MOS:96B2P

Thank goodness no one was hurt.
Sad thing is forget the right procedure for clearing a weapon. Some people don't even know that ejecting a magazine is not enough to clear a semi-automatic pistol. I have heard stories of some people killing themselves because of this mistake.
I own a few firearms and I support civilian ownership of firearms, but this all reminds me of how important firearms education is.

The RU guys went to the US Dining Facility. As they entered they were required to clear their weapons. A few of them forgot to clear the round from their chambers, and accidently fired said round into the sand filled metal barrel provided for just that purpose. Doing so is frowned upon.

The IDF is trying its best to reduce IDF casualties.  If there is a sniper(s) in a building shooting at them, should they run in there and try to kill the sniper?  That could mean dozens of casualties for the IDF.  The Israelis are sick and tired of taking casualties.  Calling in an airstrike is the obvious thing to do.  Especially since it is a proven fact that Hamas is using tunnels.  Hamas doesn't care about civilian casualties.  The more the better as this will continue to sway world opinion against Israel.  And since when do you ever want to make combat in war a fair fight?  In WWII they didn't hesitate to flatten a building if it had German soldiers putting up a strong defense.  I doubt anyone even asked if there were civilians in the building. 
At least Israel is trying to persuade the Palestinians to evacuate N. Gaza until they can clear out Hamas.  I wouldn't be surprised if they then ask the Palestinians in S. Gaza to move back to the North (or maybe to the West Bank) so they can clear out Hamas in the South.  They will have to provide refugee camps at that point because there won't be much left standing in N. Gaza.  Hopefully this will provide construction jobs to the Palestinian refugees that will allow them to rebuild and bring back some prosperity to the region.  Something like Germany or Japan. But I'm prolly just dreaming here.
On a side note, some of these liberal colleges that have been having pro-Hamas rallies are starting to get a taste of what it is they are supporting:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/6/chabad-screening-oct-7-hamas-attacks/
or this one:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67629181
The world shouldn't forget what Hamas did to start all of this violence.  I think the IDF believe that using extreme force in the short term will save lives (Israeli and Palestinian) in the long run.
Anyways, Is there a way in SF2 to simulate civilians in a building with rebels, where you get points for not destroying the building?

Actually the same people who were attacking us in Iraq, were also blowing up gas stations full of civilians lined up waiting for gas, shooting up crowds of students waiting to sign up for school, and/or blowing up busloads of people heading out on a pilgrimage or the Hajj. So although they might be guerillas when they attacked Coalition forces. They were terrorists in every other sense of the word.

It definitely is traditional ...

Anyway, to post something else than memes. About the people in discussions.
I of course can't talk about Polish discussion boards and comment forums, but on Czech ones, there's a lot of anti-Ukraine comments. There's also a lot of passionate pro-Ukraine people of course.
What you notice though is that from the anti-Ukraine comments, the people tend to write with strange quirks. Like spell a word consistently wrong (Czech pronounces i and y the same but we have stringent rules on when to write which, that they beat into you over 9 years or elementary school) or use subtly different word in a context that kind of makes sense but doesn't sound quite right, or use the wrong grammatical case (like imagine mixing up "American dude" and "dude of America" in English).
I discussed this with a friend who is a linguist specializing in Slavic languages, and we were able to trace a lot of the quirks to features of Russian language, pointing to them being a native Russian speaker.
You don't see those quirks with people who are pro-Ukraine, of course.

Even with overhead observation this Russian assault group gets their heads handed to them.

Big if true, but aware that I am citing just one (aggregator) source here, will try to find corroboration elsewhere. But Teplinski is a paratrooper, and VDV is his go to, as they have been since the start of the war.
...And maybe you heard it here first, but if pushed to extremis, VDV might also become the next Wagner!  They've never been totally in the Stavka chain of command -- that's by design from Khrushchev's day -- and they control the Tula-Ryazan and Ivanovo logistical hubs either side of Moscow. Plus Pskov, which sits in the Novgorod lakes region, adjacent to both the Baltics and Petersburg.
At what point do Teplinski and the sailor shirt lads (Spetsnaz, PMCs, GRU) start wondering why they have been shedding buckets of blood to shore up Putin's aging KGB alumni association and the Petersburg mafiyas, plus the bloody heathen Chechens? They've got their own mafiyas, btw.

There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your Deep Battle doctrine. 
 

Not to get technical, but amendments to the constitution were passed, according to a process laid down by the constitution to end slavery and give women the right to vote. 

So, the outcome various compromises may have been their "intent" as stated, they also intended the constitution to be modified via a process they laid down.

Not sure women as chattel was ever mentioned in the constitution.  It may have been common practice, but it was not a status proffered by the constitution.

Just a little constitutional nerdery.

How about we look at it on a contractual basis. Each member of NATO agreed to use a specific percentage of their budget (I don’t remember if it was GDP, Defense, or something else), and a number of NATO members reneged on that contractural agreement for decades. Now be it known that I wouldn’t vote for Trump if he was running for Dogcatcher against Putin or Xi, but I supported his effort against supposed allies which failed to carry their fair share of the load, whether they purchased their arms from the U.S. USSR/Russia, India, China, or South Africa, and whether they maintained their fighting forces from their own populations, or with Mercenaries from Sudan. The bottom line is that those NATO members who did not follow through with the obligations to which they had committed, violated the Accord and broke their contract. They deserved to be threatened by Trump.

Some new impressions from the Campaign "Our Father":



 
 

What were we saying recently about the state of Russian aviation?
Boeing-777 with 422 passengers on board crash-lands in Russia (yahoo.com)
An Aeroflot Boeing-777 made an emergency landing in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, while flying from Moscow.
Source: Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti; Telegram Mash
Details: Chassis issues were the reason behind it. The pilots were able to land the aircraft in spite of the difficulties.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) gave the Russian Federation a "red flag" rating for flight safety. There are only four nations with a "red flag" in the world: Bhutan, Congo, Liberia, and Russia. Such an evaluation points to significant declines in Russian aviation safety.
Foreign aircraft account for about 70% of the Russian Federation's civilian fleet, which handles 95% of all air traffic. The Russian air fleet has decreased from approximately 900 aircraft in early 2022 to less than 800 aircraft in just one year. The industry will decline with the departure of Western aircraft. Russia has only 150 passenger aircraft of their own production, but there are numerous issues with these.
Airlines face a choice: disassemble aircraft into parts or use non-original parts, risking safety. Lack of insurance and problems with spare parts complicate the operation of aircraft.
The situation turned out to be so acute that the Russian Federation's Ministry of Transport approved every asset for repairing foreign aircraft, including the use of third-party parts. At least 50 aircraft, or 25% of the total fleet of the biggest airline Aeroflot, are grounded due to a shortage of spare parts.

I mean... the man was over 90 years old when Crimea happened. I suspect that most politicians who've consulted him for the last >30 years more or less just wanted a picture of them posing with a political A+++ celebrity rather than actual, relevant advice.
A lot of people seem to credit him with superhuman intelligence when basic medical science ought to caution us about the cognitive abilities of people >80 years old (at best). When a man reaches the age where odds are that he struggles with how the remote works, his abilities to keep abreast of and judge current political affairs are likely somewhat restricted to put it mildly.

Alright folks, I need some sleep. This is gonna be my last post for the day. I leave you with some optimistic clips of the international community showing solidarity with Ukraine I found on Twitter today, but did not want to post individually.
 
 
 

That is a deeply unfair and frankly insulting post. You are talking about a man who is living inside Ukraine and who bases his pessimistic view on his assesment of war weariness level of the ordinary Ukrainians. Something you by definition would not know about, and the Western press would not report about - not newsworthy enough. Frankly, In this forum on this subject only the opinion of Haiduk and Zeleban matters, as they are the only ones who can take a measure of that metric. And you are saying that Zeleban thinks that people he meets every day are losing the will to fight not because he sees the symptoms of that, but because he has been "inadvertently convinced by Russian propaganda"? What hubris!
Shame on you.  

Pal, sometime when I read your last posts I recall Denetor, who looked at palantir during a siege of Minas-Tirith %) Of course, we had very hard year and broken hopes, but I not shure that all go to complete bad scenario. What I fully agree - when Russia asks "Iran, give me 1000 Shakeds!", Iran answers "here you are!", when Russian asks N.Korea "Kim, give me 10000000 shells", N.Korea (China) answers "Here you are". But when Ukraine asks "Allies! Give me... Patriots, Leos, Abrams, shells" aliies answer "well, we will support you till the end! But... we need to gather Ramstein through two months, conduct discussions, discuss all pro- and contra... And memento escalation of course" 
And only small Denmark silently says "Psss... I heard you need arty? We have some cool stuff. Take all wahat we have. We anyway will not make war with Norway or Germany"

Clever, the renamed TV channels are like the icing on the cake. 😀

I did 20+ years in the US Army. I went to Desert Storm and did 2 tours in Iraq. You have no idea at all about our professionalism and our capabilities. You know even less about Americans and what we will or will not fight for. Drop this stupid argument, and let's get back on topic.

They actually did go and fight and die in those countries.  WTF are you even thinking?  Dude you are really into an alternate history world now.

Russia's oil deals with India should terrify countries trying to abandon the dollar (yahoo.com)
To be able to buy Russian oil, India insisted on settling trades in the rupee earlier this year. That's because using US dollars could expose it to secondary sanctions, and it worries about acquiring rubles at a fair rate on the open market.
However, Indian authorities have controls on the rupee and the currency is not fully convertible — which means it can't be easily changed into another currency.
This poses a problem for Russia, which found itself stuck with lots of rubles in Indian banks earlier this year.
India actually encourages the rupees to be spent in India itself. The problem for Russia is that there's not much it wants to buy from India.
The currency issue is not just a problem with India — sources tell Reuters that it's affecting other top buyers in Africa, China, and Turkey too.
To get around its rupee conundrum and reduce its currency risks, Russian officials and oil executives have instead been pushing Indian buyers to pay them in Chinese yuan. It's also subject to controls and is not fully convertible, but Russia imports a lot more from China, including cars, machinery and other goods.
Yet the Indian government is increasingly uncomfortable with yuan trade, since there are currency conversion charges involved and geopolitical rivalry between Delhi and Beijing.

Short update:
4 of 5 campaigns are running their final test 👍 this means, 44 single missions are almost ready for the release.
But there will be a small delay until the last campaign "Our Father" is finished, because I have enlarged this campaign 😉
More news to come...
 
Regards
Mr.X

Alarmeinheiten (Alarm unit) is an almost complete new scenario for CMRT.  It is actually a mini-campaign but with only one actual, three hour long, battle scenario.  The first scenario is a “choice” scenario where the player is able to choose some of the vehicles he will command in the “real” battle scenario.  It includes ammo dumps so it is recommended to play on Iron or Elite. 
Description: Command a German alarm unit (Alarmeinheiten).  Maneuver the alarm unit in multiple attacks and counter attacks across a 13½ square km map.  Axis vs Soviet AI only.    
The original idea was to attempt to get many of the rare and seldom seen vehicles into the scenario.  Upon reviewing the scenario @Sgt.Squarehead pointed out that while it might be fun it would not be realistic to have so many different rare and limited vehicles fighting together in the same units on the same section of front at the same time.  As a result, the “choice” scenario was created.  The player can choose mostly standard and common vehicles or many limited and rare vehicles.  The three hour long battle scenario will then be fought with the choice made in the first scenario.  The four AI plans are the same for both.  Only some of the player's vehicles are different depending on the choice.                
The scenario was inspired by @theforger excellent CMFB Mission to Maas scenario which I recommend.  See link below.
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-mission-to-maas-v2/
The map used for the scenario is a modified Der Ring Der Five Panzer map made by @George MC.  George gave permission to use his map which is about 13 square kilometers.  Der Ring Der Five Panzer is an excellent scenario which is so huge it plays like a static campaign.  I recommend this scenario.  See link below.
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-add-ons-scenarios/der-ring-der-5-panzer-division/
The scenario currently has three of four AI plans completed.  It also has placeholders for partisan units and an SS unit.  It should be ready for release soon after CMRT Fire & Rubble is released. 
Some of the recent screenshots posted in the CMRT screenshot thread have come from testing this scenario.  Below are a few more screenshots.
A dust trail from the alarmeinheiten on the move responding to a Battle Position in danger of being overrun.

Elements of the alarmeinheiten approaching the assembly area prior to a counter attack to relieve a besieged Battle Position. 

  

@jtsjc1 I have a project in development for Christmas release. A humble battle pack for single-player versus AI of my CMFI Korea 1950 mod. 

Trump is playing to his base, it is theatre.  Even he is not dumb enough to destroy NATO because it is the largest arms market on the planet.  He talks  but in his single term, that is about all he did.  It spooked people but in the end US spending on NATO remained static.  And now the US and Europe have an actual reason to invest in NATO.
As to willingness to fight, well the US just fought two of the longest wars in its history, on the other side of the planet, for a whole lot less reasons than Russia is providing it.  In fact an overt Russian war in NATO might help fix the political divides in the US.  The first US soldiers killed in this Russian invasion are going to give cause to both sides of the aisles.
As to numbers.  Well, if only 10% of NATO nations are willing to fight, that is about 100 million people.  If we can only put 10% of that into the field that is 10 million troops. Given the crazy defence/offence ratios we are seeing, for Russia to not die on the start line it will need somewhere around half its current population to have a hope of breaking a NATO defence in depth.  And this is before we even bring nuclear weapons into the discussion.  And all this after Russia shattered its hands in Ukraine.  The RA of 2023 is nowhere near the RA of 2022.
I mean let’s just cut the BS on all this.  This entire narrative “Russia is going to roll on over Europe and we will let it because: Trump/we are weak and pitiful” is nothing more than a pretty transparent attempt at fear mongering to motivate people to call their congressman or member of parliament and go “oh good gosh we had better support Ukraine or we will be next!”
Stop it.  Like guilt and shaming this is just a bad approach that is more likely to push support the other way.  How about we support Ukraine because 1) it is in our interests to contain Russia, 2) it is in our interests to be seen containing Russia, by China and 3) it is the right thing to do.  No amount of guilting or whatever is going to work.  If we can’t/wont do 1,2 and 3 then the West is doomed anyway.

It Ain’t What You Don’t Know That Gets You Into Trouble. It’s What You Know for Sure That Just Ain’t So. (misattributed to Twain)
And no, this isn't advocating antivaxx.
...But the moment you or any other right thinker gets put in charge of defining The Truth and suppressing Falsehood, it's only a matter of time before you start legislating your own prejudices and falsehoods from the bench as well. Nobody is wise enough to know the boundary.
That's why we Westerners try to leave as much as possible up to individual conscience and choice, in spite of the many inefficiencies and risks that inhere in that.

Sorry, 'solving the problem of information security' as in imposing censorship?
The Committee for Public Safety? The House Un-American Activities Committee?
Look, Russia does what it can, no doubt (and mainly without effect), but the troubles of the West are overwhelmingly of our own making, and not within Putin's or Xi's control.
P.S.  And not to drag this thread back into the pointless swamp of politics, but IMHO, the A Number One on the list of 'troubles of the West overwhelmingly of our own making' is that it is only China that is able to do sh*t like this today:
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/23/solar-module-prices-may-reach-0-10-w-by-end-2024/
Last project I contracted out, it was USD 26 cents, and that was record beating low! And that after huge plant fires and a polysilicon shortage.  Say what you like about China guys, and I've been a China cynic for years. But that is pure Godzilla-sized scale economy in action.... Arsenal of Democracy level mojo, without the Democracy part.
Now just take out solar modules and put in 'cheap FPV drones'.  Then see if you don't feel an uncomfortable feeling in your guts.