Free Republic

This is a pure opinion piece – a rant. Most of the times I write about what I think the Iraqi Security Forces are doing or report on what they are actually doing. Some readers think that I agree with what is being done to develop those forces. Not true. I think that they are making some very dangerous errors. Politics – the Ruling Politicians are in Fantasyland When I outlined my top 5 procurement priorities if I were the Iraqi Minister of Defense in an e-mail, one of my regulars replied: “Actually DJ your top priority should be the...

Earlier this year, as part of the tools of war series, At War published photographs of Taliban small arms from Helmand province, along with data on the types of firearms in insurgent use. The photographs included images of bolt-action rifles, including one, a Lee-Enfield rifle, that dated to 1915. In spite of their advanced age, Lee-Enfield rifles, along with Soviet Mosin-Nagant bolt-action arms, have seen continued service in Afghanistan for two reasons: they offer greater range and accuracy than the assault rifles in more common circulation, and their ammunition remains available on Afghan black markets. Many readers wrote with questions...

The company that owns Bushmaster Firearms in Windham is shutting the facility down, putting more than 70 people out of work. Freedom Group, Inc. which owns the Bushmaster brand, says it's closing the facility on Roosevelt Trail, effective March 31, 2011

A notorious arms dealer who has been the subject of an extended diplomatic tug of war between the United States and Russia has been extradited from Thailand aboard a US government jet. Viktor Bout is a former Soviet air force pilot and alleged KGB agent, who is accused of running arms into just about every major armed conflict and insurrection - from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan - for the past 20 years. The burly Russian's luck ran out when he was caught in a sting operation by US agents posing as guerillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC)....

The United States has announced its largest arms sale ever, hundreds of advanced warplanes and helicopters for Mideast ally Saudi Arabia in a deal worth up to $US60 billion ($A62.14 billion) dollars. The plan allows for the sale to Riyadh of 84 F-15 fighter jets, 70 Apache attack helicopters, 72 tactical Black Hawk helicopters and several Little Birds, lightweight helicopters often used in special operations, assistant secretary for political-military affairs Andrew Shapiro said. The sale, which also includes the upgrade of 70 used F-15s, is "not to exceed 60 billion" dollars, Shapiro told reporters. The delivery of the weapons would...

In his new book, The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War, out Oct. 12, New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers traces the origins of modern assault rifles—particularly Avtomat Kalashnikov 47, or the AK-47—and analyzes how they've changed warfare. Popular Mechanics spoke to the author about how and why the AK-47 was developed and why it has had even more of an impact than nuclear weapons.

Despite the absence of real foreign threats, all the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States are rapidly increasing their military spending, not only diverting funds from other uses but creating a series of regional arms races that represent “an extremely dangerous trend” for the region, according to a Russian commentator. Yuri Sigov, Washington bureau chief for “Delovoy lyudi,”, says that “the latest events in Kyrgyzstan, the signing of a [basing] agreement between Moscow and Yerevan, the purchase by Azerbaijan of anti-aircraft complexes and the strengthening of the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia” are only the...

MOUNT VERNON — The right to bear arms, to many people, is one of the most important rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Local attorney Harlow Walker spoke of the history and meaning of the Second Amendment of the Constitution on Wednesday, the final night of the lecture series. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” the Second Amendment states. Walker began with a brief overview of English history concerned with the evolution of the idea of...

Barack Obama is to go ahead with plans to sell Saudi Arabia advanced aircraft and other weapons worth up to $60bn (£39bn), the biggest arms deal in US history, in a strategy of shoring up Gulf Arab allies to face any military threat from Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal, the administration is also in talks with the Saudis about possible naval and missile-defence upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more over five to 10 years. Plans to go ahead with the package, which has been under secret negotiation since 2007, have been known for...

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during August 2010. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 August 2010. The conversion of Iraqi heavy brigades to a modified US Army modular structure was addressed in a separate article. Highlights in this update include: * Lasta95s, Mi17s, and M1A1s delivered. 80 M1117s contracted for. * Peshmerga start Iraqi Army training. * New Operations Center in Kirkuk. 9th Division moving to Besmaya? Maintenance training course on M1A1s identified. Initial brigade receiving training on BTR4s identified. 37/9 Brigade upgrading to tanks....

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - Police in the capital of South China's Guangdong province will clamp down on the sale of cutting tools as a security measure ahead of the Asian Games, which are scheduled to kick off on Nov 12. Starting Nov 1, people in Guangzhou will only be able to buy kitchen knives and other large-sized cutting tools at designated shops, according to a notice issued on Thursday. Anyone looking to buy a knife must carry proof of identification, which will be registered in police records on the spot, the notice said. The crackdown will last two months, the notice...

Israel is trying to prevent an arms deal between Russia and Syria, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to stop the arms sale involving advanced anti-shipping missiles. The deal involves the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military. Israel considers this weaponry capable of posing significant danger to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

BEIJING: A Chinese General on Friday termed as "flagrant provocation" US plans to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Yellow Sea and said the country would retaliate if "offended". "A country needs respect, so does a military. We will retaliate if we are offended," Major General Luo Yuan, deputy secretary-general of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences, wrote in an editorial in the PLA Daily. The US is "pushing its security boundary to the doorstep of others — the Yellow Sea, South China Sea and so on," Luo said. China had in the recent weeks voice...

WHEN Deb Freele woke up in her tent, a grizzly bear was chewing on her arm. She screamed as she heard the bones break. Recovering in hospital yesterday, she explained how she had survived: “I screamed, he bit harder. I screamed harder, he continued to bite. I told myself, 'play dead'. I went totally limp. As soon as I went limp, I could feel his jaws get loose and then he let me go.” Mrs Freele, 58, was one of two survivors of a deadly bear attack in the middle of the night at a busy campsite just outside Yellowstone...

In 1978, Justice Lewis Powell wrote an opinion in the Bakke case asserting that the need for diversity could justify racial preferences in university admissions. No other justice joined this opinion, but because the other justices were split 4-4, Powell's opinion decided the case, and in time his argument has been embraced by a majority of the court. A regrettable result, in my view, but a consequential one. Last month, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a similarly decisive opinion in McDonald v. Chicago, the case holding that the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms, recognized by the court in...

Happy 4th of July. This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during June 2010. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 30 June 2010. Highlights in this update include: * New Peshmerga Brigade identified; 1st Peshmerga Brigade in Iraqi Army basic. * 1st Iraqi M1A1s shipping to Iraq; Used US Equipment Transferring to the Iraqi Army; Iraqi Army airborne training delayed and possibly cancelled; First field artillery officers graduate; 17th Division in live-fire exercise with US armor. * French helicopters for Iraqi Naval Support? Iraq negotiating for new F16...

Egypt's Defense Ministry has approved plans to expand the production of joint weapons and aerospace projects with Beijing. They said both countries were discussing a draft agreement in which they would also jointly market combat platforms and weapons to Arab and African militaries. "Over the next few months, we will witness an announcement of new Egyptian-Chinese combat production that stems from joint cooperation," said Hamdi Waheiba, chairman of Egypt's Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI). Waheiba said the cooperative effort would seek to meet the needs of the Egyptian Air Force as well as regional militaries. The two countries plan to...

TOKYO - North Korean weapons seized in Thailand last year were headed for Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the Israeli foreign minister said on Wednesday. More than 35 tons of arms including rockets and rocket propelled grenades were seized from a cargo plane after it made an emergency landing at a Bangkok airport in December. Thai authorities said the plane came from North Korea. In January, the Thai government sent a report to the U.N. Security Council stating the weapons were headed for Iran, which is allied to Syria. "With huge numbers of different weapons ... (it had the) intention...

The United States has summoned the senior Syrian diplomat in Washington to address "provocative behaviour" regarding the potential transfer of Scud missiles to Hizbollah that it said could be a threat to both Lebanon and Israel. "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the transfer of any arms, and especially ballistic missile systems such as the Scud, from Syria to Hizbollah," the statement, issued by State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid, said. "The transfer of these arms can only have a destabilising effect on the region, and would pose an immediate threat to both the security of Israel and the...

Today at 19:14 | Interfax-Ukraine The new Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed in Prague on Thursday by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, lifts limitations in control matters discriminatory toward Russia, said former head of the Strategic Rocket Forces Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin. "Russia has been rid of the burdensome limitations on the structure of its strategic nuclear forces imposed on it by the START I treaty," Yesin said at a news conference at Interfax's main office in Moscow on Friday. A START I provision, under which Russia had no right to have more than 154 heavy carrier...