A thread on S.L.A. Marshall & the Ratio of Fire.

Marshall is controversial.

His central claim is that only 25% of soldiers in the line fired their weapons.

Several military historians have disputed this.

My own views on Marshall are framed by my work on Small Arms.

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If you've ever had anything to do with Knowledge Management then you'll know that Marshall gave us the After Action Review.

This method facilitated group discussion with a view to identifying what happened and how to do better.

It has shaped business & military practices.

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In Marshall's case this created a feedback loop between inputs and outputs in which the soldier's (& not just the commander's) experience was also put at the centre of winning the battle [more on tech & OODA loops later].

Source: Army of None @paul_scharre

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But the extent to which he systematically applied this new method has been repeatedly criticised.

By Roger Spiller

By Harold P. “Bud” Leinbaugh

-THREAD-
#Germany #USA #Rammstein #RheinlandPfalz #MilitaryBase #Russia #Alert

On 12 December, Ramstein Air Base in Germany, America's central European military facility, a alert went of and

alerted its staff to a "real-world missile launch in the European theater" only to later assess the incident as "part of a training exercise" without providing any details as to what prompted the alarm.

According to several US defense officials cited by CNN, a Russian military exercise is believed to have recently triggered a ballistic missile launch alarm' at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Computerized alarm updates were issued by staff at the base and in the surrounding areas on 12 December, with a missile warning also being sounded at Ramstein via a loudspeaker system.

An all-clear was issued after a brief spell of alarm, according to the officials, whose initial assessment was that the incident might have been caused when a launch was detected by highly classified US intelligence satellites.

THREAD

1)
U.S. to designate #Iran-backed Houthis in #Yemen as a foreign terrorist org (FTO)
https://t.co/ILBCg3Pfvs

Iran’s IRGC is funding/arming/provided & ... for the Houthis.

Dec 30—Missile attack on Aden airport. Yemen gov holds Houthis

1917 - Fully embroiled in the First World War #Halifax was quickly evolving into a world class port and major base of naval operations. #HalifaxExplosion

December 6, 1917, Railway Dispatcher Vincent Coleman goes to work from his home on Russell St in Halifax's North End. He left his wife Frances & their 2 year old daughter Eileen, dressed in a cheerful blue dress handmade by Frances.

#Halifax was a hub of activity. Troops bound for battle swept in & out of the city. The First World War brought activity & prosperity to the port

7:30 am Dec. 6, 1917 the French ship Mont-Blanc, loaded with a highly explosive cargo, moves to join a convoy in Bedford Basin #HalifaxExplosion

At the same time the Norwegian vessel Imo, in ballast, set off from the Basin bound for New York #HalifaxExplosion

The SolarWinds hack is a fundamental challenge, but I went into work yesterday focused on the same basics.

This may be a game-changer for policy and industry, but the essentials are what make the difference here. It revalidates basic visibility and monitoring. Same as before.

I do not see complex networks as they exist today as bastions where you can close your eyes anywhere assuming you're fine.

What if an attacker just compromised Orion with an exploit like a normal attacker? Or pivoted into its memory space from elsewhere?

What's the difference?

You've got to have pretty incredible network segmentation and administrative tiering and insider threat program before this kind of attack is the biggest risk to worry about.

That doesn't mean it's not incredibly serious. But we're failing way worse than this every single day.

This is a hard dichotomy to talk about without sounding dismissive, but I think it's worth bringing up. Be ever more mindful, but keep our foot on the gas on our fundamentals without letting up.

I'm putting some thoughts together, but I can't get over the fact _they didn't even try to infect your network if it looked like you were watching the machine_.

Like, we should be screaming about this. They know this shit works against them.

I keep thinking about the parallels between terror groups like Al-Queda, the Taliban, etc and the recent domestic insurrection.

Both start with people who feel they have been wronged. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, it doesn't matter if it's devastating or a slight.

Add to that, their religious leaders driving into them thru rhetoric that gives them someone to blame. Their religious leaders (Pastor, Minister, Imam, Cleric etc) focus on one or two things, and forsake all the rest of the teachings of their faith.

They then explain how their deity expects them to go and make it right in the name of [deity]. It's not remotely relevant if it's Jesus, God or Allah. They find the people they want torn down and have sent them off.

Add to that, their false idols like Donald Trump, Osama bin Laden, or whoever, who never stops telling them "the truth" (well, as they see it). They tell them to ignore the [mainstream media, infidels, etc] and isolate them from any kind of semblance influence that disagrees

It's a constant barrage of preaching, and false idols telling them that they are somehow chosen, and that what they do is "right".

SMOKING GUN
1. In post 1991, following the victory over Saddam in the gulf war, destroying him became the project. Allegations of chemical weapon used on Iraqis was all over western medias without proof until one was manufactured in Halabja, a Kurdish town.

2.And Suleiman Doud al- Afari was made the fall guy. Piled with the WMD hoax, invading Iraq was mission accomplished. Millions dead & millions more in exile, while the missile ruins and scatters everywhere, no apology or compensation from the west, Just moved on.

3. Enter Syria. Bashar as an anti West in a region that has to be beholden to western ideals, so has to go. Allegations of a massacre in the town of Allepo was made with ''manufactured'' proofs. But to gain more traction, CSOs were funded to commence human right demonstrations.

4. Eight years later with tens of thousands dead & millions in exile plus once thriving ancient cities in ruins, no apology or compensation, Just moved on.
Enters Libya. A Quadafi spearheading an independent Arab region for decades have to be settled. Allegations of clamp down

5. on oppositions and human right violations again started. Then suddenly there was a ''massacre'' in Benghazi. CSOs suddenly sprang up everywhere well funded making spurious & confusing demands. France & Britain under the supervision of Hilary Clinton,

Thread for Sat Dec 19, 2020
We know that we are at war with the Invisible Enemy. Now we are all in danger because hackers have penetrated all the security files of the United States. There is a risk of war. #POTUS will never go to war because he is a peace president. GOD HELP US!

A few thoughts on belly loading. No, not our collective plans for the xmas period, a primer on the science behind allowing the belly of a vehicle to contact the terrain, and the implications therein to mobility (spoiler: its always bad) #AFVaDay #miltwitter #tanktwitter

Usual disclaimer - this is Twitter, I don’t have much space and so some things are simplified or omitted for simplicity. This is a hugely complex science; I’m just giving a flavour of the considerations inherent in AFV design. With that out the way…

Another outwardly unexciting concept, but actually quite critical to off road performance. Belly loading is the condition where the tracks have sunk in terrain to the extent that the belly of the vehicle is now partially or fully resting on the terrain

Belly loading is a cascade situation. With the belly only contacting terrain in a situation where mobility is already challenging and ground pressure/grip maybe be failing, contact of the belly begins to transfer load from tracks to hull, further reducing the tractive performance

Eventually, a vehicle can become entirely stuck where weight is fully loaded on the belly, or so much so that the tracks are fully unloaded and can gain no traction any longer. At this point there is little that can be done and it may need recovery or digging out by hand

" Pakistan Model " To Solve Türkiye’s S-400 Crisis With The US

By Mehmet Acet

@acetmehmettw

Let us start with the statements President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made ahead of his Azerbaijan visit concerning the U.S. & upcoming Biden term , which will commence on 20th January 2021 :

“ We still consider any statements we have made so far & will make as premature . Let Mr. Biden 1st take office & then we will sit down & discuss matters with him . Just as we came together in the past & talked , whether it be in Türkiye or the U.S. .

There can be no conflict between nations regarding politics . Diplomacy in particular requires such matters to be deliberated over in order to reach an agreement & find a solution . Certain people in your country may prompt negative action .

That is not important : they are amateurs in politics . I am confident that we will move forward with the U.S. in a very different manner .”

#Vietnam
Did we get [duped] by the government into a WAR???
You decide!
#DarkToLight

The conflict was sparked by the Liberation War of Bangladesh following West Pakistan’s ill-treatment of the people and undermining the election results in East Pakistan. The call for secession was officially raised on March 26, 1971, by East Pakistan.

The media had reported widespread genocide against Bengalis, mainly Hindus, at the hands of the Pakistani military, which forced about 10 million people to migrate to neighbouring India. India opened its borders for the Bengali refugees.

The Indo-Pak war effectively began after preemptive aerial strikes by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) across airfields in north-western India, including Agra as part of its Operation Chengiz Khan. Taj Mahal was camouflaged with twigs

In response, the IAF flew about 4000 sorties in the western front and close to two thousand in the east. PAF could offer little in retaliation with around 2800 and 30 sorties on the two fronts. IAF continued to raid forward air bases in Pakistan till the end of the war

The Indian Navy's Western Naval Command successfully conducted a surprise attack on Karachi port under the codename Trident by the night of Dec5
Pak. had also mobilized its troops along the western front. The Indian Army retaliated and captured thousands of kms of Pakis territory

Suppose WWIII has already started, how would we notice?
My (grand) parents saw the German tanks and troops pass by their door. The Vietnamese and Iraqis knew when the bombs fell that the Americans were nearby. But bombs and weapons have long ceased to be the most important ...

....weapons in modern warfare. Information, communication and people on the street are the new powerful weapons. Big Tech is a weapon. A weapon of an invisible opponent.
Over the past 20 years, we have become accustomed to quick information and were no longer dependent ....

...on the legacy media for our opinion. My late father watched the National news (NOS) until his last days, a medium he relied on since its existence for his vision of the world. With the advent of the internet, I took a big red pill.

Where social media have contributed to a better opinion formation, it has been clear since Snowden that they are weapons. To be used by an invisible opponent. With a drag net, all information about you and everyone is collected.

Thread: Interesting to see the excuse factory already being out to work to make Zarif’s grotesque conspiracy theory about Israel palatable. Reasonable people explaining and excusing a conspiracy about Israel attacking the US to cause a war.

Iran’s Zarif plays on historic western antisemitism to push these gross views, arguing that the very militias that it empowers in Iraq and which openly carried out dozens of attacks over the last year are now “Israel fake casus belli”....

It’s one thing for Iran to complain about the US...or slam Israel, but to push a gross conspiracy about Israel attacking the US in Iraq to cause a war in Iran is disgusting and should be condemned but because Iran’s regime always gets a pass it won’t.

This horrid regime that executed a wrestler, that kidnapped and murdered a journalist...that imprisons people for things like dancing/singing...the kind of people who are in league with excusing it at every turn are are the worst.

These same people would rightly call out conspiracy theories in the west but they don’t hold Iran to an equal standard because of their coddling Orientalist gross adoration for the regime. So the regime’s awful propagandists get a pass for every wild conspiracy and thuggishness

1/ I was raised in Western Australia by a family with conservative values. From a very young age I knew the importance of our alliance with America. Since WW1 we have stood with our American brothers and sisters to fight against those that wish to do us harm. As an 11yo I was...