Am holding position...

...and maintaining rate of fire. Will advance at first opportunity.

Sounds serious, right?
((grin))

Yeah, well. It is. But 'twill be right in the end. No worries.

***

Until then, here's something for you in the USA entertainment market area to look forward to:

That ain't CG

h/t: Froggy at Blackfive

The film this making-of video is from is called "Act of Valor".

Please do see this movie when it opens.

***

Addenda: CompHyp friend Marie sends over this link (via FOXNews) to the theatre-release trailer for AoV. Thanks!

All input...

...no output.

At least for now, my regrets.

Just got back in here after more than a few days functionally AFK. Hope you All are well, and looking forward to your choice of winter holiday. We're on track to get a nice New Year's time here, but...

... almost all my cards, gifts, and such to friends went out late. Or are still going out. At least family got covered in time this year.

Sheesh. Proper Planning and all that.

***

I've been toying with the idea of a year end wrap up of favorite topics here at CompHyp. I mean, other than Hugo and I'maDinnerJacket, the list of usual suspect out there is getting a little slim. I mean, when the fountain of 'blog content that was Kim Jong-Il has passed from this mortal coil, it may be time to tell one last telling of the tales of the old villains and go back into the analysis mines to see what new disasters await unearthing in the coming year.

Hmm....

Remembrance Day

Armistice Day.

Veteran's Day in the U.S.A.

The hope that some day peace will come.

The assurance that the only way that will ever happen is to be prepared for war.

The thanks for and remembrance of those that have paid the tax of blood and service.

As is my way, I spent the day with some old friends.

I hope they noticed.

***

Afterthought: While I've seen it in years before, I have to say it was particularly meaningful to me to see every single news reader and reporter working for BBC World (cable and satellite TV) wearing a poppy clasp this last week. Yes, the Beeb; even with all their oft-demonstrated bias. Would that others showed the same respect...

Two for the good guys.

There is a of lot bad happening out there. Yeah, I'll write about that too. Just not today. Today, we get two in the win column for the good guys:

On 2.November, Viktor Bout was convicted. Took the best part of three years to land the fish, and there are appeals to be made, but the case held together. Unanimous jury to convict.

Today, word came out of the killing of "Alfonso Cano" (Guillermo Leon Saenz), the leader of the FARC since 2008. Colombian Armed Forces bombed his base and then sent in the airmobile teams and finished him and his escort in a firefight. Good riddance and haste to dismantling as much of the FARC as possible.

Job well done in both.

Oh-fer

Three items, all not promising:

Japan and the U.S.A. still can't come up with a plan for relocating the Futenma airbase assets.

The en(Yen; JPY)-dollar(US$) exchange rate hit a new all-time low in spite of the fact that there is nothing happening in the Japanese economy worthy of such strength... and indeed it kills our still-significant export manufacturing sector.

There is still no real, broad based support for joining the TPP free trade talks (outside the tourism industry), even though the Asian Development Bank analysis shows a minimum of +1% to GDP if Japan were to be party to the agreement as currently planned.

Gee... with all those things a mess (cooperative defense; foreign direct investment; the export sector) you'd think the government would be knuckling down and trying to figure out how to make government more efficient and, if not smaller, at least not larger...

Clearly you don't understand. The ruling party only has time to talk about raising the sales tax. Silly you for thinking otherwise.

"...credible threats against his personal safety"

News item: U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford has returned to Washington D.C. because of "...credible threats against his personal safety in Syria".

Comment: Entirely predictable.

The threats, not the return.

Between the documented conduct of the Assad clique at the head of Syria and the fact that the functional incompetence of some of the people running their mouths at DeptState has made it impossible for the American Ambassador to claim an exclusively humanitarian interest in the betterment of the Syrian Opposition, it was only a matter of time before the regime in Damascus withdrew any pretense of diplomatic protection for Amb. Ford.

Yes, if this was a case of supporting anti-government demonstrations in some place like Luxembourg, one could expect the "nicety" of having the American Ambassador declared unacceptable and then sent packing. But most of the world isn't "nice" and Syria is pretty far up the "not nice" list.

At this point, I'll confess I'm happy he's out of the target zone (at least for now) because I've seen what a nightmare it is for RSO's and "other government agencies" personnel to keep an Ambassador alive if said Ambassador persists in doing things contrary to self-protection... *but*... there are some things that are risky to do that simply are in the national interest of the nation said Ambassador represents and thus need to be done. Moreover, an Embassy is not just the Ambassador (case in point); all the other personnel are also *or more so* at risk. Bringing Amb. Ford out may be be the best move available right now, but I'll argue that move is: forced; a half-measure; to the detriment of American support for the Opposition; (and was) likely avoidable.

Doing it wrong

Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy's "The Cable" has the details on how the Obama administration badly bungled the Iraq SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) negotiations. Here are two key points:

She (M.C. Sullivan) said that the administration's negotiating strategy was flawed for a number of reasons: it failed to take into account Iraqi politics, failed to reach out to a broad enough group of Iraqi political leaders, and sent contradictory messages on the troop extension throughout the process.

"From the beginning, the talks unfolded in a way where they largely driven by domestic political concerns, both in Washington and Baghdad. Both sides let politics drive the process, rather than security concerns," said Sullivan.

and

Administration sources and Hill staffers also tell The Cable that the demand that the troop immunity go through the Council of Representatives was a decision made by the State Department lawyers and there were other options available to the administration, such as putting the remaining troops on the embassy's diplomatic rolls, which would automatically give them immunity.

"An obvious fix for troop immunity is to put them all on the diplomatic list; that's done by notification to the Iraqi foreign ministry," said one former senior Hill staffer. "If State says that this requires a treaty or a specific agreement by the Iraqi parliament as opposed to a statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry, it has its head up its ass."

This is a case study in making damn sure that petty and unimportant things override strategic imperatives, one that likely Americans will one day rue. I'd say the same about Iraqis, but the lesson of history in that region is that very few fools around those parts live long enough to rue their mistakes. But the blame for this outcome, if one were to wish to place it, should not fall on the Iraqis. This, and the awful possibility of having to go back there one day not so far in the future, should be squarely placed on the heads of those in the Obama administration that wilfully chose this outcome.