Tip of the Day: Magazines as Bipods

Today's "Tip of the Day" comes from my brother in arms. He told me that you can use the magazine of your rifle as a makeshift bipod, because you can just rest/steady the gun with it. Apparently with AR-15/M-16/M-4s and AK-47s it doesn't work so well with a 30 round magazine, but works fine with a 20 round mag. But isn't having ten more rounds in a mag worth buying a bipod for your rifle? Then again, a good sniper only needs one shot...

Grenades and other thrown explosives

When I was a kid the local army surplus store gave out xeroxed copies of "Murphy's Rules of War." Now I can't remember most of them, but one has always stuck with me, "A five second fuse lasts three seconds." While most modern grenades have five second fuses, but you can't count on it. Give it at least three seconds to blow. The thing is that if the grenade falls near your enemy, they can pick it up and throw it back, especially if it's sitting there for a while. Some people will pull the pin and let it "cook" for two seconds and then throw it. This can obviously be a problem for the above reason. So roll it or bounce it off a wall if possible so it is harder to catch and return. If you are making your own thrown explosives using a regular burning fuse, make sure to do a test burn so you know how much time you have.

Sniper Stealth

Let me begin by apologizing for these short posts, but they are the easiest to write and to think up. I was watching the History Channel this morning and their show "World's Greatest Snipers." A British sniper instructor from WWII gave two key pieces of info, that also carry over to all forms of combat. First he listed the four ways that an enemy could identify your position; shape, shine, silhouette, and shadow. I know camouflage clothing and ghillie suits helps to break up your outline, but I'm not sure how to address the other issues, other than the obvious. To reduce your shine make sure that all watches, dogtags etc. are completely covered and that your scope and any part of your rifle are not catching or reflecting the light. Silhouette will also be mitigated with ghillie suits or other means of camouflage, or be keeping your limbs close to your body or environmental objects.

Second, he recalled how part of their training was deer hunting, which seems like a great way to train and feed your army or simply fatten your food stockpile (venison jerky is great). Shooting targets is one thing, but hitting a moving object is quite another.

Global Guerrillas and Posts from a Standoff

Global Guerrillas is a blog from author John Robb featuring news stories about the actions of guerrillas around the world, from New Hampshire to Baghdad. A great way to keep up on the struggle of which we all hope to be a part. Of particular interest to me, because it is very close to where I live is the blog of a New Hampshire couple who are currently involved with a standoff with the federal government over their refusal to pay taxes and failure to submit to arrest.
Remember some posts back how I was talking about the Swarm? Here is a National Geographic article that breaks it down nice and easy like.

Quick Links

Here are a couple link to databases that might prove useful
"Anarchy" (Anarchist Cookbook type stuff)
Survival

On Violence

The question about the legitimacy of the use of violence is one that every revolutionary/soldier should/needs to grapple with. I am constantly thinking about this issue. Much like many other things, I train for the revolution in hopes that I never have to take up arms against a repressive government. One must look at both side of this issue before making this judgement. On methods and discourse on non-violent resistance, I recommend Gandhi's Critique of Modern Civilization and Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. In terms of violent resistance, READ MY BLOG and follow the links provided.
I am a strong proponent of what I see as the universal right to self-determination by all peoples. I also belief that violence only begets more violence. I see guerrilla warfare and all other means of violent resistance as absolute last resorts, only to be used when all other methods of liberation and struggle have failed or otherwise proven impossible. Sometimes the ends do justify the means, i.e. the end of colonialism, the defeat of Hitler, the defeat of Saddam (just kidding), etc. If the government, is coming to my door to take me to the gulags, I will defend myself. If the government becomes oppressive and tyrannical, I will fight to overthrow them and restore just rule. I realize that this means killing people, people who are mostly likely conscripts economic or otherwise. But thats war and life. People die. If one is willing to kill, one must be willing to die. The would-be revolutionary must come to grips with this.

Sewing them back up...

For the prospective combat medic, or anybody who wants to learn to treat wounds in the wilderness there is Where There is No Doctor, available here for free. Additionally, there are those who believe that if you learn to hurt, you must also learn to heal the injuries that you are capable of producing.

The Green Book of the IRA

The Green Book was once the training manual of the Irish Republican Army. Looking it over, a lot of it seems either specific to the IRA or outdated, but there is a good amount of timeless information, like how do properly conduct oneself when involved in clandestine operations. In any case, another insurgency manual to add to The Revolution Script's library.

Iraq, Technology and the Swarm

It is kind of surprising to me that I have not yet mentioned Iraq on this blog, despite its current relevance. Iraq is the perfect demonstration of two aspects of guerrilla insurgency.
First, the role of technology. One of the most basic premises of guerrilla warfare is that one can defeat a technologically and militarily superior enemy. Guevara give ample attention to this fact, saying that aviation technology is useless against a guerrilla army. He wrote this before the Vietnam War, napalm and Agent Orange. It is true that you cannot employ aircraft against an insurgency in the same manner as you would against a conventional army. But a tactical air strike or an Apache could fuck up a guerrilla squadron. Additionally civilian causalities can be quite high in such operation. In Iraq, multi-million dollar pieces of equipment are being destroyed by IED (improvised explosive devices) made with cell phone and parts from garage door openers in peoples bedrooms.
Second, the Swarm. The insurgency in Iraq offers an excellent case study of swarm tactics. This is the newest form of guerrilla/insurgent warfare. It has evolved, as it always does to counteract advances in counter-insurgency tactics and strategy. The swarm is a faceless, formless enemy. How can a conventional army attack an enemy who is invisible, who looks and acts just like every body else, who has no base? The swarm appears out of no where and constantly attacks everywhere, before disappearing back into the population. The traditional counter-insurgency tactic of killing the head to destroy the body is useless. The swarm is organized in a poly-centric manner, with no real central, directing leadership to attack. The various cell do not necessarily know anything about other cells and thus captured insurgents are of little use to interrogators. This is the future of insurgency, a reality to which the US Army has yet to fully adapt to, the swarm, the network form.

Stop lurking!

Dear All,
This blog continues to get international attention, including its first visits from Latin America. This is great, but what would be better was if people commented on my posts instead of lurking. This would help me to know what you like and don't like, as well as what people want to see.
Thank you,
Red Son