Latest Posts

Al Jazeera: fair and balanced

Posted on by
Lateline, the ABC late evening news flagship carries a report from Matt Brown in Lebanon under the headline; UN condemns Israeli offensive
MATT BROWN: Almost every night these southern suburbs of Beirut have been under attack. Now, rubble piles on rubble. The families are gone, but the signs of their ordinary lives are still here to see. On a tour of this former Hezbollah stronghold, UN humanitarian relief coordinator Jan Egeland called for Israel and Hezbollah to stop the fighting. He also condemned the Israeli bombing campaign that’s reduced this suburb to rubble. JAN EGELAND, UN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF COORDINATOR: And I would say that this seems to be an excessive use of force in an area with so many civilians. REPORTER: If it’s an excessive use of force that makes it a war crime?
I could see Matt almost pleading with Egeland to agree and say ‘yes, it does make it a war crime’ but he didn’t and in an obvious case of very selective reporting Matt Brown didn’t mention any other comments attributable to Egeland during his visit to Lebanon. However AL Jazeera does. They report Egeland in full under the headline; Hezbollah blamed for civilian deaths
Egeland was speaking to reporters at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus late Monday after a visit to Lebanon on his mission to coordinate an international aid effort. During that visit he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides, and called Israel’s offensive “disproportionate” and “a violation of international humanitarian law.”
He also addressed the root causes of civilian casualties
[He].. accused Hezbollah of “cowardly blending” among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel. The militant group has built bunkers and tunnels near the Israeli border to shelter weapons and fighters, and its members easily blend in among civilians.
More balance at Al Jazeera than at the ABC…amazing!
War on Terror

Aussie VC sets record at Auction

Posted on by

AUSTRALIA’S last privately owned Victoria Cross medal awarded at Gallipoli sold at auction tonight in Sydney, setting a world record price of $1 million.

The medal was purchased by a prominent philanthropic Australian businessman who wished to remain anonymous and who bid over the phone. Lot 1078 included seven other medals with a combined value of less than $100,000. The $1 million price tag breaks the record of $595,000 set in 2005 for a medal won by captain Thomas Hardy at Lord Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805.
The medal was awarded to Captain Alfred Shout who was born a KIWI but trained by the AIF! He was awarded a Military Cross for his courage and leadership at the landing at Gallipoli and won the VC later at Lone Pine further up the ridges. Just being present and soldiering on at Gallipoli took a special type of courage.
Defence

Israel masses troops on Lebanon border

Posted on by
ISRAEL massed thousands more reservists on the Lebanese border on Saturday to mount incursions aimed at destroying Hezbollah positions, warning it would not rule out a full-scale invasion despite increasing calls for a ceasefire.

As Israel’s air campaign entered its 11th day, the New York Times reported the United States is rushing precision-guided bombs to Israel, citing unnamed officials.

Good!

The Jewish state’s blitz on its northern neighbour has now killed more than 340 people, mostly civilians.
Bad! But then if Hezbollah didn’t use the tactic of locating their headquarters, troops, missiles and supply bases in civilian houses then the figure would be less. It’s a clever tactic as the west leap over themselves to take piccies of dead and wounded civilians to show how heartless the Israelis are. The Israelis are left between a rock and a hard place as to stop their country and people being rocketed they have to strike at Hezbollah’s sites. Someone needs to bite the bullett here and close the cycle. It goes like this – Terrorists attack Israel siting their weapon systems and HQs in civilian enclaves…..after awhile Israel responds and kills some civilians while trying to stop the terrorists killing Israelis. The terrorists appeal to the world to get Israel to stop ‘murdering’ inncocent civilians…the world weeps over the ‘murdered children’ and force Israel to a ceasefire….during the ceasefire the terrorists rearm from the general Arab population and local collections of tribes posing as countries and then attack Israel siting their weapon systems……. you get the idea. I feel sorry for all the innocent civilians caught up in the war but until the world start accusing Terrorist organizations of being explicit in the ‘murdering’ of civilians then the beat goes on..and on…. And on! Cross the border Israel and pursue the bastards until they have no ability to wage war.  Try and not kill innocent civilians but I know hard that is. If you are a civilian in Lebanon then walk away from the Hezbollah, they are using you as a weapon of war and the more of you killed, the better for them.
War on Terror

Kovco’s magic pistol

Posted on by
From this report on the the Kovco Inquiry comes this strange statement. At least it appears strange to this old infantryman and one-time captain of the Battalion Pistol Shooting team (undefeated Lavarack Barracks 1982)
The board had previously heard that Kovco’s gun had passed a series of tests proving it was unlikely to fire accidentally. The fact that the bullet’s cartridge case was trapped in the gun’s mechanism also suggested it had been fired by Kovco himself, the board was told, as his subsequently slack grip on the weapon would have obstructed its normal operation.
The normal operation of a weapon, in this case it’s reload mechanism, is initiated by the firing of the round producing gases and pressure that unlock and drive the bolt rearward from whence it rebounds and picks up another round from the in-handle grip magazine, loads it in the breech and locks for another shot. This process is extremely fast and is not dependant on the firer having a firm grip. Once a round is fired it just happens and in Kovco’s case the pistol would have reloaded before it fell from his hand unless there were other factors involved. Where was it trapped in the pistol’s mechanism? In the breech or had it only half ejected? Maybe I’m being a bit technical but statements like that would have me asking questions. Maybe the journalist just reports what he thinks is relevant and missed out on telling us relevant facts that would explain; but as given, I don’t accept that part of the evidence as reliable. Any RAEME armourers care to comment?
Defence

New Honda

Posted on by
2007 Honda Goldwing Starting in spring 2006, Honda’s flagship motorcycle will be available with the world’s first motorcycle airbag, able to inflate in 0.06 second and fully absorb the rider’s forward energy in 0.15 second (less time than it takes to blink an eye). This innovation represents a major advance in motorcycle safety. I suppose it could help if the prang was strictly in-line with the bike and no forces whatsoever impacted on the trajectory of the rider otherwise he slides and hurts like every other rider. I remember when the Goldwing first came out a writer in Sydney commented “God help you if you put it down in a slide because he’s the only one capable of getting it back on it’s wheels again!” *No matter how hard I look, I can’t see the ashtray! *from the old saying… as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike..or a hip pocket in a singlet…or…nevermind, you get my drift.
General Musings

This beats my $150 speeding fine

Posted on by
Don’t get caught in speeding in Jeddah
JEDDAH, 20 July 2006 — At the police station they registered my name and time of entry. It was 5.10 p.m. I was searched and deprived of my cigarettes, then escorted to a jail cell. This would be my home for the next 24 hours. My charge? Driving 160 kilometers per hour down Jeddah’s Madinah Road. 
The law says you spend at least 24 hours in a jail cell and your car gets impounded for getting caught exceeding the speed limit. If you can’t pay the fine — SR500 (AUD 177)for speeding — then you get the pleasure of an additional 48 hours in the cage. (You also pay SR150 later to get your car out of impound.) Wonder what happens when you rack up 12 points?
General Musings

From the War Front

Posted on by
Major ‘Y’, an F-16 pilot in the Israeli Air Force, writes about his unusual experiences of the past several days. I like his closing paragraph;
1800 I join up with a few friends on Tel Aviv beach. We’re having some beers, enjoying the breeze and watching the sunset. After a while I say something about how bizarre the situation is – we’re here having fun, while whole towns in the north are being bombarded. Wait a minute – they ask me, haven’t you been called up? Sure, I reply. Just this morning I dropped two tons of explosives on Lebanon.
I have little sympathy for any country that supports terrorist groups and can only hope that Israel keeps pushing until Hezbollah hand over the IDF soldiers they kidnapped and withdraws and Lebanon undertakes not to allow them to operate within their borders anymore. Simple really.
War on Terror

Breaking News

Posted on by

At this very moment, 14:00 EST, a RAAF F111 is attempting to land at RAAF Amberly without the advantage of wheels. It has just aborted one attempt and is currently circling for another approach.

I can only wish the pilots a steady hand and sharp eye.

Hope the pilot doesn’t scratch the plane – we need them

UPDATE:

BuckshotColt2 has just executed a perfect belly landing. I suspect the pilot arrived on the tarmac with only a few litres of fuel on board as he was circling for sometime burning it off. Channel Nine had a chopper and live video feed from 15 Km out to avoid restricted airspace and showed the F111 only taking about a hundred yards of tarmac before coming to an undignified halt. There was some spark and flame from friction and other factors but the flames died as quickly as the two crew evacuated the aircraft – about 2 seconds.

Look for the film on CH 9 news tonight. They will play it for all it’s worth and wait for Beasley et al to blame it on Howard. By 7:00pm the ABC will have had plenty of time to arrange comment, maybe ABC reporter and Senator Bob Brown could get another gig. He’d be happy to put an anti government spin on some poor jet jockey’s bad afternoon.

Either way, it is a good end for a potential disaster; the F111 doesn’t even look dented but of course there will be damage and I would imagine it will have to be virtually rebuilt before flying again.

UPDATE: Reader Kaos leaves a link to the video in comments. I have moved it here to avoid a three-monitor wide link.

Defence
1 … 132 133 134 135 136 … 228