "What if the Crossing had Failed?"

Items # 1 and # 2 as seen above courtesy of Professor van Creveld.

My understanding of this topic basically as follows:

A. Alternative history an account of what COULD have happened, but never did!

B. Counterfactual history an account of what DID happen but might have occurred otherwise.

"What did not happen . . . what might have happened . . . what did happen."

Again, I am confused here and need input as to my error, correctness or just plain confusion. 

coolbert.

Comments.

This is coolbet:

My fully sincere and profuse apologies to devoted readers and those also just "passing by", perusing the blog in a more leisurely manner.

It seems I have not moderated comments in a prolonged period and am remiss in this matter.

The situation has now been remedied and will not [hopefully so] occur in the future.

Again, my fully sincere and profuse apologies to one and all.

Comments of whatever nature greatly appreciated, and always of interest. Thank you in advance in all cases.

coolbert.

Kaput.

This is coolbert:

So much of this recently. German military unpreparedness in the extreme so it seems. Disastrously so even!

"Only 4 of Germany’s 128 Eurofighter Typhoon jets ‘ready for combat’ – report"

"Just four out of 128 Eurofighter jets operated by the German Air Force are ready to fly real combat missions due to dysfunctional self-defense systems and lack of air-to-air missiles, Spiegel magazine has revealed."

"Spiegel’s Wednesday report said the problem with a critical device installed in the tips of the jet’s canard delta wings makes most of German Eurofighters unfit for service."

Defensive Aids Sub-System (DASS) is to blame. To properly under DASS read the whole article.

These Fifth Generation MRCA [multi-role combat-aircraft] expensive to begin with. Hard also to maintain. One little glitch and you are down or at least amber.

German military preparedness woefully inadequate. The welfare states takes precedent. Guns and butter and all that. Not enough money for the former if more needed for the latter.

The ability of the German to execute combat role as pursuant to NATO mission highly suspect? See previous blog entries as germane:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/12/leopard.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/02/readiness.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/03/broomsticks.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/03/u-31.html

coolbert.

Reverse.

This is coolbert:

Only until several days ago this aspect of the Second World War [WW2] of which I was almost 100 % totally unaware.

That policy of "Lend-Lease" as it was during WW2 I think most everyone is familiar with.

"The lend-lease policy . . . was a program by which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945".

Almost ninety percent of all oil/refined petroleum product as used by the allied forces [minus the Soviet Union] during the Second World War supplied by the United States!

Products and material as from allied nations supplied to the United States during WW2 we are less familiar with or perhaps not even at all?

Reverse Lend-Lease what it is called!

"How Much Help Do We Get Via Reverse Lend-Lease?"

WE as the United States!

"Many people think that lend-lease is a one-way affair, operating just for the benefit of our allies. In August 1943, when we had been in the war twenty-one months, the Office of War Information conducted an extensive survey and found out that more than four out of five people had not heard of reverse lend-lease."

Read further from the wiki entry regarding Reverse Lend-Lease.

Merely one instance of reverse lend-lease was the British Beaufighter [night-fighter version] and as flown by Army Air Force pilots [USA].

A Beaufighter. Image courtesy of the National United States Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio, USA. Click on image to see an enlarged view.

"When the USAAF formed its first radar-equipped night fighter squadron in January 1943, the only American night fighter available was the makeshift Douglas P-70, a modified A-20 bomber using the U.S. version of the Mk IV radar. After initial training in the P-70, the first USAAF night fighter squadrons went to war in the more capable British Beaufighter."

"The 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons [USAAF] received more than 100 'reverse Lend-Lease' Beaufighters. They arrived in the Mediterranean during the summer of 1943, achieving the first victory on July 24 . . .  USAAF Beaufighters continued to fly night cover for Allied forces in Italy and France until the closing days of the war."

And thank you all allies. You contributions of whatever sort appreciated and always should be!

coolbert.

Gas WW1.

This is coolbert:

"it is sweet and honorable..."

From a recent visit to the National World War One Museum and Memorial a blog entry dedicated to a special exhibit highlighting the use of poison gas during the Great War [WW1]. Of great interest the famous painting on display "Gassed" by John Singer Sargent. Click on all images to see an enlarged view.

Without further ado or commentary:

"Gassed by John Singer Sargent is currently not on display at IWM [Imperial War Museum] London. It is on tour to various institutions in North America and will return to IWM North in late 2018. image: A side on view of a line of soldiers being led along a duckboard by a medical orderly. Their eyes are bandaged as a result of exposure to gas and each man holds on to the shoulder of the man in front. One of the line has his leg raised in an exaggerated posture as though walking up a step, and another veers out of the line with his back to the viewer. There is another line of temporarily blinded soldiers in the background, one soldier leaning over vomiting onto the ground. More gas-affected men lie in the foreground, one of them drinking from a water-bottle. The crowd of wounded soldiers continues on the far side of the duckboard, and the tent ropes of a dressing station are visible in the right of the composition. A football match is being played in the background, lit by the evening sun." - - The Imperial War Museum.

Original battlefield sketch art.

Original battlefield sketch art. 

English soldier from the period as in in proper uniform and masked, protection from poison gas. Face mask with filter in musset sack worn over chest, complete with connection hose. Forgive the quality of the image. Hard to take a suitable image, lighting and display in case make for a hard combination, photography difficult.

Poster from the era of the Second World War.

Poster from the era of the Second World War.

Poster from the era of the Second World War.

Additionally and included at my discretion thanks to the tip from Mann JESUS on the cross wearing gas mask. Very intense. This was not part and parcel of the special museum exhibit but should have been.

I recommend highly without qualification or reservation a visit to the National World War One Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Superb, exceptional in all regards and plan to dedicate a full day for an in-depth and meaningful visit.

coolbert.