From the Jerusalem Post…..

Spice has no engine to give it away to sensors and does not rely on global positioning systems (GPS) to guide it to its target, making it very hard to detect or deflect before its pinpoint impact on target, the officer in charge of the project said Monday.

Instead, digital pictures of the target are downloaded into the computerized guidance system, which then matches the picture to the reality on the ground.

In addition to its incredible accuracy, a fighter plane can be loaded with several Spice bombs which can be programmed to hit different targets despite being launched from the same spot. Once released, Spice glides in to destroy its target, which can be dozens of kilometers away.

Spice is a totally blue and white product, a joint project of the air force and Rafael Armaments Development Authority. While very effective, it is not cheap. It costs more than a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) but is in “a different league,” according to the officer in charge. It has twice the range of the American-produced JDAM.

If the US air force was smart, they would be taking notes. The JDAM will not work if China or someone else takes out US satellites.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan is to equip the Iraqi army with M-16s. How stupid can the US government get? As Phillip Carter says….

With this program, we’re making the job of our advisers in the field significantly tougher, notwithstanding the contractor support at Camp Taji for the training of Iraqis. Although, I seriously doubt these Iraqis can shoot their rifles with anything approaching proficiency after three days. You spend more time than that in basic training learning how to get dressed, let alone learning how to shoot. Training marksmanship takes weeks or months or years, not a few days. This program has the potential to fundamentally change the mission calculus for advisers working with the Iraqi army, such that they must now focus much more time on individual weapons skills vice actual patrolling and combat operations. I also wonder whether this is the best use of Iraqi funds, or whether it would’ve been smarter to fix the AK-centric logistics system they already have.

I think that T.E. Lawrence’s ghost is probably laughing at us right now. What next? Will we try to give laptops, e-mail and PowerPoint to the Iraqi army? Oh wait…

Some commentators on Mr. Carter’s blog argue that giving M-16s to the Iraqi army is a good thing. After all, the weapon takes so much careful maintenance to maintain that in the absence of American support and supervision they are likely to become useless.

But that argument only strengthens my point. Does the US government want to turn Iraqi army into effective force or not? If they do, giving them M-16s is the last thing they should be doing. Heck, the co-creator of the M-16 recently said that if his son was over in Iraq he would want him to have an AK.

This from Aviation Weekly:

U.S. aerospace industry and retired military officials indicated the Israelis utilized a technology like the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system developed by BAE Systems and integrated into U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle operations by L-3 Communications. Israel has long been adept at using unmanned systems to provoke and spoof Syrian surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, as far back as the Bekka Valley engagements in 1982.

And what is Suter?

This from a different Aviation Weekly article….

Senior Suter is a Big Safari-managed special access program. Big Safari itself is a shadowy Air Force unit that has developed small numbers of specialized reconnaissance systems, including drones, in what are often classified programs. The Suter technology was developed during the last several years by BAE Systems and involves invading enemy communications networks and computer systems, particularly those associated with integrated air defense systems (AW&ST Aug. 16, 2004, p. 24; Nov. 4, 2002, p. 30). Suter 1 allowed U.S. operators to monitor what enemy radars could see. The capability enables U.S. forces to assess the effectiveness of their stealth systems or terrain-masking tactics. Suter 2 permits U.S. operators to take control of enemy networks as system managers and actually manipulate the sensors, steering them away from penetrating U.S. aircraft. Suter 3 was tested last summer to add the ability to invade the links to time-critical targets, such as battlefield ballistic missile launchers or mobile surface-to-air missile launchers. Aircraft involved in the Suter programs include the EC-130 Compass Call, RC-135 Rivet Joint and F-16CJ strike aircraft specialized for suppression of enemy air defenses.

Here is a Defense Tech article on the subject of Suter. Also, h/t to Defense Tech for bringing the Aviation Weekly article to my attention.

Reading this transcript puts a sick feeling into my stomach. You can read more about this particular flight here.

This week’s essay is from Spengler and it contains all that is great about him. Who else would observe the problem that falling birthrates pose for the natural law crowd?

But this essay is not without the typical Spenglerian flaws. Given his optimistic views on the future of Christianity one has to wonder if he does not see the end of history approaching soon.

But if you want something different from the run of mill essay on world politics, you have to take the good with the bad.

From the Telegraph……

A suspicious North Korean freighter that re-flagged itself as South Korean before off-loading an unknown cargo at the Syrian port of Tartous is at the centre of efforts today to investigate Israel’s recent air strike on Syria.

An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as “cement” on Sept 3.

This was three days before Israeli jets attacked a site in the north eastern desert of Syria, not far from its border with Iraq.

North Korea is famous for its exports of concrete.

In other news, I think Israel has taken a step up with their new defenses minister Ehud Barak. He made some calls when he was a prime minister that might seem questionable to conservative types. But his decisions as defense minister are at least understandable. That is more then you can say for his predecessor.

As an example, read this article in The Times….

Early in the summer Ehud Barak, the defence minister, had given the order to double Israeli forces on its Golan Heights border with Syria in anticipation of possible retaliation by Damascus in the event of air strikes.

Sergei Kirpichenko, the Russian ambassador to Syria, warned President Bashar al-Assad last month that Israel was planning an attack, but suggested the target was the Golan Heights.

Israeli military intelligence sources claim Syrian special forces moved towards the Israeli outpost of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Tension rose, but nobody knew why.

At this point, Barak feared events could spiral out of control. The decision was taken to reduce the number of Israeli troops on the Golan Heights and tell Damascus the tension was over. Syria relaxed its guard shortly before the Israeli Defense Forces struck.

That is an exercise in deception that you would expect from a guy who dressed as a woman in order to assassinate people in downtown Beirut while it was controlled by PLO.

You could argue he should have kept the troops on the border just in case. But I can understand not wanting to do anything to jeopardize the air strike if it was really a nuclear target. Israel can handled Syrian conventional forces in almost any conceivable situation. But if you flub an attack on a weapon of mass destruction, you might not get a second chance.

In that context, making it look like Israel was backing down was probably the right decision. You don’t expect an enemy who is withdrawing troops from your border to attack you.

H/T The Belmont Club which also has satellite photos of possible targets. Apparently, Syria’s nuclear research agency is big on doing agricultural research

For some reason this is not getting a lot of press. But this story pretty much tells it all….

A SHADOWY leftist rebel group claimed responsibility for six explosions that damaged several Mexican gas and oil pipelines today, sending flames towering into the sky and forcing the evacuation of thousands.

Financial markets in the US and Mexico were rattled by the blasts, which officials said cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production. Some local factories were forced to shut after natural gas supplies were cut but there were no immediate reports of injuries directly caused by the explosions and fires.

It was the second time in three months that the so-called People’s Revolutionary Army has claimed to have targeted pipelines as part of what it has labelled its “prolonged people’s war” against “the anti-people government.”

The group, known as the EPR, is an extremely secretive, tiny rebel group that staged several armed attacks on government and police installations in southern Mexico in the 1990s. It was later weakened by internal divisions, leaving it unclear which splinter group carried out the attacks.

The six explosions, which affected several natural gas pipelines and one oil pipeline in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, triggered fires that shot flames and plumes of black smoke high into the sky and could be felt kilometres away.

The rest of the story talks about the likely political and economic effects.

There is town in Germany that is effectively controlled by neo-Nazis. You can read all about it here. But there was a section in the article that I thought demonstrated both why Europe still functions and why Europe is going down the tubes.

It all started in 1992, on April 19 — Easter Sunday. About 120 neo-Nazis raised the Reichskriegsflagge, a symbol used by Hitler’s Nazi party, in front of the old farmhouse at the end of Forststrasse. They wanted to celebrate the 103rd anniversary of Hitler’s birth. “We’ll smoke you out,” the right-wing radicals allegedly told the G. family next door. The family had previously complained about constant neo-Nazi music. And it had paid a steep price for such complaints: break-ins and slashed tires came first. Then one day they found their chickens dead and hanging from the garden fence.

Partying with the Nazis

On Easter Sunday 1992, the family barricaded itself inside the house. The mayor at the time, Fritz Kalf, was there with them, armed with a shotgun. When the police were called, a mere four officers arrived — and they didn’t dare enter the farmhouse where the Nazis were partying. Later, three dozen more cops showed up and put an end to the revelries, but not before the doors and windows of the G. family’s house had been destroyed along with Kalf’s car. The culprits vanished in the darkness. Indeed, the only who received a citation that evening was the mayor — for carrying a gun without a permit.

It is impressive that Germany still has a mayor willing to put himself at risk to defend his people. But it is sadly typical of modern day Europe that he was the only one to receive a ticket.

The most basic function of any state is to insure that it is the only organization that uses force to compel people to do things. Therefore, armed gangs are one of the biggest signs of the failure of the state. The more powerful the gangs are, the weaker the state is.

In America, most white people don’t worry about gangs as long as they limit themselves to killing minorities. Thus, the growing power and sophistication of American gangs has escaped the notice of most Americans.

But for how long will this be the case? One thinks of how the failed state of Afghanistan suddenly came to people’s notice. Pockets of lawlessness have a way of making themselves know even on the wealthy and secure.

That is why I think it is worth listening as Stanley Crouch laments the fact that nobody wants to face the reality of the American killing fields.