Kalistan

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Kalistani News in Brief: Operation Emerald Declared a Success;
Kalistan Invites Xsampa to talks in Kaliburg; .350 Legend releases Straight Rock Record
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
September 12, 5688


Seizure-Inducing Cover of .350 Legend's debut album heralds the Collapse of Eastern Civilization

Operation Emerald Declared a Success
The three nation month long exercise that simulated the invasion of Ananto by regular and Marine forces from the Commonwealth of Lodamun and the Kingdom of Dolgava has been declared a success by Her Imperial Majesty's Minister of Defense, Lt. Col. Morris Grant. "The month long series of exercises has helped our Regular and Militia Forces identify a number of key areas for improvement," said the Defense Minister. "We identified that our primary weaknesses concentrate within the command and control areas: Kalistan promotes independent decision making that begins with and the NCO ranks. Squads and Platoons are the cornerstone of our Regular forces, similar to the Militia, which is able to operate on smaller unit levels and independent of over all command and coordination.

"The issue with this," continued the Defense Minister, "is that if there is too much independent decision making, we have a hard time coordinating units who are running all over the countryside on their own little missions, and not where we need them to be. If C&C breaks down at the lowest most fundamental level, you can have whole companies, battalions, and even regiments just evaporate when they need to be deployed in defense of a specific point. The 'enemy' or in this case our friends in Lodamun and Dolgava, demonstrated much better unit discipline and quickly exploited this, to their advantage, allowing them to win a close contest, but win it fairly decisively."

The Defense Minister congratulated the Kalistan praised the ingenuity of Kalistani regulars, and once again commended Militia forces. "Much of Kalistan's success is due to our partisan auxiliaries: the decentralized structure which is the Regular Force's weakness is a strength for the Militia, who acted more like so many guerrilla units rather than uniformed combat forces. You could write a book based on their tactics." The Defense Minister said that the exercises are already helping Kalistan refine its tactical doctrine to bring it more into line with the imperatives of modern warfare, given Kalistan's defense-in-depth strategic defensive doctrine. "We will look into ways to improve centralization of C&C, including bringing more company, battalion, and regimental decision-making online. Right now our mission is to continue exercising the Regular Force over the coming years: there is strength in unconventional war, but we also realize there are advantages to utilizing that in combination with regular, conventional military tactics as well. Kalistan can acquire both and excel at both, and this Exercise is the start of that effort."

Kalistan invites Xsampa to Talks
The Empire of Ananto and Kalistan have formally invited the Xsampa to Kaliburg to discuss renormalizing relations following Xsampa's strident condemnation of Selucia in their treatment of their Yeudi Citizens. "We understand that making a statement was very difficult for Xsampa," said the tuxedoed Sir Thomas Harney, who is Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister. "Given their history with Amudim, their full throated statement was a brave move for that country. The Chancellor of the Empire and Her Highness , the Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins said such courage was an example that should be followed and encouraged by Kalistan, and have instructed me to meet with Xsampan Colleagues here in Kalistan, if they are willing to come for a visit."

The Foreign Minister noted that he suggested that the meeting be held here in Kalistan because the Princess Regent would like to meet the Xsampans. "Her Highness said she has been to Xsampa before, having surfed there and posed for a surfgear calendar when she was younger. She said the Xsampans were welcoming to Kalistanis who visited, and she would like to take the opportunity to demonstrate her support for Xsampa's principled stance with one of our own--offering to renormalize relations between our two nations." The Princess Regent has understandably refused to fly anywhere, however, so it would not be possible for her to go to Xsampa for a visit.

"The compromise is to invite them here," said the Foreign Minister, who said that he sent a formal letter to the Xsampan Foreign Ministry with the invitation, by way of Hutorian Embassy. "We have received confirmation that my Xsampan Counterpart has received the letter, and says that the Xsampan Government is discussing how to respond." He also noted that similar invitations have gone to the Emperor of Luthori, the Emperor of Istalia, the Queen of Dolgava, and the Prime Minister of Mordusia.

.350 Legend releases Straight Rock Record
With an epilepsy inducing album cover, the Port Swedes based rock band known as .350 Legend has released their debut album on KMI, called The Collapse of Eastern Civilization. The band, which came out of the art scene and veered hard into the lo-fi indie rock scene, have been making a name for themselves in Kalistani rock clubs for years. But the recording of their first record was the result of local buzz created around their recent tour of Luthori, which they recorded, and released as a Concert Movie in cooperation with Republican Studios in Sulari. The Movie, called Indie Sleaze offers viewers a behind the scenes, unfiltered image of the band which, while attracting large crowds of most young twenty somethings, played more than 60 shows in less than 35 nights during the tour, recorded demos in various Luthorian studio spaces, hung out with fans, and still somehow found time and energy to consume heroic amounts of alcohol and illicitly obtained pharmaceuticals.

"We didn't sleep for about a month," said lead singer and self described artiste Mac Walley, who is from Port Swedes. "I mean, I think the adversity of the road was such that, we think we'd catch an hour here or there, like when we were trying to drive from one gig across the country to another one. And there'd be some girl who we picked up and she'd be climbing all over one of us, and the rest of us was like give it a break, man. I don't know how many girls we kicked out of our dressing rooms, but it was a lot..." The physical transformation of the hard working, hard drinking band that is depicted in the film is stunning: At the beginning, the band seemed a fairly clean cut and well groomed group of young art rockers, but by the end of the film, they looked like they had been through a war, and most of their clothes had been destroyed along the way.

"I think I had one pair of pants left by the time we left Luthori," said Walley. "John (Wrecks, the lead guitarist for the band) was on his last pair of draws... I don't even know what to say." The film itself was a hit with audiences here in Kalistan, and was seen as a anti-romantic depiction of the life of rock musicians on the road. But the Band was eager to move past it. "The songs we played in Luthori were all really rough versions of the songs that we put on our record," said Walley. "You almost kind of have to strain your ears to hear the similarities, but we've moved completely past those versions anyway. We'll never put that stuff out, but I think KMI wants to pull some of the tracks out and put together a soundtrack. Why? Who knows. Probably money."

Check out .350 Legend's debut album, The Decline of Eastern Civilization, on KMI right here. And check out the lead single "The Decline of Eastern Civilization", filmed live in Kaliburg, right here.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzO7IGWGxu8]
"The Decline of Eastern Civilization (Live) on the album of the same name, released on KMI by rock band .350 Legend

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