Taiwan's Marines aren't in any shape to send anywhere.

Taipei Times - Marines take on a series of uncertainties

"For instance, they do not have state-of-the-art weapons. Many of their weapons are actually leftovers from World War II," he said. "In addition, constant government cutbacks to marine numbers is making the problem go from bad to worse."

-HJC

Is Rumsfeldology the new Kremlinology?

Iraq War Woes Deepen Internal Pentagon Tensions

"He has alienated the military," Kohn said. "Many of them are waiting him out, or avoiding bringing problems to him, or trying to avoid dealing with him. And he knows that. And he avoids them quite frequently, and circumvents them, and tries to get around the bureaucracy."
...
"The Constitution calls for civilian control of this department, and I'm a civilian," Rumsfeld once told reporters.

Yes, but are you the right civilian for this job?

-HJC

Ghostbusters called in by Royal Navy

icWales

No comment.

-HJC

Maybe the Navy does want to conquer Africa?

Perhaps I'm reading too much into the comments of

Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England at the National Press Club

With the help of Marine General Jim Jones, the Supreme
Allied Commander in NATO, we are looking to enhance our
operations in the ungoverned regions of Africa. The Gulf of
Guinea, for example, is an area where a Navy presence would
constitute a strong message. Security, stability, and
reconstruction operations are needed in this important region,
and the U.S., along with our NATO allies, will be there to help.

But it does sound a lot like what Easterblogg of The New Republic had to say.

Charlie's Angels is latest US weapon in Afghanistan

Warning, Marines being cheesy.

Khaleej Times

-HJC

Big news about Taiwan not sending troops to Iraq.

Suddenly there's big news about Taiwan not sending troops to Iraq.

US looks to stop talk of Taiwan role, Taipei Times, Most Taiwanese oppose troop deployment to Iraq, Taiwan News,
No plans to send Marines to Iraq, The China Post of Taiwan etc.

It looks like congressmen Dana Rohrabacher and Jim Ryun floated a proposal independently of a low level Taiwanese defense ministry group study on what they possibly could do.

If Taiwan actually did go around spreading democracy overseas, I suspect that Beijing would consider this to be dangerous anti-state activities.

The most interesting comment is buried a little deeper in the article.

> In addition, Nadine Leavitt Siak, an information office for the Taipei
> Office of the American Institute in Taiwan told the Central News Agency
> Monday that while Washington appreciates the humanitarian aid that Taiwan
> has extended to Iraq, the U.S. has never asked Taiwan to deploy troops
> there and never will.

Now, how can anybody lower than an full ambassador make such a comment?

And if there is a full American ambassador in the American Institute in Taiwan, doesn't this make it an embassy to an independent country?

Well, don't tell Beijing.

-HJC

Which Korea?

Navy plans to purchase new submarines
> The Indonesian Navy has proposed that the government purchase two submarines
> from North Korea
...
> Bernard said that one South Korean-made submarine, which he said was of
> good quality, was priced at between US$200 million and $300 million.

There is a slight difference between the two Koreas.

-HJC

Wrong Coastline

Easterblogg of The New Republic on what to use the LCS for:

http://tnr.com/easterbrook.mhtml?pid=785
> How would Littoral Combat Ship really be used? Most likely, to prowl the
> waters off the Western coast of Africa.

Actually if you look at the US Navy's powerpoint slides https://www.nipo.navy.mil/NIID.cfm, the examples they use are Iran and China.

More details about the LCS can be found on DMOZ.

-HJC

Reuters fails to check GlobalSecurity about Lockheed's KC-X

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/05/21/rtr1380632.html
> A copy of the previously undisclosed proposal was obtained by Reuters
> from a source outside the company who declined to be named.

Perhaps they downloaded it from globalsecurity.org anytime after Nov 7th, 2001?

At least that's when archive.org grabbed it.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/kc-x.htm


-HJC