Month: September 2008

SASR getting new vehicles

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Ending a 50-year relationship with Land Rover, the army will also sign off next month on a $314 million contract with Mercedes Benz for 1200 new G-Wagon light four-wheel-drive vehicles as its off-roader of choice.

Special Operations Command troops, the SASR and commandos can expect to be driving an altogether new vehicle, the British-made Supacat – named the Nary in Australia in honour of Warrant Officer David Nary, who died during a Middle East pre-deployment operation in 2005.

Nary

I doubt the SASR will use them in yellow livery but this is the vehicle ordered

1200 new Mercede Benz Gelaendenwagens (G-Wagons) are also coming on line.

gwagon

The pic is of the Canadian G-Wagon stolen from here (scroll down)

Could be a lot of Land Rovers coming on the market soon. Maybe I could buy another one……and maybe I could be divorced…mmm…decisions.

Defence

Men’s clubs

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The Australian is leading a charge against that bastion of of old conservative ways, men’s clubs.

Melbourne’s Athenaeum Club has been split over the issue of women members, with a high-powered group of 130 business and civic leaders being blocked in their push to have women accepted as members for the first time in the club’s 142-year history.

It’s a Men only club. If that’s not your bag, don’t join!

To join a club knowing it’s constitution and then agitate to change it suggests an agenda outside of the clubs reason for existence.

If you find it objectionable that men gather as a group and talk men’s business then complain to each other at your next mixed-gender function and leave the blokes to have their fun.

There are woman’s clubs I can’t join, and don’t want to; and I belong to an ex-infantry officers group that meet regularly. There are no woman as there is yet to be a woman commissioned as an Infantry Officer. What’s wrong with that?

For that matter, what woman would want to join?

Let the old guys have their fun; nothing to see here, move on

General Musings

That’s alright then

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Listening to the ABC on the way home last night to hear that Rudd had met with the leaders of Mongolia, Cyprus and some other already forgotten country.

Well, that’s alright then, I thought. I can relax and sleep soundly knowing that my leader is treading the world’s stage and looking after our interests.

Meeting with the big guys…that’s my man.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the Brotherhood of St Lawrence have come up with an insane plan to spend 11.2 billion dollars on their version of a carbon pollution reduction scheme. The welfare lobby is urging Labor to set aside $11.2billion of its proposed compensation fund to refit 3.5million households with energy-saving devices, from light bulbs and shower heads to ceiling insulation and new refrigerators.

In some cases, a grant of up to $6000 may be available.
It is expected this would cover the installation of gas systems or air conditioning in some disadvantaged suburbs and regional or remote areas.

I’ve always considered these items a personal matter. For example, my wife and I couldn’t even consider airconditioning the house until the kids had left home and we had some spare cash. That took 30 years and now I find some do-good mob are suggesting my taxes pay for someone else to get it free in the name of global warming.

That’s not alright, that’s Insane!

Climate Change

Afghanistan

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Aussie GunnerHaven’t been to Michael Yon’s site for a month or two but visited today and found great reading on Afghanistan He is with the Brit’s 2nd Para and writes of their day to day life fighting “Terry” Taliban (as the Brits call them). If you read on you will find some mention of us Aussies but only a passing reference.

I would really like to see an Australian journalist submit reports on Australian operations with the personal detail Yon uses when reporting on the Brits and the Yanks. It has long been a complaint of mine that the Australian military Public Relations people are more reactive than proactive. I’m sure Australians would love to read of the daily struggles and successes of our troops in far off lands written in a positive style; to read of their sons and daughters lives as they play their part in the war.

Surely it’s a strategy of war to keep the public at home informed and yet all I ever read is terse military media emails that read just like the reports I used to write – just the facts man, just the facts. Minister for Defence said in Canberra today…….Chief of Navy says recruiting up….Gen Gillespie reports troops involved in clash… boring…boring.

Come on guys, give us something to hang on to.

Whatever, go read how Michael Yon tells a story. It’s fascinating.

Also read Where Eagles Dare – Yon’s account of a convoy moving a giant turbine up-country to a dam to provide more power for the locals. The photo of the Aussie gunner above comes from that operation courtesy of the British Minister of Defence (MOD)

Update: Reader FM points to a YouTube video on the Gunners supporting the Turbine Operation.

Defence, War on Terror

Terror cell had its sights on John Howard

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BenbrikaSECURITY was stepped up around former prime minister John Howard after he was named in bugged conversations between members of Australia’s home-grown terror cell.

One of the most chilling conversations taped by police was between Benbrika terror network member Fadl Sayadi and an associate as they discussed destroying the West Gate Bridge.

They talked about having spoken to a person with knowledge of the bridge’s security.

“Yeah, you go under and you come right to where the big, need-to-hold-it-up part . . .” the associate said.

“You could bring down the West Gate.”

Sayadi suggested it would be possible to snorkel or scuba dive under the bridge and plant “thingos underneath”.

big, need-to-hold-it-up part and plant thingos underneath seems to suggest a lack of engineering advice but still, the thought was there.

War on Terror

Turnbull new leader

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TurnbullMALCOLM Turnbull is the new leader of the Liberal Party after beating Brendan Nelson in a ballot in Canberra this morning.

Mr Turnbull won the ballot by 45 votes to 41, Chief Opposition Whip Alex Somlyay said , with Julie Bishop to retain her job as deputy leader, which she was unopposed for.

With Costello out of the formula I guess we have to rebuild but I’m just as uneasy about Turnbull as I was about Nelsen.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how he develops.

Politics

McCain Video from 1973

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STOCKHOLM — Previously unseen footage emerged Thursday showing Republican presidential candidate John McCain as a prisoner of war in Hanoi on the day his Vietnamese captors released him to the U.S. military.

Erik Eriksson, a former reporter from Swedish broadcaster SVT, told the Associated Press he found the video in the network’s archives while conducting research for a book about his experiences as a Vietnam War correspondent

From the Los Angeles Times

McCain grimaces as he steps off a bus with other prisoners. He has a pronounced limp. He puts both feet on a step before continuing, but does not use crutches.

The prisoners stand in rows until a Vietnamese official calls their names.

McCain, like other prisoners, briskly walks up to salute and shake hands with U.S. military officers. Although only 37, he has white hair. Then the footage shows prisoners walking to a U.S. plane

The commo bastards.

Vietnam

Prison without bars

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THE first prison in Australia built according to human rights principles has been officially opened in Canberra.

The $131 million Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) is an open campus-style prison which can house up to 300 male and female inmates.

It will take remand and sentenced prisoners with low to high security classifications but there are no bars on the windows.

Razor-wire fencing has also been discarded and prisoners will be issued with swipe cards so they can leave their rooms, but not the facility, when they please.

It sounds like a low security prison with better facilities except the report mentions low to high security classifications.

I trust the ACT has high security lockups for the recalcitrant and violent offenders and that this place is just for the non violent type.

At today’s opening Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the prison is “a physical manifestation of an important philosophical conviction”.

“The conviction it makes concrete is the conviction that even those who offend against our standards and our laws retain an essential humanity and human rights,” Mr Stanhope said.

Yeah! Well, good luck with that one.

General Musings

Debate or classified ad?

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Chris McGrath in the Courier Mail underlines what is wrong with Climate debate.

We should judge our climate-change policies by this simple test: Will we leave the Great Barrier Reef for our children? At present the answer is “no”. We are all responsible for changing the answer to “yes”.

We should judge all such comments by this simple test: Is it alarmist and if so what is the originators agenda?

In the on-line link Chris is just Chris McGrath. In the newspaper he is Dr Chris McGrath, a Barrister specializing in environmental law.

Could I suggest the article would have been better placed in the classified section of the paper under “Barristers, Environmental Law”.

Climate Change
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