“DOC” AND BLUE ANGELS OVER THE DESERT: The B-29 Superfortress “Doc” flies in formation with the Blue Angels during the 2019 California Capital Air Show in Sacramento.

AL-BAGHDADI’S DEATH AS COUNTER TERROR INFORMATION WARFARE: Al-Baghdadi was a mass rapist, savage torturer, mass murderer and slaver. ISIS propaganda extolled his crimes.

American aid worker Kayla Mueller belonged to an ecumenical Christian group. In 2013, ISIS captured her in Syria. She was tortured, enslaved and, in 2015, murdered. A photo sent from ISIS to her family showed her with facial bruises and wearing a black hijab.

From al-Baghdadi’s perspective. Mueller’s photo was terrifying, sexually swaggering propaganda. Then-President Barack Obama sent condolences to Mueller’s parents.

But in 2019, the Pentagon named the operation to arrest or kill al-Baghdadi Operation Kayla Mueller.

…that name has received little notice. However, it puts a woman who’d been raped, a dead lady’s face, on the Delta Force assault and signals that the U.S. military attack on al-Baghdadi and his henchmen sought personal justice for the slaughter of an innocent human being who came to Syria to aid refugees.

This is information warfare kudos to the Pentagon and Trump administration, for at some psycho core, zealot killer creeps like al-Baghdadi think they are untouchable.

Read the whole thing.

MODERN MARINE CORPS SQUAD LEADER USING THE MARINE AIR-GROUND COMMON HANDHELD: The squad is involved in an exercise at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay. A second photo from Hawaii: two F-22 Raptors fly in formation with a C-17 Globemaster III following a personnel airdrop training mission on the northern side of Oahu, Hawaii, Oct. 17, 2019.

THE REPULSIVE CREW: From Scott Johnson at Powerline. Apt and biting phrase describing “James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Susan Rice, Samantha Power and others.”

AND ANOTHER NORDIC RESPONSE TO RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE: Sweden reactivates its “once secret” Musko underground naval base. The post goes on to discuss underground military facilities world-wide –their utility and their vulnerability.

UPDATE: Apologies. I thought the link was in — it wasn’t. Is now. Post is worth the read.

RELATED:From July 2018, Sweden prepares for Russian aggression.

TWO PHOTOS TODAY: First – a striking Stryker sunset in the desert called Fort Irwin, California. Second – above the clouds over the sea in softer sunlight: BUFFs on patrol over the Baltic. Two B-52Hs assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron fly in formation over the Baltic Sea during Bomber Task Force Europe 20-1, Oct. 23, 2019.

AL-BAGHDADI’S DEATH AS COUNTER TERROR INFORMATION WARFARE: Think of this column as a prose Venn diagram mulling the intersection between the war on terror and the war in Washington.

STRATEGYTALK: Turkey invades Syria. This podcast went online October 19. It covers the very messy historical context, which most reporting neglects.

EAGLE OVER SOUTHWEST ASIA: A USAF F-15E Strike Eagle conducts a combat air patrol mission somewhere over Southwest Asia. Perhaps eastern Syria? Take a guess. But it’s a sharp photo.

AMERICA’S “INDIVIDUAL SANCTIONS” WEAPON: Do individual, targeted sanctions work?

Twenty years ago, self-serving activists like Samantha Power exaggerated the effectiveness of sanctions. By themselves, these efforts are rarely decisive. America, however, casts a vast, interconnected economic and diplomatic net that can deny perps the fruits of their crimes.

My column discusses two recent cases where the U.S. Treasury and State Departments employed individual sanctions as coercive diplomatic tools.

RED ARROWS AND THUNDERBIRDS: The USAF Thunderbirds and the RAF Red Arrows fly a 15-ship parade-style flat pass to close out the Great Pacific Airshow over Huntington Beach, Calif., Oct. 6, 2019.

ROLLING THUNDER AT FORT HOOD: Abrams tanks from 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team undergo tank gunnery qualification. Tank gunnery is fun. Here’s a 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team M1A2 conducting a live fire exercise at Fort Irwin, CA. This fact-filled post has background on the latest U.S. Army System Enhancement Package (SEP) for the Abrams, the SEP3.

These upgrades keep the M1, or at least some of them, competitive with more recently designed and built tanks. The U.S. (mainly the army) has about a thousand of the SEP2 upgrade M1A2s and wants up to half of those upgraded to SEP3 by 2020, the earliest date for the M2A3 upgrade will show up. That one will have major upgrades to the tank software and whatever upgrades are available for the engine, armor and electronics.

By the end of 2020 the Army wants to have at least 2,000 Abrams upgraded to M1A2SEP or M1A3SEP standards.

FIGHTING FALCONS IN RUNWAY SHOW OF FORCES: Yes, on the runway. According to the DOD caption the photo captures a “show of forces display at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, Oct. 1, 2019.” In fashion shows models display clothes on the runway. So…in this show of forces is it fair to say the F-16s are modeling weapons? This fighter wing has a “suppression of enemy air defenses mission.” So…is this modeling fashioned for the Kremlin? Here’s another show of force, this one over the Baltic Sea (June 2016). Poles, Germans and Swedes fly with U.S. aircraft, including a BUFF. Yup, modeling in the BUFF.

SHOWING OFF THE NAVAL STRIKE MISSILE: The littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords launches a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) during exercise Pacific Griffin. The NSM is a long-range, precision strike anti-ship weapon. It’s one of the weapons the Navy has installed on LCS’ to give the ships some offensive punch. This post from 2016 describes the weapons upgrade issue. The NSM is a Norwegian-designed missile. This second post from 2016 discusses the Navy’s decision to buy it and deploy it on littoral combat ships.

I MEANT TO POST THIS STRATEGYTALK PODCAST LAST MONDAY: But it’s still packed with background information that’ll be useful for another six months — or more. Ukraine: War, Corruption and Politics. If you like the podcast, please subscribe.

ALGERIA’S “SMILE REVOLUTION” BOILS BELOW THE RADAR: My latest Creators Syndicate column (bumped).

The “if it bleeds, it leads” news media are missing a consequential social and political event that is Algeria’s most serious and genuine civil rebellion since the 1950s and ’60s when France tried to suppress Algeria’s independence movement (which, ironically, was led by the FNL).

More:

“Sudan’s 2019 revolutionaries and Hong Kong’s protesters articulate goals akin to those of the young Algerians. All three movements despise dictatorships and, on their own terms, seek to establish a Western-style civil society with an elected government operating under the rule of law. Alas, Marxist professors and multicultural academics will utterly fail to understand.”

Check it out.

BONE FROM ABOVE: A B1-B photographed from the Stratotanker that just refueled it. What a beautiful airplane, above and below the clouds. The B1-Bs are scheduled to retire before the B-52. But recall the F-117 was retired — except it’s still flying missions.

THE WOBBLIN’ GOBLIN’S ACTIVE RETIREMENT:

The F-117 stealth aircraft, officially retired 11 years ago, is still flying. F-117s have been spotted over training areas, where they apparently serve as “enemy stealth aircraft” for training purposes. The 52 remaining F-117s were placed in a high-level of storage at the “boneyard” where there are several levels of “retirement”. The highest level, where the F-117 ended up, has the aircraft “semi-retired” and periodically flown.

According to the post the F-117 has been “used as stealth reconnaissance aircraft to determine if a target had been destroyed or just damaged.”

It appears the plane’s retirement photos were premature.

TRANSPORTATION ON THE WAY: CH-47 Chinook helicopters transport wheeled vehicles as part of an air assault mission during the Saber Junction 19 exercise, Sept. 26, 2019. Yes, it’s beautiful Hohenfels, Germany in the fall.

ALGERIA’S “SMILE REVOLUTION” BOILS BELOW THE RADAR:

“Sudan’s 2019 revolutionaries and Hong Kong’s protesters articulate goals akin to those of the young Algerians. All three movements despise dictatorships and, on their own terms, seek to establish a Western-style civil society with an elected government operating under the rule of law. Alas, Marxist professors and multicultural academics will utterly fail to understand.”

My latest Creators Syndicate column.

B-29 DEPARTS MIRAMAR: One of the two B-29s still capable of flying departs MCAS Miramar on Oct. 3. The bomber was on static display during the 2019 MCAS Miramar Air Show.

LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP IN TRANSIT: The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords transits the Pacific Ocean. The ship is on a rotational deployment to Southeast Asia (which very likely means it will spend some time patrolling the South China Sea).

POWERLINE: Dimissing Ilhan Omar’s lies and frauds as a “conspiracy theory?” An informative slap at the mainstream media’s coverup of Omar’s relentless mendacity.

WARTHOGS LIGHT IT UP: A-10s drop flares during a combat patrol over “an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Sept. 21, 2019.”

HONG KONG’S PROTESTS SHAME RED CHINA’S PARADE: “Does this mean war?”