This from Defense Tech….

You’ll remember that Defense Tech and Military.com were on top of the story of worries over the M4’s reliability in the dusty conditions found in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn insisted the Army conduct side-by-side testing between the M4, SCAR, 416 and XM8 in an “extreme” dust environment.

Well, the tests are complete and it seems the M4 came in dead last against its competitors. And, guess what…the Army’s not budging. The M4 is still the best.

For those who do not keep up on military lingo, M4 is just an shorter version of the M16

One of the things that lead to the down fall of the Roman Empire was the fact that rich Romans no longer wanted to fight their own wars. The Abbasid’s lost power because they came to rely on their Mamluk armies to do their fighting for them. And so it goes throughout history. The separation of a nation’s elites and those who do the nations fighting invariable spells disaster for the elites.

In “On Forgetting the Obvious” Robert D. Kaplan highlights the growing divided between America’s military and the educated elite that rules the country.

This from The Evening Standard….

Although unhappy, her parents tolerated their daughter’s dismissal-of Islam as a “teenage phase”.

But when she opted to get baptised, while studying at Manchester University, her family were incensed and the death threats began.

Her father arrived at her home with 40 men and threatened to kill her for betraying Islam.

“I saw my uncle and around 40 men storming up the street clutching axes, hammers, knives and bits of wood,” she said.

“My dad was shouting through the letter box, “I’m going to kill you”, while the others smashed on the window and beat the door.

“They were shouting, ‘We’re going to kill you’ and ‘Traitor’.

“It was terrifying. I was convinced I was going to either die, but suddenly after about ten minutes the noise stopped and the men suddenly went away.”

Since then Hannah, who gives talks to churches on Islam, has been on the run from her family, often being forced to flee her home with only a few minutes’ notice.

After receiving the latest text threat from her brother, in June, she finally went to the police.

No one has been arrested or charged in connection with the death threats, but officers have put her on an “at risk” register and have given her a panic number to call if she fears for her own safety.

I imagine that she is so much safer now that she has a panic number to call. I thought that police services all over the world had an emergecy number if people feared for their safety. What good does it do her to give her another number to call?

Have you ever wondered what the end of civilization looks like? Have you ever wondered what causes civilization to collapse? Read this essay and all your questions will be answered. Read the Police Inspector’s blog if you think that this essay is describing an isolated problem. In fact, his latest post will put a more personal touch on the essay.

From Spiegel….

Police in Slovakia and Hungary have busted a black-market ring allegedly aiming to sell nuclear contraband on the eastern frontier of Europe, Slovak authorities said late Wednesday. Three people have been arrested for trying to sell 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of enriched uranium for for €680,000 ($1 million).

France is having trouble with rioters again. But this time it is different……

In one sense, the unrest seems to be more menacing than during the early days of the three weeks of rioting in 2005. Then, the youth seemed disorganized, their destruction largely caused by rock-throwing and arson and aimed at the closest and easiest targets, like cars. This time, hunting shotguns, as well as gasoline bombs and rocks, have been turned on the police.

“From what our colleagues on the scene tell us, this is a situation that is a lot worse than what we saw in 2005,” Patrice Ribeiro, a police officer and senior union official, told RTL radio Tuesday. He added, “A line was crossed last night, that is to say, they used weapons, they used weapons and fired on the police. This is a real guerrilla war.”

Ribeiro warned that the police, who have struggled to avoid excessive force, would not be fired upon indefinitely without responding.

More than 80 police officers already have been wounded the clashes, several of them seriously, Ribeiro said later by telephone. Thirty of them were hit with pellets from shotguns, and one of the wounded was hit with a type of bullet used to kill large game, he added. It is legal to own a shotgun in France – as long as the owner has a license – and police circles were swirling with rumors that the bands of youth were procuring more shotguns.

Here is a news clip from the early days of the rioting…

Here is more footage of the early rioting…

This is from the second day. Anti-France in its view point.

To be fair to the French, this time the riots did not last long. This from CNN…..

French suburbs stayed relatively calm Wednesday night after 1,000 riot police were deployed to quell disturbances that began when two teenagers died in a collision with a police car, French officials said.

Wednesday was the fourth night of unrest that on prior nights resulted in violent clashes between angry youths and police, and the burning of buildings and cars from the Paris suburbs to the southern city of Toulouse.

No injuries to police were reported, Laurente Wittek, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, told CNN. She said Thursday that there had been a “clear reduction” in the rioting.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to punish those responsible for shooting at police. Sarkozy met Wednesday with the families of the youths on the motorcycle who were killed.

The worst bouts of violence were Monday and Tuesday nights, when police made arrests in the northern Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, where the collision occurred.

Nonetheless, this riot still seems to have marked a new high point for anti-state rioting in France. If this trend continues, will the French police still be willing to handle the problem? Or will they turn it over to the army?

When a nuclear armed state is descending into anarchy, you ought to keep tabs on it. But you don’t read much about Pakistan in the mainstream press. To help rectify that, we bring you this article from From Spiegel….

With its anarchy and lawlessness, the Swat Valley has come to symbolize Pakistan in the year 2007. This time it’s not about the tribal areas, such as Waziristan along the Afghan border, where radical Islamists have been successfully undermining the power of the state. The Swat Valley is just a few hours drive from Islamabad. And Mullah Fazlullah’s jihad is directed at Musharraf’s regime. He and his fighters want to see a strict Islamist state, that is not oriented towards the US but to Sharia law. It is an enemy in the heart of the country — one that Musharraf seems increasingly incapable of dealing with.

Abu Muqawama rants about how the US army chooses its Generals.

You think you understand how stupid people can be, and then something comes along that blows your mind. How in the world can you come up with a fair test to distinguishing the sane from the insane? This is just nuts….

With drought conditions reigning across much of the South and communities restricting water use, a resident in North Carolina took the extreme measure of drilling a new private well for the sole purpose of watering his lawn. The well cost $3,000 for homeowner Jorge Pericchi, but he said it was worth the expense. A local well driller states that his company has installed dozens of wells since the drought began. While state laws don’t normally restrict the use of private wells, some state officials are concerned the private well boom will draw down the water table for everyone.