FYI those launchers pictured are Iranian. Iran is the main supplier for the Houthis in Yemen and they have given things like this and other anti-aircraft weapons and training to the Houthis. This is NOT the shoulder-fired missiles we provided to Afghans to drive out the Soviets. People in this country don’t seem to get that the Houthis have quite modern weapons (and lots of them) so attacking Yemen is way more than sending in our own sophisticated aircraft and weapons operated by highly trained and experience fighters against a bunch of barely literate goobers. Always keep that in mind. So when I hear the new tactic which I think will be the ‘mantra’ from now on that ‘no classified material was part of the SignalGate chats, and now the “Gotcha” claims The Atlantic has ‘downgraded’ from saying it was “War Plans” to it only being “Attack Plans” I’m calling bullshit.
I actually wanted to use a different title pic – an image from the popular movie Jurassic Park where they encounter giant dinosaur “spoor.” That deadpan line ‘That’s a big pile of sh!t’ is one we all know. So my first thought was to create a comment bubble that read:
Saying it wasn’t classified because the magazine stopped calling it War Plans and instead call it Attack Plans doesn’t change the fact Trump and his people are dropping one big pile of sh!t
Alas, the last time I put the ‘big pile of sh!t on an article I got taken to task. It seems various monitors of internet traffic like Google (and others) have issues with that type of thing being shown. At least by news outlets and even political blogs. WTF? That’s a separate issue and I don’t want to get off on a rant about supposedly tender sensibilities of internet readers. This is too important. Because the amount of b.s. the WH is now slinging is way bigger than that one huge dino turd.
The fact is, as The Daily Beast tells us the new crazy line from the WH is Oh you silly, gullible Trump haters. Nothing was classified. Even The Atlantic admits now no War Plans were talked about or shared. It was only ATTACK plans! Nothing to see here. Nothing at all. Well, I don’t happen to agree which I’ll talk about in a minute. What the linked Daily Beast article tells us is the new line is that because there were no WAR plans but only ATTACK plans there’s nothing to worry about. No scandal. No mistakes you silly geese wanting accountability. The Daily Beast article notes how reassuring the administration’s position is and where their focus is and will be. As in move on America. They were only Attack plans:
The scandal is over. No more Signalgate. Mike Waltz won’t have to go on Fox News and squirm tonight. Pete Hegseth can continue to show off his tats in Honolulu. JD Vance can go on hating European freeloaders. Karoline Leavitt can go back to telling us how bad Joe Biden was.
And President Donald Trump can focus on firing people who do their jobs as opposed to saving the jobs of people who mess up.
Because they were only “Attack Plans” that Secretary of Defense Hegseth shared with the entire world via the Signal chat group with his MAGA buddies.
And everyone knows that’s much better than “War Plans”—and why on Earth would anybody think “Attack Plans” are classified information?
That was the spin being peddled on Wednesday by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Communications Director Steven Cheung, Deputy Chief-of-Staff Taylor Budowich, the Pentagon, and anyone else in the administration who was asked to pitch in.
I don’t know about you, but I’m anything BUT ‘reassured.’ In fact, this ole jarhead is mightily pissed! Let’s start with this: ATTACK plans are quite specific. What units will attack what enemy position(s) using what weapons/tactics and exactly when the attack will start, as well as how things will go down after the first shots are fired/bombs dropped IS classified information and for damned good reason. Imagine two professional boxers in a title fight, where before EVERY punch the person throwing says “I’m going to throw a right hook at your head”, or I’m going to go for a punch to your torso to wear out the muscles you’ll need to breathe later in the fight.” It’s inconceivable two boxers would fight this way.
Just as it’s inconceivable that one country about to conduct a military strike on another would let them know a couple of hours ahead of time: “Here are the targets/places we are going to hit. Here are the weapons/units we will use. This is when we’ll launch and when our planes/troops will be on target blowing the hell out of your people and equipment” So for anyone to say discussion of this strike on Signal, and then Hegseth providing actual strike details wasn’t classified is a f**king LIAR!!!!
If you’re well into your forties you might remember Desert Storm. The first Gulf War where after Saddam took over Kuwait we amassed a huge force and threw his forces back into Iraq. AND took a couple of days to put a major whup-a$$ on his ability to wage war. As always journalists and the masters at news outlets wanted to know every f**king detail ahead of time and at times things got testy in press briefings both before the air war and then the ground invasion launched from Saudi Arabia. For any normal thinking American the refusal to share details, especially in freaking press briefings was a no-brainer and the Press took quite a hit in their image with their petulance. So SNL did their skit in which truly dumbass questions like ‘What is the date you will launch the ground attack?’ ‘What time will it start’ What are the map coordinates where the initial assault against Iraqi forces start?’ The skit itself might have been SNL satire but it was pretty close to how things took place.
My point is that ‘OPSEC” (Operational Security) is crucial. An enemy might know, just like Iraq did that at some point an attack is coming. But you can’t keep everyone on alert 24 hours a day for days on end. So, knowing specific places that will be attacked and how is EXACTLY what an enemy would want to know, even if only a half-hour to a couple of hours in advance. Just like WE would want to know if we were facing a hostile force knowing at some point they’d send in planes, troops, missiles or all three. Knowing carrier based planes would be launching various attack craft, and ALSO knowing their typical armament packages would give you an awfully good idea of when they’d be in range for anti-aircraft fire and missiles. With the knowledge of where the carriers launching the planes and other ships launching things like Tomahawks) an enemy (in this case the Houthis in Yemen) would have a pretty good idea of the airspace those attack jets and missiles would be flying through!
So hell yes, knowledge of what planes (because their weapons packages for this type of mission AND their tactics are well-known to military folks) and drones would be used would allow a chance to fight back FAR more effectively. For the jets, with our own people flying them that greatly increases the danger they’ll face. And that my friends is exactly what was being talked about, and the ATTACK Plan that Hegseth shared a couple of hours in advance of the start of the strike contained. Again I want to remind readers that the Houthis are a far more advanced foe than the Afghans were to the Soviets. And for low level strikes under the best of conditions, catching the enemy by surprise is fraught with danger. Some of us are old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and we had jets go in on recon flights to take pictures of build sites and anti-aircraft defenses.
That was back in the early 1960s. I can assure you that anti-aircraft batteries can react more quickly and effectively now even with almost no warning – at most hearing (as in this example) the whine of the engines of approaching jets. And for anti-air missiles batteries? That too is worth considering. One thing that hasn’t changed over time is that crazy as it sounds the best way to avoid a SAM (surface to air missile) is to let it/them get close, and just before close enough to detonate and blow you out of the sky make a radical manuever. Change direction and/or altitude so much and so fast the missile overshoots! Anyway that too is much more sophisticated now than it was during say Vietnam. But again, just to give you a taste:
At least in the example above the aircrew of the A-6 Intruder was set up specifically to get targeted with SAMs, and not laden down with an huge package of bombs and air to surface missiles that would reduce maneuverability. But in the end it call comes down to the gomers hopefully not knowing the attack was happening (and where) until it was actually underway. Being forewarned, even with two hours or less notice changes the threat calculus and in more than one way.
The gomers can simply shift people and a lot of that anti-aircraft stuff, leaving an empty target. Just sit tight and watch the show from a few miles or so away. Worse, they can proverbially lean into the coming punch, moving a bit forward and off a bit to the side. While the attackers are focused on what’s ahead, where they expect to find their targets as they pass by a forewarned enemy out of the blue the actual dangers comes from the side!
So HELL YES actual attack plans, saying when the various waves of the attack, and the weapons (planes that will be used) is critical, CLASSIFIED information. We got away with it this time. So do many drunks who get behind the wheel of a car. But sooner or later luck runs out. People get hurt, crippled even and sometimes they DIE. In this case all because a bunch of incompetent, WAY too full of themselves big-shots thought the rules shouldn’t apply to THEM. As has been mentioned by me and others including expert pundits had subordinates done what they did, or let’s face it folks, had a a DEMOCRAT in the WH you know EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN would be demanding that heads roll! Some would mean that literally. We all know it. We KNOW it.
So once again I find myself pointing that out to my GOP Senators, a GOP Representative from back in my hometown and others I know (including on FB) the hypocrisy. I directly say they’d be howling at the f**king moon! AND that ANY of them who says otherwise is a goddamned liar. To date when I’ve done this that stops every one of them from pushing back. If anything it’s nothing more than some mumbled crap about being too worked up or something similar. However Team Trump is leading the entire GOP in an effort to downplay all this, and it looks like the hill they want to die on is ‘It was “only” attack plans!’ Hegseth did once upon a time do a combat tour as a platoon commander. Someone should point black, with the cameras running ask HIM how he’d feel if he was about to lead his platoon into an attack on a prepared position a “click” (kilometer) or two away in a couple of hours, and someone broadcast his unit (and others) were coming and from what direction.
I’m serious. Ask the little prick THAT and make sure the camera gets all of his blustering reaction. Hell, put it that way to those ‘Principals’ testifying to Congress in public hearings – would THEY want to be on an aircraft during a strike under those circumstances? Hopefully the camera operator could be forewarned so they could pull back and we could see everyone’s initial reaction! If I had a friend or loved one on active duty I’d email them the footage and say THESE are the people who are supposed to be leading you. Preparing you for war and to do their best to help you come home in one piece. Instead we have a bunch of assclowns led by the biggest orange assclown of them all!
Bottom line it was CLASSIFIED information and using an app like Signal put lives at risk. Especially since as I noted yesterday evening Der Spiegel’s reporters found phone numbers, email accounts and even PASSWORDS on the devices of this Signal Chat Group – including DNI Gabbard, NSA Advisor Waltz and even SecDef Hegseth – who’s own DOD put out a memo about NOT using Signal! Yet it’s possible NO ONE will lose their job over it. So if you’re a person of faith say a prayer for our troops (and civilians) who stand into harm’s way. If like me you’re not a person of faith send out all the good karma you can muster. Because if this keeps up before Trump’s term ends we’ll have a military actually made up of actual “MEAL Team Six” types because those fatass goobers will be the only ones willing to serve.
****** Zoomers, if you can spare a donation, it will keep us trekking through cyberspace from planet to planet and psychotic news story to psychotic news story. We just need a little green energy to keep going on our (now) nine year mission and who knows how long it will take to get rid of Trump? Thanks. Ursula ******
Well, if “attack plans” aren’t worthy of being considered “classified” or “top secret,” then I suppose Eisenhower and his staff and Allied counterparts really didn’t need to bother with all that “secrecy” and the deceptive actions they took in the weeks leading up to D-Day.
It worked so well that weeks after the Normandy invasion and all those piers had been floated across the channel to make unloading ships faster many in the German high command (not just Hitler) still believed it was a feint – that the “real” invasion was yet to come and it would be at Calais and led by Patton. (with reason) they simply couldn’t believe the Allies would have Montgomery in charge of the thing! Monty wasn’t stupid or incompetent. On the contrary but he was NEVER the military genius/tactician he was made out to be. His reputation was forged in north Africa but it wasn’t learned until much later that the code breakers at Bletchley were reading so much of German communications. Monty had access to a treasure trove of intel on Rommel and the Africa Corps’ plans. Kind of relevant wouldn’t you say? For some in the German command only when it was clear Patton was on the continent and leading that incredible drive across the south of France that all in the German command were convinced no invasion was coming at Calais.
I’m glad you brought this up because it illustrates the importance of secure communications and keeping the enemy in the dark about what you plan to do, and when & where you’ll do it. It was a MASSIVE undertaking to fool the Germans and without it our invasion at Normandy might well have failed. At the very least it prevented Rommel from getting Panzer divisions release in a timely fashion, or other reinforcements to Normandy.
This infuriates me! My brother was also a Marine. Details broadcast like this and any number of times he might not have come back! Say, when he was in Iraq. Goddamn these assholes. And as you said, they’ll never get fired. I’d be looking to leave the Armed Forces asap NOW. I was screaming about these idiots to whoever I could, and they Still. Got. Confirmed. The whole group of them needs to go away. Attack plans? *Everyone* knows that’s bullsh*, anyone who has access to news somehow. Damn!!!!!!!
Great article thx.
“So, knowing specific places that will be attacked and how is EXACTLY what an enemy would want to know, even if only a half-hour to a couple of hours in advance. Just like WE would want to know if we were facing a hostile force…”
I first thought of D Day, too. But even better was from a comment in the NYT the other day. What if we knew two or three hours ahead of time about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hmm… Attack, you say???
Liars using “1984” and “The Handmaids Tale” as handbooks.
War plans, attack plans, strike plans – whatever the name, all would be classified. Only a fool would think otherwise.