Have We Ever Asked for the Return of Howitzer Shells? Would We Know How?

I have read in the news media that the U.S. has already supplied Ukraine with over two million howitzer rounds, but they continue to need more at the rate of seven, or eight, or nine thousand rounds a day (numbers vary depending upon the particular source you read). 

Are they really firing that many? Are some being diverted elsewhere?  

The Ukraine howitzer business has put me in mind of a scene in a very good although overlooked movie about the early years of our involvement in Vietnam. See the whole thing here: Go Tell the Spartans. 

The particular scene starts at 1:12:22 and runs to 1:15:45. In it, an American Major played by Burt Lancaster makes a subtle offer to oversupply a Vietnamese Colonel with howitzer shells in return for his artillery support to an American outpost under siege. 

He pitches an immediate air supply of 500 rounds from an American depot, followed by 1,000 more to be delivered later by truck convoy. 

[Vietnamese official seeing an opportunity]

It would take four or five days for the truck convoy to bring the shells from the American depot. That could conceivably be too late for their use could it not, major?

[Burt Lancaster]

Could be.

[Official]

In such a case, the American depot would desire the return of the shells, would it not?

[Lancaster, astonished]

In the whole history of the United States they've never asked for the return of anything, be it guns, money, boats, or howitzer shells. They wouldn't know how to ask for the return of anything. If they did, it would screw up the bookkeeping and everybody in Washington would have a goddamn nervous breakdown.

You tell the colonel if he gets his hands on the ammo, it's his forever.

Has anything really changed other than the sheer numbers of rounds involved?

For Your Use and Enjoyment: Howitzers 101

Not for nothing is field artillery known as the King of Battle.

U.S. Transfer of Cluster Munitions Undermines "International Opprobrium of Their Use" - Human Rights Watch

“The US government [sending] stockpiled cluster munitions to Ukraine … would inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians and undermine the international opprobrium of their use, Human Rights Watch said.” https://t.co/b3pjkeiilB

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) July 9, 2023

That gets to the heart of the matter. Both Ukraine and Russia have used cluster munitions over the eight-plus years the conflict has gone on, but that doesn't make much difference to international law on the subject. What nation that has them has not used them at some time or other? We certainly have. 

The U.S. has not signed on to the ban treaty, but about all of our coalition partners supplying Ukraine with weapons have, The UK, for instance, is a prime supplier of 155mm howitzers, the artillery piece that can fire those cluster shells we will now send. 

If an American cluster round is fired in a UK howitzer, does that constitute a treaty violation of the UK's part? I don't know, but at the very least that situation seems certain to raise a political argument. 

  

A Brief Primer on Cluster Munitions

"The devastation and destruction of [155mm cluster rounds fired by howitzer] is almost beyond belief ... That is the munition of choice on the battlefield."

So yesterday President Biden pulled the lanyard on supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions from our war reserve stocks of 155mm howitzer rounds, and much political posturing ensued. (Lanyard? That's a little arty jargon I threw in there for the dwindling number of Americans who have served in ground combat forces.)

Cluster munitions were his choice for the Ukrainian battlefield, but by no means do all Democratic politicians or Progressive voters agree with bringing quite that much devastation and destruction. Objections based on international law are the least of it, really, compared to the threats posed by dissident Representatives on, say, the House Defense Appropriations and House Armed Services Committee.  

You can read about those disagreements here: Top Dems break with Biden over sending cluster bombs to Ukraine.

Much more to come on this before the dust and shrapnel settles over there.

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Who owns the cocaine found in the White House?

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Angelina Jolie +1200
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— BetOnline.ag (@betonline_ag) July 5, 2023

In our latest national game of Clue, should you guess that it was Col. Hunter in the Library with the Glass Pipe that did it, and if it turns out you were right, odds-makers are offering some sweet deals.

FBI = Forever Battling the Interstates

As you may know, the General Services Administration is trying to replace the horrendous FBI headquarters, the Hoover Building, with a new one to be located in either northern Virginia or Maryland. 

Lots of money is at stake with such a large project, and that question of site selection has set up a squalid competition between the governors and legislators of the two states to trash-talk each other while elbowing their way to the top of the trough. 

Well, there are some decisive site selection considerations which are purely objective and empirical, and first among those considerations is location, location, and location. That brings us to the latest twist in the site selection competition. 

This week the FBI released data that documents the obvious: i.e., that the various key locations FBI agents need to frequent are all located in Virginia, not Maryland. Read it here: FBI Provides Data On Trips To Quantico As GSA Considers New HQ Site.

Here's the money quote: 

The new June document, titled “New FBI Headquarters Site Selection Plan: Background Information on FBI Mission Requirement Criteria,” stated that evaluation of site proximity to FBI Quantico has been a key consideration throughout the process of choosing a new headquarters site “because the FBI’s law enforcement and national security operations will always rely on physical responses and in-person interactions.”

“Distances matter when surging to a command post, responding to a WMD event, meeting to review evidence and build a case, or driving to Quantico for hands-on training or joint exercises,” the FBI said in the document. “From a time-savings and environmental perspective, it is meaningfully important to limit the need for the FBI workforce to spend several hours in a car commuting back and forth between locations.”

Maryland, give it up. Your proposed sites were never serious contenders. At this point you should drop out in the overall interests of the government and then hit GSA up for some tasty consolation prize.   

Assange Update: UK High Court Found No "Properly Arguable Point" in His Appeal of Extradition

 

I swear I post these Julian Assange updates more because I like the update theme song than because I care at all about the pallid Assange.

Well, according to CNN today:

A High Court judge in London has denied Julian Assange permission to appeal an order to extradite him to the United States, where he faces criminal charges under the Espionage Act.

The decision was dated Tuesday and is the latest in a years-long legal saga. His camp told CNN on Thursday that they will lodge a new appeal next week.

In a ruling dated June 6, 2023 and seen by CNN, Mr. Justice Swift said Assange’s application had been refused stating that “none of the four grounds of appeal raises any properly arguable point.”

After 12 years of more or less self-engineered confinement, first in the Ecuadorean embassy and then in his present lockup, Assange may be, at least in some theoretical sense, fractionally closer to actually being delivered to the U.S. for trial.