Author: Kev

Retired infantry officer. Conservative by nature and politics; Happily married and father and grandfather of eight. Loves V8 powered Range Rovers, Golden Retrievers, good books and technology and think there should be open season on Greenies. Born in the mid forties and overdue for servicing but most parts still work.

Abrams arrives

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Earlier this year when I tried to get my LR Discovery on the Indian Pacific railway from Sydney to Perth I found I had to load it at Adelaide. The reason? The vehicle was too high for the rail link from Sydney to Perth. So I’m not surprise when I read in the Australian article that the Abrams tank is likewise to high to go on the same line. It is also too wide and too heavy. Not only am I not surprised but neither are the military, the government nor the railway companies. The only people surprised are the media; at least that’s my interpretation of the tone of article.
THE army’s newest frontline weapon, the Abrams battle tank, arrived in Australia yesterday and immediately encountered problems, with no rail transport available to carry the tank to the Northern Territory.
It didn’t immediately encounter problems at all. The problems were long known and plans already in place to impliment additions to rolling stock to carry them. The fact that they aren’t in-service today reflects on the speed of the Abrams purchase and the subsequent need for logisitc tail to catch up; it doesn’t reflect poor planning. The article also mentions the weight limitations of the bridge at Katherine, a fact I remember well from my army days, but since then I have travelled extensively in North Queensland and the Territory and have often been forced to the side of the road by alarmingly large low loaders carrying trucks and plant to mines that make the Abrams look like a mere baby. But still, the tone of the article serves its purpose; to make the military look guilty of poor planning and of having made the wrong decision in the first place to buy the Abrams. As if the journalist, Mark Dodd knows better. He is of a politiical conviction that damns the Abrams project from day-one. It’s American, it’s defence orientated and the purchase was initiated by a conservative government. Mark’s most recently ran his colours up the flag pole with Martin Chulov; the defender of the indefencable “Israel deliberately attacked an ambulance” hoax. He is tainted with an anti-military/Howard/Bush/US brush and would be better employed at The Age, rather than at the Australian. I posted previously on the Abrams tank deal and comments were left doubting the wisdom of the the purchase but they were by people who know and make their calls based on experience, knowledge and training; not ideology. UPDATE: Lt Gen Peter Leahy, Chief of Army agrees with me;
THE article on the Abrams tank by Mark Dodd (“Army’s $500m tanks in the wars”, 23-24/9) is disappointingly negative and ill-informed. With regard to rail transportation, when the next shipment of 41 tanks arrive by sea in Darwin in March 2007, Army will have in process the acquisition of rail carriages to move them on the north-south railway. There is no need to acquire these carriages yet. The tanks that arrived in Melbourne will be stationed in Puckapunyal and used for training at the School of Armour. There is no need for these tanks to move to Darwin.
Defence

ABC on strike

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Even Kerry O’Brien and Tony Jones have joined ABC staff on strike for more pay.
Management’s offer in July was for a 3.5 per cent annual wage increase, which unions have said does not keep up with inflation running at 4 per cent.
So the collective has demanded 16 % now plus two additional rises of five per cent. 26%….yep, that sure beats inflation. ABC Staff are hinting at a long strike (months even) so maybe management might consider sacking a few extreme left wingers to force some balance into the ABCs reporting with new blood. Just a thought. P.P.McGuiness supports the strike.
But not many people will miss these programs anyway. If Lateline does not go to air on television, for example, who cares? Certainly not any of the politicians who are its usual targets. After all, Lateline plays the role of a radio program of an earlier era which went out at about the same time, as Humphrey McQueen described it, of providing intelligent conversation to a tiny audience by that time too drunk or too stoned to make their own. So let the strikes roll on, with – one can only hope – a lockout not far down the line. And if the ABC’s new chief should surrender, does it matter? The Government doesn’t have to give them more tax dollars to pay for any wage increases. The only effect would be a further decline in quality of programs.
Filling in with BBC programming whilst on strike will only help to underline the ABC’s mediocrity as the Beebs is clearly more stylish in their pursuit of the dreams of the dark side. I note their campaign to undermine western efforts to combat terrorism has entered a new phase as they tell the world the Israelis are training the Kurds. This mornings mail brings this report from Opinion Journal who put the report in perspective.
“The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq,” according to an online piece by Magdi Abdelhadi, the Beeb’s “Arab affairs analyst”:
A report on the BBC TV programme Newsnight showed Israeli experts in northern Iraq, drilling Kurdish militias in shooting techniques. . . . The revelation is set to cause enormous problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the wider region. Israel is seen as an enemy of Arabs and Muslims, both inside Iraq and elsewhere in Arab and Muslim countries. Kurdish politicians will most likely come under pressure to explain what their semi-autonomous government has been up to. . . . The news will most probably increase tension between the Kurds and Iraq’s Arab population, both Sunnis and Shias, reinforcing fears that the Kurds are pursuing a secessionist agenda. This would be a serious blow to efforts for national reconciliation at a time when hundreds of Iraqis are killed every month in inter-communal violence. Iraq’s neighbours, too, will be outraged. Iran and Syria, which have long accused the Kurds of allowing the Israelis to operate on Iraqi territory, will most likely demand an explanation from the government in Baghdad. . . . The BBC report will be like the smoking gun the Arab media has spent years looking for.
The New York Sun’s Daniel Freedman, noting that “BBC reports need often to be taken with a block of salt,” says that even if true, he doesn’t “see what the big deal is. The Kurds have been victimized and betrayed by almost everyone. We’d be happy that Israel is teaching them how to protect themselves.” Here’s the big deal: The BBC is announcing that its reporting “is set to cause serious problems for the Kurds,” will deal “a serious blow to efforts for national reconciliation” in Iraq, and “will be like the smoking gun the Arab media has spent years looking for.” It certainly sounds to us as though the BBC, far from merely reporting the facts, is pandering to Arab anti-Semitism and making an active effort to promote discord in Iraq and retribution against the long-persecuted Kurds. Such despicable behavior doesn’t deserve the label “journalism.” As reader and blogger Cav says, Journalists are the new used car salespersons……
Politics

From the left corner only

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Tram Town always make an interesting read so last week when he linked to an article by Jennifer Marohasy and her post titled Déjà Vu on the ABC: Roger Underwood I duly went off and read it…most illuminating.
Just over a month ago, a Four Corners program on forestry in Tasmania was found by the The Australian Communications and Media Authority to be bias and inaccurate. This prompted Roger Underwood* to remember back 16 years when Four Corners, a program which claims to represent investigative TV journalism at its best, did a job on forestry in Western Australia:
Roger goes on to explain why he never watches Four Corners since his exposure to the bias of the ABC . Go read…it’s worth it.
Politics

Taliban has only 500 artillery rounds for coming battle

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MORE than 500 Taliban suicide bombers are trained and ready to strike NATO-led coalition forces, which include about 400 Australian troops, in Afghanistan. To get that in perspective 500 suicide bombers really means 500 artillery rounds which isn’t all that much logistically as artillery regiments will carry that amount of ammo with them with more in reserve. How quick can the Taliban resupply suicide bombers? The Taliban boast also guarantees 500 less Taliban after the battle out of claimed force of some 12,000 terrorists. To counter this, NATO and US forces numbers about 40,000; so the deciding factor in any battle won’t be troop numbers nor suicide bombers. It’ll be NATO determination to win along with troop morale and that’s where the media come in. Maybe we could have some headlines about NATO and Australian successes in the battle zone rather petty tattle-tale type “Sir, sir…Aussie diggers have made a nasty video!’ articles as carried by the Australian of late. UPDATE: While writing this post I was looking for reference to Artillery in Afghanistan. I should’ve read Set Condition 1 before posting as he links to an account of recent fighting on Operation Medussa (apt name!) where artillery gets many a mention. He points to a Times piece about Canadians in the thick of things
“We are not doing f***ing peacekeeping operations here, we are doing combat operations,” Lieutenant-Colonel Omer H. Lavoie, 40, the commanding officer of the Canadian forces, told The Times, the only British paper to visit the frontline during the fiercest battle since the Taleban was overthrown five years a
This plain spoken Lieutenant-Colonial commands Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and the article goes on to quote Major Mike Wright, a company commander in the battalion.
“I don’t think a lot of my guys thought they would be in an operation of this scale,”
Readers may not be aware but a battalion of this Canadian regiment has soldiered with Australian forces previously. They were with 3RAR at the Battle of Kapyong and conducted themselves with such distinction as to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation along with our own guys. On that occassion, whilst stopping a Chinese division in their tracks, they were well aware of being in an operation of some scale. After you read the Afghanistan report you might like to read some history about the Battle of Kapyong, both from the Canadian and Australian perspective
Defence, War on Terror

Bloody Toads, they can even hurt you when they’re dead.

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GARDENERS who bought liquid fertiliser made from cane toads have been warned the product may spontaneously explode in storage.
FrogWatch NT gave the warning yesterday for people who have bought bottles of their product ToadJus after reports of them exploding.
In better news, volunteers rounded up 200 toads at Darwin River Dam and Howard Springs last Friday. Hope they don’t bottle them as well.
General Musings

I want one!

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In the bad old days when I was carrying an M16 with murderous intent in my heart, there always existed one distinct disadvantage and that was to fire the thing effectively I had to expose, at the very least, the right hand side of my face. This sort of thing clearly comes under the heading of a poor life style activity and had I done a Risk Assessment like I did last week for guys climbing a ladder to remove an antenna, I would have approached the Lieutenant and told him it was just so against all Work Place Health and Safety issues that I couldn’t in all honesty condone the activity. Of course the Lieutenant wasn’t known for his sense of humour and I had a job to do……that was the name of the game. Roll on forty years and the name of the game has changed courtesy of the Israeli weapons R&D guys. Image 3 Image 7 I presume the soldier can also press ‘Record’ to get a lasting image of the look of astonishment on the face of the target and his last words…Holy Mohammed, where did that come fr……… Heads up from old Army mate Joe.
Defence

Diggers in strife….sort of

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DEFENCE chief Angus Houston has ordered a full investigation into video images posted on the internet showing skylarking Australian soldiers in Baghdad brandishing weapons. I was alerted to this yesterday with receipt of a Defence Media release that the Australian used as a basis for their front page ‘serious news’ type headlines. OK, slightly off-key, a bit tacky, maybe not very professional but all indications are that it is really a minor misdemeanor and should be handled at company/Major level and certainly shouldn’t be remanded past the Commanding Officer. Brig Jim Wallace, ex SASR officer and now a devoted christian sees it this way as well while predicably, a ‘never heard of him before’ academic, has been assailed in his ivory tower by the ABC to put the episode and Defence in a poor light. He meets the requirement by stating;
… the offensive videos at the centre of the latest army scandal show soldiers see themselves as separate from the rest of the community. The soldiers found responsible for the video, in which one holds a gun to the head of a man in Arab dress and another is shown quickdrawing his handgun, could be thrown out of the army.
Identified as Social researcher at Flinders University and former infantry soldier Dr Ben Wadham he reiterates his point;
“Trophy shots are like an artefact of military culture – they show us that the military sees itself as separate from the broader community,” he said.
I wonder what regiment Ben served in….I’ve got a quid it was the local University Regiment as he gives the impression of considering himself a far more worthy person than us common infantrymen. A bit tacky, as Ive said but it really doesn’t warrant headlines unless balanced with articles on the pressures that these guys operate under. A beat-up. UPDATE: CB has supplied the good doctor’s resume in comments Nothing there to change my original thoughts. UPDATE I: The good doctor has commented and I withdraw the put-down “I’ve got a quid it was the local University” as has seen real service in 2/4RAR.  (read comments)
Defence

Research ‘blames West for terror’

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TERRORISM research in Australia is skewed towards the concept that Western policies are to blame and fails to explore fundamental questions about the nature of terrorists and the ideology driving them. University of Queensland terrorism researchers Carl Ungerer, a foreign affairs and national security adviser to former federal Labor leader Simon Crean, and David Martin Jones yesterday criticised the direction of terrorism research in Australia for ignoring the role of radical Islamism in breeding terrorists.
ARC chief executive Peter Hoj was forced to defend the council’s funding of terrorism research earlier this week after a Flinders University sociologist, Riaz Hassan, awarded more than $800,000 to study suicide terrorism, proposed to interview terrorist leaders.
What a novel approach. I can’t imagine why Churchill didn’t think to interviw Hitler to try and work out why he was at war with Germany. What was Riaz Hassan going to do – Phone up Osama’s PA and request an interview? Clearly, the 800 grand would be better spent building an assylum for socialologists to keep them out of harms way
War on Terror

Viagra spammer ‘sent 2b emails’

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An Australian man is being investigated for sending more than 2 billion spam emails, most of them promoting Viagra. And, it seems, most of them landed on my computer even though the report claims they were mostly targeted at Dutch computers.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said it had received a tip off from Dutch authorities that an Australian male resident was responsible for the flood of spam hitting computer servers located in Holland.
Penalties can exceed a million per day;
The ACMA said penalties for contravention of the Spam Act include fines of up to $220,000 per day for first-time corporate offenders and up to $1.1 million per day for repeat offenders.
But surprisingly do not include being keel hauled whilst trussed up with USB cables after having being forced to overdose on viagra. Pity!
General Musings
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