15 Dec 08
A prophet in his own county...
The Meuse/Argonne Offensive signaled the merciful, and long-awaited, end of the WWI. A war-weary world looked forward to a new age of peace. Such naive hopes would be dashed a mere two decades later! In the interim, a few visionaries, like Billy Mitchell in America and Erwin Rommel in Germany, realized that land armies had, unnoticed by most, passed through a one-way, historical portal.
Horse-powered armies of the Nineteenth Century had been fundamentally self-sustaining. They foraged for supplies and could thus remain effective, in the field, for months at a time. Their only weapons were small-arms fire and close-combat, and critical supplies were simple in nature and could usually be procured locally. But, with the rapid adoption of new and frightening weapon technologies, like hydraulically-dampened artillery, tanks, cartridge rifles, machine guns, and combat aircraft, modern armies discovered that, if they were to remain mobile and responsive, they needed to be continuously supplied with countless items that could not be attained/manufactured in the field.
Foraging skills fell into disuse and were eventually forgotten entirely. Food, even water, now had to be brought in. Sophisticated new weapons required meticulous maintenance, not to mention fuel, lubricants, spare parts, and manufactured ammunition, which they consumed at a rate unimagined by soldiers only a generation earlier.
Modern, mechanized armies were fearsome indeed, in terms of flexibility, mobility, and destructiveness, but they all shared a fatal weakness: Even while not engaged, each division now consumed thousands of tons of supplies each and every day, supplies that had to be delivered to them in the field. When engaged, required tonnage tripled! Without a huge, elaborate, sophisticated, and profoundly capable supply/logistics system, stretching all the way back to the points of manufacture, an army's viability in the field was measured in mere days!
The transformation was so gradual, most military planners failed to notice critical implications. For example, Mitchell and Rommel both pointed out to their mostly uninterested superiors that fielded armies were now all but irrelevant! What needed to be attacked was supply lines, logistical distributions points, and, indeed, a nation's very industrial base. Without an uninterrupted supply line, fielded armies promptly wither.
Mitchell thus became an evangelist for air-power. He pointed out, as early as the 1920s, that battleships were obsolete, forever gaining him the enmity of admirals. He conclusively demonstrated the ability of his bombers to send to the bottom, within minutes, any number of heavily-armored naval vessels, many of which were considered unsinkable! When Navy brass, even then, ignored him, expressing more interest in blimps than aircraft carriers, he openly accused them of short-sightedness, and quickly got himself court-martialed!
Rommel's similar attempts to interest Hitler in committing to a program of constructing of a fleet of heavy, long-range, four-engine bombers that could decisively smash Allied supply lines, manufacturing, and shipping, receiveda like reception.
Mitchell was forced out of the Army, but his band of loyal disciples, like Jimmy Doolittle and Hap Arnold, remained behind and carried forward his ideas, laying the foundation for ultimate victory in WWII. Mitchell himself died of natural causes in 1936. He didn't live to see the way his ideasand fearless inspiration made victory possible.
Rommel, forced by Hitler to commit suicide in October of 1944, did live long enough to see the Third Reich disintegrate, its industrial base pounded to splinters by endless waves of heavy, Allied bombers!
Lessons: We all need to worry less about impressing our students, and more about inspiring them. Worry less about accolades from your contemporaries, and more about accolades from generations yet unborn!
"You can always spot a true genius in history, because all the dunces of the world will predicably unite to oppose him!"
"Experience is a hard teacher, because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."
Vernon Law
"Smooth seas do not good sailors make!"
/John
15 Dec 08
Leather CCW Concealment Vest:
My friends at CCW Clothiers (concealedcarry.com) are now marketing a stylish, lined-leather concealment vest. It is dressier than the "Tropical" cloth vest I'm used to wearing, but it is heavier and warmer. I've been wearing my copy for a month, and, for anything but a hot environment, it is very nice.
I have no particular sense of (nor interest in) style, but I've liked my CCW vests for the decade that I've worn them. I wear a copy every day. Arm holes are the right size to allow comfortable movement, but not reveal a concealed pistol. Length is exactly correct to keep concealed pistols (I wear at least two) discretely out of sight.
The new leather version is a definite style upgrade for me, although I'm still essentially invisible, which is the way I prefer to be while in public.
Recommended!
/John
15 Dec 08
Lesson learned in New England:
"Just wanted to relate an cathartic experience that just happened to me this past weekend.
I live in New England, and last weekend my town was at the epicenter of a winter storm that coated everything with an inch of ice. Tree limbs littered the street. Utility lines and poles were pulled to the ground. We had no power for twenty-four hours. Travel, even by foot, was all but impossible for most of Saturday
Sunday, the ice quickly melted, and I discovered that one of my horses was AWOL. I called our local police to let them know whom to call when someone found a stray horse.
There was no answer! No harried dispatcher asking if I could hold. No-call forwarding to the State Police. Not even an answering machine! The phone rang for ten minutes, with no answer. This is an upscale town of 15,000, with a full-time chief of police and ten, full-time officers, several non-sworn employees, and a brand-new, magnificent police station! I tried again an hour later. Same result!
My horse returned later that day (when she got hungry,) so all is well. But, for the first time since we've lived here, I started to think aboutwhat would have happened if a violent criminal were breaking down my door. What if someone were really trying to harm me?
I've always heard from the liberal media that I didn't needto own guns, nor give even the slightest thought to my own safety, as the police are there to protect me. Well, they weren't there last weekend!
The event shook me up!
This storm was localized and short-lived. What is going to happen when a disaster, or international event, affects the entire State, or all of New England for that mater, maybe for weeks? Who will protect me from violent criminals then?
The lesson really hit home for me when I needed help, and found only an unanswered phone."
Comment: I don't know how many times things like this have to happen before Americans finally, honestly confront the woeful limitations of government! Here, we see a small police department altogether overwhelmed by a short-lived, localized weather event. I'm sure they did the best they could, but they were instantly in over their heads, and public expectations suffered, as we see.
Those "expectations" are probably unrealistic anyway! They're based on perfect weather, perfect conditions, and no surprises. They represent little more than wishful thinking!
We need to ask liberal politicians, who are tirelessly working to incrementally legislate all the uncertainties out of life, if they plan on legislating the weather too! If not, the rest is an exercise in futility. All they really accomplish is the suffocation of our individual freedom.
If I were cynical, I might even suspect that was their real purpose from the beginning!
/John
15 Dec 08
Secret Service Failure?
We were treated today to videos of a "reporter" at a Bagdadnew conference, throwing a shoe at the US President yesterday, and then throwing a second shoe, again at the president, moments later!
President Bush, in yet another surprise visit to the War Zone, gets militantly assaulted by a local goof, who, as it turns out, has a reputation for violence.
The screening process should keep miscreants like this one out of throwing-distance from the President, but, realistically, I suppose our President may have to dodge a thrown object now and then.
What I can't understand is why he was compelled to dodge two!
Why didn't the second thrown shoe hit a Secret Service Special Agent? Why was not the President instantly shielded and then unceremoniously ushered out of there? If they're going to just stand there while the President dodges missiles, neither protecting him, nor abrogating the threat, I'm wondering why we even have a Secret Service Presidential Protective Detail!
President Bush laughed off the incident. That was a mistake!
Is there no dignity nor self-respect left in the Office of President? Has Bush forgotten that he is there representing all of us?
The reputation of the USA was harmed greatly as a result of this incident.
"Great Powers" deserve respect. We must demand it,... or give up and walk off the World Stage!
/John
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created on Monday December 15, 2008 23:59:1 MST