Free Our Fobbits!

Interesting Op-Ed about how our Army officers in combat are too risk-averse, which is hampering operations and long-term objectives:

The results were striking. Many respondents said that field commanders relied too much on methods that worked in another place at another time but often did not work well now. Officers at higher levels are stifling the initiative of junior officers through micromanagement and policies to reduce risk. Onerous requirements for armored vehicles on patrols, for instance, are preventing the quick action needed for effective counterinsurgency. Of the Army veterans I surveyed, only 28 percent said that their service encouraged them to take risks, while a shocking 41 percent said that the Army discouraged it.

I suppose Mr. Moyar is think about things like "How to Win a War" instead of creating US-based manufacturing jobs for the ever-prevalent reflective belt. Shows what he knows!

Another Day, Another Crummy Iraq/A-stan Movie

Opening Night for "Brothers"

Not sure what it is about Hollywood, but when it comes to war movies about Iraq and Afghanistan, they seem to crank out more duds than a Chinese fireworks factory. This latest installment is called "Brothers" and is a remake of a Danish film from 2005 about the stereotypical Marine that comes back home and goes bonkers. Pretty dull and contrived stuff. Here's what Blackfive has to say:

More likely, I think, is the possibility that this is just another Big Hollywood movie that stereotypes soldiers or Marines as angry (because the military is where people go when they can't get into prison!), humorless men (which is why they don't go to college!) who scream a lot, beat up on family members, hate hippies (because they hate their own latent homosexuality!), throw dishes for no good reason at all, and beat up on women and little brothers.

It's not that all of the good coming home movies were "pro-war", but rather the characters in them seemed a lot less phony in movies like The Best Years of Our Lives and Born on the 4th of July. I mean, seriously, Tobey Maguire's character is looking like he's auditioning to be the third Bushwhacker in Wrestlemania V.

Maybe if the production didn't look like it belonged on Michael Moore's Youtube page, it might be worth seeing. But until more vets start becoming filmmakers and more involved in the creative arts, I predict we're going to see turd after turd on the touchy subject of the modern veteran. If the VA can actually figure out how to pay out on the GI Bill, perhaps we could have some decent war movies hitting the big screen.

Veterans Day

Maybe if our society understood that going to war is a shared responsibility among the nation, we wouldn't be treated to such nonsense in our Op-Ed pages on Veterans Day. Today's turd is from David Ignatius, who, having an apparent change of heart from his Harvard days, once referred to the "needle-popping" Army in an article about why Mao would make a decent President:

Through all its own difficulties, the military has kept its stride. That sense of balance comes partly from the fact that soldiers are anchored to the American bedrock. This includes the stereotypical small towns in the South and Midwest that have military service in their DNA. But it also counts plenty of hardworking, upwardly mobile Hispanic and African-American families in urban America who produce some of the best soldiers I know.

Great. All the military folks David Ignatius "knows" are probably the people he called the cops on when they drove by his country club. As long as the nation's elite continue to see military service as something only poor, desperate rubes would take part in, we're going to have a pretty fucked up republic.

So this Motorhead tune is for all the vets out there, because it seems appropriate. I don't really think it's anti-war or anti-religion necessarily, but it's kind of a harsh criticism about the leaders of the world making everyone else doing all the sacrificing:



Nobody gives a damn about anybody else,
Think everyone should feel the way they feel themselves,
Rich men think that happiness is a million dollar bills,
So how come half of them O.D. on sleeping pills,
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, you all know what I mean,
What's the use of a cry for help, if no one hears the screams,
No one hears the scream,

No voices in the sky, confusion blinds the eye,
Can't take it with you when you die,
No voices in the sky,

The ones who dedicate the flags to make you brave,
They also consecrate the headstone on your grave,
Ritual remembrance when no one knows your name,
Don't help a single widow learn to fight the pain,

Politicians kissing babies for good luck,
T.V. preachers sell salvation for a buck,
You don't need no golden cross, to tell you wrong from right,
The world's worst murderers were those who saw the light.

Fort Hood Massacre

Not much to say. It's all very sad. And I think that sadness is captured pretty well in this image that was part of an MSNBC slideshow.
People in the military are accustomed to mentally preparing for danger and carnage abroad, but you just never really expect it on the homefront. I'm not going to speculate here, since the facts are still coming in, but Noah Shachtman has some eye-popping statements that the shooter made previously. And I'm a bit surprised that David Neiwert is criticizing "wingnuts" for being so judgmental, because I'm sure if it was a white guy, he would've talked about how Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin made him do it, which Crooks and Liars has been known to do.

The guys at This Ain't Hell got a hold of his Officer Record if you are interested.

Politics Makes for Strange Bedfellows (sometimes Gay)

Gay Patriot has an article in Pajamas Media about how gay liberals are perpetually disappointed by the politicians they help elect. This is in reference to how much ass-dragging is happening with the Obama administration on Don't Ask Don't Tell:

And Americans have become increasingly aware that the gay community does not speak with one voice. Nor does it march it lockstep to the tune of the Democratic Party.

Military.com notes that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it would actually require an act of Congress instead of just an order from the White House. But, it still seems as though Obama is waffling on a campaign promise that he could easily fulfill.

It's correct when Gay Patriot notes that gay issues aren't exclusively the realm of the democratic party. Some fellow reich-wingers have publicly stated that DADT has got to go including Ed Morrissey, CDR Salamander, and even the Sniper (no shit, the Sniper). I for one am for the repeal of the DADT, simply for the sake of no more awkward powerpoints for our troops during GMT sessions.

I Bet They Didn't Think He Was a Milblogger!

It's difficult to explain what it's like to be a vet these days. Flat-out bigotry is rare. But, veterans seem to be like this politically-correct class of society that many folks seem to pity and avoid acknowledging because of some guilt complex...which is unfortunate. A disturbing disconnect from the warrior class and society at large can mean big trouble down the road, and at the very least leads to awkward situations like this. From CJ at A Soldier's Perspective:

Since I know that you spineless bastards in the school system are reading this, be prepared for a lawsuit! You were way out of line in bringing my personal life and my struggles with PTSD into a dispute with the school on the uniform policy. UNIFORM POLICY, FOLKS!! Where do you get off contacting the military about a private citizen matter? If I worked for Wal-Mart, would you have called the management there? If I were a REAL threat to anyone at that meeting, you should have called the police, not the military.

Despite the big game that CJ talks at his blog, I have met him personally and he is an extremely nice fellow. So it is a bit surprising that a dispute over his child's wardrobe at school would warrant a phone call from officials to his chain of command. A lot of veterans have PTSD, and it doesn't mean they are going to go run around the school screaming about Charlie coming over the wire like some Oliver Stone movie. But it is indicative of the growing divide in our American society.

SECDEF The Wolf

Interesting profile of SECDEF Gates in the NY Times today. Due to his nature of being capable of cleaning up the proverbial bag of dicks that is our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, NY Times likens him to this Pulp Fiction character:

Mr. Gates’s shifting role can be summed up in terms familiar to the defense secretary, an avid film buff who routinely brings piles of DVDs on long trips and cites favorite movies in conversation to make a point.

In his new memoir, Matt Latimer, a Pentagon speechwriter under Mr. Gates’s predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, compares Mr. Gates to the Harvey Keitel character in “Pulp Fiction” — the one who shows up after the grisly killing to wipe away all traces of blood.

A good analogy, however I disagree with this strawman:

For Republicans, Mr. Gates poses a quandary in assessing Mr. Obama’s national security decisions:do they look at him as a turncoat for dismantling some of Mr. Bush’s policies or as the best hope for moderating changes brought by a Democratic administration?

A turncoat...hardly. It's not like the guy is Arlen Specter or something. It was a logical choice by an incoming administration that faced a wartime transition for the first time in over 35 years. And, as you recall, the rare bit of opposition to SECDEF Gates being re-appointed was from lefties upset because this move would signal that Democrats were weak on national security. The guy could be registered with the Bull Moose party for all I care, as long as he gets the job done, which I believe he is.

Joe's Back with a Good Rant on the GI Bill

Long ago silenced by his superiors for having a milblog that was deemed too risque (although brutally honest), Joe joins us again with some great criticism on VA healthcare and the GI Bill backlog, which seems to be a recurring theme with vets heading off to college.

Lizette Alvarez Redeems Herself

pic from BlackFive

I've been known to label NY Times military columnist Lizette Alvarez a moran in the past for her slanted coverage, but she has a pretty decent article in the NY Times about women in today's military. The article states that the military acknowledges that women serve an important role in combat, but that the general American populous has yet to recognize this reality (h/t GI Kate's Twitter). It's similar to the case of SPC Brown who received a Silver Star in Afghanistan but got pulled off combat duty once the press made the public aware of what she was doing.

Nothing But Bombs

Interesting chart over at Boing Boing which shows that military production has cranked up, but civilian production in the US is down in the crapper.

New Military Policy From the Morale Supression Squad

For years, the Pentagon has been cranking out cheesy anti-smoking ads targeted at servicemembers, along with other bizarre PSAs, in the hopes of curbing the associated health costs. But now it looks like they are just going to try and outright ban those delicious cancer-sticks. From the Daily Mail (h/t Wek):

The investigation by the Institute of Medicine, commissioned by the Pentagon, found that a third of the country's three million servicemen and women uses tobacco, compared with a fifth in the general population.

The heaviest smokers - perhaps not surprisingly - were soldiers and Marines on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 37 per cent of soldiers and 36 per cent of Marines used tobacco. Combat veterans were 50 per cent more likely to smoke than troops who hadn't seen any fighting, the report said.

Brandon Friedman seems to think this is a good idea, after all military members surrender their freedoms on all sorts of matters. But, I wonder, if any senior enlisted personnel were consulted on this matter? Because they're the ones who are going to have to deal with the inevitable mutiny that takes place once this policy goes into effect. We had to stop smoking on the boat once when we had a freon leak out at sea. That was the worst 24 hours ever, and that's saying a lot for the Navy!

Another concern is that by using the logic that "it'll save taxpayer money", you can use the same line of reasoning to ban smoking, and anything else that makes life tolerable, for the entire country under Obamacare.

Pvt. Who Was Shot in Arkansas Says He's Still Glad to Serve His Country

Photo from CNN

After narrowly avoiding death at the hands of an Islamic terrorist in Arkansas last week (Pvt. Long was not as fortunate), Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, says he is still thankful that he's doing his time for Uncle Sam. From CNN:

Ezeagwula said he joined the Army because "I just want to help my family out. I thought it was a good way, and then when I got in it, I actually learned to love the Army."

He said he is a construction machinery operator but hopes to eventually become a sergeant and then a drill sergeant.

Usually a touching story such as this about sacrifice, commitment, and honor rarely makes any headway in the media. This story was #10 on CNN's Most Popular List and will probably drop off the chart once details emerge about that gay dude on American Idol. Politico had analysis of how Dr. Tiller's case got way more coverage than a domestic terrorist attack on our own soldiers. If only Pvt. Ezeagwula had been shot by someone wearing a Sarah Palin button or he publicly reputed American Imperialism, he would've had a book deal and an ACLU lawyer by now.

Lowlife Storms Recruiting Station in Arkansas

Chudssss!!

You have to wonder where the hell these people come from. From USA Today:

According to sources, the suspect advised them that he was going to kill as many Army personnel as possible. At the time of the shooting, the subject had approximately 200 rounds of ammunition available, police said.

According to a police report, Muhammad told police he saw two uniformed U.S. soldiers in front of the recruiting office before he shot and killed Pvt. William Long, 23, and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, while they were taking a break outside the U.S. Army recruiting station where they both worked.

When Muhammad was arrested he was near a Walgreens drug store and another large store with hundreds of people inside and out in the parking lot areas.

But authorities said he never attempted to hurt anyone at either location, and only directed his hostility to the recruiting site.

Why does every crazy always get a raging boner over recruiting stations, thinking that fucking with recruiters means you're really "sticking it to the man". Have these people ever been to one of these drab government-funded offices in the strip mall? You know these scumbags aren't going for the ads on Army Strong.

Most service members get recruiting duty for 2 years after they serve in a combat zone/sea duty, or like the Private who was ruthlessly gunned down in Arkansas, they get stashed there for a few weeks until they start their training for whatever community they're in. But these days it seems like they'll have to make Recruiting Duty the hardship assignment. Jesus fucking Christ.

Unsurprising Gallup Poll Shows Military/Vets Mostly Republicans

The Pentagon tends to shy away from this type of polling, since keeping the military apolitical in the public's eye has been US policy ever since the days of the George Washington administration. But, up until now the only thing connecting the dots between military members voting Republican was an unscientific Military Times poll and a lot of empirical evidence garnered from gabbing it up with others in uniform. But, Gallup has released the results of an extensive poll involving 138,000 interviews of veterans, who they define as anyone who is serving on active-duty or who has ever been in the service.

Here's the breakdown by age:
Although the GOP has been sucking ass lately, they still have a lock on those in uniform, even with those youngsters who are supposedly all Obamatrons. Gallup provides a very thorough analysis, but even a bonehead could probably understand the logic that 1) The GOP has tried for decades to brand itself as the party of national security, and 2) People in the military probably give a shit about national security.

Not to say that you can't be a non-Republican in the military, but it seems to attract people with a more conservative outlook on life, just as something journalism or teaching tends to attract folks with a liberal outlook on life. Just the way it is.

Happy Memorial Weekend Sale At The Mattress Barn Day!!!

Realizing that I'm out of the country trying to find various combinations of Thai food that don't give me the shits, I figured I had to do something for Memorial Day besides a half-assed blog post. So I headed out towards the Burmese border and visited the infamous Thailand-Burma railway. Here's the most famous span (which has been rebuilt) known as the Bridge on the River Kwai.

During WWII, the Japanese used forced labor of enslaved Asians and Allied POWs in its construction in what were the most brutal methods since the Pyramids were built. From the Wiki:

About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. The dead POWs included 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, about 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians.

Nearby is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery which is the resting place for many who died, and I was surprised to see that, unlike Arlington, many of the headstones had personal inscriptions. I thought this one was worth sharing.

I wonder if the people working under these miserable conditions could've predicted that the Allies would prevail and Japan would morph from psychopathic imperial power to one of the strongest economies and most stable societies in the modern world. It's strange how history works, but these men didn't have the luxury of seeing it pan out for the better.

Here's some other bloggers with Memorial Day posts:

• Greta with a poem at Hooah Wife and Friends
• David M has a letter from a gold star Dad
• Ranger Against War with a Vietnam-era Photo
• Bad Dogs and Such (in Iraq) with a Motivator
• Miserable Donuts with a video
• Persistent left-wing whiner Susie Madrak at C&L with some shitty, anti-military Dylan video from the 60s sparking the question "How Bad Can These People Suck?"

And since Flopping Aces is going with the Gettysburg theme, here's the Battle of Little Round Top sequence, be sure to check it at 1:25 for a classic line:

Nutty IVAW Guy Actually a Real Crazy Person

Well, this is certainly a slap in the face to the far-left who loves exploiting "dissenting" voices from the veteran community for their own political purposes. Apparently, one of IVAW's big spokesman was actually an former mental patient from Colorado.

This Ain't Hell has the full story.

TSO gigs VoteVets, since the guy had a couple of diaries at VetVoice, but I wouldn't say he was deeply enmeshed with the organization.

Army Officer Gets Booted For Being Too Gay

Call me crazy, but with Pakistan raging out of control and the Taliban fighting season ramping up in Afghanistan, now is not the time to be kicking out experienced officers like Lt. Choi. If The Sniper and Uncle Jimbo can get onboard with ending DADT, I bet you can too.

Toby Keith is the Shit

Not only does he have decent music in a world of douche-scarf'd pop rock, but he does a lot of USO shows. Usually these are on the mega-fobs due to the logistical challenges and threat levels preventing the entertainers from going to the more spartan outposts. But Toby Keith recently went to Vampire 06's FOB near the Af-Pak border. Read the whole story here.

Stuff White People Like #6,782: Getting a Commission

Here's a bit of news from Tom Ricks that sort of floored me. He just got done speaking at Princeton, and a lot of college kids from the Ivies are forgoing job opportunities in DC/NYC to enjoy a not-so-illustrious career as an O-1 in the military. He has posted an email from one motivated young woman:

I don't come from a military family (they are, in fact, fairly appalled at my decision), I don't have college loans to pay off (it's come to my attention that this is a motivator for a lot of people), and I haven't had trouble finding a job in the recent economic turmoil, I reached my decision long before Wall Street went to hell. Usually when I tell people what I am doing I get the usual looks: disbelief, skepticism, puzzlement, sometimes disgust. And I'm always asked "why?".

Considering that as a Naval officer for close to 7 years I never met an Ivy-league grad in uniform, I am quite surprised by this and ecstatic that well-to-do youngsters actually give a shit. Most officers come from the academies or a large state school, and it is predominantly a middle class association. Not that it's right, but it's the way it is. Why else would The Onion parody the very idea of the nation's elite rushing to either enlist or seek a commission? But, nonetheless, it gives some optimism for Generation Y (maybe I should rethink some of my previous posts).

One word of advice to these officer candidates, I understand that you were probably the President of your high school class, never got too mixed up in drugs/alcohol, and have spent the first 22 years of your life forgoing fun and building up an impressive resume. But remember, at OCS, it's like what R. Lee Ermey said: "You're all equally worthless". Best of luck!

NY Times Op-Ed Pushing the Wacko Vet Meme

The DHS Fusion Chart on Right-Wing Extremism in Red States (from The Castle)

Yeah, yeah...the DHS report on Right-Wing extremism was so last week. As far as political blogs go, I might as well be talking about the merits of McKinleynomics while dancing the charleston because this news is so old...but sorry, I was on the road for the last couple of days. Anyhoo, there was a NYT Op-Ed over the weekend which justified the report's targeting of veterans and also the FBI crackdown. Here's the reason cited for why crazed vets are going to be running around the woods like Rambo [NYT]:

So, which soldiers are most vulnerable? According to the Homeland Security report, it would probably be those “facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities.” This could be a large group because far too many soldiers come back from war broken men. According to a RAND study released on Friday, 300,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reported some sign of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression. It said that only about half of those will seek help and only half of those seeking it will receive “minimally adequate” treatment. These soldiers could prove fertile ground for men hoping to prey on their fear, loneliness and dispossession.

It's true that Iraq/A-stan veterans have higher unemployment rate than their civilian peers. But, it's absurd to suggest that being a tad disillusioned by the economy and the fact that everyone was watching American Idol while they were doing patrols in Baqubah will lead to future truck bombers. That's a pretty big leap of logic. If that were the case, why doesn't the DHS target emo kids or goths? They don't like anything.

You could be inclined to take the author of the NYT op-ed a little bit more seriously if it wasn't the same guy (from his shining hill of "moral authority" on everybody else) who called for going Robespierre on the Big 3 CEOs. From his NYT blog last month:

I’m not saying that the Despots of Detroit deserve a break (Wagoner should be flogged in the streets for the Hummer alone), but the use of the guillotine could be a tad more egalitarian.

Charles Blow's twitter indicates that he's "answering mail" about his column. I'm sure anyone who doesn't agree with him is a violent extremist and has had their name forwarded on to the authorities. Some folks just don't understand hypocrisy.