Military Meets, Exceeds Recruiting Goals

Once again, another item for the MSM didn't tell me this file. Well, at least not in the main news section. AP via Yahoo reports.

WASHINGTON - Though Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war in SEARCH

Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday it is having success enlisting new troops. The Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals last month while the Army and Marine Corps exceeded theirs, the Defense Department announced. The Army, which is bearing the brunt of the work in Iraq, did the best. It signed up 6,485 new recruits in November compared with its target of 6,150 — meaning 105 percent of its goal.

All the services turned in similar performances in October as well, meaning they so far are meeting their goals for the 2007 budget year that began Oct. 1.

"The services are starting off well," said Maj. Stewart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman.

The progress in recruiting comes as U.S. pessimism over the Iraq campaign mounts, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll. Some 63 percent of Americans said they don't expect a stable, democratic government to be established in Iraq, up from 54 percent who felt that way in June.

Despite what the MSM tells us, there are still scores of brave young men and women willing to stand tall and answer their Nation's call.I salute each and every one of them.

Open Post Thanks to Adam's Blog, Jo's Cafe, Pirate's Cove, Bullwinkle Blog, and Third World County.

Navy Eyes Fighting in Cyberspace

Chief of Naval Operations Mullen has tasked a development group with creating new concepts that will help the service fight adversaries in cyberspace. Military dot com reports.

In an Oct. 16 memorandum, Mullen calls on the Strategic Studies Group to give him a "high-level blueprint that encompasses your longer-term view, as well as a roadmap that includes immediately actionable steps -- operational, process, and technological -- that our Navy may take to begin developing the capabilities" needed to master the cyberspace warfare domain in the next 25 years.

The one-page document is addressed to the group's director, retired Adm. James Hogg, and is titled "Strategic Studies Group XXVI Theme -- 'Fighting in Cyberspace in 2030.'"

The Strategic Studies Group, located at the Naval War College in Newport, RI, "generates revolutionary naval warfare concepts" that appear to have potential, but are not being pursued by other Navy organizations, according to the group's Web site.

The group "is tasked only by and reports directly to the CNO," it adds.

Each year, the study team focuses on an issue of special interest to the chief of naval operations, according to a Naval War College Web site.

Mullen opens the memo by calling cyberspace a "new dimension to warfare" that is not only a "seamless blend of sensors, networks, and advanced information technologies, [but] it is also different in principles and concepts."

The group is charged with first understanding the relationships between cyberspace and "traditional maritime domains" like warfare and naval competition.

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US Military Trains Bomb-Sniffing Bees

In the latest version of "drone"warfare, DOD scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory said in an online statement published Monday they had developed a method to harness the common honey bee's exceptional olfactory sense to sniff out explosives used in bombs or IEDS.

"The new techniques could become a leading tool in the fight against the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which present a critical vulnerability for American military troops abroad and is an emerging danger for civilians worldwide," the research laboratory said.

The scientists used Pavlovian techniques on the bees' natural response to nectar, a sticking out of their tongue, or proboscis extension reflex.

By rewarding them with sugar water, the scientists taught bees to give the same reflex action when they were exposed to vapors from explosives such as dynamite, C4 plastic and TATP (triacetone triperoxide), often used by suicide bombers.

"Scientists have long marveled at the honey bee's phenomenal sense of smell, which rivals that of dogs," said Tim Haarmann, principal investigator for the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project. "But previous attempts to harness and understand this ability were scientifically unproven. With more knowledge, our team thought we could make use of this ability."

The rest of the story can be found here.

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Okinawans Embrace U.S.Military More Than Do Democrats

In a recent election, Okinawans have proven to support the U.S. military more than the Democratic party -- AFP via Yahoo reports.

Japan's southern island chain of Okinawa elected an ally of conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as governor, rejecting calls to scale back one of the US military's key overseas deployments.

The election had turned into a referendum on the troops in the subtropical islands, which host three-quarters of the US military facilities in Japan, one of Washington's closest allies.

Voters backed Hirokazu Nakaima, who is supported by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. He has said he will negotiate with the central government over the troop presence and avoid confrontation.

With all the votes counted, Nakaima had 347,303 votes with challenger Keiko Itokazu, who had campaigned actively against the US troops, receiving 309,985 votes. A pro-independence candidate trailed in third place.

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