The advent of electronic media has apparently done little to diminish the use of propaganda leaflets during wartime. Over the first six weeks of the Iraq War, for example, the United States Air Force dropped 31.8 million leaflets, primarily geared toward encouraging conscripts to surrender and oil workers to resist scorched-earth orders. This June 2003 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'military'
Psyops on Thin Dead Trees
December 8th, 2009 · 5 Comments
Tags:Cambodia·Malaysia·military·propaganda·psychology·Vietnam·World War II
Armed Lounging in Angola
December 2nd, 2009 · 4 Comments
A secret major project beckons, so we’re off to deal for a spell. To fill the void, please enjoy this sequel of sorts to that excellent “SAS in Malaya” video that we posted a few days back. The scene this time is strife-torn Angola, but the same jaunty atmosphere remains. And if this is your [...]
“New Villages”
November 30th, 2009 · 5 Comments
You might recall how a few years back, Britain’s anti-insurgency tactics in 1950s Malaysia were touted as a model for American forces in Iraq. That turned out to be poppycock, of course, since the British method involved tactics far too unpalatable for the post-colonial world to stomach. Among those tactics, as described in today’s edition [...]
Tags:Britain·Communism·insurgencies·Iraq·Malaysia·military·Thailand
Security and the Soil
November 20th, 2009 · 3 Comments
In Pakistan’s chaotic North-West Frontier Province, there’s a movement afoot to temporarily ban the sale of fertilizers containing ammonium nitrate, which are frequently used in bombmaking. (The article mistakenly fingers urea fertilizers as the target of the ban.) This got us thinking about the reasons for ammonium nitrate’s continued popularity among the world’s farmers, despite [...]
Tags:Afghanistan·agriculture·ammonium nitrate·corruption·explosives·military·Pakistan·terrorism
Fourteen in a Million
September 21st, 2009 · 10 Comments
Given our recent, brain-bending encounter with the yellow fever vaccine, we’ve had a sharper eye for tales of preventive treatments gone awry. As a result, we just had to share this troubling tale of a Missouri Marine and MILVAX:
It wasn’t a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez three years ago, after [...]
Kids Do Love Lasers
September 15th, 2009 · 8 Comments
Modern pentathlon is by far our favorite Summer Olympics sport, topping even our beloved hammer throw. There’s just something inestimably cool about an event that’s modeled after a 19th-century military mission. Plus you have to dig the fact that the fifth place finisher at the 1912 games was a 28-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant named George [...]
Tags:George S. Patton·lasers·military·modern pentathlon·Olympics·sports
Rescue Ops in the UTTR
June 23rd, 2009 · 5 Comments
The Air Force is currently combing the Utah Test & Training Range in search of a pilot whose F-16 crashed late last night. Even if the pilot managed to safely eject from the doomed aircraft, though, he could be tough to locate. As we previously noted, the UTTR is bigger than some states:
If you ever [...]
The Ghost Fleet
April 10th, 2009 · No Comments
The ultimate fate of the National Defense Reserve Fleet has become a hotly contested matter in recent years, as environmentalists claim the aged ships are leaking nasty toxins into California’s Suisun Bay. That certainly seems logical, since these rusting hulks were built in the age of asbestos, lead paint, and other environmental bogeymen. But a [...]
Draft as Drain
April 7th, 2009 · No Comments
Upon learning that Poland is set to end military conscription starting early next year, Microkhan got to wondering about the economic effects of nixing the draft. Is it a net good to have thousands of 18-to-21-year-olds pounding the pavement in search of jobs or educations, as opposed to learning how to march and fire weapons?
This [...]
Tags:conscription·military·Poland·Sweden
The Overlook Hotel Times Twelve
April 6th, 2009 · 2 Comments
One of my great regrets was not bringing a camera on my 1999 trip to the heart of the Greenland ice sheet. I was there doing a freelance piece on the Air National Guard unit responsible for resupplying polar scientific missions; we spent three days on the ice, learning how to survive in the event [...]
The World’s Longest Hunger Strike
March 30th, 2009 · No Comments
Following on last week’s post on the British experience on Pakistan’s North-West Frontier, Microkhan will soon be exploring India’s struggles to deal with its own “tribal territories.” As a somber teaser, check out this account of the world’s longest hunger strike, being carried out by a Manipuri activist named Irom Sharmila. She has been fasting [...]
Tags:Afhganistan·India·insurgencies·Irom Sharmila·Manipur·military·Pakistan
“…Are Doomed to Repeat It”
March 27th, 2009 · 8 Comments
As we prepare to ramp up Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as focus more intently on the Taliban’s Pakistani havens, it’s worth looking back at the British experience in the Graveyard of Empires. Of specific interest is the classic 1898 account The Risings on the North-West Frontier, a detailed account of several expeditions carried out [...]
Dinosauring the Sandbag
March 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments
The humble sandbag remains mankind’s main line of defense against floods. Take the current situation in Fargo, N.D., where upwards of 10,000 Good Samaritans are furiously filling bags in order to combat the rising Red River. Working around the clock, the volunteers have so far managed to deploy about 70 percent of the requisite sandbags—seemingly [...]
Tags:Concertainer·environment·military·natural disasters·North Dakota
Ares’s Laboratory
February 24th, 2009 · 1 Comment
If you ever find yourself at the intersections of Skull Valley and Stark roads in western Utah, take a long peek out the car window. See that barren nothingness that extends as far as the eye can see? That’s paradise for budding Air Force jocks: The Utah Test & Training Range, where the munitions of [...]
