Thomas Wictor

A person who goes against the crowd should be able to cheerfully accept that most people will be hostile to that differing viewpoint. My temperament prevents me from maintaining an even keel in the face of unreasonable belligerence. It’s not a mystery why.

As I child, I was always right. I could tell what was really happening, and I’d point it out. This made adults furious, so I was forever the target of aggression, belittling, and mockery. Even worse was passive aggression. Deliberate obtuseness.

“Well, how do you know? Were you there?”

A temperament fit for a murderer

In fifty-three years of existence in this cycle, I’ve met few people who are excited by unexpected good news. Generally, I’m required to explain myself over and over and over. That’s never fooled me. It’s manipulation.

“Wait: You lost me. Start over.”

The most venomous presence in American TV history was late-night talk-show host David Letterman. He’s a classic Midwestern male drunk who got more and more bitter and vicious as he aged.

My entire life, I’ve been accosted by David Letterman. He says, “Gee, I went a little too far, didn’t I? Well, I’m sure sorry, old trout. No hard feelings?”

He doesn’t understand that it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to pop out his eyeballs with my thumbs and say, “No hard feelings now.”

I just don’t have the temperament to deal effectively with poisonous aggression. Most people want to inflict some sort of damage on others. Which is why I’m a hermit.

But!

For those who enjoy an unconventional take on the world, I keep blogging.

Wrong temperament or not, I was right

Today someone sent me a link to a video of a demonstration given for King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the end of Excercise Northern Thunder, which involved 150,000 men from 20 nations. The video is over two hours long, and a lot of it is ceremony, but it proves that I was right about Arab League, African, Asian, and Central Asian military capabilities.

In around 2010, Israel conceived of C6ISR units or strategic special forces. “C6ISR” stands for “Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Cyber, Commando, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance.” This is a major revolution in war-fighting. C6ISR forces are armed with the most destructive weapons in human history.

In the past, many weapons were said to be so deadly that they’d make war impossible. The machine gun, for example.

The problem with the machine gun, artillery, mortars, and bombs is that they only kill combatants or civilians. Political leaders are never made to pay a price for waging war, unless you level an entire nation.

Now that’s changed.

Israel and the Arab League are armed with weapons such as EMPFAE (electromagnetic pulse fuel air explosive) munitions, which can wreck all of the enemy’s equipment but leave him alive. His cities can be ruined but not destroyed. The force of these precision weapons can be directed and minimized or maximized. This is why Russia fled Syria in one day. This is why the Islamic State is being effortlessly defeated in Syria. This is why Hezbollah went back to Lebanon.

The most famous myth of World War I is the Angel of Mons. Several versions of this story exist. My favorite is the one in which angels impervious to bullets and artillery saved a British unit from certain death.

Fighting Israel or the Arab League and its allies would be like taking on angels impervious to your puny weapons.

A temperament for winning

Here’s the demonstration for King Salman, put on by Saudi and allied troops. It’s two hours, so I’ll highlight some things.

First, this is a demonstration of expeditionary forces. Unconventional warriors. I figured that a C6ISR unit would comprise about 800 men organized as follows.

I was in the ballpark. Nobody will likely ever share the details of C6ISR units, but what you see in the demonstration is speed, mobility, firepower, and stealth.

Here are Oerlikon GDF 35mm antiaircraft cannons.

I couldn’t figure out why they’re covered. Well, it turns out they’re Pakistani.

That stanchion-and-netting camouflage is unique to Pakistan.

Royal Saudi Navy Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma.

The army and navy are trained to operate as one.

Special Forces gun truck, the first time the Saudis have revealed this capability.

One such gun truck was videotaped with the Syrian Democratic Forces (QSD).

I’m now positive that three of the men above are Saudis.

The trucks are armed with heavy machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, and rockets.

Jet-powered reconnaissance-surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the United Arab Emirates. New design.

Even at this exercise, a Royal Guardsman armed with an assault rifle protects the king.

The joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) calling in the airstrikes is a Saudi Royal Air Force major-general.

In the Saudi military, generals must have hands-on experience in battlefield tactics.

Wrong temperament. Again

Hey, Jew-haters: THIS is weaponized white phosphorus.

Bell OH-58 Kiowa so heavily modified that I can’t tell you anything about it.

It’s a gunship, but it has many weird extra parts.

UAE 155mm G6 self-propelled howitzers, built in South Africa.

Below is a Saudi M113 A300 armored personnel carrier (APC).

It has no visible armament. I’m pretty sure that it’s there to protect the tanks, Israeli style. Shhhhhh.

Here are Saudi YPR-765 PRATs (Pantser-Rups-Anti-Tank), Dutch vehicles that have a turret for firing BGM-71 TOW antitank guided missiles (ATGMs).

The Saudis don’t have any YPR-765 PRATs.

All the weapon systems you see above have been inserted into Yemen and Syria. The Arab League is managing to keep it off camera. Think about that for a while.

More lousy temperament

Here’s a comparison to the Arab League. These are Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian Basij, Hezbollah, Afghans, and Iraqis.

They have no training whatsoever. For some reason Middle Eastern terrorists always prance when they fire a weapon on full automatic.

That guy hit nothing he aimed at. The AK-47 is built with what they call “loose tolerances.” Basically, the parts have giant gaps between them. When you fire an AK-47 on full auto, it’s totally inaccurate because everything flexes.

Compare that to an American M-16 fired full auto. VOLUME WARNING.

Arab, African, Asian, and Central Asian special forces have more accurate weapons, and they train to hit the target. This is Iranian marksmanship.

Uniforms and equipment don’t make the soldier. I have no doubt that these men below are professional special operators.

I wanted to see Arab League and allied strategic special operators in action, but they’ll only give me glimpses. That’s fine.

“Tell brave deeds of war.”

Then they recounted tales,—
“There were stern stands
And bitter runs for glory.”

Ah, I think there were braver deeds.

—Stephen Crane

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