The EU has passed new “terrorist content” regulation that will require Social Media platforms to remove content deemed to be terroristic by any government within the EU. The law passed last year, but the regulations took effect Tuesday, June 7th. Content that incites violence is also included.
World
The Washington Free Beacon is reporting that USA Today has been taking money from the Chinese Communist Party. China Daily, a CCP-owned and operated agit prop publication, has bought over a quarter million dollars in advertising from USA Today, which lost 62 percent of its circulation in one year.
The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
To make it easier for readers to follow story source links: anytime you see a bracketed number marked in green – [1] – those are the source links relating to that story.
North America
The United States remained largely quiet during the week, despite a sudden spate of shootings that are possible “copy cat” crimes, seeking to emulate the school shooting in Uvalde, TX on May 24th, even as emerging details of the police response to that incident have left the governor of the state, Greg Abbott, “livid” at being given untrue information. [1]-[4]
Elsewhere, only two handwritten-note bomb threats were received at schools in the country this week, although several threats to both schools and businesses resulted in swift arrests. [5]-[9]
The last incident of note for North America this week comes from Kiel, Wisconsin. The city police received a threat from an as yet unnamed person or persons, threatening multiple targets in the city if a Title IX investigation by the school district against several students is not dropped “immediately.” Additional threats have been received, including one that came after the school district closed its investigation. The incident in question – as reported by the NYPost, on May 14 – involved three 8th grade students being investigated for sexual harassment on the grounds of refusing to refer to another student by their chosen pronouns. A “Title IX investigation” is a legal requirement for schools that requires school districts to immediately investigate any formal claim that sexual harassment of any kind has occurred. [10]-[12]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12]
Europe
Turning to Europe, the email bomb threat wave struck again, with police and various other government agencies in the Bosnian cities of Banja Luka and Sarajevo received “hundreds” of emailed threats against targets ranging from police stations and hospitals to elementary schools. The emails targeted both Serb and non-Serb entities within the country. No “live” incidents were reported, and no arrests have been made.
Africa
In central Mali, two Egyptian soldiers, part of the UN’s now 13,000 strong MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in the war-torn country, were killed by an IED that was detonated as their vehicle was near the town of Douentza, on the road to Timbuktu. This comes after an attack on a UN convoy on Wednesday, that resulted in the death of a Jordanian peacekeeper, near the town of Kidal, in northern Mali, which wounded three other soldiers. This brings the number of UN peacekeepers killed in action since MINUSMA’s initial deployment in July of 2013, to 174. [1]
As we go to press, reports are coming in from southwestern Nigeria that as many as 50 worshipers have been killed in an attack on the St Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo, in Onda State. No word on the number of wounded, but if the numbers of dead being reported are accurate, the number of wounded is likely very high. As information is still sketchy, the identity and motives of the attackers remain [2]-[4]
Elsewhere in the country, violence – some terror attacks, some simple banditry and kidnapping – continued through the week, with multiple kidnapping and arson attacks. [5]-[8]
In better news, the group responsible for the kidnapping of dozens of victims from a train in March, rescinded their threat to begin killing their hostages if the local government did not free their under-10 year old children, who they claim were being held illegally. State authorities stated that they had located the children, and that negotiations with the kidnappers were continuing. [9]
As well, civilian militias in the northern state of Borno, reportedly killed a Boko Haram local commander and his deputy in a running gun battle on May 31st. Three days later, on June 2nd, the Nigerian Army, working directly with local militias, launched a surprise raid on Boko Haram and ISWAP camps that killed at least 14 terrorists, resulted in the arrest of 15 more, and freed “scores” of prisoners. Additionally, a solid haul of weapons, vehicles and equipment were also recovered. [10][11]
In neighboring Cameroon, meanwhile, Boko Haram terrorists killed three soldiers and four civilians in an attack on the remote village of Hitaoua, in the far north of the country, on May 31st. [12]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12]
Middle East
Sporadic and desultory fighting continued this week throughout Syria and Iraq, as Turkey continues its interventions in both countries, as it continues its war against the Kurdish peoples of the region, in fighting that now threatens US positions in the area.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
Out of Afghanistan, long-time Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video of him swearing allegiance to Taliban leader Hebatullah Akhundzadah, in a renewal of the two groups’ long-standing alliance. Al Qaeda – then under it’s founder, Osama bin Laden – was given a safe haven in the ravaged country by the Taliban in the 1990’s, and became Al Qaeda’s main base of operations, until the US invasion of the country in 2001, after the September 11, 2001 Attacks in the United Sates. [1]
In Pakistan this week, scattered terror attacks continued, with roadside IEDs and hand grenade attacks killing or wounding approximately a dozen troops and civilians. Also this week, in an apparent case of “No kidding,” that the “Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)” group, based in Afghanistan, poses a significant danger to Pakistan…which, considering the frequency of terror attacks by the group in the country, should surprise no one. [1]-[5]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
Finally, turning to India, scattered violence continued in the northern Jammu & Kashmir region this week, that killed four (including two terrorists), as police issued an alert over terrorists using drones (reportedly supplied by North Korea) to drop explosives during attacks, something that has been happening with increasing frequency in the ongoing war between drug cartels. [6]-[11]
[Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11]
When Is It Time To Toss Old Military Equipment?
Military equipment, like all man-made products, breaks down
over time…and sometimes, very quickly. Worse,
items can be rendered obsolescent, if not outright obsolete, before they even reach the field. When things like this happen, it is of course the smart move to retire such gear to museums and movie studios…And yet, some equipment survives: the M35-series 2.5ton cargo truck was produced from 1950 to 1988; the M939-series 5ton cargo truck has been in continuous production since 1982. The B-52 strategic bomber – designed in the 1950’s – is expected to remain in service until the 2050’s. And the C-130 – also designed in the 1950’s – really hasn’t reached its “best by” date.
This is not limited to Western countries, either: the Chinese Type 63 multiple rocket launcher was
first designed in 1961, and went into production some time around 1963…and remains in production to this day. Likewise, the Soviet-design T-54/55 series main battle tank was produced in massive numbers beginning in the early-1950’s, and remains in service in many countries.
But — why? Why do some weapons persist in use, and others barely make it to the battlefield?
While the Freedomist has touched on the subject of supply in the past, in this article, we will look into “procurement rationale”: why does a military adopt a system, and keep it in service, or retire it.
Technology advances. This has always been the case. The times where technology seems to have retreated (and there are very few such examples to study) were brought on by catastrophic impacts on society at large. In general, however, there is a noticeable back-and-forth between offensive and defensive technologies: is it raining on you? Build a house to keep the weather out. Worried about predators dragging you off at night? Build a wall around your house. Are people able to get over your wall? Make it taller and thicker…You can apply this theme to pretty much every endeavor where people have to deal with something other people have invented.
For the budding military Procurement and/or Supply Officers out there, let’s start from zero — we will assume that you have a brand new country, with a brand new military; insert whatever history you find plausible to make this happen…What do you do?
First, you have to determine your country’s needs. This is in no way as easy as a lay person might think.
How large is your country in land area? How much is urban, vs rural? How much arable land is there? How extensive are your road and rail networks? How long is your coastline? What is your country’s population? How many of them are of military age (16 and up)? What is their education level? How extensive is your internal industrial and chemical base?…
We can literally go on all night. This is where all those seemingly pedantic entries in the CIA World Factbook start to look very, very important. For example, most military field manuals (but not technical manuals!) around the world are written at the equivalent reading level of the 8th Grade in the United States (Year 8 or 9 elsewhere). This is because that is deemed the absolute minimum reading level necessary to properly utilize the information that has to be presented – are your military-age citizens capable of reading to that level? The terrain, road suitability, and farming/ranching details all directly impact a military’s ability to form itself, long before discussing what type of operations that force may need to execute. Of no small importance, is the nature of threat your country expects to face.
All of these factors are (or should be) considered when trying to understand why military forces buy the gear they do.
Clearly, a force will need a certain basic level of equipment; the frustrating and terrifying thing, is how frequently even long-established military forces simply ignore this basic notion. Clearly, the factors involved are extraordinarily complicated, and it is easy to take a wrong turn — and sometimes, those wrong turns can be lethal.
The reason military forces are, by and large, conservative to the point of being “hidebound”, is that they know that older systems and techniques work. Old gear that worked in the last war…worked. As well, the limitations, problems and quirks of older systems are well-known, and are usually worked into the training of new recruits. Look back through the historical archives of any established military, and you will find volumes of correspondence deriding new technology as expensive, tactically-useless toys…and frequently, such correspondence is not wrong. Much has been made over the resistance of European militaries’ to deploying machine guns in continental wars, in the decades before World War 1. Part of that was “old Stick In The Mud” intransigence, but also from the very real fact that a Vickers water-cooled machine gun at the start of World War 1, when adjusted for inflation, cost the modern equivalent of just over US$418,000 in 2022 US$ (per George Coppard, “With A Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969)”; the 1914 cost was ₤175). Each. In a time where budgets were incredibly restricted, compared to the modern era, a Procurement Office needed to be absolutely certain that the item in question did everything it advertised.
It is only around the 1980’s that this attitude began to change, with ever-increasing speed. Talk to many professional soldiers of the last forty years, and they will say that the speed of adopting new gear has been too fast.
What are the general considerations for adopting new gear?
First, there needs to be a real need for the item. Many things “look” good or useful, but they really aren’t — or, they may be useful, but only in a limited way, too limited to justify the expense of reequipping a force. Perhaps the classic example of the latter phenomenon is the US Army’s “SPIW” Program. Beginning in the 1950’s, the US Army began looking for a way to increase the lethality of the individual rifleman. While the data this entire project was based on may have been faulty, at best, after forty years of development, the US Army and various NATO Allies carefully watched the adoption of the the G-11, developed by Heckler & Koch of West Germany, by the latter’s army (the Bundeswehr). Although test data indicated that the G-11 was superior to conventional weapons, both ballistically as well as mechanically, it wasn’t superior enough to warrant immediate, widespread adoption; having West Germany adopting it as a “test bed” was deemed acceptable, as the necessary funding would only be for a comparatively small force.
That, of course, is the moment that the Communist Warsaw Pact chose to collapse under its own weight.
As the G-11 was “good” – but not overly so – the idea of an “advanced combat rifle” (as the project had come to be called) was dropped, for many reasons. Logistically speaking, how long would the caseless ammunition remain good in storage, under various conditions? No data – there were estimates, nothing more. Water immersion? Again, no hard data, only estimates. The rifle was “better” than its conventional, established competitors, but not enough to justify retooling the entire military logistical system of dozens of first-line national militaries.
Next, military gear needs to be both durable, and simple to operate. In military circles, this is the polite way of saying “Idiot-Proof“. The damnedest things happen to gear and weapons in the field, even when it is just an exercise, to say nothing of actual combat. It is a generally-held tenet that uniforms – especially boots – can be expected to last about 3 – 6 years in normal, peacetime use…and about 3 months, if that, in actual combat. War is highly wasteful, even when you are winning, and troops need a constant flow of resupply of weapons, ammunition and equipment once the fighting actually begins. This is in addition to losses in transit, be that from simple accidents, enemy air or sea raids on convoys, to enemy guerillas or special forces striking supply bases and convoys in the theoretical “rear areas”, as well as sabotage inside your own country, whether from enemy agents, or sympathizers.
Two other factors, ease of maintenance and reliability, enter the picture here. Military equipment, when needed, will see hard use. That equipment needs to remain in operation for as long as possible, before needing any but the most rudimentary maintenance. As well, when the time comes to perform serious maintenance on a piece of equipment – and it always does – it needs to be easy and fast to pull major components out, get them onto a bench to be worked on, then get them back into place; this was, in fact, one of the strong points of the T-55, mentioned above.
What all this translates to in terms of supply and procurement budgets, at its most basic level, is that you need a minimum of three separate sets of //everything//: if you have 10,000 troops, you need to maintain an additional 20,000 sets of gear for them, on hand, at all times, aside from the normal new-issue and replacement gear amounts…In the real world, supply officers are lucky if they can beg, borrow or steal enough equipment to maintain an extra 10% of everything for their units.
Thus, keeping old gear around, gear that may be dated, but that may still be “good enough”, is something real supply establishments try to hide from the people writing budgets, lest those people (the dreaded and hated “Bean Counters”) insist that one-generation old gear be transferred to client countries, or to the civilian “surplus or scrap” market.
There is, of course, another aspect to this, one that certain defense contractors – and even established militaries, who should know better – do not like to talk about: Amateur Hour.
There used to be a running joke in military circles, that three hundred angry farmers, armed with 100 rifles and 200 machetes, made a revolution. In the post-9/11 world, however, it is no longer a laughing matter. Starting in the early 1980’s small, poorly-funded, badly equipped, yet desperately embattled armies in the Third World began adapting in unexpectedly innovative ways. The clearest early example of this was the “Toyota War“, where the forces of Chad went up against the might of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan Army. On paper, it should have been a cake-walk for the Libyan forces: Chad had no ability to match the Libyans, who were well supplied by the Soviet Union. The Chadians, however, responded by militarizing commonly-available Toyota Hi-Lux and Land Cruisers 4×4 pickup trucks, mounting them with anti-tank guided missile launchers (ATGMs), eventually achieving more or less a standard with MILAN units, supplied by the country’s former colonial master, France. In the process, the Chadians developed what would later be called “technicals“.
Potential rebel forces around the world took note. Eventually, another group would take note, as well — and burn its way into infamy.
In sum, military supply and procurement establishments need to keep up with modern developments in technology and systems, but also need to take care that they don’t bankrupt the nation in order to buy some kind of “New and Improved!” system — unless said system is truly revolutionary, and they can honestly justify the need for the expense.
Conversely, there are many people out there who understand very little of how actual military operations work. In most countries, there is a dedicated military force to handle those things. If a person with no military experience sees their national military forces holding on to what looks like hopelessly outdated gear, or sees them spending hard cash – that came from tax monies – to purchase what looks like pointless “new” gear, take it from a former Supply specialist: take them out to dinner, and politely ask them why. Don’t scream hysterically at them for waste. There is almost always a very good reason behind them doing these things, reasons the local media may have decided are too complex to try and explain…And yes, there is a certain level of sarcasm at that last.
Chairman Xi was in a phone conversation with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in which he declared that the two countries are tied together forever, through good and bad weather, and each should serve the core interest of the other as outlined by the CCP.
China ready to push ties with Zambia to higher levels, broader areas: Xi
From eng.chinamil.com.cn
2022-06-01 03:31:01
Excerpt:
China attaches great importance to its relations with Zambia, and is ready to work with Zambia to consolidate and deepen their friendship and push bilateral ties to higher levels and broader areas, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday afternoon.
He made the remarks in a phone conversation with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.
Noting that China and Zambia are “all-weather friends” with traditional friendship, Xi said the friendship between the two countries is unbreakable.
In the past year, China-Zambia relations have maintained positive momentum of development, with two-way trade hitting a record high and Zambia becoming the country enjoying the most Chinese direct investment in Africa, Xi said, adding that the cooperation between the two countries has huge potential and bright prospects.
Xi stressed that the two sides should view bilateral relations from a strategic height, support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests, strengthen inter-party exchanges, and share experience in governance.
He also called for strengthening strategic communication and policy synergy, fully implementing the nine programs announced by China at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC) in 2021, deepening mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, pushing for more Zambian goods, especially quality agricultural products, to enter the Chinese market, and strengthening anti-epidemic cooperation.
Xi called on both sides to carry forward the Tanzania-Zambia Railway spirit, keep it updated in accordance with the trend of the times, and make the railway an important transportation channel in the region, Xi noted.
From thewillnigeria.com
2022-06-01 17:25:06
Excerpt:
THEWILL reports that the Muslim scholars in the South-West in its reaction to the emergence of Atiku as presidential candidate of the PDP, on Wednesday, insisted on a Muslim of Yoruba extraction as the next president or Vice-President of Nigeria in 2023.
Ibe, who faulted the position of the group, said, “This is unfortunate that a religious group will veer off tandem into the political arena. However, the future that His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, envisages for Nigeria is one country of one people with one future in which every tribe, tongue and faith will stand united. Above all, it is incumbent on religious and community leaders to preach peace rather than division.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced plans to pass draconian anti-gun legislation that would put a freeze on all handgun sales. In addition, it would limit magazine capacity to five rounds and create a buy-back program to confiscate already banned guns like the AR-15 peacefully.
The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
To make it easier for readers to follow story source links: anytime you see a bracketed number marked in green – [1] – those are the source links relating to that story.
North America
Following an unforeseen break last week, The Freedomist’s World Situation Report is back.
For obvious and unfortunate reasons, the first item is the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a disturbed young man killed some 19 children and two school teachers, after mortally wounding his own grandmother. While the incident is certainly a tragedy of the first order, two even more disturbing events occurred in the aftermath. The first was the naked and seedy behavior of a major-party candidate to attempt to politicize the tragedy to try and boost his flailing campaign. [1] In the second, serious questions have been raised concerning the police response to the incident [2], where the shooter was allowed to continue his rampage for some ninety minutes, while police officials – whose leadership had undergone “active shooter” training as recently as December [3] – tried to decide what to do, even as the perpetrator continued to fire, raising serious question as to whether police are capable of acting at all to deal with these types of threats.
Turning to other news around the United States, the bomb threats against schools continue, as more schools received bomb threats via telephone and email, some – again – receiving multiple threats on a near-weekly basis. [4]-[8] Meanwhile, a West Virginia man, Joshua Aaron Edens, was arrested on charges of illegal possession of destructive devices, explosive materials, or incendiary devices (in this case, blasting caps), after police observed him acting suspiciously and discovered the explosive devices buried in a residential home’s backyard…Evens was already on police radar, after police officers executing a search warrant on April 12th discovered some 35 “pipe bombs” in his living room. [9]
On the 23rd, in the town of Waukesha, Wisconsin, police responded to a local resident who stated that they had received a package via mail containing a “mysterious, white, powdery substance”. The resident had noted the strange package on heir doorstep, and was attempting to bring it to the police station, when they saw several Fire Department personnel in the parking lot in front of City Hall, and approached them with the package. As of press time, investigations continue as to the nature of the substance, and its origins. [10]
Finally, in two incidents that may be related, Federal officers arrested a 52-year old Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, an Iraqi man who had filed a petition for asylum in the United States, on charges of aiding and abetting terrorists, as he was attempting to smuggle four other Iraqi men across the Mexican border, in an apparent plot to kill former President George W. Bush. The next day, Mirsad Kandic, 40, was found guilty of conspiracy and providing material support to the IS after a three-week trial in a Brooklyn federal court. According to authorities, Kandic was one of IS’s major recruiting officers, responsible for recruiting “thousands” of foreign volunteers for the terror group. He faces up to life in prison at his sentencing on November 9. [11][12]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12]
Europe
In France, this week, police charged an unnamed 18-year old Muslim man with plotting a knife attack dedicated to the IS. Police said that the man was in possession of a video of himself swearing allegiance to the IS at the time of his arrest. [1]
In Sweden, meanwhile, sentenced to Swedish-born brothers to eight months in prison for attempting to join the IS as active fighters. The pair were arrested in February, because their “recruiting officer” turned out to be an undercover intelligence officer. [2]
Africa
In Burkina Faso, at least 50 civilians of Madjoari, in Kompienga Province, in eastern part of the country, were massacred by terrorists on the 25th, according to government officials. This follows two other attacks directed at civilians in the preceding week, which left some twenty-five dead or wounded. Burkina Faso’s war against Islamic terror groups has killed over 1,000 people and displaced over 1 million since 2015. [1]
In Nigeria, assassinations, bombings and kidnappings continued through the week, as terrorists kidnapped priests and congregants from their church, twelve farmers were massacred and a youth leader was assassinated elsewhere in the country. [2]-[5]
In a surprising twist to a story from March 28, the group who had killed eight and kidnapped an unknown number of people from a train, including a Pakistani national, in the central part of the country released videos of some of their captives as part of a public demand to release their children (aged 1 to 8), who they claim are being illegally held at an orphanage in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State. The kidnappers stated that they had been offered millions of naira (the Nigerian currency) to release the kidnapped victims, but that they had refused, saying expressly that money was not their motive. The group has stated (on May 24) that they would start killing hostages in seven days time if their demands are not met. [6][7]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]
Middle East
The region was remarkably quiet this week, the only issues of note being an attack by IS terrorists on a wheat farm near the northern city of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. The attack, in which the terrorists set fire to the farm, was used to lure security forces into an ambush. After killing three police officers and two civilians who had responded to try and put the fires out, the terrorists withdrew when reinforcements began to arrive. [1]
In Turkey, police in the southern part of the country killed a suicide bomber before he could detonate his vest. This comes two days after police in the country’s largest city, the world-famous Istanbul, arrested a man on suspicion of attempting to organize suicide attacks in the city for the Islamic State group. [2][3]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
In the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a series of bomb attacks on small mini-bus taxis killed nine, and wounded at least fifteen, on the 25th. The same day, a bomb attack on a mosque killed two and wounded ten others. [1] On the 23rd, unknown attackers blew up three power transmission towers in northern Samangan province, which run in from neighboring Uzbekistan, temporarily cutting power to several towns. These attacks have been occurring with greater frequency, as other attacks cut power to the capital city of Kabul two weeks ago. [2]
In Pakistan, two soldiers were killed when terrorists attacked their outpost in North Waziristan on the 24th. Elsewhere, police deployed tear gas and used riot batons to prevent supporters of ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan from reaching the capital Islamabad. Khan, who had been removed from power following a no-confidence vote on April 10th, has called on his supporters to march on the capital and occupy it until the new government is forced to step down, and new elections are held. [3][4]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4]
Finally, in India, the conflict in Jammu & Kashmir continues, with at least ten terrorist suspects being killed in a 3 day period, as a soldier was injured by a landmine, and a police officer and local TV were assassinated (and their children injured) in separate incidents. [1]-[7]
Thankfully, the remainder of the nation was mostly quiet during the week.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]
The “Best” Service Rifle
A common argument, one of the fundamental arguments at a certain low level within military – and “wannabe” circles – is, “What is the best rifle for the battlefield?” We have resolutely avoided this dreaded question until now, because of the most important truism at the heart of the argument: place ten military professionals in a room and ask them this question, and you are guaranteed to get fifteen answers, every one of them passionately and adroitly argued with verifiable facts, figures and real-life examples.
There are many factors that go into this argument, not least, that it is a vital question at a basic level, because not answering it hamstrings any military at its inception, because service rifle selection impacts training, tactics and logistics simultaneously.
What are the features that a “service rifle” must have? There are a lot of considerations that need to be balanced in answering that question.
First, the weapon must be reliable. An unreliable rifle, prone to malfunction, is not capable of performing any other mission, and is both a waste of money, a guarantee of mission failure and a killer of your own troops, whatever its other benefits might be.
Second, the rifle needs to be “ergonomically sound“. This is a modern term, that essentially means that the rifle “handles well”, and is logically designed so that troops can use it when they are tired, dirty, cold, wet and slathered in mud — which they are guaranteed to be, when it counts the most.
Third, a service rifle must fire a projectile that can actually harm an opponent, preferably with lethal effect. There has been a great deal of controversy in the last few decades over this requirement, as more brutally-minded pundits have argued in favor of a rifle that is more prone to wounding opponents than killing them, as a wounded soldier is a severe drain on resources, requiring extensive medical care and rehabilitation, and is also a continuing negative reinforcement to morale. conversely, meanwhile, the dead soldier is simply…dead – his comrades will mourn him, but will usually be able to quickly recoup, and continue their mission.
The notion that wounding a soldier on the battlefield, versus killing him, is – very real psychological degradation aside – a very dangerous strategy for any nation actively seeking to deploy such a rifle, for the very simple reason that history is replete with examples of wounded soldiers – and sometimes horrifically wounded ones (video link) – continuing to man positions and fight on, long after they should have been felled (video link). A wounded enemy is, if anything, frequently much more dangerous than even a live enemy, much less a dead one.
Fourth, the rifle should be semi-automatic. This might seem like a misnomer in the Twenty-First Century, but it is a basic fact that most troops with fully-automatic rifles, who have not been trained as actual machine gunners, tend to waste vast quantities of ammunition to little effect. Forces who spend time on training, as well as experienced fighters without formal training, quickly learn that they get far more effect out of steady, aimed semi-automatic fire. Firing a full magazine of rounds blindly from a rifle is not “suppressive fire“.
Fifth, the rifle should be as light in weight as possible. Combat troops have always carried far more weight than is advisable…unfortunately, this has usually been a necessity. However, while every ounce saved is appreciated by the infantry, shaving too much weight from the rifle makes it prone to malfunction, overheating and inaccurate in rapid fire, to say nothing of fully automatic fire.
Sixth, the service rifle should have at least a twenty round magazine. The current world standard is thirty, given the current military touchstone of the intermediate cartridge.
Seventh, the service rifle should be affordable for the nation’s military. This is another touchy subject, as the lives of a country’s troops is usually seen as a matter of vital importance. However, most countries simply do not have the money to equip all of their troops with the absolute best weapons available (Switzerland‘s reliable, but incredibly expensive Stgw 57 comes immediately to mind), and compromises must be made. Some nations do a better job than others at this.
Eighth, and last, is the requirement for a functional bayonet. This is also a controversial view, as bayonets have historically inflicted few casualties in actual combat, and whose actual use in combat has steadily declined, despite the occasional instance of an actual bayonet charge in the last thirty-five or so years. However, the bayonet will never die as a military weapon, because it is as much a psychological weapon as a physical one; it is as much a statement of determination as desperation, both to the enemy as well as your own troops.
So – how have these eight requirements been applied over the years?
Reviewing a simple list of service rifles reveals a dizzying array of weapons, so many that it is tempting to ignore the list entirely. But…look at that list a different way: you should note that virtually every service rifle adopted in the last sixty years has been in one of three calibers: 5.56x45mm, 7.62x39mm, 7.62x54mmR or 7.62x51mm.
What’s more, throughout conflict zones around the world, were you suddenly transported from reading this to one of those places, you have approximately a 95% chance of picking up one of four rifles: an AR-15/M-16/M4, an AK-type rifle, an FN FAL or a CETME/G3-type, as we have covered in previous installments of this series:
There are two basic reasons for this phenomenon.
First, are the brutal economics of the Cold War: as small, poor nations sided with one bloc or the other, the powerful nations at the core of those blocs were happy to provide their rifle of choice at little to no charge, in trade for influence and control. This encouraged small countries to only buy either that rifle, or a rifle that used that ammunition.
Second, the laws of Supply and Demand and Mass Production meant that three or four basic ammunition types would standardize, eventually. Together with 9x19mm ‘Parabellum’ (in military handguns and most submachine guns) and ’12gauge’ (for shotguns), the standardization of weapons and ammunition around the world were virtually guaranteed. Additionally, there are enough of the above four rifles out there, that their respective characteristics are well known, including their strengths and flaws.
But — what does all this mean for the budding army builder? Knowing all these factors, what service rifle should you choose?
The answer is simply this:
The best service rifle is the one that you can lay hands on in the largest quantity, in the shortest amount of time, that you can train the largest number of people quickly to use, that is at least reasonably reliable…in that order.
That’s it. Really.
The “Big Four” rifles – the AR, the AK, the FAL and the G3 – are: universally cheap (for various reasons); are all battle-proven designs; have had all of their major faults identified and (mostly) fixed; and all have vast quantities of both weapons and accoutrements readily available, virtually everywhere in the world.
You can spend the money on a “shootout” between the various weapons, or read through the exhaustive literature on all of the weapons to decide…of course, there is always the chance that you may need to use whatever is at hand. In that case:
The best service rifle in the world, is the one that will fire when you expect it to.
The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
To make it easier for readers to follow story source links: anytime you see a bracketed number marked in green – [1] – those are the source links relating to that story.
South America
Leading off, this week, a “tear gas grenade” was thrown into a student body election meeting at the Tomas Frías Autonomous University in the city of Potosí, Bolivia on the 9th. In the resulting panic-induced stampede, four young women were killed, and over 80 students were injured. Bolivian police have arrested four suspects: Manfred Flores, 25, Mauricio Quintanilla, 25, Milton Fuentes, 35 and Ariel Quispe, 40, on suspicion (currently) of homicide and possession of a gas grenade.
Bolivian authorities have not speculated on the reason for the attack, and are attempting to discover how the men obtained the grenade, which is normally very difficult to obtain in Bolivia.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
North America
The odd nature of the on-going wave of bomb threats against schools continued to develop in the United States this week, with four incidents of note: two handwritten notes making threats were found, resulting in one arrest [1] and police seeking a “person of interest” [4]; another, in which an 8th Grader apparently called in a threat [2], and another threat made via Instagram [3]. As usual, there were many other similar incidents, but those stories had too little information to reference. While these threats are widely dispersed, they do cluster, and this new tack in the course of the wave remains an object of interest, deviating from the previously reported robocall format.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4]
Europe
French authorities are investigating an IED attack on the Turkish Consulate General on Friday, which caused minor damage to the building.
[Source]
Africa
In Mali, four soldiers were killed and one was wounded, when their patrol vehicle struck an IED near Djenné in the central part of the country. Two children were killed and four other people were wounded in Diondiori, also in central Mali, by what officials describe as “shellfire” from “Armed Terrorist Groups“, as authorities frequently do not know which of the many groups that have been fighting inside the beleaguered nation since 2012 are responsible. [1]
In neighboring Burkina Faso, meanwhile, army units reported that they successfully ambushed a group of terrorists in Mouhoun Province, killing 40, and capturing a large amount of weapons and equipment. In another incident, however, other terrorists attacked a prison in the town of Nouna, on the border with neighboring Mali, freed and escaped with all 60 prisoners, leaving one person dead. [2]
Burkina Faso has battled their insurgency since 2015, when fighting in Mali spilled over the border.
In what may be a disturbing expansion of the ongoing war in the north, the nation of Togo saw an attack on an army outpost in the Kpendjal prefecture on its northern frontier border with Burkina Faso. Officials report that some eight troops were killed and 13 wounded. Togo has remained largely free of violence in the last ten years, but that could be changing, as violence continues moving south. [3][4]
In related news, the West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism (WACCE) released a report warning that the nation of Ghana, which has also escaped the violence to its north so far, was increasingly exposed to danger, pointing out that some 53% of ECOWAS (the “Economic Community of West African States”) nations are currently in the midst of mostly Islamist terrorist insurgencies, and that the contagion is spreading.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
In Nigeria, the last few weeks of relative calm were shattered this week, as a combination of terror groups and simple bandits emerged on the attack, killing dozens (including civilians, soldiers and police), hijacking buses – crucial to Nigeria’s infrastructure – and kidnapping victims that ranged from a pair of nursing mothers to traditional monarchs and tribal chiefs.
Nigeria has been facing both an Islamist insurgency since 2009, but also a wave of resurgent independence movements, as well as criminal violence with increasing frequency.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12]
Elsewhere on the continent, 14 people were reported killed in an attack on a “displaced persons” camp outside the town of Fataki, near the city of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the 10th. The CODECO terror group, accused of being loosely affiliated with IS-CAP, is believed to have been responsible, as they were responsible for an attack on a nearby mining camp on the 8th. The fighting is part of the Ituri Conflict, which has been continuing in fits and starts since 2003. [1][2]
In Somalia, the Somali National Army seems to be taking on more of the responsibility for taking the battle to the Al Shabaab group in the country, as the regional “African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS)” takes an increasingly smaller role in stabilizing the war-torn country. [3]-[5]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
Middle East
Aside from the continual low-level fighting throughout the region, the one item of significant note was a sudden burst of violence in the Sinai Peninsula, as Egyptian forces launched a series of swift and violent attacks on the “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis“, which now calls itself the “Islamic State – Sinai Province“. The conflict has simmered since 2011, but fighting had tapered off in recent years.
[Source]
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have reportedly begun to actively recruit child soldiers, although the Taliban leadership have said that they are forbidding the recruitment of “teenagers”…video footage under the link. [1]
In Pakistan, a spate of attacks this week killed at least eight people, including three children and three soldiers. This comes as the country’s government denied, yet again, that it was harboring terror groups that targeted its neighbors. [2]-[5]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
In India, the long-running conflict in the northern Jammu & Kashmir region saw a burst of violence, as well, this week, with several operations – both jihadist and national – taking place during the week, leading to multiple arrests, but also to the death of a police officer by assassination. [1]-[7]
The week also saw the emergence of a little-known group, JKFF (‘Jammu Kashmir Freedom Fighters’), who hurled an explosive device at a bus loaded with Hindu religious pilgrims. Very little is known about the group, aside from them being ‘broadly‘ Muslim, and “jihadist” in nature. [8]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8]
On Friday, at least 12 schools in the city of Bhopal received bomb threats via email, in a manner similar to a wave a month ago, that targeted schools in the southern city of Bangalore. In this case, some school received as many as 50 emails with bomb threats, coming from several email addresses. Police bomb squads cleared all of the targeted schools, and are continuing their investigation to attempt to trace the emails’ ISP addresses. [9]
India’s “Red Corridor” saw a sudden burst of activity this week, with multiple arrests and arson attacks throughout the troubled region. Small arms and explosives were recovered in several areas. As well, a Naxal couple surrendered to authorities in the Gadchiroli district, citing the constant threat from security forces and wild animals, forced sterilization and separation of couples and attractive surrender policy of the Maharashtra government. [10]-[15]
[Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12] – [Source 13] – [Source 14] – [Source 15]
Finally, Sri Lanka‘s economic crisis – the worst since its independence in 1948 – came off the rails this week, as protests turned into riots, and violence has escalated to the point of the government in Colombo issuing orders to the armed forces to open fire on anyone vandalizing or looting public property. The violence has left over two hundred people injured and eight dead, including a member of Parliament and his bodyguard.
“Security forces have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life,” the ministry said as reported by news agency AFP.
The protests that began on April 9th, are over the country’s downward economic spiral, brought on by a combination of the government’s response to the 2019 Easter Bombings, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, staggeringly bad economic and monetary policy decisions, and the continuing economic shock-waves of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4]
