LESSONS TO LEARN: THE WEAKNESS OF TALIBAN MARKSMANSHIP

From http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/the-weakness-of-taliban-marksmanship/?scp=2&sq=Taliban&st=cse#


NOTE: If you have few arms, little to no manufacturing capacity and a limited amount of ammunition then making certain EVERY ROUND COUNTS is essential.

The Taliban fighting Americans have heart and vast stockpiles of rusty, shoddy small arms and ammunition, and nothing else. They oppress their women and want to stay in the middle ages. The Mujahedeen who fought the Soviets with accurate bolt action Mausers and Lee-Enfield rifles and good marksmanship have bowed out of the war-Thank God every day for that for if the US Government really did something stupid... they've done alot but if those 50-60 year old men get pissed off at us the war will get a LOT WORSE.

Americans on paper know how to shoot, but their small arms are optimized for close in combat as in Iraq. Our troops on paper believe in Freedom but the beast wants to impose a democratic tyranny like we have in the USA on Afghanistan. In a recent article I posted that has turned out to be a clusterfuck. Being corrupt themselves they shortcut-hence the keystone kops writ large Afghan National Police.

Lessons for Americans?

Know how to shoot. The Appleseed Program is a good start-just lie about your identity, carpool so you're not profiled by the fed operatives wanting to know who's motivated to shoot. And avoid having anything to do with "fred". At any rate the Marine Corp manuals on individual marksmanship and squad rifle teams will carry you until you can acquire more potent sniper rifles and true snipers-able to make consistent 1st round hits past 600 yards.

Look HERE:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18341332/USMC-Rifle-Marksmanship

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18336209/Technique-of-fire-of-the-rifle-squad

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18327306/Talking-target-pdf

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18317919/Police-Accuracy

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18314979/Marksmanship-coaches-guide

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/17212871/Marine-Rifle-Squad

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/17210307/How-To-Beat-SWAT-Teams

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/17210301/How-David-Beats-Goliath


Study the Taliban for their use of heavy weapons that outrange the urban optimized M-4's used by our overweighted troops. Substitute accurate individual and team rifle fire.

And although much of America is urban, much isn't. Even in the urbanized areas there are areas where you can use long range rifle fire.

The article: learn!


The Weakness of Taliban Marksmanship
By C.J. CHIVERS
Reuters Taliban fighters training in Afghanistan in 2009.

Last week, At War opened a conversation about Afghan marksmanship by publishing rough data from several dozen recent firefights between the Taliban and three Marine rifle companies in and near Marja, the location of the recent offensive in Helmand Province. The data showed that while the Taliban can be canny and brave in combat their rifle fire is often remarkably ineffective.
We plan more posts about the nature of the fighting in Afghanistan, and how this influences the experience of the war. Today this blog discusses visible factors that, individually and together, predict poor shooting results when Taliban gunmen get behind their rifles.
It’s worth noting that many survivors of multiple small-arms engagements in Afghanistan have had experiences similar to those described last week. After emerging unscathed from ambushes, including ambushes within ranges at which the Taliban’s AK-47 knock-offs should have been effective, they wonder: how did so much Taliban fire miss?
Many factors are at play. Some of you jumped ahead and submitted comments that would fit neatly on the list; thank you for the insights. Our list includes these: limited Taliban knowledge of marksmanship fundamentals, a frequent reliance on automatic fire from assault rifles, the poor condition of many of those rifles, old and mismatched ammunition that is also in poor condition, widespread eye problems and uncorrected vision, and the difficulties faced by a scattered force in organizing quality training.
There are other factors, too. But this is enough for now. Already it’s a big list.
For those who face the Taliban on patrol, the size and complexity of this list can be read as good news, because when it comes to rifle fighting, the Taliban – absent major shifts in training, equipment and logistics – are likely to remain mediocre or worse at one of the central skills of modern war. And the chance of any individual American or Afghan soldier being shot will remain very small. The flip side is that parts of the list can also be read as bad news for Western military units, because Afghan army and police ranks are dense with non-shooters, too.

Limited Appreciation of Marksmanship Fundamentals
Let’s dispense outright with talk of born marksmen. Although some people are inclined to be better shots than others, and have a knack, marksmanship itself is not a natural trait. It is an acquired skill. It requires instruction and practice. Coaching helps, too. Combat marksmanship further requires calm. Yes, the combined powers of clear vision, coordination, fitness, patience, concentration and self-discipline all play roles in how a shooter’s skill develop. So do motivation and resolve. But even a shooter with natural gifts and strong urges to fight can’t be expected to be consistently effective with a rifle with iron sights at common Afghan engagement ranges (say, 200 yards or more, often much more) without mastering the basics. These include sight picture, sight adjustment, trigger control, breathing, the use of a sling and various shooting positions that improve accuracy. (For those of you in the gun-fighting business, forgive this discussion; many readers here do not know what you know.)
Related skills are also important, the more so in Afghanistan, where distances between combatants can be long and strong winds common, especially by day, when most Taliban shooting occurs. These skills include an ability to estimate range, to account for wind as distances stretch out and a sense of how to lead moving targets — a running man, a fast-moving vehicle, a helicopter moving low over the ground. And there are many more.
We noted last week that our discussions about Taliban marksmanship rely on what can be seen and heard of incoming fire; this is because we don’t embed with the Taliban. Without being beside Taliban fighters in a firefight or attending their training classes, it can be hard to say exactly what mistakes they are making when they repeatedly miss what would seem to be easy shots, such as Marines and Afghan soldiers upright in the open at 150 yards. Two things are clear enough. First, for combatants who become expert shots, the skills that make up accurate shooting have formed into habits. Second, many Afghan insurgents do not possess the full set of these skills. This is demonstrated by the results, but also by a behavior easy to detect in firefights: they often fire an automatic, which leads to the next point.
A Frequent Reliance on Automatic Fire
Few sounds are as distinctive as those made by Kalashnikov rounds passing high overhead. The previous sentence is written that way – rounds and overhead – for a reason, because this is a common way that incoming Kalashnikov fire is heard in Afghanistan: in bursts, and high. Over and over again in ambushes and firefights, the Taliban’s gunmen fire their AK-47 knockoffs on automatic mode. The Kalashnikov series already suffers from inherent range and accuracy limitations related to its medium-power cartridges, its relatively short barrel, the short space between its rear and front sights, and the heavy mass and deliberately loose fit of the integrated bolt carrier and gas piston traveling within the receiver.
For many shooters, the limitations resulting from these design characteristics are manageable at shorter ranges and with disciplined shooting. In certain environments and conditions, including in dense vegetation where typical skirmish distances shrink, the limitations are easily overcome. Add distance between a shooter and a target, and fire a Kalashnikov on automatic, and the rifle’s weaknesses can emerge starkly. There are reasons for this. One is perceptible to people who are shot at but not struck. When fired on automatic, the weapon’s muzzle rises. Bullets start to climb. At very short ranges, a round from a climbing muzzle might still hit a man. At longer ranges, which are common in arid Afghanistan, the chances of a hit decline sharply. Rounds travel over heads.
For decades, those who have trained Afghan fighters have cajoled, preached and drilled the importance of firing on semiautomatic mode (read: one shot for each trigger pull) for most situations. A Marine lieutenant colonel I served with in the 1980s and 1990s had been previously assigned to Pakistan to train anti-Soviet mujahedeen. His accounts of Afghan and foreign fighters who were impervious to instruction on the importance of single-shot fire would seem to describe many insurgents in the field in Afghanistan today.
Poor Condition of Rifles
While Taliban fighters commonly use Kalashnikov rifles, other firearms are in the mix, including PK machine guns and sometimes Lee-Enfield rifles. After one skirmish in Marja, Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines captured a single-shot 12-gauge shotgun with a collapsible stock and an assortment of buckshot rounds, in addition to two Kalashnikovs. The shotgun was notable not just because it was a battlefield novelty, but also because it was in excellent condition.

The weapons captured by Kilo Company were of types well regarded for reliability. But reliability and accuracy are different things, and these rifles pointed to another factor influencing Taliban marksmanship. Look below at two weapons that the company’s First Platoon collected during a long, rolling gunfight on another day. Their condition assured that they could not be fired with optimal accuracy.
C.J. Chivers
The problem with the first rifle is easy to spot: it is missing its wooden stock. While this makes the weapon more readily concealable, it also makes it almost impossible for a shooter to hold steady while firing. A shooter who tried firing that rifle from his right shoulder would probably reconsider quickly, as the exposed and pointed base of the receiver would bruise his shoulder muscle. One likely way to fire this weapon would be to hold it away from the body while pulling the trigger.
C.J. Chivers
That is not a preferred shooting position. At short ranges this rifle could still be nasty. It is more than ready for crime. But for a complex firefight at typical ranges against a conventional Western infantry unit? Beyond providing suppressive fire and making noise, it would not be of much use.
The problem with the second rifle is more subtle but still obvious – one of the original screws that affixed the wooden stock to the rifle’s receiver is missing. Its absence allows for wobble. Wobble assures inaccuracy.
Mismatched, Old or Corroding Ammunition
A post here in January discussed the mixed sources of Taliban rifle ammunition evident in captured rifle magazines.
In February, Kilo Company captured several Taliban chest rigs, which together held many more Kalashnikov magazines. The company allowed an inventory of all of this ammunition and an examination of its condition and head stamps, which usually tell where and when a round was manufactured. The inventory showed that Taliban magazines contained a hodgepodge of old ammunition and rounds of mixed provenance, along with ammunition identical to what had been issued to Afghan government forces.


The post in January noted that this blog would discuss how mixed ammunition might undermine accuracy. Here’s the short course. Rifle cartridges that appear to be identical but are made in different factories, nations and decades can have different characteristics that affect a bullet’s flight. Different propellants, for example, change muzzle velocities and therefore change a bullet’s trajectory. Moreover, as ammunition ages, it can degrade, especially when exposed to moisture over time and to extremes in temperature. Over many years, the effects of heat cycling – the ups and downs of ammunition temperatures between night and day, and the more extreme temperature swings between winter and summer – accelerate decay and can undermine consistent ballistic performance. And when ballistic performance becomes inconsistent, bullets aimed and fired in exactly the same way do not end up in the same places.
Units that are serious about marksmanship take their ammunition seriously. They train and adjust the sights of their rifles with the same ammunition they carry in combat. They try to store ammunition in ways that keep it clean, dry, and, if not at a stable temperature, at least within a narrower temperature swing.
The ammunition carried by Taliban fighters in Marja showed a wide range of ages and points of manufacture. Sometimes a single magazine would have more than 10 different sources. Many rounds were filthy. Others were corroded. This is not a recipe for accuracy.
Poor and Uncorrected Vision
Next on the list was a matter of public health. Many Afghans suffer from uncorrected vision problems, which have roots in factors ranging from poor childhood nutrition to the scarcity of medical care. One reader submitted a comment as thought-provoking on this theme as anything we might type. The blog defers to the reader, “Rosenkranz, Boston.”
A substantial percentage of individuals worldwide suffer from myopia, which probably is the case among the Taliban as well; in general, the developing world has limited or nonexistent prescription eyewear use, and I think it’s generous to consider Afghanistan “developing.” I doubt the Taliban’s health care coverage, such as it is, has a very generous prescription policy. Additionally, the high altitude of Afghanistan increases the likelihood of cataracts due to increased ultraviolet exposure and again, there are probably limited cataract extractions, Ray-ban or Oakley options as well. Lacking extant shopping malls replete with optical shops and sunglass kiosks, and often squinting, half-blind, and sun burned, it’s amazing that the Taliban do as well as they do.
Thank you, “Rosencranz.”
Using the iron sights on an infantry rifle requires a mix of vision-related tasks. A shooter must be able to discern both the rifle’s rear and front sights (directly in front of the shooter’s face) and also see the target (as far as several hundred yards off). Then the former must be aligned with the latter. This is difficult in ideal circumstances for lightly trained gunmen; for some people with bad vision, it might be almost impossible. Over the years many officers and noncommissioned officers who train Afghan police and soldiers have said that a significant number of Afghan recruits struggle because of their eyesight. The Taliban recruit their fighters from the same population; poor vision can be expected to be a factor in their poor riflery.
The Difficulties of Organizing Training
The Taliban are a far-flung organization, and operate in decentralized fashion. As Afghan and Western troop levels have risen, and as more drones and aircraft have been flying overhead, insurgents have effectively blended into the civilian population. The shift from being an open presence to being an underground force has consequences. The old training camps in Afghanistan long ago disappeared; as a result, opportunities to provide formal instruction to new fighters are not what they were. The Taliban claim to run camps still. That may be so. Their camps are unlikely to be as robust as the network that existed through mid-2001. Areas of Pakistan also provide training sites, but again, the drone presence makes this more difficult than before. And without ample opportunities to train, the Taliban’s rank-and-file cannot be expected to master marksmanship. It is true that war can sharpen the fighting skills of surviving combatants, and so it is likely that among the Taliban there is a core of veteran and more effective fighters. But it is also true that as a combat force is pressured, attrition constantly steals its talent. Over time, without fresh recruits who have undergone sufficient training, a fighting force’s skills, as a whole, diminish. In a long war, it is not enough just to hand out ammunition and guns. History is full of examples.
Fighting on Taliban Terms
Nothing discussed above is necessarily surprising if the Taliban are considered in context. They are an insurgent force, not a conventional outfit supported by the resources of a Western government and economy. Their state of equipment and readiness are naturally lower than those of their Western foes.
Can the Taliban correct all of the problems contributing to their poor marksmanship? To do so, they would have to develop a marksmanship curriculum and the training to support it. They would have to examine their rifles and repair or replace many of them. Ammunition would have to be standardized, and eyesight problems diagnosed and treated. These ambitions have proved hard to achieve in the Afghan National Army and for the Afghan police, both of which have been supported for nearly a decade by the Pentagon. There is little reason to expect any of it to happen. Taliban rifle shooting will almost certainly stay bad.
What does this mean? The previous post ended with a quote about poor Taliban marksmanship from Capt. Stephan P. Karabin II, who commands Charlie Company, First Battalion, Third Marines. This post will wind down with the help of one of his fellow company commanders, Capt. Thomas Grace, of the battalion’s Bravo Company. Captain Grace sent an insightful e-mail here over the weekend. His note summarized many things.
First, a fuller look at his Marines’ experience with Taliban rifle fire.
[Bravo Company] has participated in over 200 patrols and been in countless engagements over the course of six months with actual boots on the ground. We have been in over a dozen actual Troop-In-Contact (TICs) warranting Close Air Support (CAS) and priority of assets because of the severity of the contact or pending contact. The only weapons systems the insurgents were effective with were machine guns, and only at suppressing our movement. We only had one instance where Marines reported single shots (possibly a “sniper” or insurgent with a long-range rifle) being effective as suppression. [Bravo Company] had no Marines struck by machine-gun or small-arms rounds, some really close calls but no hits.
Later, Captain Grace discussed how the Taliban, in spite of such unmistakably poor marksmanship skills, adapted and managed to be a relevant fighting force, and have at times elevated shoddy shooting from harassing fire into part of a complicated and lethal form of trap. Afghans who might not be able to settle into a gunfight against a patrol with superior equipment and training have learned to herd Western forces toward hidden bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.s.
We operated the entire deployment, on every patrol, in the horns of a dilemma. Insurgent forces would engage our forces from a distance with machine-gun fire and sporadic small arms and carefully watch our immediate actions. From day one, at the sound of the sonic pop of the round, Marines are taught to seek immediate cover and identify the source/location of the fire. Cover is almost always available in Afghanistan in the form or dirt berms, dry/filled canals and buildings. Marines tend to gravitate toward the aforementioned terrain features. So what the insurgents would do was booby-trap those areas with I.E.D.s. Whether they were pressure plates or pressure release, they were primed to detonate as Marines dove for cover. Back to the horns of a dilemma. Do I jump for the nearest cover? Run to the nearest building? Jump in the nearest canal? Do I take my chances and stand where I am and drop in place? Not necessarily the things you need to be contemplating as rounds are impacting all around you.
Three of Bravo Company’s Marines were killed, on three separate patrols, as a result of this tactic. The captain’s descriptions, and those deaths, carry an implicit message. Just because a man can’t shoot well, does not mean he is stupid or unable to fight. Western forces might be fighting an enemy with run-down equipment and comparatively primitive conventional skills. But they are fighting people, like themselves, men who think and adjust, and who can force a fight to be fought on their terms.
Again, Captain Grace:
There is no textbook countermeasure against this tactic, only constant attention to your surroundings — up, down, left and right — and over time realizing historical areas of contact and thinking about things from the enemies’ perspective.
That returns this post to its context. For the Taliban, bad shooting sometimes has proved to be good enough. For all of their shortcomings, the Taliban’s level of training and state of equipment have thus far been more than sufficient for waging a patient, low-intensity war for years, and for fighting Afghan government forces, which exhibit similar skill deficiencies. They are also more than capable of exerting influence over the Afghan civilian population, which for an insurgent is a large part of the war.
If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a fresh cup of coffee. Go get one. Check back later. It’s not just the Taliban who struggle to shoot straight. Next, At War will look at the poor shooting skills of the Afghan government troops, and provide an example of wild American rifle fire, too.
COMMENTS

Conversely I have read in recent articles/correspondence by GI's and reporters that the insurgent markmenship, especially in the mountains is increasingly taking a turn towards more lethal accuracy due increased encounters with long rifles such as 7.54 M91 Moison Nagants(ancient Russian infantry rifle) like the one in the leading photo, and the more modern scoped semi-auto Drangonov's and Romak's, allowing the antagonists to accurately fire at distance, and then run to escape detection and site-in. It is my understanding that the 7.54 is an excellent heavy round and when used in a clean long barreled rifle like the M91 can extreamly be accurate. Hopefully these are isolated instances and not a growing trend.


The basic reason the Taliban are not hitting single point targets at range is simple, and not even mentioned here. The AK47 is not designed for accuracy against them. It is a rip-off of the German MP44 of WWII, designed to "pray and spray" against massed bulk targets -- like the human wave Soviet assaults the Germans experienced repeatedly on the Russian Front, which the standard German infantry rifle of the time, the K98, had too slow a rate of fire to cope with. The Taliban are generally forced, because of American technical superiority, to engage Coalition targets well beyond the effective accurate range of the AK47, dictated by the sloppy, mass-production characteristics which give it its robustness under poor maintenance conditions. It's not a marksmanship issue; it's a weapons characteristic issue, period. Give the Taliban sniper rifles with properly zeroed scopes, and then write another dumb*** article on their marksmanship.


Thank you for your comment, Khiva.
A large part of this post is dedicated to the inherent inaccuracies of the Kalashnikov assault rifle line at longer ranges, and the post describes some of the technical reasons for this.



One other explanation about how a historically great group of rifle men became "pray and sprayers" is hunting.

Many of America's famous sharpshooters acquired their skills by hunting small game for food. IE, Audi Murphy, Sgt. York, even Luke Skywalker (yes I know he is fictional) bragged about hitting wombats in his speeder. When America was more rural, young boys and men often hunted small animals for the food pot. And since bullets cost money, they had to be accurate or be hungry.

Before the thirty years of war, it is possible that Afghan youth hunting for rabbits with small muzzle loaders or single shot civilian arms, would develop into great shots. But during a war, young boys cannot go out with a firearm to hunt rabbits, and so never figure out how to shoot accurately.

Keep in mind that in the US around the beginning of the twentieth century, increasing urbanization caused many groups/people such as the forerunner to the NRA, Teddy Roosevelt, the Civilian Marksmanship Program, to step up firearms instruction to improve riflery after the Spanish American war.

When I was still in Middle School on LI back in the 1980s, we still had a rifle club that shoot at the local elementary school range built under the gym. That club was the remnant of the effort to make Americans better shots.


Mr. Chivers mentioned the loose tolerances of the AK-47 in the article. If they won't look down the sights, it doesn't matter how well zeroed the weapon is.



In the NYT reporting on Marja, embedded reporters stated that there were foreign fighters in the town. Chechen mujahideen have long been a component of these foreign participants. Against the Russians, Chechen snipers were known for their marksmanship; in particular, head shots. Some of our Marines have been hit by single shots in the neck or otherwise above their ceramic plate armor. It is not just indigenous Taliban who are shooting at our troops.

Blaming hardware, the AK-47, as a factor in Taliban inaccuracy isn't wise. First, many of them are shooting captured Russian rifles whose bores are still good. Remember that the VC and NVA were armed with Russian and Chinese AK-47 and employed them effectively. Some of our troops valued the AK-47 for its reliability. Select single shot and you can hit your target. The M4/M16 is not accurate on full-auto unless you know how to lean into it. Most Marine M4 selector switches have a 3 round burst position on their selector switch in lieu of full-auto for this reason and to conserve ammo. Secondly, if you watch pictures of the Taliban shooting; they are giving new meaning to spray and pray. Often they crouch behind a berm and hold the weapon above their heads and fire one-handed. They are not all courageous. Then watch our Marines laying down fire in response. There is good reason to stay below the rim of the berm.

The Taliban are shown training in videos using the weapon correctly, but that seems to fall apart in combat. This is likely true for the ANA as well. The IED, the heavy machine gun, and the sniper remain the principal threats to our deployed forces. Our own snipers and designated marksman are the best medicine for Taliban snipers; although in RVN, I did see Marines using recoiless rifles as counter-sniper weapons. The Marines around Marja seemed to find most of the IEDs, but they are still the guerrilla's most effective weapon against troops and vehicles.


Hey CJ,
Thanks, a lot; really.

Let's tell the bad guys what they're doing wrong AND give them some good pointers on how to correct their battlefield deficiencies.
Even better, you put it on line, so the Taliban can use the net to fine tune their tactics and attacks against American and allied forces.

What are youthinking about? What is the Times thinking about by publishing this?

Again, thanks a lot, we need more brilliant tactical analysis such as yours.
So does ths Taliban. (Sheesh)



I wonder how much of this inaccuracy is because of an actual aversion to killing. In "On Killing" by Dave Grossman he says that prior to modern training techniques (e.g. WWI, WWII) officers estimated very few (< 20 percent) of soldiers in contact actually fired their weapons, and of those that did, few would actually aim to hit.

Let's hope that poor accuracy stays the norm.


Why, oh why would you want to pubish this article for general mass consumption? Assuming your points are valid ( I do), this article, in the hands of an intelligent enemy (they are), can only serve to increase the accuracy of those we are wishing to kill. Can we assume a copy of this could be translated and given to Afgan ememies ( we should). Then I ask again, why oh why publish this article. Charles Stone, MD, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Former Lt. Commander Of BSSG 4 Division 2, Marine Corps, Desert Shield/Desert Storm


@A Thinker,

Saying, "Hey, you need to shoot better!" isn't exactly the key piece of information they've been missing--they likely know that already. And since they're not going to fix their eyesight by reading about their eyesight, secure a supply of steady, high quality ammunition by reading about how their ammunition sucks, or take away the drones to create more permanent training camps because they read about how drone don't allow them much more permanent training, I don't see what the big deal is.

Besides, there's something you should remember: THEY'RE NOT STUPID. That's something that he pointed out in the article, which I was very happy to see. They've already been shifting their strategy to compensate for their crappy aim, and they seem to be largely using the bullets to drive US forces into waiting traps and maybe, occasionally, hit someone with them. The fact that they're able to maintain some level of effectiveness despite their shortcomings implies that they have guys who are capable of pretty sharp analysis themselves.

@Khiva,

None you mentioned in your comment explains why, GIVEN an AK-47, they still use them in the least accurate manner. As he said, even within ranges where the AK-47 would be effective, they don't use them in an effective way. He specifically mentioned the range difference and that he weapons don't work well at long engagement ranges. But he ALSO specifically mentioned that they don't use them in semiautomatic mode, and US troops constantly hear the bullets whizzing by overhead. Moreover, he said "they repeatedly miss what would seem to be easy shots, such as Marines and Afghan soldiers upright in the open at 150 yards." Which would imply that, since they're often choosing the time and place of engagement, they SHOULD have the ability to get a few disciplined shots off while they have the element of surprise. They don't. I don't think that pointing that out is "dumbass" at all, nor is wondering why.



Weak marksmanship or not rest assured the Taliban and Afghans can and will fight to the death.


To Aaron Boston. The point is one of teaching semi automatic fire in the training camps , which could easily be done and would increase our casualities. If only on this point, they took decisive action, that could be a very significant endagerment to our troops.


Interesting. During WW-2 our airborne troops on patrol would never go for cover or stay in place but would quickly rush any attacking force counting on fear and the resulting poor marksmanship of their adversaries; not being elite troops in most cases, to gain the advantage and quickly force them to retreat or face annihilation. Of course in most cases the paratroopers were not facing prepared ambushes, but even facing dug in troops immediate almost reflexive frontal and flanking assaults proved to be very effective because it would mentally unhinge the adversary. No doubt our commanders should mix up their responses to Taliban attacks. If they encounter Taliban on our terms our troops should be more aggressive using rapid assaults to close and overwhelm the enemy and then destroy their retreat with accurate fire. If we encounter the Taliban on their terms we should vary our response from digging in ( a system can be set up where some soldiers dig while others shot suppressing fire, and digging just enough so they feel less exposed), or getting prone, to retreating and regrouping rather than taking cover in places the Taliban can predict and mine.


To Charles Bristol,

I appreciate the response, but I seriously doubt that they don't know that they should fire in semi-automatic mode for more accuracy. Again, they're not stupid. Our forces teach this widely to the Afghan army (with varying degrees of success), so it's not exactly a state secret. Moreover, it's basic information that they could find on the internet. If you know how firearms work, you know that firing in automatic mode will tend to push the muzzle upward and make you less accurate.

And that was my basic point. This guy isn't sitting here spilling state secrets like "A Thinker" pretty much accused him. This is information that I'm positive they already know, but just have a hard time drilling into their ground forces. Firing a gun well is one of those things you have to really train at. As one of the other commentators mentioned, they even show correct usage in their training videos but they still don't do this in the field.


maybe its not really in their hearts to kill.
after all, they are Muslims.
only Americans, worldwide, love precision.
others prefer shadows and light possibly unconvinced that there is so much method to war.


Although charging an ambush in the jungle or a built-up area is the approved technique, it should not be employed when your troops must cover more than 25 yards of open ground to close with the enemy. The ideal response is to employ mortars quickly (60mm without baseplate and bipod) to kill the enemy or at least keep there heads way down. Meanwhile, units with snipers should have them deployed in overwatch to provide covering fire for our troops in the open. Snipers can also kill machinegun crews at range. Marines are very aggressive and are often unwilling to wait for supporting fires before closing with the enemy. Part of this aggressive ethos is due to what has been required to succeed in beach landings. With the current rules of engagement (ROE) our forces may be denied supporting fires from other than their own organic weapons and be forced to achieve by fire and maneuver what otherwise could be achieved by artillery and air support. In media commentaries it is too often forgotten that artillery is "The King of Battle" and, in the past, has accounted for the overwhelming majority of enemy casualties. Without artillery, we are likely going to come to the point where we realize that the new ROE are too costly to our troops.


History tells us that the Afghans rid themselves of invaders by making their stay too costly. They have had no problem killing Englishmen and Russians in modern times and we too are perceived as invaders by the Taliban and many skeptical Afghans. However, we initially won (before Bush blew it) through impressive airpower accuracy and the Taliban's unwillingness to engage in pitched battles with the Northern Alliance. Some were bought off, some were persuaded, and some just retreated. It was the foreign fighters that formed the core of any significant resistance. As long as we don't commit any more Operation Anaconda or Tora Bora blunders (by higher headquarters) we should prevail on the battlefield. We can shoot straight, but can we build a nation with a corrupt and morally bankrupt central government?



The MN91/30 in the photo has an extra non-MN barrel band riding behind the front sight. What do you think?
- the cleaning rod lost its thread; a tie-down to keep it from sliding out
- new way to damp out barrel harmonic


In response to the poster who mentioned the Mosins: The caliber is 7.62 x 54R. Thats a 7.62mm (.30 cal) bullet with a 54mm rimmed case. The 91 stands for 1891, when it was designed. This design was made by the Russians in some form (M91/30, M38, M44) or another through WWII. After that the Chinese and other Soviet contries made them for decades. Many US GI's saw them in the hands of the VC in Vietnam. They are cheaper and possibly more common that the AK-47. And since that caliber is still in front line service with the Russians, ammo is available. Speaking from experiance, yes they can be as accurate as the shooter. They are very slow to fire, being a 5 round capacity bolt action. All of the marksmanship which the Taliban seems to have a hard time with would still be factors here, and they would not have the "spray and pray" option that the AK offers.



RCRogers3:

Our Airborne troops in WWII charged across open fields in Europe as a tactic against against Germans with rifles and automatic weapons. I believe the special forces now employ a similar tactic when they are engaged by superior numbers. It involves a reflex type assault with a huge burst of automatic weapons. If Marines employ similar tactics it is because all assault type troops know they are safest when they are mobile and attacking in many situations. If Airborne troops could use this tactic against trained German soldiers with accurate rifles it could be used against Taliban militia. The real issue is U.S. troops would be more at risk from Taliban with rifles on auto closer in but U.S. troops should still prevail in closer shot out because of superior auto fire training. Would the advantage be worth the extra casualties? In the long term yes because the best way to counter insurgents is not to do predictable things on any level over the long term.

In the Pacific the Japanese used a similar reflex assault tactic on patrol and suffered high casualties because U.S. troops would set up machine gun ambushes initiated by rifle fire to lure the charging Japanese in. So such a tactic should just be one of many that a commander can call on and not be used all the time.

I agree with you about Motors. The only issue that need to be dealt with is the huge amount of supply and protective gear our troops now have to hump around with. Since so few of our troops are getting injured from rifle fire they should be allowed to travel with reduced amour and perhaps even no helmets, and transfer some of that weight to mortar rounds and tubes and extra sniper rifles etc.



There are many Afghans that can shoot accurately for the same reason stated above, survival hunting. The Taliban is not in general made up of these individuals today (thankfully for our grunts and jar-heads). As far as accuracy the AK is accurate enough in the hands of a trained individual but let us hope that there are not to many Nagants laying around as they are accurate and in the hands of a subsistence hunter... deadly



This article is completely contradicted by a report by certain major Ehrhart, which states that american infantry lacks training and arms suitable for firefight in Afghan terrain. Thus in most of the engagements Taliban outguns westerners due to being on a higher ground and engaging with weapons(ak-47, mostly) that have an effective range longer than M-4. The only recourse available to pinned down GIs is to call artillery or air support.



A reference to Special Forces (SF) was inaccurate. After saying that it depends upon the situation (the school solution) it is important to note that SF operates in small teams as do most SOF with the exception of Ranger units and special operations Marines who can operate as a battalion if necessary. Having said that, when SF unexpectedly encounter a numerically superior force, we break contact using fire and maneuver - we unass the area. Then, from cover (preferably) we call in fires on the enemy. That's what 6 to 13 (AF controller attached) men do when seriously outnumbered. Of course, in an ambush, you do not necessarily know how many enemy you have engaged.

But this is a discussion of marksmanship and the weapons that the Taliban use. The effectiveness of this combination can depend upon the terrain in which the fighting takes place. In Marja and soon, Kandahar, we see a combination of open fields and built-up areas with homes and businesses. In Kandahar Province there are almost one-million people with three-hundred thousand in the city of Kandahar. There are two other cities approaching fifty-thousand each. So this is far different from the rural district of Marja. In Kandahar's cities, spray and pray will be far more dangerous - if only because of the ricochets. The ranges of engagement will be suited to the rifles of both sides and the use of supporting arms in the built-up areas will be severely restricted. In these cities, we will be doing WWII European fighting without the destruction of supporting arms. This will not be Fallujah in Iraq and, therefore, it will be a slow light infantry operation - if we follow GEN McChrystal's ROE. The Taliban and foreign fighters will have memorized these ROE. They will want us to destroy these cities and will employ IEDs and suicide bombers to inflict casualties and demoralize our troops. There are many key terrain features where snipers can hide and canalized troops can be hit with spray and pray shooting. This is AK-47 and M4 terrain. Out in the Province, it will be much the same as Marja. I fear that poor marksmanship in the built-up areas will no longer be a talisman.



1. Removing the stock and using a sling as shown in your photos allows the weapon to be fired and handed from the back of a motorcycle.

2. A lack of modern and standardized ammunition for rifles plus the lack of anti-aircraft weapons would suggest that Pakistan and Iran are not heavily arming the Taliban at this time.

3. Another recent article said that Italian police substantially improved Afghan police recruit firing accuracy by the simple act of sighting in their weapons for them, which the US contractors were remiss in doing. .... I wonder what offering them a pair of glasses would do?


Having been a Marine 0311 and having served in Iraq with a line company, training is everything. I have spent a lot of time with the m16a2 rifle and was even trained as a marksmanship coach to train other marines within my unit. The fundamentals of marksmanship are drilled into you as a recruit and they are talked about and practiced constantly as a Marine. I remember shooting at man sized targets from 500 yards away and having to make adjustments to my weapons sights just by knowing the distance to target and reading the wind. I also remember having a supreme sense of confidence about the task as I had been trained many times to do it, it becomes a responsive skill to the situation. The US government put a lot of effort into teaching me those skills.

The taliban has heart, the marines have that and superior training. Firing on full auto defies logic and common sense as a rifleman (although it does have a time and place in an infantryman's repertoire). Taliban fighters are assigned with more emphasis regarding their ideological views about their beliefs as opposed to fighting skills.

I believe those fabled afghan marksman are really out their. I also believe, as capable soldiers, they understand that if they take up arms against Marines their days on earth are quite numbered and they smartly do not join the ranks of the Taliban.



It's not the matter which kind of weapons Taliban using, it's a matter how they are fighting, Taliban are using the best tactic which is religion as most Afghans whom control by Taliban are illiterate as we in Afghanistan saying don't be afraid of someone who has the library but be scare from someone who believe a book, my point is, the modern weapons do not cure the problems and it will never win the war. However, as an Afghan my request is from the west particularly from USA if you kill the Afghans they will kill you, if you help them to built the country they will always be grateful from you.


In the five years I filmed "Camp Victory, Afghanistan"( a documentary about the training of the ANA) I watched the range training evolve.
Eye problems are rampant among the young and the old.
What I noticed as a teacher and a civilian is that our set of carefully evolved and measurable metrics for the soldierly skills, from push ups to qualifying at the range, did not completely translate. The capacity for the ANA to fulfill those metrics really depended on who was doing the counting. The systems that support that kind of teaching (everything from attendance to sighting a weapon one day and using the same one the next) were not always functioning.
However, the Afghans I followed were geniuses at the work-around, (as long as safety was not a concern...) This ability would pop up in the strangest places and accomplish the craziest things.
What I gather from your wonderful article is that the Taliban utilize that skill more effectively then we can.



I'll make three more points, then quit:

First, the shooters in Helmand are not necessarily representative of Taliban marksmanship elsewhere. The one time I was personally the target of a Taliban rifleman, I was in the passenger seat of a Humvee going 30 MPH in a wide defile near the Pakistan non-border. The shooter must have been at least 200 yards distant with an elevation of some 50 meters, and he put a single round into the bullet-proof window of the up-armored Humvee about 4 inches in front of my nose. (If you could upload photos here, I'd post a picture of it I took at the end of the day as a memento.)

Second, I qualified (barely) as a Marksman with the old M-16A1 on a Marine Corps range in the 1980's, and have fired a captured AK at a range in Afghanistan. The thing was so sloppy the bolt actually rattled inside the receiver, and I couldn't hit a Sprite can at 100 yards. I doubt many Marines -- who could hit targets easily at 150-200 yards with an M-4 -- could hit much at that range with an AK47 knock-off, they are so poorly made. And thank God for that.

But, third, and most importantly, the purpose of most of this Taliban fire is harrassment, not to inflict casualties, like old "Washing Machine Charlie," the Japanese biplane pilot who buzzed Marine lines every night on Guadalcanal. In Helmand, an illiterate (and expendable) teenage Taliban shooter snaps off a couple rounds at a Marine patrol, and they immediately stop whatever they were intending to do that day (talk to elders, build rapport with the people, work on a school, win hearts and minds), and spend the rest of the patrol shooting back and chasing him: Taliban Mission Accomplished.



Great article on how to train our enemy to become better shots. You people are garbage.



I found the article excellent. My own fighting bacground is Vietmam with time as a aircraft controller putting in bomb strikes. I have also been a marksmanship insturctor with small arms. I have traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. I believe that todays military has to be trained in the use of multiple small arms. This is because the terrain and nature of the area in which you are fighting dictates what will be the most suitable small arm for troops to use. In jungle and scrub jungle such as Viet Nam, weapons such as the AK 47 and M-16 with their limited effective combat range of 300 yards are good choices, In more open terrain such as is being encountered fighting the Taliban in Afiganistan, longer range weapons such as the M-14, the M-1 will be more effective. Thus our troops must be trained and equipped to use multiple types of small arms, in order to be effective and inflict maximum casualties on the enemy and minimize casualties on our side.

I would also like to point out that given the type of "hit and run" tactics the enemy uses, one frequently must reliy on ones own organic weapons to counter the attack. By the time artilliery fire or air strikes are requested, approved (often a very slow process) and delivered, the enemy is frequently long gone from the scene. Many times I have controlled air strikes which were needed at the time thery were requested, but by the time they arrived only empty jungle was being bombed. Heavy artilley and airstriles are moste effective only when they can be deliverd within 5 minures of the initial request, unless one is involved in a static siege type situation, where the enemy is stupid enough to stay in the same location for an extended period of time.

The tactic of mineing the cover at the point of an ambush is very old. I remember being taught it in the early 60ies and it was certainly not new then. The counters to it are also known, and I assume are being employed by our troops.



A fine article from someone who obviously served in the military, and so indicates in the story. I had never thought of poor eyesight as a problem for the Taliban, but it's so true. Even with good first-world eye glasses, I am still a mediocre marksman. There are other factors too, lack of time at the range, etc., but my eyes have betrayed me in any sport, and shooting is one of them.


I guess we are lucky that there's no one with a real intelligence service on their side. These guys are excellent material and could be whipped into shape relatively easily.



Body Armor. If you feel more protected while exposed, you will take more time to line up the shot.

Long range firepower: Taliban always have to worry about the longer range US firepower, even in a close firefight. Again, they will be more nervous about exposure.

Medical attention: A seriously wounded Taliban is likely a dead Taliban. A seriously wounded American has a good chance to survive.

Courage + Training: The Taliban seem to have courage, but training teaches you what to do with your courage.



MPC, go back and read comment 47. The primary purpose of Taliban gunfire is not to inflict casualties. That is the purpose of IEDs. The purpose of firing a few rounds in our general direction is to make US forces spend all their time chasing a few infinitely-replaceable and illiterate teenage boys with guns around the countryside instead of winning the war by focusing on the population. The Taliban are not fools; they have read their Vietnam history, too, and they know exactly what US troops in contact will do. Their gunfire is achieving EXACTLY what they want it to do -- distracting US forces from a winning strategiy (helping the people) to a losing strategy (attrition). Are we're like the Washington Generals playing the Harlem Globetrotters -- we fall for the same trick every time.



Sirs,
I wanted to thank you writing such a powerful lesson as to why more of our brave Marines are not dying. As a father of a Marine, one who's taken an oath to defend this country, and those in it (which, by the way, includes your author), I've spent many sleepness days and nights worrying and praying for the safety of my son and his brothers.
It is mind boglying as to why you, the New York TImes, would find it so important to point out the deficiences of our enemies' training, if not to elicit sympothy for them. Since we are at war, one could argue that a charge of Treason should be in order.
But better yet, since the Taliban are such poor marksmen, why don't your staff and the writer take a leap of courage and lead the next mission into enemy quarters. You shouldn't have to worry - the enemy is such bad shots......



You people who are criticizing the NYT for publishing this information are retards. Is it really possible there are Americans out there who are so utterly totally stupid that they actually think there is one iota of information in this article the Taliban don't already know? No wonder we're losing. Just like in Vietnam, Americans are once again completely underestimating the enemy. We lost in Vietnam because we thought the enemy was "just a bunch of dumb gooks." Now we're losing in Afghanistan because Americans obviously believe we're up against "just a bunch of dumb ragheads." Anybody who hasn't seen the movie "Idiocracy" should watch it. it was soooo right.



The author along with a NYT photographer was embedded with Kilo Company which was first into Marja via helicopter and which fought alone until the battalion's other two companies joined-up on them. Those two companies had come overland exposing themselves to routes peppered with IEDs. These NYT employees allowed us to "see" the courage and professionalism of our Marines. To get the context of the "At War" blog, you have to read the Times. Thank heavens the Taliban cannot easily remedy the cultural and physical reasons their followers spray and pray. Our Army troops will likely face a different situation in Kandahar and we will learn of this through NYT employees and TV video supplied by reporters whose only weapons are their eyes and keyboards. The quality of the emails to the "At War" blog has been extraordinary, but those who attack the reporter's motivation have just not read the full coverage of the move into Marja. Moreover, Internet or no, you just don't understand how far away this war is both in distance and environment. The Taliban fighters are too far down the information and food chain to benefit from our critique of their performance. They have adapted their tactics to their limitations and will continue to adapt. Our troops will adapt as well. Neither side will gain their tactical insights from newspapers or TV. To our troops, "Drive on!"



My take from this article is that Taliban marksmanship suffers from multiple, structural defects that cannot be easily remedied - short of an immediate, massive infusion of Chechen fighters who bring in their own guns and ammo, that is. Lousy logistical support, lousy weapons firing training, lousy weapons and lousy eyesight - what a combo. For the foreseeable future, Taliban fire should be accurate - in giving away the positions of its shooters, that is.



MarineReconDad,

If you read my posts on this article, you will see that I not only am a veteran, I served in Afghanistan where I was rocketed, IED'd, mortared and shot at. In Vietnam, as in Afghanistan, the military HAS dictated how the war was fought, with disastrous consequences in both cases. In Vietnam, William Westmoreland, possibly the worst 4-star general in American history, insisted on an idiotic war of attrition against insurgents who ran circles aroound him and easily replaced losses. His stupidity cost the lives of about 40,000 Americans. (The rest are on the consciences of Nixon, Kissinger and Creighton Abrams). The exact same thing is true of Afghanistan, where a succession of braindead generals, including McNeil, Eickenberry, Barno and McKiernan, did the exact same thing for eight years -- fought a war of attrition instead of protecting the people, the basic tenet of counterinsurgency. I urge you to read the article: "Refighting the Last War: Afhanistan and the Vietnam Template" in the November 2009 issue of the Army's thinktank magazine, Military Review. You will find this online easily and free of charge with a quick Google search.

And by the way, I wore the same gold Airborne wings your son wears, and with pride.

4/1/10 COAST TO COAST AM WEBBOTS INTERVIEW

4/1/10 WEBBOTS PROJECTIONS

Why do I write about this?

Because the Webbots Project has a rate of success better than random guessing, or throwing darts on a wall with post-its of possible events.

Because we can shape the future mentally-our subconscious thoughts manifest in this life, we have that power. A very big reason why our enemy keeps us asleep-and those that are awake distracted. Either way, we’re kept in the dark as to our true nature, our true power. It’s why those who are negative keep having bad lives, they’re mentally in a rut of bad events that creates a negative feedback loop. Conversely, those who are in a positive mindset manifest positive events and outcomes.

Keep in mind however that these personal feedback loops can and are able to be disrupted. A negative person does not have to keep having a shit life-if some angel comes into their life. And a positive person can have great success individually yet have his whole life demolished by the machinations of those that have greater power in this world than they. The people that keep us asleep, or distracted, or awake but given so many threats that, serious as they are perhaps are NOT the primary threat(s).

Being good or evil has no bearing on the utilization of this ability. It ought to, but, it doesn’t.
Our thoughts are put into words when we use this wonderful invention the Internet(enjoy it while it’s up), and the Webbots use very sophisticated programming to divine what people are thinking on that subconscious level that is apparently the forge of creation itself.

The enemy knows this, and more. Hyperdimensional Physics-what is crudely distilled to the unknowing masses as Astrology-is one of their crutches as events and actions, and thoughts, in this dimension can and do have a effect hyperdimensionally which has a multiplier effect on what goes on in this world. That is why the illuminati is so hung up on ritual, on balancing good and evil(which only corrupts the good), on committing their crimes against us on certain dates, using certain numbers: watch TV, read the paper and the prices are $19.99, or they’ll claim “at least 19” or “over 39”… that’s a tell that whatever is going on that’s an enemy op.

At any rate the Webbots offer us a window into a possible future. It is up to us to look and decide we like what we see. So, onto their projections:


No immediate threat of Israel Iran war unless no warning. Build up(of tension according to the reports) until July then plateau until Nov 8-10 tipping point that goes beyond that war.

(9/11 had a release period of a few days. Prior ALTA reports had a release period of this event in the span of months. The only thing that can produce that is a war. With Iran you will have nuclear weapons involved and since China is dependent on Middle Eastern oil they will intervene.

So start buying food and rig a fallout shelter. Fortunately mass can shield against radioactivity so dig up those old Cold War fallout shelter plans. If you have a basement you’re underground and only have to stack books, loaded furniture, cinder blocks to the sides and above you. You could spring for a tunnel which will provide complete shelter.

For God’s sake don’t get a permit. You let your public servants know you’re a prepper and the next thing they get offended because you’re trying to be self-sufficient and they send some oath traitor tin badge god to enforce their edicts. And use cash to buy your supplies! All banking transactions are being tracked and they DO target preppers. So don’t be a hu-tard.)

Outbreak of food disease was related to Winter Olympics not swine flu.

(Grow your own food, patronize local growers, use cash. You’ll stay healthy AND you build the underground economy, the free economy.)

Economic predictions rolling along. Get a garden going. Massive food shortages latter this year.

(Another reason to grow and buy food. Food, ammunition, tools, reloading equipment. And SILVER!)

Killer fungus, wheat rust major threat this year.

(Buy that food NOW!)

Coast to Coast will go mainstream. Wujo paradigm shift in July. Events unknown but something big happens.

(Anybody’s guess as to what this is but all the UFO, Bigfoot and other topics gain public acceptance. Also projected as the time when the mainstream media loses what’s left of their acceptance by the public. A good thing and not too soon either.)

Summer of 2010 in Latin America prison escapee will be revealed as alien.

(IF that happens, or is ALLOWED TO HAPPEN AS THE ENEMY SURELY READS THESE REPORTS, that will be the paradigm shift. I’d expect a effort to track this alien down and give him some shivs in the joint. Won’t stop the paradigm shift but he’ll be dead.)

Silver will skyrocket. Event coming very soon.

(BUY SILVER. Get it at flea markets in the .999 pure bullion form or pre-64 US coinage, except for nickels and pennies. You can tell it’s real silver when you hear that sweet, high pitched ring. The webbots and some rogue economists project silver will reach parity with gold, and given the above ground scarcity of the metal that is very much plausible. Bob Chapman projects deflation but Martin Armstrong projects hyperinflation and so the PURCHASING POWER of precious metals will skyrocket. You can buy a meal for one person at Applebee’s with an ounce of silver now. Perhaps in a year if gold goes to say $5,000 that one ounce piece you bought for $20-always a markup-will buy… who knows what it will buy if there’s food shortages maybe it will buy dinner for two. BUY FOOD AMMO AND TOOLS! AND HOW-TO KNOWLEDGE!)

Economics horrific through 2013. No new gotta have it items=no sustaining economy.
Western economic paradigm great for expansion backed by hard money but its hit the wall. Impact spread out 10-20 years.

(This economy was made to enrich the enemy and sucking away our wealth. Get out of their system while you can take something of value from it! Learn a basic trade or skill or have knowledge to barter with. Grow food, be able to repair tools and electronics. Provide security for the underground economy. However way you do it, you have to plug in and free yourself from the beast. You will be in survival mode the rest of your life-start now.)

Major weather events happened-happening now. East coast repeatedly hammered with megastorms. March 11 weather storm just parks and unloads on a area. This is nothing compared later this spring that will disrupt farming. Commodity prices will skyrocket.

Again, buy food now. I’d forego going to Applebee’s for awhile and buy canned goods in bulk as well as bulk grains, spices, etc. Learn how to grow hydroponically as GMO contamination is making open air agriculture impossible-along with enforcement from the enemy.)

Hyperinflation coming.

(You get paid x amount of dollars but those dollars buy less and less y to keep you going. We’re going the way of Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany so have that silver and .22 shells ready to trade. Or barter your skills and knowledge.)

No nuclear exchange between Israel/Iran until Nov 8(?)or July. Uncertain. PTB might engineer it as tipping point. This will be NOV 8-11. US centric, probable false flag attack or called off elections. After NOV 11 life in America will be different.

They’re not certain as to their interpretation of July 8 and November 8-11. According to earlier ALTA reports Israel attacks and Iran waits for a time before their counterattack. PTB may decide to drop the hammer earlier.

In any event my advice from Martial Law Survival Guide will be most pertinent after November 11.)

Data gap: long term data which is from 4th month out, there is a hole where there is no internet activity. Could be anything from government initiated internet shutdown to global cataclysm.

This extremely worrisome. If it is a successful shutdown of the internet we need to rig up self sustaining wireless nodes for communications-and we will NOT be watching porn with that setup.

Global cataclysm where the continents and oceans shift about… the US government has been building deep underground bunkers for generations now. They’re building them for a reason. Our options are much more limited to unsinkable boats or high ground. Boats restrict the amount of goods, supplies and people you can carry. And the high ground is likely to be held by the enemy.)

From 1956 shadow government has been exploiting UFO technology. Drove Eisenhower to make his famous military/industrial complex speech and secrecy came down on subject.

(And if a man who murdered his own countrymen in 1932 for wanting their WWI bonuses so they can feed their families, and commit genocide against Germany by mass starvation of surrendered troops in open air pens, if THAT man was so spooked by the “military/industrial complex” that he spoke out AGAINST IT?

…If that level of villain is afraid of something then they, that breakaway secret civilization, have to be reckoned with. It will not be enough to have the basics of survival in some boat trying to survive mile-high waves or whatever the hell is projected to happen, we will need to be finding out what hyperdimensional physics and scalar weaponry is and other advanced sciences and learn to use them for ourselves. Even so we are faced with a three-way struggle for this planet: the space civilization-probably Nazis-the illuminati-and us. Our hope is in our numbers. With numbers comes the ability to do more, survive against what will be overwhelming superior firepower.)

More push to control but according to linguistics world government is spurious, a distraction.

(According to the webbots those bunkers are to shield the enemy from global cataclysms that hit the planet every 11,500 years or so. To keep our eyes off the ball they’ve been on the political, social, and economic offensive-an offensive that has greatly increased in both tempo and scale.)

Shadow government breakaway civilization is interplanetary or about to become interplanetary.

(Likely candidate: the Nazis who fled Germany as they infiltrated US centers of power, stayed underground in Europe, or allegedly went to Antarctica and then space on their own.
Also to be considered are the classic illuminati themselves; the royals and the bankers-owned by the royals. In ancient times the kings served those that called themselves “gods”… what if they’re still serving them…)

General public waking up to fact that the term conspiracy theory is a smear label put out by their enemy.

(And about time! As people wake up our numbers will increase, perhaps exponentially. Unfortunately the longer people wait the worse thing will get-exponentially.)

Build a boat, put in garden, move to high ground.

Hyperchronism: experimenters can erect a time bubble that can concentrate time to speed up processes or dilute time to slow down. Spill offs of deflecting time streams affecting people. Might be after effect of UFO propulsion systems. Could be aliens, TR3, breakaway civilization or some lab.

(Maybe someone can ride one of these bubbles, go back in time and give us a better chance of coming out of this…)

6 superquakes pending for rest of year. USGS data indicates we’re due… Webbots has to throw out geographic labels to function.

(Too bad. California is an obvious bet; Los Angeles Basin is going to become something out of hell when the roads, railways, power lines and aqueducts are cut.

Another area you’re going to have to sweat is the Midwest. Remember the New Madrid Fault? Last time it let go back in the early 1800’s it devastated the region-it was felt in New England! And we’re talking getting past Daniel Boone, with the Native Americans about pushed out of the region. …Imagine now… get food, supplies.

And buildings in the Midwest and East Coast are nowhere near as earthquake proofed as in California. You will NOT want to take shelter in anything past an outhouse when it hits.

Watch your animals. If you see dogs crying constantly, or migrations, or general skittishness that will be your signal to hit open space; take a tent, camp in a clear area. Be prepared for your home to be wrecked.

This will of course sever road and rail lines, disrupting transportation of all kinds. Since America runs on a just-in-time delivery system the food and fuel will run out in hours. )

8.0 So-cal quake could be indicator vast, thin Pacific Plate is breaking up. Bander Aceh quake cracked a plate.

Death of US Dollar in November. Collapse of dollar takes out globalism. Nov 8-11.
Which is aligned with webbots predictions of life changing in America after November 11. November 11… 11/11/10. Sounds like the inbred psychopathic bluebloods have had some murderous ritual in store for us for quite awhile. 9/11 was a ritual. New Years Day 2000 was what the entire Gregorian calendar was built around. The Catholic Church is an ancient, evil institution that has done nothing for Man but instigate wars, steal the people’s wealth, and rape children. And they’re hiding the truth about who we are, where we came from.)

Civil unrest July 8 onward is precursor. Revolution meme in United States active now.

(A confrontation is being pushed by the US Government so that they can justify in the minds of their slaves the American People martial law. We’re already in a police state but the illusion that we have Freedom is maintained for domestic control.

Get in shape, practice your marksmanship, get all the 90’s Paladin Press and Delta Press titles you can, form and expand your survival circles. Make lists…)

Likely crop failure, dollar devaluation. Gold silver ETFS can deliver paper instead of metals.

(Again, buy food. Buy silver.)

Obama target for assassination because of health care. Meant to partly to expand health care industry.

(I would expect Obama to get popped but he’s been a force for awakening Americans due to his headlong plunge of the country into Communism. Obama has spurred the greatest arming up of Americans in history. Obama has guaranteed the Second American Revolution instead of the salami slice theft of the country that has occurred from 1913 til… Dubya. He too presided over the quickening of American tyranny.

The whole health care thing is a social control, it isn’t to mend the broken American health system.)

Americans at point of wanting quality, asking what is consumerism for.

(Americans are tapped out, have everything, but when it prematurely breaks or is made obsolete due to some new gimmick then, what? How are the inventories at Best Buy going to be emptied of nobody has a job or is too busy scraping devaluating money together to buy food?)

July/Nov churches will be taxed. Greece in its crisis went after churches they were so desperate.

(Expect worse in America. Already cops are openly pulling people over and writing tickets just to make quota they don’t even deny that anymore. Have nothing in your name if possible. Get out of their system and start carving out free areas government at all levels will become intolerable.)

PTB getting ready for struggle. Going after political opponents militias in particular. Draft WILL RETURN. Draft used for control. Likely for govt. works projects to keep people busy but more likely for warfare. Will reveal just how deep this depression is.

(Yes intolerable and that’s what the enemy wants: Americans going off shooting whoever so they can be painted with the hu-tard brush, ostracized and isolated preventing a guerrilla warfare scenario while killing off the enemy… us.

For the sheep, starving, homeless, or about to be, working on public works projects or shooting gun owners or sandn*ggers will be an offer they cannot refuse.

Some will be forced to fight-many of them will fall as examples, or martyrs. Some will survive and there WILL be a guerrilla movement in America. What is VITAL is all the militias form relationships with the community… while NOT using the militia brand. You will have to know several people you can bet your life on. And you have to be likewise someone that can be relied on.)

Commerical real estate shuddering, layoffs rising.

(What will we do with all those malls and big box stores?)

People will flee the cities to the countryside.

That will be a source of a lot of conflict-which we could derail if we can find urban survivalists to spread networks in the cities so they don’t riot and flee. This will work particularly well in former industrial centers in the Midwest where half the population fled to where jobs are.)

Up to summer it will be economic woes, unemployed people. Government expansion. Govt. haves versus main street have nots.

(Prepare. Learn to use a rifle right now. Buy privately without paperwork with the magazines, spare parts, web gear to hold the magazines. Get an airsoft replica of your rifle and practice daily.)

After March 2011 Revolution will change into reformation for USA. Everything will need to change.

New model of capitalism that is scalable and deal with shrinkage comes about around 2017 onward.

2012-in the data gap. Mayans predict mega sunspot cycle due to sun’s mass versus angular momentum of solar system builds up magnetic tension until it snaps. Solar filaments give way, snap and we get earthquakes. Coronal Mass Ejections could scorch Earth. When prominences combine and collapse it is display of magnetic event. Could knock us to pre-electronic era. Solar bubble knocks out our magnetosphere.

(Get a Faraday Cage for your electronics. If possible know where caves and tunnels are at for shelter.)

Key to survival: get into a I-can’t-lose situation.

Think of the worst possible situation. Think of what you can do and where you’re at, your area and prepare.

Think of what people will need. Those that can provide the basics; food, ammunition, gunsmithing, how-to knowledge, protection, leadership will be those that can survive. It will be up to them to expand the number of people able to survive.)

A lot of people will not want to see this coming and will be the ones begging, robbing. Point them toward the warehouses.

(So know where the government depots and warehouses are at. Scout them out now.)

Food shortages this year will be completion of trend; food production has fallen since 1999, grain stores depleting since 2005. Nearly depleted now.

After July Coast to Coast will be the place for news, the five megacorporations will lose their grip on media.

(Maybe the Webbot people were sucking up to George Noury but that show has established a reputation for breaking what is currently considered weird or tin foil hatish. )

Nonparticipation in PTB wars will become trend.

Avoid the draft by not being where you’re registered to live. Have place to go to where you don’t have to use ID for everything and if you don’t have that place then MAKE that place.)

Food riots in Ireland. Irish woman using Frenchmans nonparticipation philosophy will spark them and eventually globally.

Final hour of broadcast had caller questions…

Bible code claims large LA quake in Nov 2010.

(Can you really trust a book put together by a Roman emperor?)

Silver will go to parity with gold.

China’s social imbalance its large number of men without marriage prospects along with food issues will collapse country.

(Or the Chinese leadership will roll the dice and wind up fulfilling bible prophecy-or what is presented as prophecy but is really planted points of the enemy’s plan.)

Breakaway civilization will survive cataclysm. 2012 to 2013-15. They invade and take over. N.W.O. microchips and other hot topics to keep us busy as they bunker down.

Can’t really fight starships and ray guns with rifles and explosive ordnance-unless you maneuver the enemy into places where their advantages are negated. That’s why they wait until the planet’s devastated to take over, nobody will be able to fight them.)

Retirements will be seized. Capitol controls have just been implemented.

Get your money out of the bank now and put it in tangible goods that will hold/gain value.)

This summer Americans will convert cash into useable tools.

(I am.)

Fisheries depleted late 2010 seafood deliveries will largely stop.

(Aquaculture will become big business, get in the ground floor now… at least as far as the government will allow.)

Government will step in and try to throttle take out internet. New Reichstag fire to be used to implement controls.

(Research how wi-fi works and how to improvise wi-fi nodes.)


Where is all the wealth being sucked out of the economy going?

(Need to ask where all the money goes. And take it back.)

Preparation will be for the rest of your life.

(This era felt nice but the softness only put people to sleep to their slavers.)

Shift from Piscean age of empire and control to Aquarian age of self-responsibility. A lot of people will die to throw off the slavemasters.

Earth changes settle down by 2041.

Government legally take over total water cycle-cannot so much as collect rainwater as that disrupts flow to streams. Get gutters now before it requires a permit.

(Start taking over local governments using the emergency recall election process so your survival measures can be protected by at least a local level of protection. Or kill every enforcer that comes along and mount them on stakes by their assholes.)

Build up your knowledge library.

(USE THE INTERNET FOR DOWNLOADING HOW TO E-BOOKS AND VIDEOS, NOT SASHA GREY’S LASTEST.

There is a wealth of knowledge you can find on sites like scribd.com, docstoc.com and torrent sites like The Pirate Bay. Use search terms like rifle, bomb, guerilla, gardening, self-sufficiency, survival, tool, farming, etc. You will find there are a few people who have good sized collections… use a public library or college computer you don’t have to use your ID to use, a portable hard drive and spend a few days camped out downloading. Return the favor and post links to your collections for others to prepare.)

Revolution will start by accident, something out of left field. Someone will take lead and that will be that.

(That is usually how it happens, the Person arises for the Crisis.)

Rockefellers and Rothschilds may be the left-behinds the breakaway civilization may have broke away from THEM. Lots of covert space activity. Bigger than British, Dutch Royals, bigger than Nazi Pope or Rothschilds.

(I’d be breaking from them as well, I mean, you’re out in space and the inbreeds are in London or Amsterdam raping their kids… I’d be making secret bases and moving resources and people to them while presenting a false, reduced capacity version for their benefit.

The universe is a hostile place, if Earth is any indication. At face value we need them but are they Nazis? Are they really on our side? Will they respect Freedom? Unfortunately we won’t find out… unless the shooting war starts and they start making drops on Free Zones of phaser rifles and whatnot.)

Reloading ammunition will be like printing money.

(Do you have a way to produce smokeless powder or a substitute? Primer material? Cartridge cases, jacketed bullets? On your own? That requires dedicated multi ton machinery, foundries, chemical works…)

People dependent on social security and welfare will be hurt really hard. Those that know skills will be valuable. Canning for example.

(If an old person is starving but knows how to do things, feed and shelter him in exchange for teaching others how they did it in the last Depression.)

Billy Meier is a fraud.

(Well he is on Rumor Mill News…)

Catholic Church will not survive past 2012. Evil subcore. All organizations infiltrated. Must organize in asymmetric manner. Freemasons use rituals to tap into hyperdimensional physics control events.

(I wrote an article recently on penetrated organizations. Every single time you have a hierarchial organization set up it is a government front or penetrated and subverted. Either way, use the image and logos of the organization for your own efforts, work in your own groups, keep the front office and their lackeys in the dark. Go to my article Organizations: subversion and countersubversion at my blog http://freedomguide.wordpress.com and http://freedomguide.blogspot.com )

CHANGES...

This blog, http://freedomguide.blogspot.com is going to be a bit more news and article oriented.

My other blog http://freedomguide.wordpress.com is where I will primarily have my own article although I will cross post with this one. Just makes more sense to do it this way than duplicate the same effort...

Oh, and to those who don't like what I say keep in mind I live by the words of the article The Tripwire. Keep that in mind... you can find it on my site, just scroll.

DOUG MCINTOSH: SPRAYING THE LIGHTER FLUID

Don't care much for Steve Quayle but I liked this guy since he was on Gold-Eagle.com he knows what he speaks of.

They are blowing out the economy because they are grabbing what wealth and assets they can. The collapse is intentional-we are NOT meant to survive it.

Plan accordingly...

http://stevequayle.com/News.alert/10_Money/08_Mac_Attack/100401.lighter.fluid.html


Spraying the Lighter Fluid

I have a donation based blog at www.preparingforthefuture.org. Click on the board index and go to the section called, "How to Get Doomer Doug's Password" for contact info. I have also posted a sample of my blog writing there.




April 1, 2010
Doug McIntosh
© SteveQuayle.com

Much of the media shill hysteria over "green shoots" and "economic recovery" may be explained by a simple understanding of what happens during a summer barbecue. The old fashioned American kind, with the charcoal briquettes, the lighter fluid and the surge of flame 8 feet into the air. The surge is 12 feet if the beer has been flowing freely I might add. What that criminal blob called the Federal Reserve has done the last 18 months or so, since October 2008 in the second spurt, has been to hose down the economy with the lighter fluid of low interest rates. It's true Mr. Magoo didn't spray lighter fluid on the briquettes back in 2001, so much as he poured a five gallon can of gasoline on them; with predictable results. Mr. Magoo, Alan Greenspan for those of you with short attention spans, created several bubbles that way. Ones he forgot to mention in his recently released memoirs, like the real estate bubble for instance. Mr. Magoo, after doing his best "who me?" routine has hidden from public view even more than Mr. Global Warming himself, Al Gore, in recent months. Last I heard, Mr. Magoo was in Dubai trying to enjoy his leisure time building sand castles, the real ones versus the ones he built into our economy during his 20 year reign of economic terror.

But I digress, although Mr. Magoo was much more fun to abuse than our current Fed clown in chief Braying Bernie. Braying Bernie reminds me of the Disney movie "Fantasia" where Mickey Mouse, the apprentice, can't figure out how to stop the brooms and water buckets. Braying Bernie strikes me as a guy who really has no idea of what to do, but likes the trappings of power so much he wanted a second term. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice shame on me. Considering the truly vast amounts of lighter fluid being poured on both the American and global economies, there should be more of an impact. Besides the Federal Reserve squirting lighter fluid on our economy, we have that whole stimulus thang a ma jig passed in the Spring of 2009. As I have discussed before, the main point of the Federal Stimulus program was not to stimulate the economy, it was to keep state, county and city governments from collapsing in the summer of 2009.

If the goals are understood, then I can help explain why the system didn't crash in the summer of 2009. The reason was between the Federal Reserve, and our esteemed Fuhrer's Stimulus program, just enough money was put out there to prevent a total collapse. Of course, if the true point was to stimulate the economy, they could have spent 2 Trillion dollars rebuilding bridges and railway lines, or even giving every taxpayer a check for $10,000, or things of that kind. Since actually stimulating the economy, or helping the middle class wasn't the point, they did nothing of the kind. The whole point of the stimulus program was to buy time for the Federales. Time to complete the raping and pillaging of the middle class by Wall Street and the Banksters; time to allow our esteemed fuhrer Obama the First to impose his Marxist dictatorship and finally, time to prepare for the looming social anarchy and let the New World Order use that chaos to its best advantage. I have said it before and I will say it again, the NWO, for some strange reason, actually thinks it can surf the chaos it is allowing to happen. Why they think they can ride the tiger without getting mauled is one of those things I simply do not understand. It may be stupidity, or it may be arrogance, or they may simply not understand the forces they are dealing with, but whatever the case, the NWO is going to be mighty surprised when the populist backlash explodes.

It is clear to me the whole point of both the Federal Reserve's actions and the so called Stimulus programs were merely to buy time. It was to put off the collapse for another few months or years. Personally, I think they have bought themselves about 2 years, assuming the start time is the first bailout in October, 2008. I think things will really start to fall apart around Labor Day 2010. It is also very clear to me the unemployment extensions, food stamp increases, health care funding were solely designed to keep things together enough to make it through the summer months of 2009. For instance, the only reason California didn't crash and burn last August was federal stimulus money gave it just enough of a lifeline to avoid economic death. It is like one of those old movies with the diver in the helmet and the hose. The hose has not been cut off yet, but it is getting kinked and the air flow is being reduced. A good metaphor if I have ever heard one. We are in the early stages of oxygen deprivation, not quite unconscious yet, but starting to get blurry in our thinking. Credit and debt, like air to the diver, is the lifeblood of our economy. Despite the Fed's .25 interest rate, the banks aren't actually loaning money or creating any new debt; instead, they are using it to prop up their horrible balance sheets. Balance sheets, no matter how bad they look, are still much, much worse due to the whole mark to market accounting fraud. The entire US banking system is insolvent and has been insolvent for the last 18 months at least. When you have the FDIC forcing banks to prepay their 2012 fees, you can understand what I am talking about. Even with the FDIC now directly relying upon the US Treasury for bailout money, it still won't be enough to deal with the thousands of insolvent banks. Any money the Fed creates, or the US Treasury issues as bonds, is either being stashed in bank vaults or being vaporized down a black hole of endless debt problems. The US economy is about 11 Trillion a year in GDP. The losses in residential and commercial real estate alone equal that. Braying Bernie is pouring his money into a sink with the stopper out. Whatever he creates, or Turbo Timmy creates in US debt, simply vanishes into a black hole never to be seen again in any productive economic sense. Any money the banks have is not loaned out again, but hoarded against present and future debt losses.

Finally, we are now in a situation where the lighter fluid is gone, the charcoal is almost turned to ash and nothing has been cooked. A cookout without any steaks being cooked isn't much of a cookout in my book. Obama is running 1.5 TRILLION yearly federal deficits. The foreigners are no longer buying our US Treasury Bonds; indeed, are starting to dump them. The Federal Reserve is buying up Federal debt itself like a dog eating its own vomit. It is clear to anyone with an IQ above the single digits this is a policy which has no future. The only issue is when, not if, but when the game ends. My guess is around September 30th, when the announcement of fiscal 2010's 1.5 Trillion dollar deficit, as well as the expected 1.5 Trillion dollar fiscal 2011 deficit is made. At that point, two questions will be asked: first, where's the steak and second, where's the money for the third 1.5 Trillion deficit in a row coming from? I should add the current federal debt is 12.6 Trillion. It should be close to 13.5 Trillion by September, 2010, with expectations of closing in on 15 Trillion by September 30th, 2011. We are then looking at GDP to federal debt ratios of between 100% to 125%. We are also looking at deficit to GDP ratios of over 10%, just like Greece for instance. The EU requires a deficit to GDP ratio of 3%, so the USA is well over that right now. We shall have to deal with the consequences soon enough.

All links to this article must include link to www.stevequayle.com/
Copyright reserved

NEW SLOGAN: WE ARE EVERYWHERE

Sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com has a new propaganda plan for you to implement:


http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2010/04/we-are-everywhere-call-for-all-sons-of.html


"We are everywhere." -- A call for all Sons of Liberty and Three Percenters who can to join the IRS plus a little task for those who can't .


In talking to a reporter yesterday I was asked, "Well, what are you going to do for an encore (to the Window War)?"

I assured him that I did not think the Window War was quite finished, and that it would revive with the attempts to "cram down" the global warming and amnesty bills in the coming months. Indeed, I can foresee that if any GOPer treats with the declared enemies of the Founders' Republic on these issues, the windows of BOTH parties will be broken, just as I posited in my short story The Window War, so many years ago.

"But is that it? Is that all?" he asked.

I merely smiled.

I didn't tell him, but, no. That is not all.



From the film Michael Collins, 1993:


Michael Collins to Royal Irish Constabulary "G Man" Ned Broy: What's this? What's all this? You've been on my heels for weeks. Very eager for a G man.

Broy: I've something for you. (Reaching inside his coat.)

Collins: Don't! (Sticking a revolver in Broy's neck.)

Broy: (Unfazed.) Don't you ever calm down? (Hands Collins a piece of paper.) Names and addresses of the whole cabinet. They're to be lifted tonight. It's an illegal gathering... in open defiance of His Majesty's government.

Collins: How'd you get this?

Broy: Like you said, I'm eager, for a G man.

Collins: Why should I trust you?

Broy: Logically, I suppose you shouldn't. But I've been on your heels for weeks... making notes of your speeches. Let's just say that you can be persuasive.

Collins: You work for the Castle for Christ's sake..

Broy: I know. What was it you said... "Our only weapon is our refusal".


Well, as my Michigan grandma once told me, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

Nancy Pelosi has given us a great opportunity in the new "Health Care" Law. She's hiring some 16,000 plus new Internal Revenue agents to enforce her tyranny. So, why can't some of those be Three Percenters? I mean, there's a bunch of us out of work, yet we have clean records and skills that would dovetail nicely with those required of an IRS agent. Hey, we would also have the advantage of actually meaning it when they swear us in -- you know, that oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Indeed, while the private sector is shrinking, government at most levels is still growing, so the IRS is not the only agency that could benefit from dozens, hundreds, thousands of Ned Broy's.

Sweet lemonade indeed.

Thanks a bunch, Nancy!

So sign up today! Our Dear Leader needs you to enforce the "Health Care" Act! Join. Learn. Lurk in the shadows, and await the right time and place to muck up the works. And you don't need a Michael Collins to report to. We have the Internet. Study Fourth Generation Warfare and open source insurgency at John Robb's Global Guerrillas site and others. Begin today. Leave no trace. Shut up about your politics. At the very least, we will cause the IRS to waste vast amounts of time and money trying to ferret out our Ned Broy's during the selection process. And if you make it through, study, watch and wait.

I can see whole reams of internal documents posted anonymously to the web, raids compromised with no one there when the door lock is blown in by those new 14 inch barrel entry shotguns. I can see an entire agency in a blue funk, eating at its own vitals.

Oh yes, join now, without delay.

And for those of you who cannot do this, I have this task which is the best force multiplier suggestion I can think of.

Today, we must begin a new campaign: We Are Everywhere.

For we are, you know. Our Socialist Mandarin masters like Nancy Pelosi rub elbows with us everyday, though they do not know it.

We carry their mail and packages.

We check out their groceries.

We clean out their drains, fix their wiring, install their alarm systems and hand them their lattes at Starbucks.

We ARE everywhere.

Everywhere.

They do not know this. It never enters their minds. Even if they knew it, they wouldn't care. We have no opinions, they believe, that they are bound to respect. In truth, they despise us. You can tell that by the sneering names they call us and by the arrogance with which they corruptly arrange tyrannical laws.

But they do not know that we are everywhere, passing through, or working in, their offices, their side businesses, their homes.

It is time to remind them.

Send them the message: We are everywhere.

There is no need to explain further. The message is the message.

So send them the message.

By little notes left in their morning papers.

By email, fax and letter.

By phone call.

It is no threat. "We are everywhere." Who is "we"? What do we mean "everywhere"? The message is the message. Nothing more is required. I suppose if you wanted to put a "III" on it, that would be okay, but keep it simple, keep it effective. The message is the message, and I can just see Eric Holder and his boys scratching their heads, trying to make a case out of three little words that by themselves threaten nobody.

Scrawl it in felt-tip pen on the restroom walls of federal buildings.

Leave it in the lockers at the athletic clubs they frequent.

Print it on stickers and slap them on the bumpers of their cars.

We are everywhere.

Paint it on sidewalks wherever it suits your fancy.

Put it on billboards for everyone to see.

We are everywhere.

Especially -- soon, thanks to Nancy Pelosi -- within the vitals of the Internal Revenue Service.

We are everywhere.

If you agree with this idea, pass it on. Let it go viral.

We are everywhere, Nancy.

Deal with it.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com


PS: Oh, and thanks in advance for employing some of us.

PPSS: Threepers, I especially draw your attention to these guys: http://www.treas.gov/tigta/careers.shtml. TIGTA is like the "Internal Affairs" of IRS. Ought to be some great openings for Three Percenters there. Go for it!

"And remember, lads, find out what they eat for breakfast."

LATER: Carl Bussjaeger sends this design, done in a few easy strokes.
http://www.bussjaeger.org/




We Are Everywhere

III