NATO appoints Libyan Operations Commander - a Canadian

Following the appointment of Canadian Forces Lt. General Charles Bouchard to command the Libyan no-fly zone and other noncombat operations, NATO Europe has elected to appoint a special subordinate officer directly under him to make sure the Continental perspective is considered in all command decisions.

Of particular concern to the European NATO partners is Bouchard's long association with US forces.  The ultimate sticking point for NATO Europe is the award to Lt. General Bouchard of the US Legion of Merit, a decoration traditionally awarded in American service to any senior officer who completes a foreign deployment without contracting an STD.

Europeans are constitutionally incapable of trusting anyone lacking a social disease, so this is a significant concern for them.

NATO Europe has therefore assigned Belgian Bridgadier Maurice "Au Secours" Sproutes-Brusselles(shown, far right) to work beneath Bouchard.

Sproutes-Brusselles, late of the 3.me Chassées Belges ("The Whippets") has the sort of military record any European force can respect.  Since his days as a cadet in his youth he has been overrun by some of the most distinguished military formations on the Continent.  He has served Belgium as expected in numerous overseas deployments, and was decorated for his gallant retreat along with several subordinates from Stanleyville in the Belgian Congo during that country's war for independence, an engagement referred to by Congolese veterans of the struggle as "Le Barbecue Blanche".

Sproutes-Brusselles will be tasked by NATO to coordinate directly with the Arab League's representative for strategy and planning, Mohammed Hussein Akhbar al-Tikriti, regarded in the Middle East as a distinguished Western scholar who has read every book Michael Moore has ever written.  His thesis, "The Effect of Sustained Application of Machetes on Third World Social Stability" is still required reading at St. Cyr.

When asked to comment on the appointment, the US Commander of the Sixth Fleet, tasked with continuing actual combat operations against Libya under NATO command, went on the record as stating:

"This will get out of control... this will get out of control and we

will be lucky to live through it!"

Mickey "Scraps" Mikowski
CSM 2nd Michigan Citizens' Militia (Ret.)
is Three Beers Later's Special Guest
Military Affairs Correspondent
                  

Libyan Mess Not Obama's Fault

A Three Beers Later Exclusive feature by Mickey "Seconds" Mikowski, CSM 2nd Michigan Citizens Militia (Ret.), Military Correspondent...

The recent embarrassment of US/NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war, where it has become evident that we have fired $200 million in Tomahawk missiles and uncounted millions in air strikes culminating in the loss an F-15 on behalf of Al Qaeda and its associates, cannot strictly be blamed on the poor judgment, ideological blindness and provincialism of President Barack Hussein Obama.

Personally, I blame the water.  I don't know what it is about large bodies of water, but put a Democrat near one...

...whether it's Pearl Harbor...

...the Bay of Pigs...

...the Gulf of Tonkin...

...Chappaquiddick...

...the Gulf of Mexico...

...or the Gulf of Sidra...

...put a Democrat near water and people wind up dead.  Mebbe that's why so many of them don't wash.

Californians Cock Snook, Fist at Feinstein!

Mickey "Scraps" Mikowski
CSM 2nd Michigan Citizens' Militia (Ret.)
is Three Beers Later's Special Guest 

Military Affairs Correspondent

Even as Harry Reid was scurrying away from the kitchen light and killing Dianne Feinstein's proposed Assault Weapons Ban as fast as his underworked gavel would let him, thousands of Californians were flocking to the Crossroads of the West Orange County Gun Show in  Costa Mesa, at the famous Orange County Fairgrounds.

The doors opened early and the lines started long as citizens showed up to grab every single bullet DHS hadn't optioned yet.

People Like Bullets 

Although the lines were long and the buying was heavy, there were signs that the hoard buying and fast and furious gun buys (get 'em while you still can) have peaked.  Ammo was available in quantities and a wide variety of calibers at the ammo tents and inside the halls the tables had an abundance of rifles little and big, old and new, brown, black and shiny, although oddly very few people seemed threatened by them.  The tables were full of high-cap magazines  (in CA?!) and other accessories, while word from the ammo manufacturers was that things might start opening up as soon as April.

The show even offered an exciting new commute option for people who read the news:

THE SURVIVAL TRUCK!  This armor-plated angel is the ultimate ride for the good citizen who wants to get gone and stay gone in style!

"Can I get that in a hybrid?"

"Why no, Sparky, no you can't..."

There were other odds and ends available at the show, from appropriately offensive T-Shirts and caps

 to larimar, a gemstone so rare that it is only mined one place on earth, in one square mile of the Dominican Republic.  I witnessed one gentleman as his girlfriend tried on a larimar piece and he didn't once mumble that she'd just hung the price of a perfectly good Smith and Wesson around her neck.  Good for him!

The gunshow crowd carries proudly on, undaunted.  You can sneer, and you can snort, but they'll still show up, with a ballot or a range card, whichever the world makes necessary.

Special Personal Message from CSM "Scraps":  People have asked me why I retired from the 2MCM.  Well, the fact is, with the Feds claiming veterans, Tea Partiers, gun owners, bloggers, Tweeters,Fox employees, small business owners, home schoolers, Christians, farmers who use water, people who breathe out CO2 and private practice physicians as right wing extremists whether they want to be or not, we're pretty much all in the militia again now, just like the Founding Fathers defined it... if not for quite the reasons they had in mind.  So the 2MCM is a bit redundant at this point.

People have also asked me whatever happened to the 1MCM.  To the best of my knowledge, he's still doing 90 days on that parking ticket warrant.