Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

This is where David Hackworth gets it right.

I’ve written before about Hackworth, and some readers took my words to mean I didn’t respect his opinion. On some issues, I think he’s better off keeping quiet.

But on issues such as a new infantry weapon, he’s spot on. I doubt anyone pays closer attention to this kind of thing than Hack. And he’s tenacious.

The problem in the Pentagon is that the top folks are far-removed from the days they carried a weapon. And there is a lot of pressure from congress-critters to buy things from their district. This is the kind of thing they need to buy properly.

I hope they do it right.

New message from Birdie:

I just had to send you guys this picture. Sure enough it happened again. This time it was last night. I am really glad that someone invented bullet resistant glass. That’s twice now, if you are counting, that I have had a bullet strike the wind shield in front of me. The new guys are here. We should be leaving this country shortly.

Stryker has set up a news site for the military over here, and it is funded with bolgads.

I have mixed feelings about the ads. I understand people using them to pay for bandwidth, and maybe a buck or two for beer. I just don’t visit those sites as often as I once did simply because if a single ad holds things up, I’d rather press on to someplace else.

I have the same problem with Sitemeter on my site. I’ve considered getting rid of it. But the traffic report often gives me entre to another blogger who visited, and allows me to check out their thoughts. I’m not overly concerned about how many hits I get, the links are what matters.

So…check out the new military news page, and if you have a recommendation on site activity tracking, let me know.

Let’s not forget the squids, who have some of the most isolated assignments around, and some of the biggest threats.

The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Honolulu 280 miles from the North Pole.

Tim has a post to check. Is there any doubt our troops feel what they are doing is important?

Birdie sent a couple of more pictures. I thought the complexity of the situation might help some understand what kind of decisions these soldiers must make daily.

Two guys in black hoods drive up and fire AK-47s at the two Army vehicles. This picture was shot just before they were.

A group of youngsters want to throw rocks. This time the soldiers stand ready for something more dangerous, but use non-lethal rounds in a 12-ga. to break it all up.

Birdie is 26, and the men in his squad are younger. Life and death decisions occur every day.

New photos from Birdie.