Just a note...

I HAVE AMMO FOR THEM ALL!!!! Not zombie apocalypse amounts for all of them, but enough to go to the range and shoot a couple of rounds.  Wanna take a stab at what calibers these are?

Happy United States Independence Day

I hope you all have a great 4th of July. For those of you who can, be careful with the fireworks.

And please, while you all are going about your day today, seeing friends, cooking out, whatever, take a moment and remember those who have served in our armed forces.  They have made, make, and will ensure that this day's celebrations remain possible. Also, please say a prayer for all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting our country and our way of life.

We didn't forget...

My commemoration of the fudamentalist islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11 was to go to the range today.  I skipped the rally across from the Mosque in town and decided that punching holes in paper would do for me.

I packed the Barrett, an ammo can of .50BMG and the usual range stuff and set up for some long range shots.  It's was slightly longer than 500 meters when we had everything set up.

I'm disappointed in myself.  My zero is way off.  5 rounds and only 1 hit and I was holding a mildot and a quarter left to hit. I'll go back out next weekend and sit down and get that zero perfect.

The other thing I was commemorating today was the death of my friend Chris Horton, late of the 45th Inf., Oklahoma National Guard.  He was one of the men killed in a fire fight in Iraq on Friday.  Please send out a prayer for him. He's survived by his wife and family.

QoTD: Old Man Edition.

Overheard today:

That reminds me of a comment my grandfather, who was a pilot during the dubya
dubya tew, in regards to how downed pilots were expected to arm themselves in
enemy territory.

"You'd have a nine'een eleven with 5 bullets and whatever rifle was carried by the first dumbass that had the misfortune of finding you..." He told me that German rations tasted funny, but they had solid gear.

Guess where.

Guess where the 0bmama world apology tour is headed now.

Yeap, Japan.

You see, 65 years ago on August 6th and 9th, the US dropped two Atomic bombs. These finally forced the Emperor himself to bring Japan to the peace tables and thus ended WW2. On a side note, this brought the Emperor within a whisker of being assassinated by the Japanese military class so they could continue to wage war.

But while everyone is all up in arms about Michelle's European Vacation, Barry is slipping an ambassador off to Japan to say sorry and other grovelling sounds. And the self-loathing liberals are loving it. In fact some leftist talk shows are calling the bombings equivalent to a holocaust.

Okay I blogged about this before, but the bombings actually saved lives. You see the US military planners ran the numbers and figured that there would be anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000 casualties if the US was forced to invade mainland Japan. And military planners being the efficient souls they are, they went ahead and ordered enough purple hearts to cover the expected casualties. The result being that every purple heart awarded from August 1945 through to today has come from this one order. That includes Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

You get that. That was the expected US casualties. That does not include the Japanese military and civilian casualties.

You see, when the US invaded Okinawa, which most saw as a practice for the invasion of the mainland, the US faced 155,000 Japanese military and 500,000 civilians. Of these, more than 150,000 would eventually become casualties. Or a third of all Japanese on the island. So, run those numbers for mainland Japan, and you're looking at 1/3 of approximately 70,000,000. Or about something like 20,000,000 Japanese casualties.

So, half a million US casualties plus twenty million Japanese casualties. Compare that to the estimated 250,000 casualties the bombings cost.

Was it a holocaust? In my opinion, no. If we had invaded Japan, that would have been a holocaust. To both countries.

But we still owe them reparations you say. Well, to that I would point you to the reconstruction of Japan after WW2 through the 60's. The US shipped food, material, expertise, and men to the island and loaned (some of which were forgiven and erased) or outright gave millions to Japan to get them back on their feet.

Yes, the cold war and Japan's proximity to China and the USSR had a lot to do with that. But we could have just declared it the 49th state (Alaska and Hawaii weren't states in 1945), put bases there anyway and not bothered with all those factories and farms.

I said before that some generals like Patton understood that spending the blood up front saves lives and trying to be too protective will just cost you more in lives in the long run. Would you rather have racked another 25,000,000 onto the rolls for WW2, bled both Japan and the US white with that generation or would you have lives saved, yes SAVED, on both sides.

Thank God it wasn't our current regimes choice.

Typical of the regime...

I was handed an article today from an old campaigner that came out to the range. Just a short 3 paragraph blurb buried in the back of The American Legion Magazine. I was unable to find a link to the article so I'm reproducing it here. Again this is from the August 2010 issue of The American Legion Magazine and is their sole copyright.

Hoping to win more hearts and minds in Afghanistan, the United States and its NATO allies are planning a commendation to recognize "courageous restraint" among troops in the field. According to a NATO statement, the goal would be to "celebrate the troops who exhibit extraordinary courage and self-control by not using their weapons."

The notion that there needs to be a commendation for restraint seems to be based on the false and faulty premise that U.S. forces haven't used restraint to date. In fact, they comprise the most lethal force in history, which makes their restraint all the more impressive.

Plus, the people who know best - those who have served - worry about the unintended consequences of rewarding and thereby encouraging "courageous restraint." As American Legion National Commander Clarence Hill Observes, "Too much restraint will get our own people killed ... The proposal to award medals for holding fire is troubling because it is symptomatic of a growing culture in the military that will punish troops making split-second decisions while they are expected to defend themselves and their comrades."

Or as one of the former marines here put it, "UN-fucking-believable".

The only question that I have is the comment about "unintended consequences". The consequences are there for anyone to see. This system will only cause more deaths of our troops while serving to encourage and embolden the "peace loving" muslim terrorists. I honestly believe whoever thought this grand scheme up fully realizes what he or she is doing and what it will cost on blood and suffering to our side.

November 11th.

Thanks for serving. It's guys like us that allow hippies like them the freedom to spit on guys like us.


Also, did you know it's punch a hippie day too?

Another great post from the sandpit.

Abby has done it again. Go and read. It has got to be one of the best written insights into Iraq today.

Sometimes a Picture is All You Need.

Abby over at Bad Dogs and Such, my intrepid daily read from The Sandpit, has a picture up today that says more about the state of affairs over there than all the MSM, congresscritters, and moonbats in the San Fran area combined.

Hurrah for the good guys (and gals).

Remember today.

and every other day as well.