Ain't No Way In Hell!

This is some incredible footage of some Blackhawk helicopters inserting and picking up troops in the mountains of Afghanistan. The blur spots on the screen are there to hide the data contained on the heads up display that could give the location away.

Listen, I have made some insertions and extractions from some pretty tight spots in both the old Huey's and the Blackhawks, but there ain't no way in hell I have ever done such a thing while the bird was kissing the side of a mountain.

This is an incredible testament to the skill of the pilots involved. Something that makes landing and taking off in a helicopter from a mountain is the angle of the slope. If the angle is too great you have a chance of the tail rotor contacting the ground and ruining your day along with a lot of tax payer money in damages to the chopper. Hovering just to the side as troops as boarding or getting off is just as dangerous since as the weight increases or decreases it cause the helicopter to ascend or descend, thereby creating one heck of a problem for the pilot to keep the main rotor from contacting the ground.

Contrary to popular belief, helicopters do not like to lift off straight vertical. They prefer to get a nose down attitude and forward momentum to give them lift. Once again, doing this in the mountains ain't easy or in one case shown here even practical.

Anyway enjoy this for what it is, a real world display of the skill and courage of our armed forces and the conditions that they face in Afghanistan.

Someday maybe I will tell you how I prevented a Blackhawk pilot from landing me in a lake at night, that he thought was a clear field. Damn NVG's.

Gen McChrystal Identifies The Enemy

This is the first part of presentation that Gen McChrystal gave to his ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) headquarters shortly after the speech by President Obama.

I found it curious that the first thing he addressed prior to stating what the mission ahead of them was, was the role the press was going to play.

Before he outlined the principles they would use in their counter insurgency operations, before pausing to remember those who came before them he addressed the issue of the media.

In the Army they have a saying, put your main point up front. I am a little disturbed that he felt that dealing with the media has become such a issue that it needed to addressed, with particular emphasis to his subordinates cautioning them not to presume to speak for him.

It seems the general realizes who the real enemy is and it is not one that can be defeated using any kind of counter insurgency strategy. It remains to be seen if the media can put aside they fervent desire for an American defeat in favor of their fawning love affair with Obama to give our troops a chance.

Those in the media are going to have make a choice, but it is one of their own making.



At least the NATO Secretary General doesn't believe in withdrawal dates. Who wants to be the one to tell our undecider in chief?

Our German Allies in Afghanistan

Here are two stories concerning the same topic, German soldiers in Afghanistan. In one, their lack of fighting will led to the death of some British SAS troopers, the British equivalent of our SEALs or Delta force.

They both come from Der Spiegel, although via two very divergent routes.

Here is the first one.

German special forces had an important Taliban commander in their sights in Afghanistan. But he escaped -- because the Germans were not authorized to use lethal force. The German government's hands-tied approach to the war is causing friction with its NATO allies.

The NATO forces in Afghanistan are called ISAF, International Security Assistance Force, but in the eyes of at least one 10th Mountain division soldier it stands for "They Suck At Fighting".

Now here is the second story from a group who has no Rules of Engagement and who are very open about who the enemy is and want they intend to do to them.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The three Germans killed weren't even combat troops, they were army employees in charge of purchasing refrigerators for the troops' kitchen.

Haqqani: It is not important what kind of soldiers they were. What's important is to kill and hammer out the Germans in Kunduz. The Germans are the most important enemy in the north and because they are stationed in Kunduz, the city will soon become the Kandahar of the north.

Haqqani is a Taliban commander in Afghanistan. To him all Germans are soldiers, just like all Israelis are soldiers to Hamas and Hezbollah.

Dear American citizen, do you have any doubt that they view you as enemy soldiers also? Barry O wants to just sit down down and talk to these folks and make everything all right and scare the bogeyman out of the closet.

If they are not going to let the German forces fight, then get them the hell out of the way. Take them back home so they can get fat on bratwurst and drunk on beer. Then when the radical Islamists in their midst go on a spree of spontaneous detonation we can see if they still believe in their limited rules of engagement.