aka_tom_w
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Posts posted by aka_tom_w
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just for the record this guy said that, Reviewer: John Beowulf "beowulfborealis" (Santa Barbara, CA)
I would like to credit the original author for his words and idea's I was just posting some interesting opinions and reviews about the book. " My War " (style and form grogs note the title should be underlined but I don't know how to do that here)
-tom w
Yes..the government of Hell fighting the Axis of Evil..lol </font>Originally posted by panzermartin:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally written by John Beowulf
Fact is, whether you for for this war or against, you will find this book worth reading. Even if this is just a fight for bloody oil, its worth noting that America has stolen EVERYTHING it has from somebody, at some point in history. Perhaps the guy shooting the mosque knew that aside from the black gold, perhaps he saw the bigger picture emerging: we are from the government of Hell, and we are here to take your souls and oil...
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REVIEWS:
Review from a Flag-Waver, October 7, 2005
Reviewer: Larry R. Kephart (Boca Raton, FL USA) - See all my reviews
I'm a baby boomer from Colby's Dad's generation. a long-haired, small L libertarian in the Ted Nugent mold. I was a daily reader of his war blog. When he closed it down, I sent him an e-mail thanking him for his service. A few week's ago, Colby replied thanking me for my e-mail a year after the fact. That's it. Nothing about his book. I decided to try his old blogsite on a whim and that's how I found out about "My War".
I read this book at my office. I didn't even put it down when my boss stuck his head in the door unless he needed something specific from me, immediately. As others here have said, Buzzell's writing style is unique. It's clear and concise, blunt at times. It's not a lot of fluffy wordsmithing. You really can't classify Buzzell or his writing. You have to experience it for yourself. I can't say I "enjoyed" this book because It's not fiction. I did learn from it. I feel better about the generation following mine if there are a lot of Colby Buzzell's in it.
A Volunteer Soldier's Perspective On The War In Iraq, October 3, 2005
Reviewer: James E. Hill, Jr. "jehilljr" (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
Colby Buzzell has candidly written one of the most interesting pieces of work in print today about the real life war in Iraq. This is not some "view from the top" but a look at the war from someone who fought it as a young soldier with mixed feelings about the military establishment and with solid feelings for America and our purpose there. His writing is refreshing, his humor is laugh out loud and his insight is immediately identifiable from those of us who have served our country in the military. I served 4 years on active duty with the Marine Corps from 1970-74 and left the Marines as a newly promoted Captain. Mr. Buzzell was the kind of thinker I'd loved to have had in my platoon. When presented with the mission, he gave it 100% every time, never losing his humanity and morals. For those who want to know the truth (and can handle the truth), this book is highly recommended and will come to be recognized as one of the best books to come out about this war from an infantry soldier's viewpoint. He has my respect.
Excellent War Story..., December 19, 2005
Reviewer: John Beowulf "beowulfborealis" (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
Colby Buzzell is an unlikely war correspondent given his education (or lack thereof), and the fact that he was a soldier in the US ARMY in Iraq during operation Iraqi Freedom.
Despite those credentials, Colby's Iraq Blog and later his book, represent factual and realistic portrayal of war and how a post-punk, Bay Area kid with a chip the size of Jello Biafra's ego tatoo'd to his collar bone can in fact, tell the story better than any embedded Fox News reporter.
I think my favorite moment of focus was his description of a major firefight in Mosul with about 100 Iranian mercenaries, noncompliant Hajjis (my favorite term he uses), and other riff-raff and he looked over his shoulder and saw one of his compatriots shooting at a mosque with one hand, and giving the old heavy metal two fingered sign of the devil with the other.
Fact is, whether you for for this war or against, you will find this book worth reading. Even if this is just a fight for bloody oil, its worth noting that America has stolen EVERYTHING it has from somebody, at some point in history. Perhaps the guy shooting the mosque knew that aside from the black gold, perhaps he saw the bigger picture emerging: we are from the government of Hell, and we are here to take your souls and oil...
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I think this was probably meant to read:
Originally posted by Battlefront.com:I also fully agree that Syria, or any nation for that matter, canNOT be completely sealed off. As long as money motivates people, and the money can be found to fuel that motivation, then things will move around regardless of efforts to stop it.
Steve
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John! you make me Laugh!
Did BFC just say we get to attack the French army as well?
Oh wait let me post this now...
I couldn't resist...
Did that cross the line?All you French lovers enjoy!!!"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals.
Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
France has usually been governed by prostitutes."
Mark Twain.
"I would rather have a German division in front of me
than a French one behind me."
General George S. Patton.
"Going to war without France is like going deer
hunting without your accordion."
Norman Schwartzkopf.
"We can stand here like the French, or we can do
something about it."
Marge Simpson
"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure"
Jacques Chirac, President of France
"The only time France wants us to go to war is when
the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee."
Regis Philbin.
"You know, the French remind me a little bit of an
aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to
dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for
it."
John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona.
"You know why the French don't want to bomb Saddam
Hussein? Because he hates America, he loves mistresses and
wears a beret. He is French, people."
Conan O'Brien
"I don't know why people are surprised that France
won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all,
France wouldn't help us get Hitler out of France
either"
Jay Leno.
"The last time the French asked for 'more proof' it
came marching into Paris under a German flag."
David Letterman
"Only thing worse than a Frenchman is a Frenchman who
lives in Canada."
Ted Nugent.
War without France would be like .. uh ... World War
II.
"What do you expect from a culture and a nation that
exerted more of its national will fighting against
DisneyWorld and Big Macs than the Nazis?"
Dennis Miller.
"It is important to remember that the French have
always been there when they needed us."
Alan Kent
Raise your right hand if you like the French ... raise
both hands if you are French.
Q. What did the mayor of Paris say to the German Army
as they entered the city in WWII?
A. Table for 100,000 m'sieur?
"Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend
Paris? It's not known, it's never been tried."
Rep. R. Blount (MO)
"Do you know it only took Germany three days to
conquer France in WWII? And that's because it was
raining." John Xereas, Manager, DC Improv.
The AP and UPI reported that the French Government
announced after the London bombings that it has raised
its terror alert level from Run to
Hide. The only two higher levels in France are
Surrender and Collaborate. The rise in the alert level
was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed
France's white flag factory, effectively disabling
their military.
French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney
(AP), Paris, March 5, 2003
The French Government announced today that it is
imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney.
The decision comes the day after a nightly fireworks
display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of
Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army
garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists.
Just wondering?
-tom w
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Wow
nice find
thanks for the news update!
-tom w
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this was the most recent question about Helicopters
but the answers I reposted are not exactly current, BUT they may not have changed at all since Steve answered this question last time....
(I am guessing)
-tom w
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sorry
I should have linked it, you are correct.
I was just lazy and it was easier to bump it.
-tom w
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On Oct 8 Steve said:
"Since helos are a common component of CAS, of course they will be included. However, if you don't have them assigned you don't get them. You can't just stop your attack and call up the chain to get something that isn't available just because you want it. Doesn't work that way in real life, shouldn't work that way in the game. Obviously in real life the commander can theoretically make a decision to abort a mission until such assets come into play, but that doesn't make for an exciting scenario. Though I can think of ways it could be. We'll just have to wait and see what we're able to do with stuff like that."
Battlefront.comAdministrator
Member # 42
posted October 08, 2005 05:01 PM
Lots of questions. Forgive me if I don't get to all of them...
Civilians are much desired to include, but we're not going to be getting them in. For the kind of operation we are simulating they aren't extremely important. For Peace and Stability or Counter Insurgency ops they are critical. CM:SF isn't about either of those so we can get by without civilians. However, we do plan on being the first realistic simulation of civilians in a combat environment. Just not sure when we'll get to it
No Turkey and Israel involved in this game since you're in command of US forces only. For Modules we are looking to add other NATO nations. Turkey, although part of NATO, doesn't strike me as being a popular choice to focus on
Yes, the terrain of a large section of Syria is a real test of the new higher resolution terrain mesh. It is going to be a real mess to deal with from an infantry standpoint! The stuff around the Lebanese border is particularly nasty.
Syrian equipment will be realistically modeled. If they don't have it, or aren't likely to have it, they won't. The Syrians have had difficulties upgrading their equipment in recent years because the Soviet Union is no more and Russia seems to favor cash vs. credit A lot of smaller stuff has been coming in from China as a result. As one intelligence summary stated, it is unlikely that Syria will be making billion dollar deals like in the past. Small numbers of upgrades are, however, being conducted. One upgrade package for their aging T-72s actual came from Italy of all places. I have seen a little evidence of some T-80s, but I've also seen reports that the deal fell through and they don't actually have any. We'll be doing more research on this as time goes on. Like I said, if we think they have them in a way that warrants simulation (ex: we aren't simulating the handful of BMP-3s they acquired) it will be in the game.
The player is in command of a nebulous Task Force. In some situations it will be fairly large, in others you might find yourself only with a part of your force doing a fairly small and limited action. In others you'll work in conjunction with other forces that won't be available all the time. Some of these forces will be Attached to you directly, others will just be good neighbors of another task force.
Yes, the new Victory Conditions do include ROE (Rules of Engagement) considerations along with others. For example, we will be able to weigh victory for stuff like "get your convoy to x location by y time without taking more than z casualties". We can do this in a way that is not necessarily apparent to the player ahead of time, or it can be explicate. In other words, Victory Conditions in CMx2 are going to be nothing like what they were in CMx1. That's one of the reasons why we expect CMx2 to be far more interesting
Since helos are a common component of CAS, of course they will be included. However, if you don't have them assigned you don't get them. You can't just stop your attack and call up the chain to get something that isn't available just because you want it. Doesn't work that way in real life, shouldn't work that way in the game. Obviously in real life the commander can theoretically make a decision to abort a mission until such assets come into play, but that doesn't make for an exciting scenario. Though I can think of ways it could be. We'll just have to wait and see what we're able to do with stuff like that.
As for the Syrian Air Force... don't expect to see it. An outdated Israeli report figured its lifespan in minutes if just Israel were to go to war with it. Years of penny pinching and diversion of resources into the Army have left the Syrian Air Force quite incapable of playing any significant role in combat.
Steve
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Battlefront.com
Administrator
Member # 42
posted October 08, 2005 03:27 PM
Battles size is whatever we feel the hardware can handle. We're hoping for a near battalion sized force for at least one side, hopefully both. But we'll just have to see.
CAS (Close Air Support) will be handled more directly than CMx1. You need to call it in on a specified target.
No airmobile/para deployments. I think hot LZ type helo ops are out of the picture, thanks to Somalia proving the skeptics of the tactic right. Deployment via this method would likely be outside of the scope of a CM engagement. Like my answer about NBC the amount of coding effort to model the few times it would be used is simply a bad use of development resources.
Special forces might make an entry
Night combat will hopefully be as detailed as you guys expect it to be. We'll just have to see about that.
Steve
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I think the answer they gave (and it is posted in the forum here somewhere) was something like this:
Yes, and yes they will be visible, and NO they will not be under player control.
If you call in a helo air strike and you end up in a similiar situation as CAS in CMx1, helo arrives (sometime) tries to figure out which target you want it to hit, and fires and flies away. (or something like that?)
(please correct me if I did not get that right)
-tom w
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Will this game be serious competition for CMX2 WWII ETO or is it just another pretty RTS wargame?WG: How many units will a player command during a game? Is the player required to personally control all of the units, or can some be delegated to the AI?DP: Players might have up to 100 units under command during the whole mission. One should also take into consideration that a player can discharge tank crews or disband artillery sections and the total amount of units will be fourfold.
Player can watch after each unit, control it, improve its skills (if it is a soldier). Players can also manage a crew\squad. One can order a unit to attack headlong or can do it another way. Give an order for the whole squad and watch how the AI will fight. Since we have an advanced AI system the outcome of the battle might be different every time you play it.
And of course we will have allied units which will assist you in battle, but players will not be able to control them.
(one thing for sure it is pretty)
I am impressed but I am guessing they have no plans to release it for Mac OS X if they do it might come out about the same time BFC releases their CMX2 ETO game.
-tom w
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are those tanks SERIOUSLY leaving tracks in that fresh snow???
it sure looks like they are
WOW
-tom w
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AND and JUST look at the CONTOUR lines on the little map there, maybe they are JUST decorative BUT then maybe they offer REAL contour lines (elevation graduations) on another larger map somewhere in the interface.
I REALLY like the look of that interface!
It looks easy to use and well designed to me, but since we can't actually play the game and find out, that is just conjecture on my part, ( the ease of use comment).
-tom w
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BUT as we have all been told now with their new "limited scope" design philosophy the concept of from "the opening moments of D-Day to the final shots of VE-Day" is nothing more than a pipe dream.Yeh, yeh, some of you still hope to replay the war day-by-day from the opening moments of D-Day to the final shots of VE-Day. Basically, redo CMBO but push it back to the beach.BUT yes, bring on the civilians and the free french and the MOUT and FIBUA (depending on your nationality) in the cities and towns of the ETO of WWII!
-tom w
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VERY interesting
andBook DescriptionInvariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975.
In examining these two events, Nagl—the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass—argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency.
With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians.
Nagl wrote the book on counterinsurgency - before the current war in Iraq, August 22, 2005Reviewer: Mark Steele (PA USA) - See all my reviews
How does an army learn to fight an effective counterinsurgency? Sound relevant to today's headlines? John Nagl asked this question before it was "cool" - before the pundits of CNN or MSNBC knew how to spell "counterinsurgency". This book - Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife - is his answer. John is a scholar and a soldier who combines academic prowess and firsthand experience in counterinsurgency. LTC John Nagl is a West Point graduate (and in the interests of disclosure, a classmate of the reviewer), an armor officer, a Rhodes Scholar, a former instructor of International Affairs at West Point, and a veteran of the insurgency in Iraq.
The insurgency in Iraq had not begun when the hardcover edition of his book came out in 2002. Unfortunately, it's not at all certain that the people who opened the current war in Iraq read it. This 2nd edition includes a new author's preface discussing the relationship between his earlier scholarship and his recent combat experiences in Iraq. He candidly discusses what he now thinks of his own work based upon his first-hand experience with insurgency.
The depth of LTC Nagl's research is evident in every chapter and should satisfy the rigor of academia while, at the same time, his writing style is clear, concise, and leaves little doubt as to his reasoning. To be successful in an age of insurgencies, Nagl concludes that the Army "will have to make the ability to learn to deal with messy, uncomfortable situations an integral part" of its organizational culture. It must, per T.E. Lawrence, be comfortable eating soup with a knife. Victory in a fluid insurgency requires the ability to learn and to adapt and may even require differing victory conditions, organizations, and core competencies depending upon the context.
Nagl's own experiences have only hammered home the truth of this necessity. His unit was required to change its equipment, its organization, and develop new core competencies to transform from a tank battalion focused on a Soviet-style armored threat into a counterinsurgency (see "Professor Nagl's War" in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, Jan. 11, 2004). They integrated people and tools not normally found in a battalion task force in conventional battle (such as Civil Affairs and Counterintelligence teams - see "Soldier Uses Wits to Hunt Insurgents" by Greg Jaffe in the Wall Street Journal, Sep. 10, 2004). They hunted the enemy while at the same time acting as impromptu diplomats, aid workers, military and police trainers, and tribal mediators. This experience in Iraq was what Nagl describes as the most intense learning experience of his life.
This book was worth it - without the new information - as a hardcover at $89.95. At $17 in paperback, "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" should be on the shelf of every American interested in the current situation in Iraq and in how the US can prevail.
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recap
1. Take the punches and just hope to merciful God (and or a school administration figure) that he stops smacking the crap out of you before you are out of the running as junior school bully for good.
1b "The Ghandi approach. Let the bully hit you, beat you, stomp on you. Offer no raction, no resistance, but give him no gratification either. The bully will eventually get bored and go home, and after the bruises heal you can continue as you had before."
2. Try to mount a conventional boxing defense and hope that you can at least score a few pokes before you black out on the pavement.
3. When the first puch is thrown, duck and pop him one in the nuts as hard as your fist can strike, then headbut him in the nose, then knee him in the gut, then puch him in the head on his way down.
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Mac fans unite!
(All hail Steve Jobs
)Its a legitimate request.
good point!
-tom w
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Did I just hear the Great "sucking sound" Steve was refering to sometime ago in reference to the ever growing concern of "feature creep" ??
-tom w
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sort of like this:
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WOW
thats interesting
"Gameplay: Dead before hearing the gunfire?
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is the total conflict simulator. Everything happens for real, including the speed of sound. If the bullet is faster, anticipate a silent death."
OK then it can be done I guess.
- tom w
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Do any other games feature " the speed of sound" (enhancement) simulation you folks are talking about?
Because for SURE that would be TOO COOL!
I am guessing it is not on the "to do" list for this release.
-tom w
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this link says this this about the program.
On April 6, 2004, Iraqi insurgents warned shopkeepers in Ramadi's marketplace that "Today we are going to kill Americans." BATTLECRY IRAQ: RAMADI reveals exactly how they made good on their promise, targeting members of the "Magnificent Bastards," as the Second Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment is known. SHOOTOUT descends into the dangerous streets of this Sunni stronghold to see how the insurgents carried out a well-orchestrated attack, and how the Marines struggled to survive as enemy fire exploded from all sides on that bloody morning.
Those (not so) backward Syrians--and their powerful friends
in Combat Mission Shock Force 1
Posted
There are pics on the link page...
What the hell is this thing????
"hit by an 8-mm speed-of-light man portable gas plasma weapon. Plasma ball entered through skirt armor covering right track, cut through main hull armor (right side), then grazed rear of gunner's seat and control panel before gouging a 2" deep hole in main hull armor (left side). Just like sliding a hot knife through soft butter."
Sounds like science fiction to me
Please tell me more...
-tom w