The many nations helping Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that struck there have set up their own military compounds and fly their flags at the entrances.

France’s tricolor, Britain’s Union Jack and even Croatia’s coat [...]]]> Appalling Interesting news from Haiti, where US forces got there firstest with the mostest after a devastating earthquake:

The many nations helping Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that struck there have set up their own military compounds and fly their flags at the entrances.

France’s tricolor, Britain’s Union Jack and even Croatia’s coat of arms flap in the breeze.

But the country whose contributions dwarf the rest of the world’s — the United States — has no flag at its main installation near the Port-au-Prince airport…

The Obama administration says flying the flag could give Haiti the wrong idea.

I am – uncharacteristically – speechless.

Update: Maybe I’m being ungenerous. Perhaps the Haitians – and the Obama administration – don’t understand what that flag stands for. Timestamp 5:44 shows what it means to those of us of the service.

Obama is not trying to destroy America’s relations with Israel; he’s trying to organize Tzipi Livni’s [...]]]> Everybody relax, says Jeffrey Goldberg. The US government is not trying to cause a breach in the relationship with out best ally in the Middle East. He’s just trying to change the democratically elected government of a sovereign ally:

Obama is not trying to destroy America’s relations with Israel; he’s trying to organize Tzipi Livni’s campaign for prime minister, or at least for her inclusion in a broad-based centrist government.  I’m not actually suggesting that the White House is directly meddling in internal Israeli politics (ed: actually, you are), but it’s clear to everyone — at the White House, at the State Department, at Goldblog — that no progress will be made on any front if Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Eli Yishai’s fundamentalist Shas Party, remain in Netanyahu’s surpassingly fragile coalition.

So what is the goal? The goal is force a rupture in the governing coalition that will make it necessary for Netanyahu to take into his government Livni’s centrist Kadima Party (he has already tried to do this, but too much on his terms) and form a broad, 68-seat majority in Knesset that does not have to rely on gangsters, messianists and medievalists for votes.

So, not to worry! Nothing to see here. Move along.

We’re in the very best of hands.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, [...]]]> The Speaker of the House’s preferred strategy on passing the Senate’s health care reform bill seems to be declining to vote on it:

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

The government we deserve.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has brought most American Special Operations forces under his direct control for the first [...]]]> I don’t know what’s more surprising, the news that General Stanley McChrystal is set to take operational control of special forces in Afghanistan, or the fact that he didn’t already have it:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has brought most American Special Operations forces under his direct control for the first time, out of concern over continued civilian casualties and disorganization among units in the field.

“What happens is, sometimes at cross-purposes, you got one hand doing one thing and one hand doing the other, both trying to do the right thing but working without a good outcome,” General McChrystal said in an interview.

I know I’ve read something before about “unity of command.”

Oh, yeah: Here it is.

Charming.

The vessel is [...]]]> The UK Telegraph has picked up on the fate of Cowpens‘ most recent CO emeritus. About which quite enough has been said here. But there was one bit of trivia I was not aware of, and it had to do with the skipper’s prior at-sea command, the USS Winston Churchill:

The vessel is one of the most prestigious in the US Navy and the only one to fly the flag of a foreign navy alongside the Stars and Stripes – the White Ensign of the Royal Navy.

So I went and Googled it, and sure enough, there it is.

I don’t recognize the topmast flag on the starboard side, but I take it to be gold lion passant on a red field as displayed in Churchill’s patch. The other signal flags on the port side are November Sierra Whiskey and Charlie, which I take to be alphabetic for the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

Ironic, that:

She had been due to take up a high-level job in the Navy Staff at the Pentagon but has now been re-assigned to the Naval Surface Warfare Centre, a weapons research unit in Virginia.

Update: Oops, I’m out – NWSC is Churchill’s naval callsign, I am reminded in comments.

Flag recce never was my strong suit.