Yeah, It's Been A While...So Sue Me.

This just in from ABC!

There are "secret" codes telling people to look up bible scripture on sights being sold to the US Military.

If you don't believe me then go HERE to find out more.

Trijicon the maker of the sights has said that the "Codes" have been on their products for years. ABC needed three reporters to figure out the deep dark secret that J8:12 meant Book of John chapter 8, verse 12. It's been a while since I've been to Sunday school but it didn't take a great deal of imagination for me to figure that out. The "code" is the size of a serial number on the sights.

I guess we're truly fooked now they've figured out our secret weapon. Now if we had a unit full of women that used these sights while eating pork and bacon products we would be truly unstoppable.

Is This Guy Still Alive?!?

Via The Mudville Gazette.

If we could be heroes
by Greyhawk

Yes - Andy Rooney is at it again:

We don't have many heroes these days because there isn't much opportunity to be a hero and most people aren't usually heroic anyway.
It may be helpful to understand Rooney's definition of a hero. "Being heroic," he says, "means doing something that risks your own life while you're saving someone else's." I'd add that perhaps doing something you don't have to do that risks your life while you're saving someone else's (or even just trying to save someone else's) could be a better definition.

"In World War II we had a lot of heroes because there were a lot of opportunities to be heroic" writes Rooney, but as for now "we all must have the same attributes we've always had but I guess people don't have the opportunity to be heroic in peace as they do in war."

And if you're tempted to shout that we are indeed at war today - save your breath. I said "at it again" because Rooney dismissed today's soldiers as potential heroes back in 2004:

Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it....

We pin medals on their chests to keep them going. We speak of them as if they volunteered to risk their lives to save ours, but there isn't much voluntary about what most of them have done. A relatively small number are professional soldiers. During the last few years, when millions of jobs disappeared, many young people, desperate for some income, enlisted in the Army. About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home.
<...>
We must support our soldiers in Iraq because it's our fault they're risking their lives there. However, we should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them. Most are victims, not heroes.

I don't how you can live to be as old as Andy Rooney and still be that stupid.

Are all soldiers heroes? No, they are not. I'm here to tell you just like the rest of society there are some reprehensible characters in our armed forces. But, by and large we are a force of dedicated individuals who signed up to do a job most people would never even consider.

If Mister Rooney wants to see some heroes there are plenty of them. You can read some of their stories in places like THIS.

Really these stories aren't that hard to find...If you WANT to find them.

Lara Logan, CBS Chief Head Foreign Affairs Correspondent...literally

Sometimes this stuff just writes itself.

From FOX News comes this:

NEW YORK — Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, tells The Washington Post she is pregnant, and the father is a married federal contractor whom she met while stationed in Iraq.

Logan's relationship with Joseph Burkett — who's in the midst of a divorce from wife Kimberly, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter — has made media headlines, including the front page of the New York Post.

Logan is going through a divorce from estranged husband Jason Siemon, a Chicago-based energy lobbyist whom she married in 1998.

"Nobody likes to read about themselves like that, especially the way it's been sensationalized," Logan, 37, told The Washington Post. "I hated it. But I'm just going to rise above it and keep going."

...and going and going. Hey, if the contractor's trailer is rocking, don't bother knocking. Glad to see that she wasn't so traumatized by the horrors of war that she could still knock boots with some contractor dude. Who was married at the time, oh and so was she.

The stress and all, I would imagine drew them together. They first met that night in the bunker huddled together as the rockets rained down on the camp. She shivered with fear and he held her close at first protective and then with the fierce desire born from living life on the edge one day, one hour, one minute at a time.

I see I wasn't the only one surging in Iraq. Glad I was able to keep the rockets and mortars off your ass long enough for y'all to make a baby.

LT Nixon has something to say about it HERE
Thanks to the Bronze for the title correction.

Ralph Peters Gives Them Both Barrels

From his column in the NY Post

SUCCESS IN IRAQ: A MEDIA BLACKOUT

May 20, 2008 -- DO we still have troops in Iraq? Is there still a conflict over there?

If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines.

Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating.

But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily.

You won't see that above the fold in The New York Times. And forget the Obama-intoxicated news networks - they've adopted his story line that the clock stopped back in 2003.

To be fair to the quit-Iraq-and-save-the-terrorists media, they have covered a few recent stories from Iraq:

* When a rogue US soldier used a Koran for target practice, journalists pulled out all the stops to turn it into "Abu Ghraib, The Sequel."

Unforgivably, the Army handled the situation well. The "atrocity" didn't get the traction the whorespondents hoped for.

* When a battered, bleeding al Qaeda managed to set off a few bombs targeting Sunni Arabs who'd turned against terror, that, too, received delighted media play.

* As long as Baghdad-based journalists could hope that the joint US-Iraqi move into Sadr City would end disastrously, we were treated to a brief flurry of headlines.

* A few weeks back, we heard about another Iraqi company - 100 or so men - who declined to fight. The story was just delicious, as far as the media were concerned.

Then tragedy struck: As in Basra the month before, absent-without-leave (and hiding in Iran) Muqtada al Sadr quit under pressure from Iraqi and US troops. The missile and mortar attacks on the Green Zone stopped. There's peace in the streets...

...If the Kurds would only start slaughtering their neighbors and bombing Coalition troops, they might get some attention. Unfortunately, there are no US or allied combat units in Kurdistan for Kurds to bomb. They weren't needed. And (benighted people that they are) the Kurds are pro-American - despite the virulent anti-Kurdish prejudices prevalent in our Saudi-smooching State Department.

Developments just keep getting grimmer for the MoveOn.org fan base in the media. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who had supported al Qaeda and homegrown insurgents, now support their government and welcome US troops. And, in southern Iraq, the Iranians lost their bid for control to Iraq's government.

Bury those stories on Page 36...


...Our troops deserve better. The Iraqis deserve better. You deserve better. The forces of freedom are winning.

Here in the Land of the Free, of course, freedom of the press means the freedom to boycott good news from Iraq. But the truth does have a way of coming out.

The surge worked. Incontestably. Iraqis grew disenchanted with extremism. Our military performed magnificently. More and more Iraqis have stepped up to fight for their own country. The Iraqi economy's taking off. And, for all its faults, the Iraqi legislature has accomplished far more than our own lobbyist-run Congress over the last 18 months.

When Iraq seemed destined to become a huge American embarrassment, our media couldn't get enough of it. Now that Iraq looks like a success in the making, there's a virtual news blackout...

Go read the rest HERE

Onward Christian Soldiers...Oh and the rest of you guys too

H/T LT Nixon Rants

The NY Times entertains us with the story of an atheist soldier who said he was threatened by a Major and then set upon by wolves other Soldiers which precipitated his early return from Iraq.

Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

By NEELA BANERJEE
Published: April 26, 2008

FORT RILEY, Kan. — When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending.

Specialist Jeremy Hall, 23, outside Fort Riley, Kan., where he has been stationed since being sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers.

But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement.

Major Welborn told the soldiers he might bar them from re-enlistment and bring charges against them, according to the statement.

Last month, Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, filed suit in federal court in Kansas, alleging that Specialist Hall’s right to be free from state endorsement of religion under the First Amendment had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers.

It's entirely possible that this occurred as told, but something tells me we aren't seeing the whole story.

Yeah, I know call me skeptical...but before I go running off screaming bloody murder about how the asshole Christians are persecuting this young Specialist...I'd like to hear the whole story. Which I am quite sure we aren't getting.

First, no Major is going to bar anyone from promotion or re-enlistment...it takes a commander to do that, and last I looked Captains command companies and Lieutenant Colonels command Battalions. I wouldn't put it past some Major to make that threat...but after all that's why we have an IG. Which brings to mind another question did he report this to the IG?...which is outside his chain of command by the way.

After his run-in with Major Welborn, Specialist Hall did not file a complaint with the Army’s Equal Opportunity Office because, he said, he was mistrustful of his superior officers. Instead, he told leaders of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, who put him in touch with Mr. Weinstein. In November 2007, Specialist Hall was sent home early from Iraq after being repeatedly threatened by other soldiers. “I caution you that although your ‘legal’ issues are yours and yours alone, I have heard many people disagree with you, and this may be a cause for some of the perceived threats,” wrote Sgt. Maj. Kevin Nolan in Specialist Hall’s counseling for his departure.

Uh, I guess that would be a NO.

I guess they really aren't Christians if they don't love the sinner but hate the sin...those hypocritical bastards. But if you don't believe why would it bother you if someone was engaging in what you as an unbeliever might consider superstitious nonsense? I know, according to SPC Hall he was "threatened". Now that wasn't very Christian-like behavior was it?

In some respects I can understand SPC Hall being uncomfortable if he is a non believer, a lot of prayers are given over in Iraq. I could hear the Muslim call to prayer every time it was given...did that bother him too or was it just the Christians he was forced to be around that bugged him? There's something else going on here...I just don't know what it is...and the NY Times doesn't know or care to find out. Nice story though.

Obituaries

I don't know if you heard about this, but the actor Heath Ledger passed away yesterday. Of course I'm being facetious, because if you watched any of the morning news shows or really any kind of news after 1700 CST yesterday you were subjected to breathless commentary about this or that aspect of Mr. Ledger's demise...endlessly.

What you didn't hear about was this:

January 22, 2008

MND-North Soldier dies in accident (Kirkuk)

Multi-National Division – North PAO

TIKRIT, Iraq – A Multi-National Division – North Soldier died from injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover while conducting operations in Kirkuk Jan. 22.

Additionally, one other Soldier was wounded and evacuated to a Coalition hospital.

The cause of the vehicle rollover was non-combat related and is still under investigation.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

Or this:

January 21, 2008
DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Staff Sgt. Justin R. Whiting, 27, of Hancock, N.Y., died Jan. 19 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Ky.

January 21, 2008
DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Spc. Richard B. Burress, 25, of Naples, Fla., died Jan. 19 in Al-Jabour, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

January 21, 2008
DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Spc. Jon M. Schoolcraft, III, 26, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, died Jan. 19 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The only time people like SPC Schoolcraft, Burress or SSG Whiting are worthy of discussion in the media is when they want to use their sacrifice to lament this terrible awful wrong headed war that we were lied into...in other words to bash the President of the United States.

I sat there this morning and listened to people lament the tragedy it was to loose such a talented young man, so full of life, all the possibilities he had in front of him now gone.

It made me want to vomit. Is Mr. Ledger's passing a tragedy to his family and friends? Of course it is. And it is sad when a talented person, whose work you've enjoyed, career is cut short (John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley). But if anyone wonders what is wrong with this nation, take one look at the priorities that people have. The things people think are important. The things that are held up and honored.

Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Service, Honor, Integrity, Courage...those are the Army values. Does every Soldier live it every day? I wouldn't be so stupid as to proclaim that, but I do know that is a much more lofty standard than anything I heard discussed on the news this morning...and that is a tragedy.

In My E-Mail

From the NY Times, this e-mail whose subject line said this:

Today's Headlines: U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan

It's not exactly COVERT if we tell everyone...is it?

Here's the rest of the blurb and the link to the story:

U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within PakistanBy STEVEN LEE MYERS, DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITTA plan that could authorize more aggressive operationsfollows concern that Al Qaeda and the Taliban hope todestabilize the Pakistani government, officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html?th&emc=th

I think we've already established where the NY Times stands as far as being supportive to our nations efforts in this conflict...but for the love of GOD, if there any limit to what they will do?

A RedPlanet Cartoon

A better description about our "friends" in the media has yet to have been done...


For more outstanding political cartooning...unlike the crap in the post below this one... go to RedPlanet Cartoons

Cynical Reporter Visits AUSA

The Association of the United States Army, is a professional organization that produces Army Magazine and lobbies congress on Army issues. Its annual convention is being held in Washington DC right now.

Bettina Chavanne who blogs at Ares, visited the convention and reports on a presentation by Secretary of the Army, U.S. Army Secretary Pete Gerren who opened the convention by giving a speech to the assembled members and guests.

Here's a short bit of what she wrote:

...But no matter how much family support he offers (how he would fund his
"Army Family Covenant" program was not discussed), it doesn't change the fact
that not only have troops been in Iraq for six years, but that from the sound of
it, they're going to be there for a very long time to come...

...He closed his speech with a video about "Army strong" families - a
series of images of Army families welcoming home and bidding farewell to their
loved ones. It was moving and manipulative, as it was intended to be. In "an era
of persistent conflict," pretty music and carefully choreographed images aren't
going to bring anyone home, but I think (sic)Geren (sic) hopes they'll be enough to rouse
Congress to fund his programs and support the troops for as long as they're
going to be stuck on the battlefield.

You can read the rest HERE.

There is nothing in Ms. Chavanne's bio to suggest a reason as to why she's so cynical about Secretary Gerren's presentation. As I stated in the comments over there, if the Secretary of the Army can't make a positive statement about the Army and Soldiers at the AUSA convention then where can he?

Would it be too much to ask of a reporter that they could actually know that we have been in Iraq since 2003 and not 6 years as she states?

Her obvious distaste for the subject bubbles to the surface in her article. It would be interesting to hear some real discussion about issues facing the Army rather than snarky cynical sniping at the Secretary of the Army for giving a tribute to the Soldiers he works for.

I've been in Iraq off and on now for around 24 months and my feelings about being "stuck" here aren't anywhere as pronounced as someone whose greatest danger is more than likely fighting beltway traffic and fighting off the lecherous advances of a drunken congress critter or two. I guess I'm just too dumb to appreciate how I'm being manipulated by the man.

Pretty pathetic stuff.

Faces of Valor

I honestly don't go around to news sites and the like looking for things to bitch about. In fact I really wish there wasn't anything to complain about with these places...but it leaps out at you without trying.

Case in point...today, I was going through the Military Times site looking for stories I hadn't heard or just general news. I found a story about the Safety Nazis at Fort Rucker winning a unit award and the article I posted about below. I also saw a link for "faces of valor". Now I don't know about you, but I would expect "faces of valor" to be about people who have done valorous things, things that you get awarded things like Silver Stars and stuff for...well, not so much.

It appears that "Faces of Valor" is something else. According to the website...

Faces of Valor was created in 2003 as a photographic tribute to the men and women of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Included in this site are a collection of the best images from our daily Frontline Photos galleries, our Frontline Voices and our Honor the fallen memorial to those who died in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Contact us with any questions or comments at onlineeditors@atpco.com.

Fair enough.

Look over on the right side of this page and we have the running casualty counter. And we see this photo in the middle top.





Along with this photo credit...

Scott Olson / Getty Images A picture of a fallen soldier rests against a wall as names of fallen servicemen are read at a memorial service honoring the 3,000 who have been killed since the start of the Iraq War on Jan. 1 in Chicago. The grim milestone was reached following the deaths of at least 112 servicemen in December, the deadliest month in Iraq for Americans in more than two years.

I guess photos submitted by readers aren't striking enough, or show enough sorrow for the "Faces of Valor" page. At least they are straight up about it and say what this page is about, so I guess my complaint is about disappointment about what I expected to find versus what is actually there. I've got no complaint about honoring the fallen...more people should. I guess I just expected more.

How can you win a war without heroes? There have been many many soldiers sailors airmen and Marines who have done great things for this country during this war. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice. How many can you name? How many stories come to mind about the incredible sacrifice and courage that is displayed on an almost minute by minute basis around the globe? Yes there are MILBLOGS that chronicle these stories...but actually how many people read them?

A newspaper chain that calls themselves "Military Times" owes the people they make a dime off the backs of at least a little more than what they are doing. Mixed in with all the "National Enquirer" type stories about drill sergeants beating up trainees or the latest scandal, they could try to have a roll-up of awards presented to soldiers during this war and a selection of people and events that caused them to be presented their citation. But that might detract from the maudlin, depressing tone of their "Faces of Valor" section.

Hell, I don't know...of course I'm not the editor of the "Army Times" and as I have told other folks, If you don't like it don't buy it. SO maybe I should take my own advise.

Unfortunately this problem is much greater than the "Military Times" it stretches across all of the traditional media, who for whatever reason concentrate on the negative and rarely if ever report the positive or heroic. I'm not even going to get into ideologies or the why they do it...but I do know that they are not telling the whole story and the country is worse off for not knowing these stories or hearing about their bravest of citizens.

God bless all those valiant young men and women who have given their lives in service to this nation. But this cause is so much more than that...and people need to be reminded of that as well.

Danger Room=Classless Jackasses

First of all I recognize that everyone has the right to an opinion. As I stated when I commented about the blog of a deployed soldier, who had soured against the war, he has that right...it doesn't mean however that I have to agree with it. Or sit by while people use pictures of dead/injured soldiers to illustrate their point. Which brings me to these clowns and their story, "2 of 7 Soldier-Critics Dead".

The story links an ARTICLE from Editor and Publisher which details the unfortunate deaths of 2 soldiers who had been some of the authors of the editorial critical of the conduct of the war featured in the New York Times. The soldiers died in a vehicle accident in Baghdad earlier this week. This is the picture Danger Room chose to illustrate the story with...

This picture is not from the accident in question. I suppose they couldn't bring themselves to post a more gory picture of dead Americans, perhaps there is a limit to what they will do.

They are still assholes,and they have no honor and they disgust me more than words can possibly say. I expect this from our enemies, but citizens of our country who bask in the protection we provide who see fit to spread this around and USE this scene...I guess that's their right. But it's my right to call them out as the trash that they really are.

The Fake Diary of a Fake Soldier

There has been a lot of uproar in the last couple of days (rightfully so) about the atrocities contained in a story by "Scott Thomas" an alleged soldier, allegedly serving at FOB Falcon here in Iraq.

The story contains a lot of sensational charges and stories designed to make the average person reel with revulsion at the abject cruelty that is being committed in our name, by our poor brainwashed soldiers in Iraq.

I won't even attempt to address the motives of the person who wrote that piece of tripe. I will however say that the fact that a magazine would print or post to the INTERNET this stuff and present it as being true shows the contempt and utter lack of understanding they have of the culture surrounding today's military.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of people in the US Military who do wrong horrible things. The military is a reflection of the society and as such we have our share of depraved and sick minds. The thing that makes me believe this is made up is the fact that if someone did do the things described in the article they wouldn't get away with it. People would not accept it or stand for it. Even if heaven forbid, they were OK with what the "Soldier" was doing (like wearing part of a human skull as a crown) they would stop it, because they know others wouldn't be OK with it and that to allow something like that to happen would be the end of many a career.

There is a gulf that exists between the military and some in the press. A gulf some don't even care to try and cross. For those who have been educated by watching "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket" and other motion pictures that feature all the depravity that the mind can imagine and then believe that is what being a Soldier is all about, it's easy to imagine that stories like this one, and Marines murdering civilians in cold blood are true. It conforms to the reality they know because that's all they know. They haven't taken the time, nor do they wish to find out what the military is really like. Why would they wish to associate with the troglodytes who would condone and commit such acts?

On top of their dislike of who and what we are, you can add that they are actively opposed to the war itself and some see opposing and stopping the war anyway they can trumps being objective or looking for the greater truth.

We in the military can try and reach out to council, teach and mentor these people but it is after all a free country (you're welcome). So if the majority of the press isn't willing to learn then what are we to do?

I guess we can continue to point out inaccuracies, and downright lies where we see them for a start. But with friends like these do we really need enemies?

All Sides Agree...

...the press suck

This morning’s NYT article is only the most recent reminder that some men choose to make history, while others choose to “write the first draft.” A couple of quotes from Michael Ledeen today in The Corner:

It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I’m readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I’ll, in turn, do my best for the cause by writing editorials - after the fact.
- Gen. Robert E. Lee, CSA

I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.”
- Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, USA

H/T Neptunus Lex

Yeah, I know I posted the GEN Sherman quote before, but it never hurts to remind folks that the more things change the more the stay the same. The GEN Lee quote is really good as well. Seems both sides had something they could agree on.

Meanwhile in other un-reported news...we're still kicking ass

Maybe We're Not SO Bad After All

Redstate reporting from Iraq tells a story of soldiers winning over the hearts and minds of reporters who embed with them...

It was in the process of performing that mission, of coping with the loss of loved ones, and of just being themselves as American soldiers, that these young men were able to win over the admiration and affection of more than one journalist who had arrived in their midst harboring a less-than-positive opinion of the Iraq war, and of those who were tasked with prosecuting it.

“I love those guys,” Beriain said, looking wistfully out the window of our cloister here in the Green Zone. “From the first time you go kick a door with them, they accept you – you’re one of them. I’ve even got a “family photo” with them” to remember them by. “I really hated to leave.”

Of course the cynical among us would say that the reporters are just suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. This might explain why a lot of news folks don't want to go there...other than just plain being scared.

Read the rest of this wonderful article HERE

A de Tocqueville Quote...

The famous observer of American life, de Tocqueville wrote this in 1835 about the press...

The journalists of the United States are generally in a very humble position, with a scanty education and a vulgar turn of mind...the characteristics of the American journalist consist in an open and coarse appeal to the passions of the readers; he abandons principles to assail the characters of individuals, to track them in private life and disclose all their weaknesses and vices. Nothing could be more deplorable...

It seems the more things change the more they stay the same.

Rock Band Fumbles War on Terror

Or so says Rolling Stone Magazine.



I mean who else would a Music/Lifestyle magazine be refering to by the name "Bush" than this band...



I mean if they meant President of the United States George W. Bush, wouldn't they have refered to him as "Mr Bush", POTUS or Commander in Chief? And if they do mean the POTUS, you're telling me that GWB all by himself screwed up the GWOT? Nobody else? Just good ole' dumbass evil genius GWB?

Someone needs to tell these people that GWB can't run for a third term.

Hello Detroit Free Press Readers!

I just noticed I have a link on a story about Blogs and the SECDEF in the Detroit Free Press on line edition...don't know about the paper itself.

I get the feeling that whomever pasted that link on there, hasn't ever read my blog. For the most part I try to stay non political and remarks I've made about the current dust up are/were my impression that some former GO's have gotten their panties in a bunch because the SECDEF has probably treated them to the same leadership style as these GOs used on their subordinates over the years.

Additionally for someone to believe that everyone in the military would march in lockstep for going on 5 years now about the way the GWOT has been run is ridiculous. Especially given that during the same time the SECDEF has been transforming the DOD moving it toward something that is diametrically opposed to the way things have been done in the past.

Anyway...enjoy yourself, don't expect too many shattering relivations around here. If you would like something more biting try COUNTERCOLUMN or ROFASIX.

Welcome Boston Globe Readers...

My little blog was quoted in the Boston Globe today.

They said,"One man, describing himself as a helicopter pilot, ''Outlaw 13," who posts on guidons.blogspot.com, wrote that ''a lot of folks in the head shed have heartburn with" Rumsfeld."

This was pulled from this ,POST :"It seems to me that a lot of folks in the head shed have heartburn with the SECDEF."

Which was preceded by this paragraph: "I am currently reading the book Cobra II, and while I've skipped ahead and read the chapter about OBJ RAMS and the shoot-down of Vampire 13 (which I must say, was well researched and fairly accurate by all accounts), the opening chapter reads like an OP/ED piece in your standard major east coast newspaper (which could be because one of the authors writes for the NY Times). These gentlemen pretend to get inside the heads of all the major players in the GWOT and make some bold statements about the motives and reasons about why things were done they way they were at the beginning of the war. Needless to say there is a lot of finger pointing going on by people who should know better."

To top it off I posted this in March about a book called "COBRA II"...long before the current SECDEF versus the Retired General panty twisting contest.

I have never been inside the Pentagon, I've got no inside info about what currently serving GO's might be thinking about the SECDEF, and it constantly amazes me that there are people out there who actually believe that everyone in the US Army believes and feels exactly the same way about everything to do with the war. It would truly be shocking if no one actually disagreed with how the SECDEF was doing his job.

Bottom line all this crap is just talk and will accomplish nothing other than give the politicians something else to scrap about and maybe give some Hajji hope that we are about to fall apart and quit.

Jack Kelly on the Press and Iraq

Jack Kelly lambastes the press for the way the war in Iraq has been covered. For his trouble I'm sure he'll be reviled and called a shill of the right. It's interesting how some people who are supposedly in support of open discourse and discussion have problems with anyone who dares criticize them...

Washington Times
August 21, 2005

Familiar Patterns

By Jack Kelly

Near the end of his touching account of the funeral of Lance Cpl. Brian Montgomery, one of six Ohio Marine reservists killed in an ambush Aug. 1, the Los Angeles Times' David Zucchino reported a fact I have seen nowhere else:

"Before leaving Iraq, Eric made his buddies promise they would track and kill the insurgents who took his brother from him. Last week, he said, a squad member's mother called to relay a message from Iraq: 'We got the [expletive].' "

News reports from Iraq typically lead with U.S. casualties, usually without putting them in context or reporting what happened to the enemy. Two days after Brian Montgomery's death, 14 Marines from the same battalion were killed when a roadside bomb destroyed the amtrac in which they were riding. It was Page One news all over the country. But there was little on Operation Quick Strike, in which they were taking part.

Imagine if correspondents covering the Normandy invasion had emphasized American casualties, while downplaying the strategic significance of the battle, the greater losses of our enemies and the valor of our fighting men. Would people on the home front have become discouraged?

Suspicions Iraq war coverage is intended to discourage the home front have deepened because of the massive coverage accorded Cindy Sheehan, recently camped out on the doorstep of President Bush's ranch in Crawford.

Cindy's son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year. She suffered a terrible loss, but no different than that of more than 1,800 other mothers. Why have the media given Mrs. Sheehan so much attention and so little to the others? Could it be because Mrs. Sheehan opposes the war, and most of the others do not?

This is a familiar pattern for journalists. Thousands of Americans lost husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But media attention was lavished on a handful -- the so-called Jersey Girls -- stridently critical of President Bush.

Soldiers and Marines in Iraq have complained bitterly that journalists exaggerate their difficulties and give short shrift to their accomplishments. "I know the reporting's bad because I know people in Iraq," Mark Yost, associate editorial page editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said in a July 12 column.

"I get unfiltered news from Iraq through an e-mail network of military friends who aren't so blinded by their own politics that they can't see the real good that we're doing there," Mr. Yost said. "The fact that makes this all the more ironic is that the people who are fighting and dying want to stay and the people who are merely observers want to cut and run." Mr. Yost was subjected to a torrent of criticism from thin-skinned colleagues.

"I'm embarrassed to have you as a colleague," wrote Pioneer Press reporter Charles Laszewski. Knight-Ridder Baghdad bureau chief Hannah Allam (Knight Ridder owns the Pioneer Press) said only the press knows the real story.

Steve Lovelady, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, in an e-mail exchange with Web logger Jeff Jarvis implied Mr. Yost should be fired because "he's a right-wing shill who belittled and betrayed hundreds of reporters who go into harm's way every day to tell us what the hell is really going on."

But most journalists rarely leave the fortified green zone. "It's very confining for our staff to go into Baghdad and have to spend most of their time on the fifth floor of the Palestine Hotel," said Mike Silverman, Associated Press managing editor.

Kathleen Carroll, AP executive editor, said it was much easier to add up the number of dead than to determine how many hospitals got electricity on a particular day or how many schools were built.

Mr. Silverman and Miss Carroll were recounting to the New York Times' Katherine Seelye a July AP editors' discussion of reader complaints that only one side of the Iraq story was being told.

The AP could, of course, embed more of its reporters with U.S. troops. But then they would be in greater danger than at the Palestine Hotel, and would be deprived of its comforts.

Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.

Where For Art Thou Juliet...and Kiran?

This is a true story

On my last day in Iraq, and my first day in Kuwait I saw a vision. While this vision didn't make me question my course in life or take up the priesthood it did remind me of how good we have it...and that's always a good thing.

The day began as we packed up what remained of the things we hadn't already shipped out or sold off to the new guys. The challenge remained of how we were going to stuff 10 pounds of crap (our remaining gear) into a 5 pound bag (our aircraft). Somehow most of us found a way to wedge all remaining baggage (how did I get all this stuff anyway?) into every nook and cranny. If we had an accident on the way back I'm sure the accident board would have had a field day trying to figure out where all of this stuff came from.

We took off on time and said goodbye to everyone by flying low past all the trailers on the way out. It being 0730, I'm sure some of the late risers had some choice words for us. But I could care less, I'm going home!



As we neared the border of Iraq and Kuwait we spotted camels. Everyone thinks they are all over the place over here but that was the second or third time I'd seen some in a year.


Our arrival in Kuwait was rather anticlimactic, as we landed shut down and began to unload our stuff and look for the warehouse we would grow to hate over the next 10 days.


After finding a cot and setting up shop with 100 of our new closest friends it was dinner time, so after waiting for retreat to sound we headed off to the chow hall.

At the dining facility there is a hand washing station outside the door that EVERYONE must go through before being allowed to enter the building. There is even a soldier standing there to ensure compliance with the hand washing policy. Never mind that my headgear and flight suit are so nasty that as soon as my hand come into contact with them after I have washed my hands I have undone whatever good I just did by washing my hands, we feel good because we have done SOMETHING to combat the filth that permeates this place.

While the building and surroundings of this facility are top notch the chow isn't that much if any better than it was back in Iraq. That might explain the long lines at KFC and Hardees over at the PX. But what the hell, it's free and we are definitely getting our monies worth.

The walls of the DF were lined with TVs most of the time, at least when I was there they were either tuned to the news or sports channels. While we were in Iraq they had the same thing in our chow hall but it always seemed to have something on I didn't really care about...so I didn't watch too much. As I sat down with my roast beast and who hash and glanced up at the screen nearest me to see what was on. That is when I saw my vision.



Now don't get me wrong, I had seen Juliet Huddy of Fox News before. Before Iraq, before Korea I used to watch Fox and Friends Weekend edition while I did laundry or the other chores that were always put off till the weekend. Back then I thought she was cute and entertaining, but she didn't have the impact that seeing here on that screen had for me now. We couldn't hear a word she was saying, didn't know what story she was talking about, but that was OK with me. I just sat there and looked at her for a couple of minutes till my table mate asked me what the hell I was looking at.

"I'm looking at Juliet Huddy damnit."

He turns around and looks. "Yeah, she's pretty nice."

Another guy chimes in. "But she nothing compared to the news chick."

"The news chick...who's that?"

"I don't know her name, but she's hot."

Someone else said, "I think her name's Karen something."

Just then she appeared on the screen.



"It says there her name is Kiran Chetry."

"Whatever"

"She's a babe!"

"She's a robo babe."

"If she were President she would be Baberaham Lincoln." (it is an established fact that if more than three soldiers are present and a non work related conversation takes place someone in the course of said conversation will quote a movie)

An hour or so later and after many hateful looks from the people around us a dirty band of Warrant Officers took our trays to the return area said goodbye to Juliet and Kiran and headed for our little warehouse in the sun.

I've thought about what I saw on that screen and what it was that attracted me so much. Yeah, they were cute but it wasn't the sex...we saw pictures of hot girls in AFFES porn and DVD's. I think it was the fact that we were finally headed home and they remind me of all that I had missed in the last two years. They looked so All American and girl next door. God Bless America...I'm going home!

Four months later I still remember that feeling...I'll never forget it, and while I know they weren't doing anything special or different that day I want to thank them for being who they are...American Women.