We could all see this coming:

“Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken… to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately,” said a ministry statement.

The decision was taken because “the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier.”

I’m sure the adventurous young prince is probably pretty P.O.’d about it, as well he should be. There are few things so professionally disappointing as to be pulled off a job you’ve been trained for and passionately want to do. And it was nice for those of us that go in harm’s way for a living to see someone in the House of Windsor still has a spine.

Why didn’t I think of this first?

Congratulations to the following crews for capturing the Battle Effectiveness Award for their performance in 2007. I was privileged enough to serve on two of the ships mentioned. Numbers in parenthesis denote previous consecutive awards, so, for instance, BUNKER HILL just won their sixth in a row!

CCSG 2: USS MONTEREY (1)
CCSG 3: USS ANTIETAM (0)
CCSG 10: USS HUE CITY (0)
CCSG 11: USS BUNKER HILL (5)
CCSG 12: USS GETTYSBURG (0)
CDS 2: USS FORREST SHERMAN (0)
CDS 7: USS BENFOLD (0)
CDS 9: USS RUSSELL (1)
CDS 14: USS DOYLE (0)
CDS 14: USS UNDERWOOD (0)
CDS 15: USS FITZGERALD (0)
CDS 21: USS PAUL HAMILTON (0)
CDS 22: USS NITZE (0)
CDS 23: USS CHAFEE (0)
CDS 24: USS CARNEY (0)
CDS 26: USS OSCAR AUSTIN (0)
CDS 28: USS MITSCHER (1)
CDS 31: USS HOPPER (0)
PCRON: PC CREW ALPHA (0)
PC CREW CHARLIE (1)
PC CREW INDIA (0)
COMCMRON 1: USS PATRIOT (1)
COMCMRON 2: MCM CREW CONFLICT (0)
MCM CREW EXULTANT (1)
MCM CREW PERSISTENT (0)
CNSG MIDPAC: USS LAKE ERIE (3)
CPR 1: USS TARAWA (0)
CPR 2: USS BATAAN (0)
CPR 4: USS WASP (0)
CPR 5: USS BOXER (0)
CPR 6: USS NASSAU (0)
CPR 7: USS BONHOMME RICHARD (1)
ESG 7(LGE): USS ESSEX (1)
ESG 7(SM): USS TORTUGA (0)

Hezbollah slams US warship as ‘interference’ in Lebanon

The pro-Syrian Hezbollah on Friday slammed Washington’s dispatch of the USS Cole to waters off Lebanon as military interference, as the Western-backed government said it did not ask for the warship to be sent.

The condemnation came as pro-government dailies saw sending the vessel as a clear signal to Syria, which is being blamed by the ruling majority for blocking a presidential vote in Beirut.

“This decision proves that it’s the United States which is interfering in Lebanese affairs, and that this interference has taken on a military slant,” Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan told AFP.

The United States said on Thursday it had sent the guided-missile destroyer to the waters off Lebanon, which has been embroiled in a paralysing political crisis for months.
…
It is “a show of support for regional stability” because of “concern about the situation in Lebanon,” a US official said on condition of anonymity, declining to say that the show of force was meant for Syria or Iran.

Congress eyes Navy shipbuilding programs

Congressional scrutiny of the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding programs is likely to continue to be sharp, if the new budget season’s first two naval hearings are any indication.

On Wednesday, House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., signaled a possible lack of support for the new Zumwalt class DDG 1000 destroyer program when he asked about the effects of delaying the 2009 ship in favor of more auxiliary cargo ships. Murtha later said he’d like to examine cutting short the planned buy of seven Zumwalts and moving up acquisition of the follow-on CG(X) cruiser, now scheduled to begin in 2011.

As he did last year, Murtha also declared his intention to buy the Navy 10 ships this year rather than the seven the service is asking for. Construction of an additional, tenth, ship of the San Antonio LPD 17 class also is a goal, he said.

Cost growth, Murtha cautioned, remains a serious issue for the service’s 313-ship fleet plan.

That concern was echoed Thursday during the Senate Armed Service Committee’s posture hearing on the Navy Department’s $149.3 billion 2009 budget request. Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., reiterated his apprehensions about “cost problems in the shipbuilding arena, most notably with the Littoral Combat Ship program.”

Japan Defense Minister Says He Won’t Quit `Now’ Over Collision

Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he won’t resign “at this point” over his handling of a collision between a navy destroyer and a fishing boat.

“I will make my own judgment,” he told the lower house of parliament’s budget committee today when asked if he might quit after an investigation into the cause of the accident.

Opposition leaders, who successfully called for the resignations of former prime minister Shinzo Abe and five of his ministers, have demanded Ishiba’s departure over the Feb. 19 collision which left two fishermen missing. The Democratic Party of Japan hopes to force Abe’s successor Yasuo Fukuda to call early elections.

“There will be an enormous impact on the Fukuda administration” if Ishiba resigns, Takao Toshikawa, chief editor of the political newsletter Tokyo Insideline, said in a telephone interview. “Fukuda will become a lame duck.”

Navy Vessel Made From Twin Towers

When the Navy’s newest ship, the USS New York, is christened this weekend, it will serve as a memorial of Sept. 11, 2001 in more then just name. The leading edge of its bow is made from steel girders salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

In 2002, the Navy decided to honor New York state, New York City and the victims of 9/11 by naming a soon-to-be-built amphibious vessel the USS New York.

In a further act of symbolism, 7.5 tons of steel I-beams salvaged from the World Trade Center wreckage were melted and formed to make the ship’s “bow stem,” the leading edge of the ship that connects the bow to the hull.

The USS New York is the fifth ship of the Navy’s new San Antonio class of amphibious ships that will be able to carry a landing force of 800 marines, aircraft and landing equipment. The ship will carry a crew of 360 sailors.

Germany hands over maritime command in Lebanon to Italians

Germany has handed over the command of a United Nations marine mission patrolling the Lebanese coast. German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung attended the ceremony onboard a German navy ship that marked the handover to Italy. Germany was the lead nation in the UNIFIL mission for 17 months. The maritime task force was created under a UN resolution to end a month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon in 2006.

‘No Plans to Shut Devonport’

Controversial claims that the Westcountry’s historic naval base is to close in five years have been dismissed as “ill-informed” and “inaccurate” by the commander of the Plymouth facility.

With the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) backing, Commodore Simon Lister yesterday moved to “allay public concerns” by insisting that the Government had no plans to shut Devonport, Britain’s oldest naval base.

He condemned claims made by senior defence sources that the city’s nuclear capabilities were soon to be “irrelevant”, and pointed to a workload at the naval base and neighbouring dockyard that could stretch to the end of the next decade and beyond.

Cdre Lister said: “I’m really quite concerned that some of the speculation that is going on is inaccurate and concerning unduly our workforce, the workforce at Babcock (owner of the dockyard) and the city. At a time of change, when review work is still going on about the future distribution of some of the work, it is perfectly possible for people to conjecture about what the outcome might be.

“The problem is that whoever the source is, is ill-informed on the fundamentals and has drawn conclusions that are inaccurate and unhelpful.”

When Bernard Lewis speaks, the world should listen. Well, he’s talking again, and he doesn’t have good news.

A leading U.S. scholar on the Middle East has asserted that Iran’s leadership does not resemble the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Bernard Lewis, a professor at Princeton University, said the mullah regime in Teheran believes that the Shi’ite messiah would be ushered by a nuclear war, Middle East Newsline reported.

“It’s not an Arab country, but rather a Muslim country, ruled now by a Muslim theocracy, which calculates its policies not by Iranian national interests, but by what is good for Islam,” Lewis said.

“Iran’s leadership comprises a group of extreme fanatical Muslims who believe that their messianic times have arrived,” Lewis said. “This is quite dangerous. Though Russia and the U.S. both had nuclear weapons, it was clear that they would never use them because of MAD — mutual assured destruction. Each side knew it would be destroyed if it would attack the other.”

“But with these people in Iran, mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent factor, but rather an inducement,” Lewis said. “They feel that they can hasten the final messianic process. This is an extremely dangerous situation of which it is important to be aware.”

For those of you that don’t have a background in this stuff, this is problematic for two reasons. First, from the deterrence standpoint, Lewis is basically saying that the only deterrence that might work with Iran is preventing them from developing or acquiring a device. In short, Lewis seems to think that once Iran has the bomb, they’ve got a strong religious reason to use it and no earthy threat of punishment will stop them.

The second problem is how a shift from a primarily Persian identity to a primarily Muslim identity may affect the regional politics. Traditionally, the Arab states in the region have often looked askance at Iran and been reluctant to cooperate with Iranian initiatives becuase of ethnic differences. If, however, Iran can convince its neighbors that its historcal views that Persians are ethnically superior are part of the past and help promote a new Pan-Islamism, many Arab states might be convinced to work more closely with Iran.

I think it might be time to reconsider my thoughts on nuclear deterrence in the current age.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Nuke Gingrich, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, A Newt One, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

USS Cole Heads to Lebanon in ‘Show of Support’

The USS Cole is in the Mediterranean Sea in support of regional stability leading up to the election in Lebanon, U.S. Defense officials told FOX News on Thursday. An earlier news report said the ship was off the coast of Lebanon.

The USS Cole left Malta on Tuesday for the eastern Mediterranean “in support of a U.S. commitment to regional stability,” according to one senior defense official, who also said President Bush is concerned about stability during Lebanon’s March 11 election.

Reuters reported a senior official said the United States blames Syria for political deadlock in Lebanon, which has gone without a president for three months over strife between the Western-backed governing coalition and Hezbollah-led opposition, which is backed by Syria and Iran.

Appeals court says no to rules curbing ship emissions

A federal appeals court agreed Wednesday that state air pollution regulators cannot tell oceangoing ships arriving at California ports to cut their toxic contributions to local smog.

At the beginning of 2007, the California Air Resources Board imposed emission rules for large container ships, cruise vessels and tankers that continually call at ports such as those in Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach, which are among the busiest in the nation.

The ships would have to switch their auxiliary engines, which generate onboard electric power, from extremely dirty, sulfur-laden bunker fuel oil to low-sulfur fuel within 24 miles of California ports.

On Wednesday, however, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the state air board could not supersede federal regulatory authority over the federal Clean Air Act. To impose its own regulations on shipping, the state board would need to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant a waiver of federal authority.

Two Big Shipyards To Be Constructed In Pakistan

Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir says there is a plan to construct two big shipyards – one each at Gwadar on Balochistan coast and other at Korangi Creek in Karachi.

Speaking at keel laying of first small-cum-utility ship Wednesday at Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works KSEW, he these shipyards would be “fairly big ones. A great deal of work is going on in this regard.”

Admiral Tahir said it would be his desire to try and reactivate KSEW. Naval Chief, who is also Chairman, KSEW Board of Directors said he is doing whatever he could in this connection.

I’m normally not much of a royal watcher, but this is UNSAT:

Officials: Prince Harry Battling on Front Lines in Afghanistan

Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan with the British Army, the Ministry of Defense said Thursday.

Officials said the prince, a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment, was still deployed in the country.
…
Harry, who is third in line to the throne, has been in Afghanistan since December. The story was leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper.

If Her Majesty’s Government finds out who leaked the story, his or her head should be displayed on a pike by the tower ’till it’s picked clean.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, third world county, Nuke Gingrich, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, A Newt One, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Every year the Navy Personnel Command sends a cadre of detailers, both officer and enlisted, out to all the major and many of the minor home ports to talk to Sailors and their spouses about changes in their communities and the assignments process. What ensues is three or four days of briefs and command visits so everyone on the waterfront can absorb the big picture of their community’s present and future, and talk one-on-one about personal issues with a, if not their, detailer. 

For some reason, they always seem to find their way to Pearl Harbor in February. And, after about six hours of listening to others talk and asking questions on Monday and Tuesday, I can’t shake my feeling of deja vu. You see, despite this annual, personalized and detailed account on everything career-related, I’m reminded every year how woefully ignorant, and often just plain disinterested, our junior officers are about where their careers could be going and what they need to get there. And their spouses know even less.

So, here’s a quick litmus test to help anyone determine if they need to talk to a detailer:

• Do you know when you should start looking for your next job?
• Do you know where to find out what jobs are available?
• Do you know what to do during your current tour to keep as many doors open as possible?
• Do you know what you should keep in mind when considering what to do in the tour after your next tour?
• Do you know if there any critical qualifications or milestones you need to achieve by your next FITREP or detach date?
• Do you know when you should contact your detailer next?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, call your detailer and get an answer.