North.

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As reported by Zero Hedge and thanks to same.

"NORTHCOM Commander: 'The U.S. Homeland Is No Longer A Sanctuary'"

"Air Force General Terrence O’Shaughnessy ended a speech at the 140th National Guard Association conference in New Orleans this weekend with an ominous warning that the era of great power competition doesn’t leave the United States mainland uncontested. The U.S. 'homeland is no longer a sanctuary.'”

"According to The Military Times, O’Shaughnessy says that peer-level adversaries are probing U.S. defenses in multiple domains and that the continental United States is well within their sights."

General Terrence is [?] quite a bit behind the learning curve?

TWO OCEANS NO LONGER A BARRIER TO THE FOREIGN POWER HOSTILE TO THE UNITED STATES! HOMELAND USA NOT A SANCTUARY AND HAS NOT BEEN FOR A LONG TIME NOW!

Risk and hazard to the continental United States [the Homeland] for some decades now [going on the better part of a century] to include primarily:

1. Atomics! From 1945 onward atomic weapons as delivered by long-range intercontinental bomber warplanes. A threat even more worse since the era of the intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] also armed with a nuclear warhead.

2. Cyber attack! Hostile powers from a remote location able to cripple or even destroy and make totally useless critical infrastructure as it is deemed. Power plants, the electrical grid system, natural gas production/storage/delivery facilities, etc. Basic, essential and vital elements of modern society and life subject to cyber attack.

3. Street gangs! Street gangs the greatest internal security threat to the United States. Street gangs possessing that proper combination of numbers, weapons, organization, money and ruthlessness.

General Terrence is stating the obvious. That obvious however not so obvious to everyone?

coolbert.

Scallops.

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There hasn't been anything like this in over forty years!

Back to the olden times. The French and English at odds with one another. Military confrontation of some in the works as a possible? NATO versus NATO. EU member versus EU member. I thought that sort of thing was all in the past. Guess not!

Thanks to the tip from Sputnik and the original article © REUTERS / France 3 Caen Europe.

1. "France Ready to Deploy Warships in Scallop Wars With UK – Reports"

"UK and France are reportedly expected to hold talks over the scallop fishing dispute and to find a solution that might prevent further clashes between fishermen."

THIS IS AN EEZ [ECONOMIC EXCLUSION ZONE] TYPE OF EVENT? ENGLISH TRAWLERS FISHING FOR SCALLOPS IN AN AREA TRADITIONALLY RESERVED FOR FRENCH FISHING VESSELS?

FRENCH WARSHIPS THEIR MISSION TO THWART FURTHER VIOLENCE AND BRING A SEMBLANCE OF ORDER TO A TENSE SITUATION?

As it is now in 2018 so it was it in 1976 but with different protagonists.

THE COD WARS!

2. Cod Wars.

"The Cod Wars . . . were a series of confrontations between the United Kingdom and Iceland on fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with an Icelandic victory. The Third Cod War concluded in 1976, with a highly favourable agreement for Iceland; the United Kingdom conceded to a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) Icelandic exclusive fishery zone after threats that Iceland would withdraw from NATO"

English fishing trawlers during the Cod Wars seen as poaching in traditional Icelandic waters. Confrontation resulting the Royal Navy at that time having to provide escort, a cost prohibitive measure.

Negotiation and amicably agreed upon settlement the only solution to these matters!

coolbert.

Graves.

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Thanks to a Hot Mail from Sharkhunters and as reported by WIZARD:

"GHOULS AND GRAVE ROBBERS –" 

"The former head of the Royal Navy accused Ministry of Defence civil servants of being ‘pathetic’ for ignoring vital information about the looting of sunken war graves (ships) in the Far East. His source had learned of the wide scale plundering of the wrecks off the coast of Malaysia in May 2017, and contacted Lord West with details of the ships and the companies pillaging them for scrap metal. They include the battleship PRINCE OF WALES which was sunk with the loss of 327 men; the battle cruiser HMS REPULSE which sank with the loss of 508 lives; and the heavy cruiser HMS EXETER which went down with the loss of 40 of her crew."

Warships sunk from the era of the Second World War [WW2] and for decades now laying on the bottom at depth but now being cut up for scrap? This seems to be preposterous and yet I have no doubt it is occurring.

Plenty of scrap metal on the international market I might assume already available. And the cost of salvage and selling recovered steel from an underwater vessel not economically worth while? Those sunken warships as stated war graves. Normally beyond touching or even visiting unless with permission.

From the English Guardian read an entire article devoted to the issue of salvaging steel from these warships. Seems the steel as salvaged from these warships is one of the last sources in the world of very valuable “low background steel” as it is deemed. Recovery of metal possible if the sunken warships are at a depth of less than eighty meters [about 240 feet].

There you have it. There is a definite value to the salvaged steel. You learn something new every day and you are the better for it too!

coolbert.

Inez.

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Inés de Suárez.

Within context of the previous blog entry yet one more example of the lady Spaniard warrior as participating in combat with the Indians of New Spain. And most successfully so.

Where the conquistadores feared to tread, Inez did not.

"Inés de Suárez, a fearless warrior, and lover of Pedro de Valdivia, the leader of the first successful conquistadores in Chile."

As to the battlefield comportment of Inez consider:

"...and she [Inez] went among them, she told them that if they felt fatigued and if they were wounded she would cure them with her own hands... she went where they were, even among the hooves of the horses; and she did not just cure them, she animated them and raised their morale, sending them back into the battle renewed... one caballero [horseman] whose wounds she had just treated, was so tired and weak from loss of blood that he could not mount his horse. This woman was so moved by his plea for help that she put herself into the midst of the fray and helped him to mount his horse..."

Inez Suarez makes most of use seem small by comparison. Inez hardly I think not in the same category as Don Alonzo but nonetheless courage and bravery under fire hardly lacking!

coolbert.

Don Alonzo!

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Don Alonzo!

Here from a much previous Military Thoughts blog entry a story in somewhat abbreviated form that is worth repeating.

Don Alonso Diaz Ramirez de Guzman. Best swordsman in all of New Spain during the early part of the 17th century.

This saga of a soldier for Spain in the New World is most amazing.

Wounded many times in battles with the Indians of New Spain [those Spanish colonies in the new world were all referred to as New Spain].

Finally, a disabling wound caused Don Alonso to return to Spain, to be awarded special honors. A petition to the King of Spain is most revealing in telling the story of the many battles of Don Alonso:

"of the last 19 years . . . spent 15 in the service of Your Majesty in the wars of the kingdom of Chile and the Indians of Peru, having traveled to those parts . . . owing to . . . particular inclination to take up arms in defense of the Catholic faith and in the service of Your Majesty . . . under the command of the Field Master Don Diego Bravo de Sarabia, . . . withstood the discomforts of military service . . . in every battle . . . deeds earned. . . the right to carry Your Majesty's flag, serving as . . . Ensign of the infantry company of Captain Gonzalo Rodríguez . . . In that period, . . . distinguished . . . with great courage and valor, suffering wounds, particularly in the battle of Peru. The troops having been reorganized, . . . moved to the company of Captain Guillén de Casanova, governor of the castle of Arauco, and was chosen as a valiant and fine soldier to go out and do battle with the enemy."

Not only was Don Alonso a great soldier, but a great duelist also. In the eyes of some, Don Alonso was the greatest swordsman in all of New Spain. In a duel, Don Alonso could be counted on for a great display of swordsmanship.

Don Alonso Diaz Ramirez de Guzman however [and this is where it gets sticky] was NOT A MAN. Don Alonzo rather Catalina de Eranso A WOMAN posing as a man, and doing it successfully for at least twenty years and doing so under the harshest conditions possible.

DON ALONZO [CATALINA] IN THE AFTERMATH OF DISCOVERY [FOUND OUT TO BE A WOMAN] REQUESTING AND RECEIVING A PERSONAL SESSION WITH THE POPE, AS A CONSEQUENCE GIVEN SPECIAL DISPENSATION TO DRESS AS A MAN AND CONTINUE WITH HIS/HER MILITARY CAREER!

Hardly ever in any context are you going to find a stranger tale! Truth rather than fiction! Don Alonzo indeed makes most us quite small in comparison. They just don't make them like Don Alonzo anymore.

coolbert.

Day.

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NOT the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. NOT the Tet Offensive. NOT the attack on Camp Holloway.

That most important day in the history of American involvement in the Second Indo-China war 31 August 1963? From the American Thinker and the article by Sam C. Holliday. Resolve of the top American officials made most clear. "Today" as belatedly by one day.

"Today is the anniversary of the most critical decision of the Vietnam War"

"On 31 August, 1963, the most important meeting for Americans regarding the Vietnam War took place to debate U.S. policy and the possibility of a coup against the Diem regime."

Diem or no Diem, that was the question!

Ngo Dinh Diem the President of the Republic of Vietnam [RVN] seen in Washington D.C. as the proverbial loose cannon, a leader ineffectual, the RVN counter-insurgency [COIN] effort bungled and pathetic.

American policy makers at the top echelon of government their decision to continue aiding/abetting/assisting the South Vietnamese COIN effort, hell or high water. Again, Diem or no Diem.

Diem very shortly the victim of a coup, the South Vietnamese military have gained control of the government, Diem perishing in the process.

IT HAS BEEN SPECULATED THAT U.S. OFFICIALS HAD PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE COUP ATTEMPT BUT DID NOTHING TO STOP IT! NOT NECESSARILY THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT INITIATED THE COUP NON-INTERFERENCE PROPERLY AND BEST UNDERSTOOD AS  TACIT APPROVAL!

And in three years hence that contingent of American troops in South Vietnam having increased thirty times [30X] in number and the rest is history as they say!

coolbert.

McCain.

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Yesterday you were an enemy. Today you are a friend. Even beyond that, a god?

As it is now with John McCain so it was also with Frederick Townsend Ward?

From the tip seen at Freeper and thanks to same.

1. "John McCain Remembered as a Friend in Vietnam, Not an Enemy"

"A small monument next to Truc Bach Lake celebrates the downing of McCain’s plane. 'The citizens and military caught Pilot John Sidney McCain,' . . . But in the days after McCain’s death, this monument has been transformed into a makeshift shrine. Admirers have been laying flowers, incense and money at the statue"

MONEY AT THE STATUE MORE THAN LIKE JOSS PAPER!

"Joss paper, as well as other papier-mâché items, are also burned or buried in various Asian funerals, to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has lots of good things in the afterlife" [joss = image in a shrine]

2. Again, as now with John McCain so has it been with Frederick Townsend Ward from a much prior conflict.

The American mercenary and valiant soldier, Frederick Townsend War, a person who exemplified the White Messiah syndrome even after his death more than a century-and-a-half later highly regarded in China, his burial site now an object of veneration. Ward deemed by the Emperor himself as worthy of being considered a joss.

"Ward is also remembered in a Songjiang Roman Catholic Church, and in a Nanjing museum. One visitor wrote 'The grave of Ward, a Protestant, revered as a Chinese Confucian hero, with a temple in his honour, now lies under the altar of a Roman Catholic church [built in 1982], whilst the land itself is the property of the local Buddhist monastery in a Communist state... Ward has not been forgotten in Songjiang and local memory still has Ward's bones under the high altar of the Catholic church'”.

John McCain dropping bombs yesterday. Today bestowing blessings? Stranger things have happened.

coolbert.