A Place to Talk About War

Were Vietnam Vets Spit On?

2007-02-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

As usual, forgive me for the delay between posts. I am researching and writing instead of blogging. (Whatever has happened to my priorities?)

I'm asking for your help now. A battle of words is taking place on the Internet over whether returning Vietnam vets were indeed spit on, or had tomatoes, eggs, or feces (depending on the story) thrown at them. A number of these claimed incidents supposedly took place at the San Francisco airport. Jerry Lembke (a VN vet) has argued that the accounts are made up. (His book is titled The Spitting Image. See Amazon.com for more info.) Certainly I don't know if they happened or not.

So, what I'm asking my readers to do is to give me any information you can from the Vietnam vets that you know. Did anything like this happen to them? Where were they? Did they respond? Were the police called? Does anyone have a picture of such an act, or a then-current newspaper article which reports it? I would be interested in any information which you consider reliable.

Thanks. Best to all.

Life-Saving Silly String in Iraq

2006-12-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like Yankee ingenuity. Soldiers in Iraq are using Silly String to detect trip wires. One mom has organized a drive to deliver cases of the stuff to Iraq. Check out the story here: http://www.wsoctv.com/news/10477615/detail.html.

A Concrete Way to Help in Iraq

2006-11-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to do something to help the people of Iraq, here's an easy suggestion: send school supplies.

Major Scott Baum of Fort Worth, Texas, is spearheading "Operation School House" to collect supplies for children and teachers in Iraq. They need standard school supplies that all of you have probably bought at some point: pencils, notepads, pencil sharpener, color markers, crayons, scissors, erasers, glue, writing paper, construction paper, coloring books, backpacks. Teachers also need larger quantities of highlighters, staplers, and red pens.

What a deal: "The post office provides the free shipping box and the customs declaration form, and the maximum price for a shipment is only $8."

Send supplies to:
Operation School House
Col. Fred Woerner
3rd Division Headquarters
Al Kisik, Iraq
APO/AE 09334

If you'd like an electronic link to the article from which I pulled this information, let me know. I'm operating on the starfish principle: the school supplies I send won't cure Iraq's ills, but I'm hoping it will make a difference in at least a few lives there.

Sailor Kills Marine After Lie About Rape

2006-10-23T17:09:00.000-06:00

"A sailor pleaded guilty Monday to abducting and killing a Marine corporal he thought had been involved in a gang rape. The rape turned out to be a lie, but the truth surfaced too late . . . Federal agents had testified at his Article 32 hearing . . . that Jackson had been fooled into falling in love with a woman who called herself Samantha and made up a story about being raped by servicemen.

'Samantha' turned out to be Ashley Elrod, a 22-year-old hotel clerk on North Carolina's Outer Banks, who testified that she lied about being raped. She said she 'might have' told Jackson that one of the Marines was named Huff or Huffman, and she said Jackson called her after Huff was killed. Elrod has not been charged."

In exchange for his plea, he won't get the death penalty. Is there anything they can charge her with besides being a Jezebel?

http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20061023/453c3e40_3ca6_1552620061023-2090222277

Army recruiting up; so are waivers

2006-10-10T11:09:00.000-06:00

You probably saw the morning news report that the Army's recent recruiting numbers are higher than they have been for a while--and that so are the numbers of waivers approved for crimes or health issues. Thought you might find this interview excerpt interesting: Harper's magazine is talking with "Eli Flyer, who retired as a Pentagon senior military analyst in 1979 and has since served as a consultant to U.S. armed forces on personnel issues. He has spent the last fifty years analyzing the relationship between military recruiting and military misconduct; of note is his 2003 report to the Pentagon, 'Reducing the Threat of Destructive Behavior by Military Personnel' (PDF). "

Don't the military services weed out applicants with criminal offense records who are more likely to get in trouble while on active duty?
Many applicants who are accepted for service have committed serious misdemeanors, and some even have felony convictions, even though the evidence is clear that these recruits are more likely than those with "clean" records to show be behavior problems while on active duty. To enlist with a conviction for a criminal offense, an applicant must receive a "moral" waiver. The process involved in issuing a waiver—evaluating reference recommendations for enlistment—is a weak one that has little value for screening purposes. It needs to be fixed. Since recruits who enlist with a moral waiver generally have higher discharge rates than other recruits, they should certainly receive more intensive screening for enlistment than they do now. A number of the men who have been accused of abuses against civilians in Iraq had histories that should have raised red flags. For example, former soldier Steven Green, who is accused of raping and killing an Iraqi girl and her family, enlisted with a moral waiver for at least two drug- or alcohol- related offenses. He committed a third alcohol-related offense just before enlistment, which led to jail time, though this offense may not have been known to the Army when he enlisted. News accounts say Green was a high school dropout (with a GED certificate) and suggest he was a seriously maladjusted young man. A limited background check during the recruitment process would likely have provided information showing he should not receive a moral waiver.
http://www.harpers.org/sb-six-questions-eli-flyer.html

Sorry, sorry, sorry

2006-10-04T21:19:00.000-06:00

What can I say? Sorry I've been gone so long; nice to know that some of you missed me. While I am not going to resume my former output, I will try to be much more diligent about at least posting occasionally.

Not only do I have my usual teaching load this semester, but I am assissting my dissertation director with an upper-level War Rhetoric course. That is not a complaint--I was honored that she asked me and thrilled to be teaching in my area. But it does make me busy when added to my other responsibilities (especially the dissertation that I am supposed to be writing).

Things that I was tempted to post about, but never got around to:

Woodward's new book says that Henry Kissinger is advising President Bush on the war in Iraq. Oh, that's very comforting, seeing how well Vietnam worked out for us.
One of the arguments against allowing our military or intelligence officers to use "tough tactics" aka "torture" against prisoners is that it leaves our soldiers open to torture if they are captured. Can we think this through just a moment, please? Is there any government or combatant group out there who bases their treatment of our soldiers on how we treat others? I am NOT advocating torture--far from it, and I'm still a little rattled that we're in a position to even be talking about whether it's okay for Americans to torture people. But in some hypothetical situation--war with North Korea, let's say--can you imagine Kim Jong-il basing his decision on whether to torture American soldiers on the latest U.S. military guidelines on the topic? I can't.
There's something disturbing about this war being fought by 52-year-old grandmothers manning machine guns. I know she was in the reserves, but it still just seems, well, wrong somehow. Story here.

Okay, let's hear some comments so I can feel justified in taking the time to post. :-)

Sorry for the silence

2006-06-08T21:23:00.000-06:00

I'm traveling a lot in June, so posts will be sporadic (as you've noticed). I should be back to a regular schedule in July.

If you haven't already, read the comments on the post below, then go to Nate's site and leave a kind word.

Here's something you can think about for a while: how will we know when we've "won" in Iraq? How will we know when we've won the War on Terror? All comments welcome on what "winning" looks like to you.

Away for a few days,

2006-05-25T16:17:00.000-06:00

but I'm sure that war will continue in spite of my absence. Have a good Memorial Day, everyone!

How DO we support the troops?

2006-05-22T22:37:00.000-06:00

Let's suppose that you "support the troops" whether you believe they should be in Iraq or not. This question has two parts: first, what, if anything, do you do to support them? Second, what do you think most Americans do, if anything, in the way of support?

Possible answers might include the following, although the list is far from exhaustive:

donate to charitable organizations that send care packages overseas
donate to Paralyzed Veterans of America or similar organizations
write your elected representatives to press for better military pay, veterans health benefits, body armor, shorter deployments, etc.
write your elected representatives to call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq
greet returning soldiers at the airport
put a magnetic ribbon on your car
visit patients at the local V.A. hospital
vote Republican
vote Democrat
send your own care packages addressed to "Any Soldier, Iraq"
fly your flag on Memorial and Veterans Day
pray daily for their safety
think general good thoughts about them and tell people that you support the troops
enlist in the military to give them a helping hand
encourage your relatives to enlist
drive a fuel-efficient car

I could keep going, but that should be enough to jump-start your thinking. I look forward to reading your perceptions of how America is collectively supporting her troops.

Oopsy! Thieves Steal Personal Data of 26.5M Vets

2006-05-22T16:10:00.000-06:00

"Thieves took sensitive personal information on 26.5 million U.S. veterans, including Social Security numbers and birth dates, after a Veterans Affairs employee improperly brought the material home, the government said Monday.

The information involved mainly those veterans who served and have been discharged since 1975, said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. Data of veterans discharged before 1975 who submitted claims to the agency may have been included.

Nicholson said there was no evidence the thieves had used the data for identity theft, and an investigation was continuing."

Maybe the VA needs to rethink its policy on taking work home.

When good charities go bad

2006-05-15T09:27:00.000-06:00

I have posted before about Soldiers Angels, a charity run by General Patton's daughter. I thought it was a great idea--they used donations to put together care packages for soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and by virtue of their organization could do so much more efficiently than what individuals could. It seemed to me that contributing would have more of an impact on soldiers' lives than mailing a package of socks and playing cards to "Any Soldier."

Sadly, I have asked to be removed from their mailing list. I understood when I first contributed that I would receive more requests for donations--that's what charities do. But the request I received last week was the deal breaker: a cardboard mailing tube with an American flag and a small tag enclosed. I was asked to sign the little tag, enclose it with the flag and a donation, and return the whole thing in the mailing tube using their pre-paid address label. The flag (just slightly bigger than 4x6, on a wooden stick) was to be carried in a demonstration in Washington "showing all our troops how much we support them and their mission."* The flag was accompanied by a letter in which Ms. Patton-Bader railed against all those liberals who "rejoice . . . with every American death" and who desperately want America "to lose this war."

Those of you who read this blog regularly will anticipate my reaction: sending care packages to soldiers=good; mailing flags back and forth to each other and trash-talking liberals=bad. The march in Washington is debatable--showing support for soldiers is a good thing, but turning it into a conservative rally using charitable donations isn't acceptable to me. (I also have to wonder how many soldiers could have received care packages with the money it's costing to stage this march.) And of course anyone who asserts that liberals "rejoice" when American soldiers are killed has zero credibility with me.

Anyone know of a good charity out there who can send care packages to deployed soldiers without political rallies or strawmanning?

*This is a paraphrase--the other quotes in this post are exact.

Another one that you just can't make up . . .

2006-05-08T17:29:00.000-06:00

Moussaoui Asks to Withdraw Guilty Plea
Convicted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says he lied on the witness stand about being involved in the plot and wants to withdraw his guilty plea because he now believes he can get a fair trial from an American jury.

I wonder if the expression "A day late and a dollar short" translates into Arabic.

What is Militarism?

2006-05-06T13:17:00.000-06:00

Some Pacifists consider Militarism to be any military action, but war theorists instead consider it a “common propensity or cultural bias in favor of war, upon which the war-maker is continually able to draw and with which any peacemaker has to contend. It first precipitates war and then dictates its ruthless prosecution.” War is seen as a positive good, something of intrinsic and unique value.

Fascist militarism “ruthlessly subordinates the good of humanity to the good of a particular race, state or nation.” But while fascism parades its militarism, others hide their warlike nature behind a peaceful and humanitarian facade. “The readiness to equate the good of humanity with the triumph of a particular community or set of values and to advance that claim through war . . . is really a form of imperialism: that is, of moral particularism masquerading as moral universalism.”

Unlike the realist, who opts for war on pragmatic grounds, or the just war theorist, whose grudging acceptance of the moral permissibility of war stops well short of moral enthusiasm, the Militarist is an enthusiast for war, a "happy warrior" who shares none of the moral anxiety rightly associated with the just resource to war. (Think of General Patton.) And, A.J. Coates argues, not only the Right but the Left, as well, has its militarists, although the Left “effectively disguises [it] by its much-vaunted espousal of pacific and humanitarian goals.”

“The modern transformation of war fought to vindicate a world-view [rather than territorial claims] generates Militarism, quite irrespective of the specific ideological aims.” The cause of war is not the perpetration of any specific injury or the posting of any particular threat, but the general offence and the general threat posed by the existence of the other. (Think of the Ayotollah Khomeini, who stated that, "A religion without war is a crippled religion.")

Those who think that they have a historic destiny feel the need to rid the world of competing destinies, so "the use of force with a view to such grandiose ends tends to become an end in itself, and war becomes an intrinsic value in the way it is not for the Realist of Just War theorist." The real object of war [to the Militarist] is the transformation of man and of the human condition. And those convinced their cause is revolutionary or historically significant can be just like Khomeini’s followers, with a sense of participating in a grand design. “This understanding and experience of moral, psychological and emotional self-fulfillment enhances war and threatens its moral regulation. It transforms war from an instrumental into an expressive activity, and gives participants an incentive for engaging in it that is largely independent of specific cause."
And, unfortunately, conciliation is rejected because the conflict is absolute, and there can be no compromise with an absolute enemy.

Source is once again A. J. Coates' The Ethics of War, and all quotes come from his book.

This ends my posts on theories of war. (Yes, I hear the collective sighs of relief.) I'll return to discussing what is currently in the news, where, I assure you, you will not find any thoughtful treatment of competing theories of war.

What is Realism?

2006-04-27T07:38:00.000-06:00

The political ideology of Realism does not seek peace as it's commonly understood (in which we all get along fairly happily). The key concept for Realists is "balance of power," an understanding that says the State is served best when other global players are kept in mutual check. Its language, however, is moral: Machiavelli considered the ability to convey the appearance of virtue to be an indispensable part of the statesmen’s art. Problems can arise for the Realist, however, if "the moral appeal is taken so seriously that it begins to undermine the power brokering and diplomatic horse-trading in which international politics are seen to consist." Realists don't actively seek war, but do consider it part of the natural landscape--to them, there is nothing abnormal about war.

Realists trace their history back to Thucydides, because it's always a good rhetorical move to claim that your ideology is part of a 2,000+ year-old tradition. The best example of a Realist in the last 30 years is Henry Kissinger, who regrets the “creeping idealism” in postwar presidential rhetoric about creation of New World Order. Kissinger has stated that he would “balance rivalries as old as history by striving for an equilibrium between Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.” Thus, “What seems a damning indictment of US foreign policy—its readiness to make war against a state to which it had lent recent material as well as diplomatic support—is portrayed here as a mark of genuine statesmanship.”

Post on Militarism coming soon.

(Source is again A.J. Coates, and quotes come from his The Ethics of War.)

Three Down, One to Go

2006-04-24T20:42:00.000-06:00

I finished my written exams at 5:00 this afternoon. Assuming that I get a call tomorrow saying I passed them all, orals will take place Wednesday afternoon.

I'm ready for this to be over so I can start making the blog rounds again. ;-)

Qualifying exam week

2006-04-19T18:47:00.000-06:00

Dear BlogFriends, I am taking qualifying exams for the next week. I took the first of three 8-hour written exams today. I'll do the same on Friday and Monday. Assuming I pass all the writtens, I'll then have orals next Wednesday. And assuming I pass those, I'll then be admitted to candidacy, which means I'm cleared to begin work on my dissertation.

All good wishes appreciated.

Happy Easter!

2006-04-15T21:19:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter to one and all!

What is Pacifism?

2006-04-10T13:20:00.000-06:00

I have already posted on Realism, and after a longer-than-expected delay I am now going to address Pacifism. Thank you for bearing with me as I study for exams.

Pacifism is the moral renunciation of war. A "contingent" pacifism may say that war in general might be okay, but this particular war is not (Vietnam, perhaps). Some pacifists may object to certain forms of warfare, perhaps saying that nuclear or biological war is intrinsically evil, because they are unavoidably "total" and violate the principle of proportionality. More strict pacifists would say that modern war itself has destroyed the moral possibilities of war, as nuclear weapons take trench warfare and obliteration bombings to the logical extreme so that "the age of the just war has ended." Absolute pacifism, however, shares with Realism a denial that war can ever be subject to moral limitation.

Tolstoy, an ardent pacifist, worried about the desensitizing aspect of war, and James Douglas is concerned that in modern war "it is not certain that the modern warrior will ever experience that moment of truth when war reveals its killing nature through a sudden insight into the enemy's humanity. With the perfection of military technology, the warrior no longer has contact with the enemy, and with increased killing-distance, the moral conception of the act of killing diminishes."

The Pacifist regards non-violent action in much the same way that the militarist regards war: as an expressive rather than instrumental activity, with the power to transform man and the world. Non-violent action is seen as a positive good, not simply a way of avoiding moral contamination. Pacifists are not passive but engage and contend with violent society (King and Gandhi). The real task of peacemaking is to achieve the genuine pacification of society and the transformation of a militarist culture into a pacific one. Pacifists believe that "human nature" should be viewed as a historical and social phenomenon, so that warlike human nature tells us about the human environment to date, not about an intrinsic, static human nature. Because our social institutions ensure a place for war, we must radically transform them and our beliefs and practices, must reconstitute society into a peace economy.

Pacifists believe that the demilitarized society is not powerless; all rulers rely on the cooperation of the seemingly powerless, so if the people refuse to cooperate--in sufficient numbers and for a sufficient length of time--the country will become ungovernable and the government will be forced to capitulate. In the case of occupation, they assume that their actions would make the logistics so bad as to undermine occupiers' will; they assume that an occupation cannot succeed without collaboration, and recognize that civilian populations would suffer, but less so than in war. Both pacifism and violent defense require a readiness for self-sacrifice, but non-violent resistance doesn't include readiness to kill.

Häring points out that this tactic works only when the adversary has certain virtues. British didn't run over Indians on railroad tracks, but the Nazis wouldn't have hesitated. Tolstoy says that the holders of power could be morally regenerated if met by non-resistance, but he didn't know the Nazis. Porsch says that Pacifism is violent in that it causes the opponent to commit violent acts and ignores the key role that it has played in the unleashing of the cycle of violence. (I suppose this is somewhat like causing the opponent to become a murderer, just as the Church is against murder because it makes one a murderer.)

All comments welcome. More to come soon.
Source: A. J. Coates, The Ethics of War. Manchester UP: 1997.

What are your obligations if you support the war?

2006-03-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

I teach at a conservative university. Most of my students are disengaged from politics, and most of them wholeheartedly support the war in Iraq. None of them would ever consider enlisting. The war, according to them, ought to be fought, but only by people who have "made that choice in their lives."

I'm curious to know your opinions. If you're capable of serving, is it hypocritical to favor having other people fight, but not you? Or does the fact that our military service is voluntary indeed mitigate any obligation on the part of a pro-war individual who is disinclined to take part?

Twelve billion dollars in $100 bills. . .

2006-03-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

. . . is missing in Iraq. I caught just a part of the story on BBC News today. The U.S. evidently flew this money to Iraq, where it was to be spent on rebuilding efforts. Today--surprise!--most of it is missing and unaccounted for. Do any of you have time to check out the story and give us the scoop?

Democracy does not equal tolerance

2006-03-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

As evidence that a democratic form of government doesn't automatically translate into a tolerant society, Deb posts a thoughtful (and horrifying) account of the treatment of Christians in Afghanistan. She lived there and has a unique perspective. Check it out.

"The White House has accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi politics"

2006-03-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

That's the whole post.

Vietnam Purple Heart ceremony

2006-03-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Verbatim conversation between General Westmoreland and Purple Heart recipient First Sergeant Bud Barrow, at Long Binh evacuation hospital:

"I just want to congratulate you."

"Well, I'm not sure whether you oughta congratulate me or the enemy. They're the ones who won that one."

"Tell me, sergeant. What happened out there?"

"Well, sir, we walked into one of the damnedest ambushes you ever seen."

"Oh, no, no, no. That was no ambush."

"Call it what you want to. I don't know what happened to the rest of the people, but, by God, I was ambushed."

Fun Facts from Vietnam

2006-03-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm interrupting the theoretical posts for this bit of info:

By October 1967, the U.S. military had built more than 40 ice cream plants in Vietnam "in an effort to make the troops feel more at home."
In October 1967, there were almost half a million military personnel in Vietnam, but only one in eight was going to infantry units that did most of the fighting.

From David Maraniss' They Marched into Sunlight. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.

John Stuart Mill on military intervention

2006-03-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading a lot of theoretical works on war, in preparation for qualifying exams that must be passed before I start my dissertation. Because I am encountering so much that interests me, I've decided to post some diverse nuggets that I think you might find interesting, as well. I'm going to start today with John Stuart Mill, but others will be coming. None of this represents (yet) a well-thought philosophy on war by me--just food for thought right now. Mill was a political realist--we'll hear later from political socialists, liberals, and pacifists.

Speaking of aggression, Mill says it “would be a great mistake to export freedom to a foreign people that was not in a position to win it on its own.” Otherwise the intervention would either create another oppressive government, simply collapse in an ensuing civil war, or the interveners would have to continually send in foreign support, so the government would be a puppet government that would reflect the wills and interests of the intervening state.

If the people welcome an intervention or refuse to resist, something less than aggression has occurred. But we cannot make those judgments reliably in advance. We should assume that nationals will protect their state—even if the state is not just, it’s their state, not ours.
“All the injustices, therefore, that do justify a domestic revolution do not always justify a foreign intervention. Domestic revolutions need to be left to domestic citizens. Foreign interventions to achieve a domestic revolution are inauthentic, ineffective, and likely to cause more harm than they eliminate.”

I have taken the text from Michael W. Doyle's Wars of War and Peace, Norton 1997.

"If the Taliban's 'ambassador' isn't on no-fly list, who is?"

2006-03-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Interesting take on the former Taliban spokesman now attending Yale:

Anyone who still doesn’t believe that America’s security has more holes than a Krispy Kreme bakery need look no further than Yale University.
That’s where former Taliban propagandist and ambassador-at-large, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi , is enrolled as a student.

No need to check your glasses: You read that right.

Through the intervention of a CBS cameraman and a Yale alumnus — who says connections don’t count? — the 27-year-old Hashemi scored an interview with the dean of undergraduate admissions and, ultimately, a coveted letter of acceptance.

This is the same Taliban spin doctor who defended a regime that sheltered Osama bin Laden, held mass executions and burned entire families alive. And it’s the same haughty fellow who appeared in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” insulting a burqa-clad woman protesting the Taliban’s misogynistic policies.

Never mind that Hashemi has only a fourth-grade education. Or that you could probably turn any rubble-strewn Kabul corner and find a far worthier candidate to sponsor for an Ivy League education.

This poor little lamb who’s lost his way is now a proud member of the class of 2009. Boola boola, death to America.

What’s most galling about Hashemi’s stint in New Haven isn’t that a guy with a fourth-grade education is wasting oxygen at Yale. Like it or not, the bien pensants at Yale can admit whomever they please — it’s a private institution — even if this particular admission is a sure sign that the school has now carried the concept of “diversity” to absurd levels.

No, what’s truly unsettling about this episode is that Hashemi was allowed to travel to Yale in the first place. For starters, how did the Taliban’s poster boy not make the much-vaunted federal “no fly” list?

Babies are on the no-fly list. A friend’s son, a New York lawyer with an exceedingly Anglo name, is on the no-fly list. And in what has to be the mother of all political paybacks, Sen. Ted Kennedy is even on the no-fly list. But the spokesman for the “America is Satan” crowd apparently didn’t make the cut.

(I have visions of Hashemi, in turban and full Taliban regalia, waiting to board his flight as security yanks a blue-haired granny with a walker out of line for further scrutiny.)

Newly released details about the occupants of Guantanamo Bay revealed that one of the detainees is an Afghan apple seller. This guy aroused enough suspicion for his reported Taliban and al-Qaida ties to be thrown in the clink for four years. One would have thought the Taliban’s mouthpiece would have at least rated a no-fly-list honorable mention, or some other kind of border alert.

This just proves what a security charade we go through every time we take to skies. Makes me wonder if anyone’s thought to put bin Laden’s name on the list, either.

Then, of course, there’s the problem of Hashemi’s student visa, and why on earth the State Department chose to give him one. Queries as to who put Uncle Sam’s stamp in Hashemi’s passport have caused cagey bureaucratic fingers to point in every direction.

The responsible federal agencies here — State and Homeland Security — are run by none other than the Bush administration, which won re-election with promises to keep America safe and prepared.

But unlike Hurricane Katrina, it’s pretty tough to pawn this cock-up on state and local governments.

Here’s a simply policy: Yale acceptance or not, prominent members and spokesmen of factions engaged in killing Americans should be summarily excluded from air travel to this country.

That’s one security measure that should fly.

Bronwyn Lance Chester, editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=100829&ran=66583

Pat Tillman . . . again

2006-03-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

As I understand it, the military is now going to open its fifth probe of Tillman's death.

Perhaps my opinion will change if something shocking is revealed, but right now my thinking runs like this: the man is dead, God rest his soul. He joined gung-ho to fight overseas, and he was killed there. Sadly, he was killed by friendly fire. He was far, far from the first such victim, and he will not be the last. And if he had not been Pat Tillman, football hero, but Wayne Zabroski, C student from Cleveland, he would not have rated a first probe, much less a fifth.

I'm Begging You

2006-03-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

This post is off my usual topic of war, but I just have to get this off my chest.

Please. If you call talk radio shows, please, in the name of everything that you hold dear, do not:

thank the host for taking your call.
tell the host how much you admire him/her.
tell the host how long you have listened to the show.
tell the host if this is your first time to call.

I am begging you--state your opinion, ask your question, and hang up. This will extend my life immeasurably. My family and my blood pressure thank you.

Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured

2006-03-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

"I'm confident he will be brought to justice."

Bush pledged that bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader, and other planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks would be caught.

"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, told a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday that the insurgency was still growing and posed a greater threat to Karzai's government "than at any point since late 2001."

John Quincy Adams quotes

2006-02-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

My child is currently researching John Quincy Adams (president 1825-1829) for a school project, and in helping with research I came across the following quotes. Enjoy.

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

For all of you concerned about media bias

2006-02-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

I know that many people mistrust the media, thinking they're either right-wing hacks, left-wing commies, America-haters . . . pick your pejorative term. And I know that the media's actions during wartime is an especially hot topic.

So you might find this link interesting: http://www.onthemedia.org/. One of the journalists featured on today's program is Farnaz Fassihi, senior Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Asked about the perception that journalists print only bad news from Iraq, purposely squelching good news, she replied that "If five car bombs went off in New York today, and 50 car bombings took place, I'm sure the metro reports would be talking about that, and not that a school got painted."

There's also a good discussion about journalists' safety, a report from CBS about times they have sat on a story at the military's recommendation, and talk about the English language version of Al-Jazeera that's coming in May. Check it out.

This note will end all of my posts for a while: Please scroll down to my post asking for text suggestions.

I'd like your suggestions

2006-02-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Blog friends, I will be teaching a course in war rhetoric this fall. On the premise that two (or three or four) heads are better than one, I'd like your input into texts I should use. (Text in this context means fiction and non-fiction books, movies, music, paintings, etc.--no textbooks.)

I am particularly interested in popular music pertaining to war, because that's the area in which I have the least knowledge. I've heard that Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson have current anti-war songs out, and I know there are pro-military songs on the pop playlists, but I don't know anything about them. "God Bless the U.S.A." comes to mind, as well as a country song recorded shortly after 9-11 with the memorable line, "We'll put a boot in your ass." As you can see, I need help.

So, dear readers, let's hear from you: music, movies, memoirs--whatever you recommend.

A Terrible Love of War . . .

2006-02-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

. . . is the name of the book I just finished reading (James Hillman, Penguin Press, 2004). It includes this quote from Hermann Göring at his trial in Nuremberg:

"The people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Okay, now I feel much better about port security

2006-02-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

I admit I was feeling somewhat anxious over the President's decision to allow a company in Muslim Dubai to run many of our major ports. Call me crazy, but I really wanted some information to assuage my fears that this might make us just a teensy bit less safe than when a British company had the same duties.

Silly me. As the President just said, "I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or not our country will be less secure as a result of this transaction. But they need to know that our government has looked at this issue and looked at it carefully." I always thought that Congress was part of "our government," but I guess not. So the same people who brought us Michael Brown and conclusive evidence of WMDs in Iraq now assure us that they have looked carefully at our port security. Obviously that's all I need to know. I feel so much better now.

Drum roll, please!

2006-02-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

The votes are in!
The winning caption, by a nose, was number five, "'Skull caps are the new ski mask in 2006', says Hamas style consultant Adimi Soltan."
Also receiving multiple votes was number nine, "WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. KFC IS FINGER LICKIN' GOOD."
Congratulations, as well, to seven, eight, and thirteen, who each garnered a vote.

Personally, I loved them all! Thanks to everyone who played for enlivening several of my days.

Deny the Holocaust, get three years

2006-02-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

David Irving's defense tried to paint it as a free speech issue; as Irving so charmingly put it, "Of course it's a question of freedom of speech. The law is an ass."
But the Austrian court saw it differently, accepting his guilty plea of breaking the 1992 law which applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media."
In other words, Irving admits (how could he not?) that he wrongly asserted that the Holocaust never involved a concerted effort to kill Jews, and that Auschwitz had no gas chambers, and that Hitler knew nothing about the Holocaust.
Irving's track record is court is poor. He sued American Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel in Britain in 2000, and lost. And in 1992 he was fined $6,000 "for publicly insisting the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz were a hoax."
Now he's planning to mirror his book Hitler's War with his own story, Irving's War. Such a pairing speaks all I need to know.

Time to Vote!

2006-02-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite caption because I'm such a wuss about hurting people's feelings. So, while I'm pondering how to handle this, I'm asking you, dear readers, to vote for your favorite caption for the Hamas/KFC picture posted below. Even if yours is the most hysterical caption ever, in the spirit of fair play please vote for someone's besides your own.

Post your vote by number.

1. "The Hamas,hommus,zinger burger will really fire you up"!!

2. In a display of solidarity, Jimmy "Mohammed" Smith (pictured left) stood with his Palestinian brothers while suffering effects from chemicals ingested earlier at the KFC (pictured far right). To Smith's right is Masood "Mumbles" Ahmed, a Harvard law graduate and inventor of the "Bic Pen Bomb" that recently caused major distress at airports across the country. These brothers-in-arms celebrated their prospects of a role in a legitimate military force by firing their weapons in the air while chanting "Freebird".

3. "Thanks for the help, Allah, but we've got the government and the Colonel now, so you've become a liability. Say hello to my little friend."

4. "KFC pays Hamas $20,000,000 and assorted firearms - Hamas replaces green flag with red."

5. "Skull caps are the new ski mask in 2006, says Hamas style consultant Adimi Soltan."

6. Branding rights gone astray. The all new Hamas-KFC resistance?

7. Colonel Sanders, American Icon, watches over Hamas, as they celebrate the "Death to America" grand opening of their first Kentucky Fried Chicken.

8. In their zeal to embrace other extremist regimes, Hamas has adopted the winner of the 1972 Lenin Lookalike contest winner as their icon. "We're finger-lickin' excited," Hamas spokesperson Bashir "Bubba" Muhammad (center) was quoted as saying. "We're ready to resist with all eleven herbs and spices of religious extremism now!"Joe Piscopo (pictured, left) had no comment.

9. WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
KFC IS FINGER LICKIN' GOOD

10. In keeping with the whole Danish brouhaha: "Hamas upset over Mohamed's likeness being used to sell infadel chicken"--I mean, no one has ever seen Mohamed and Col. Saunders together, have they?

11. "Magnificent! Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so!"- General George Patton

12. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. George S. Patton

13. Global Supply-Chain Monthly"Hamas militants hired to shoot fowl from sky to reduce raw materials acquisition cost."

14. Is that what they mean by free range chicken?

Entered too late for the contest, but here for your amusement anyway:
15. Mohammed al Absurd loudly boasts "I am going to march straight into Kentucky and personally shoot that chicken frying son-of-a-bitch."

16. "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." BertrandRussell

Last Chance to Name That Picture

2006-02-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Many of you submitted entries to the Hamas/KFC picture-naming contest that I posted below (Wednesday, February 01).

I think it's time to wrap this contest up. Entries will officially close at midnight on Wednesday, February 15. So if you have any more clever ideas rattling around in your head, now is the time to post them!

Two Muslim views of the "cartoon wars"

2006-02-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

It would be worth your while to click on the links below and read two Muslim opinions on the cartoon issue. Read them both to get the balance.

This one, headlined Muslims should act wisely to punish media bias, is by Ray Hanania, an "award-winning Palestianian-American journalist."

This one, headlined Boycott? Why? Cartoons are the least of our problems, is by Mona Eltahawy, "Egyptian commentator based in New York." Her column was initially published in English and Arabic in Lebanese and Egyptian newspapers.

They've got to be carefully taught . . .

2006-02-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

. . . to hate, that is. I've posted about these people before--the ones who protest at the funerals of dead American soldiers. But since a picture is worth a thousand words, you can see for yourself.

Why waste time hating Cindy Sheehan when Margie Phelps makes herself so available? I don't know anyone on either side of the political spectrum who would defend this.

Update/Clarification: I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted on this group. To get the full story, click here for my post entitled "Utterly Despicable." The very short version: they hate America because it "allows" homosexuality; therefore they hate soldiers who fight for America; therefore, God hates those soldiers, too. Homophobic hatred at its finest.

Sometimes you just need to be quiet

2006-02-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

This blog is about war, not politics, but because I am interested in rhetoric in all forms (such as the visual rhetoric of the picture below, for which you created captions), sometimes a particular phrase just leaps out at me from the news and I feel compelled to say something about it.

Such is the case with this post. I give you the following excerpt from an article about Jack Abramoff and how many times he has or has not met President Bush:
Abramoff raised more than $100,000 for Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, a feat that won him an invitation to Bush's ranch in August 2003, the National Journal reported at the time.
"I was invited during the 2004 campaign," Abramoff told Eisler.
Abramoff said he did not make the trip because as an Orthodox Jew he cannot travel on Saturdays. (Reuters)

I don't care whether he knows Bush or not. The man pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. But he's so religiously devout that he won't travel on the Sabbath? Maybe he should spend part of the Saturdays when he's not traveling by thumbing back through the Book and refreshing his memory on the rest of the 10 Commandments.

At the very least, he could respect his professed religion enough to keep his mouth shut about it while discussing his own criminal actions.

A few words about our government

2006-02-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

In 1947, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed the following:

"We want to do right, and to be right; so start us in the right way, for Thou knowest that we are very hard to turn."

Appropriate words still.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.Additional information supplied by the author. Contact via E-mail: William D. Blake. (pilgrimwb@aol.com)

A small question . . .

2006-02-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

You know how Pat Robertson occasionally claims that a disaster is actually God's wrath poured out on us for some reason? And Allah is frequently given praise for smiting the infidels in one way or the other?

Do you suppose that if Allah really wanted to smack down the Danes, he could do so without getting his own people killed in the process?

Update: go over to http://www.bookfraud.blogspot.com/ and check out his postings on the cartoon flap. His "ÜBER-OFFENSIVE BONUS BLOG!" is well worth your time, as is his discussion of Salman Rushdie and power.

Danes, Demonstrations, and Democracy

2006-02-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

You've all seen the backlash in the Middle East against the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad: people dead, businesses destroyed, general mayhem. (If you're not up to speed on what's happening, you can get a quick overview from the link below.)

Supposedly, once we threw the Taliban out of Afghanistan and Hussein out of Iraq, Western-style democracy was going to bloom like a desert flower. Can we understand yet that 2006 Middle East is not 1776 America? This is not an anti-war or anti-democracy post; I'm simply saying that if we expect Iraq and Afghanistan culture to mirror ours any time in the next 100 (or 1,000?) years, we'd better think again.

A final thought: "democracy" in and of itself is not necessarily a good thing for all. The ancient Greeks were democratic, which was great if you were one of the free Athenian men who qualified to be a citizen. If you were female or a slave, it wasn't so hot. The last draft I knew of of an Iraqi constitution was not a step forward for women in that country. Given the situation for women in Iran (see post below), it's worth considering exactly who a given democracy will benefit.

http://my.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20060206/43e6d7d0_3ca6_1552620060206-215848763

Details from Iran

2006-02-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Click on the link below and read Anne Applebaum's article about two Iranian sisters, Ladan and Roya Boroumand, who are building a database of victims of Iran's Islamic regime. Their father was murdered by Iranian agents in Paris in 1991; they now live in Washington D.C. and believe their own lives are in danger.

Here's one victim's story:
"A young girl in Tehran in 1981 was arrested for swimming in her home pool in a bathing suit, [having been] found guilty of causing 'a state of sexual arousal' in a neighbor. She was sentenced to 60 lashes, but died after the 30th lash."

From 1994: "A woman was found guilty of adultery. She was buried up to her breasts in Tehran and stoned to death slowly."

The article is not simply a recitation of victims' stories--it's about the sisters' efforts to "embarrass those members of the Iranian regime who still try to hide the true nature of their revolution from the outside world."
The sisters hope to "start a real public debate about the regime's crimes in Iran--and ultimately about accountability, due process and democracy."

Check it out. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011902494.html

Contest: Name That Picture

2006-02-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

I'm running a contest that is open to all readers of this blog. Take a good look at the picture above, copied from the Greenville News. Your job is to come up with an appropriate caption and post it in the comments. Let your creative juices flow. Humor is welcomed; multiple submissions will be accepted.

My spouse and I will pick the winning caption, which will be announced at a future date. If we get enough interesting submissions, we may allow a "Readers' Choice," as well.

Have fun!

Skip the charade

2006-01-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

Please tell me you see the irony in this

2006-01-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Regardless of your political affiliation or opinion on the war in Iraq, I hope you can appreciate the irony of the following statements from Donald Rumsfeld.

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday rejected two new reports--including one ordered by his office--warning that the Iraq war has strained the Army to the breaking point.

In an 'interim assessment' of the Iraq war commissioned by the Office of the Secretary Defense, former Army officer Andrew Krepinevich said the strain of keeping large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has reduced the Army to a 'thin green line.'"

Mr. Rumsfeld said he hadn't read the 136-page report but "it's clear that those comments do not reflect the current situation. They are either out-of-date or just misdirected."

The Pentagon paid Krepinevich $137,000 to conduct the study, which took 12 months. Regarding the study results, Rumsfeld that said he "suspect[s] that [people writing the reports] don't have any more insight than the other people around here do." When reporters asked why the Pentagon pays consultants for reports if they "lack insight," Rumsfeld replied ,"Well, because the way you get the best knowledge and the best perspective is to listen to people with different views."

It's a Kafkaesque morning this morning.

Do soldiers enlist of their own free will?

2006-01-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

My last post was so light-hearted that I decided to follow it up with something more philosophical. I'm reading Kenneth Burke right now, who asserts that, "Freedom to choose requires adequate knowledge of the act's consequences, so that a person must know the consequences involved in making a particular choice. Human beings never can be completely free because they never know the full consequences of their acts."*

So, what level of freedom do soldiers have who enlist thinking that they're going to do local National Guard duty yet get sent overseas? Or WW I American soldiers who think they're going off on a gay adventure in Europe? (I am reclaiming the word gay.) Or enlistees who believe that we're going in for a fast rout, which will be quickly followed by flower-petal parades in their honor?

If you're feeling really philosophical, you can address the level of freedom any humans enjoy.

Let's hear from you!

*paraphrased by Foss, Foss, and Trapp

Historical War Trivia

2006-01-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

On this date, in 1943, the U.S. banned the sale of pre-sliced bread. Post your best guess as to why such bread was banned during World War II, and I'll post the answer after most regular contributors to this blog have weighed in.

All readers welcome!

Who should decide the armor issue?

2006-01-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'd like to hear your opinions on the body armor issue for soldiers in Iraq. It's the age-old debate of protection versus mobility, and I'm not going to solve it. But I'm interested in who should get to decide. The Pentagon? the American people? Commanding officer on the ground? Individual soldiers?

I could see making a case that each soldier should get to decide if s/he wants to upgrade to the more protective, heavier armor; on the other hand, soldiers are, in effect, government property (it pains me to say that, but I think it's the general idea), and no officer would let his unit go running around without helmets if they chose.

What do you think?

The war against ignorance goes on . . .

2006-01-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

Let's all look carefully and see if we can help this mom out.

Police Fatally Shoot Mass. Teen Driver
From Associated PressJanuary 10, 2006 6:32 PM EST
Police shot and killed a 16-year-old boy early Tuesday after he drove a car at them while fleeing the scene of a possible burglary attempt, authorities said.

The two officers opened fire, killing Anthony McGrath, following a high-speed chase that started at a liquor store in Plymouth.

"My son got a death sentence," the boy's mother, Denise McGrath, told reporters. "I want to know who killed my son for no reason at all."

The two officers, whose names were not released, were placed on paid administrative leave. The Plymouth district attorney's office is investigating, police Capt. Michael Botieri said.

The alarm at Richard's Wine and Spirits sounded around 3:20 a.m., and as an officer arrived, he saw a vehicle leaving the area, Botieri said. The officer followed with his lights flashing and was joined by another cruiser, he said.

The driver, McGrath, eventually lost control and hit a wall, Botieri said. The officers ordered him out of the car, but he instead backed into one of the cruisers, then accelerated forward, hitting a utility pole and driving toward the two officers, according to Botieri.

The police opened fire, killing McGrath, who was alone in the car.

"It's a tragedy when something like this happens," Botieri said.

The owner of the liquor store, Steve Berg, said a glass door was cracked. "It looked like somebody struck the door with a rock," he told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy.

Yes, it is very sad that this young man threw his life away. My wish for his mom is that her 16 year-old had NOT been out at 3:20 a.m., had NOT been trying to break into a liquor store, had NOT tried to run from the police at high speed, had NOT hit a patrol car, and had NOT driven toward the officers. But he did. And those are the reasons that he was killed.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20060110/43c33f50_3ca6_1552620060110736220554

RIP, Lt. Thompson, hero of My Lai

2006-01-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

First Lieutenant Hugh Thompson Jr. died of cancer Friday at the age of 62. As some of you may remember, Thompson and his crew "came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai. They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings."

His two crew members, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, provided cover for Thompson as the confronted "the leader of the U.S. forces." (I assume the news is referring to Lt. William Calley here.) You can read the whole article at the link below, but a few things of note now:

He was initially reviled after the incident became known. "Fellow servicemen refused to speak with him. H e received death threats and found animal carcasses on his porch . . . a congressman angrily [said] that Lt. Thompson was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai."
He served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964.
He served in the army from 1966 to 1983, when he retired.
While in Viet Nam, he was hit eight times by enemy fire and lost five helicopters in combat. A combat crash broke his back. He was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished flying Cross.
Thompson, Colburn, and Andreotta were finally awarded the Soldier's Medal, "the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy," in 1998. (Andreotta had been killed three weeks after My Lai.)
Seymour Hersh, who won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his report on the massacre, called Thompson "one of the good guys . . . You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did."

Rest in peace.

Here's one link. There are other versions out there.

Well, that didn't take long

2006-01-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Pat Robertson Links Sharon Stroke, God's Wrath. http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20060105/43bca7d0_3421_1334520060105-54917653

Is there anyone out there who didn't see this one coming?

Corruption in Washington? I am shocked!

2006-01-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

I wish I could be more outraged about Jack Abramoff and his buddies on Capitol Hill, but I guess cynicism has gotten the best of me.

Is he a disgusting slimebag who deserves to go to jail? Yep. Are the politicians who took his money and performed favors in return disgusting slimebags who need to be kicked out? Yep. Is the name of his organization--Grassroots Interactive--a tad ironic? Yep. But did anyone truly believe that Democrats had a lock on sleaze, or that Republicans were truly all about those "values" we heard so much about?

Money/politics/power--without an internal code of moral conduct, no politician from any party is necessarily going to do the right thing. To take it on faith that members of one party are inherently more upright than those of the other is just foolishness.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

I know it's past the 25th of December, but it's not yet Orthodox Christmas. Plus, we're still well within the 12 days (as Steve is demonstrating).

So, Merry Christmas to my Christian friends, and warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season to readers of other faiths. And God bless us every one!

"Invisible Wounds"

2005-12-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

An article in yesterday's Dallas Morning News reported on armed service members who take their own lives, usually attributed to PTSD.

The numbers from Iraq so far: 45 suicides in Iraq, 24 after returning home. Experts predict more, citing the length of time that PTSD can linger.

What can we do to better support returning soldiers? Are some gentle souls simply unable to experience combat and remain whole?

Your thoughts welcome.

In response to Bruce's well-made comments, I've added two links: one is to the article I referenced above, and the other is to an AP article from January, 2004, "Army's suicide rate in Iraq higher than usual, official says." If you have to register to see the second link and don't wish to do so, let me know and I'll post the article.

21 Days to What?

2005-12-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting piece of war rhetoric:

Wal-Mart sells a hardcover book edited by Time magazine and published by Little Brown & Co. on June 1, 2003. Its title is 21 Days to Baghdad: The Inside Story of How America Won the War Against Iraq. ISBN 1932273123, 176 pp.

Barnes and Noble sells a hardcover book edited by Time magazine and published by Time, Incorporated Home Entertainment on June 1, 2003. Its title is 21 Days to Baghdad: Photos from the Battlefield. ISBN 1932273123, 176 pp.

Hmmm. Wonder if they've changed the text, or simply the subtitle.

We miss Politickal Animal

2005-11-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

With deep regret, I am removing the link to Politickal Animal's blog from this site. Since he retired his site from blogdom, the name has been taken over by a Las Vegas casino.
We wish you well on sabbatical, PA.

Veteran's Day

2005-11-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Veteran's Day, and I didn't get anything posted about it. So, here are my belated warm wishes and appreciation to all you veterans out there. We are grateful.

Utterly despicable

2005-11-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

You may have seen this by now--a group calling themselves Christian are demonstrating at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Their claim? That God is punishing the soldiers for fighting on behalf of the United States, which supposedly "tolerates homosexuality." Disgusting. And in the name of Christ! Read on.

Phelps Angers Veterans Groups
by Paula SophiaStaff Writerpaulasophia@gayly.com

OKLAHOMA CITY - People in Oklahoma’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities are all too familiar with the antics of Rev. Fred Phelps and his cronies at the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps has been implementing his “picketing ministry” at Gay Pride events for years.

Yeah, so what’s new?

It seems that Phelps and his crew have exhausted efforts that have been specifically aimed at the gay community, most notably their propensity to provoke confrontations that lead to lawsuits alleging assault. Very often defendants in these cases have settled out of court, and the fees collected by members of the Westboro Baptist Church go to the furtherance of their so called picketing ministry. Oklahoma’s gay community has learned to stand stoically in place as Phelps and his followers shout hatred at them.

So what’s a wayward minister to do when his bread and butter tactics no longer pay off? Well, he finds a new group to picket, and during this time of war what better group to target for these lucrative payoffs than veterans? A riled patriot can be a hellcat for sure.

In recent months members of the Westboro Baptist Church have begun picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan regardless of their sexual orientation. They are using the same tactics at these funerals that they used at the funeral of Matthew Sheperd in 1998. They wave the same offensive signs and shout the familiar obscenities denouncing same sex relationships and gender variant identities, but they have added outright anti-American epithets presumably aimed specifically at provoking the ire of veterans.

On October 16th members of the Westboro Baptist Church visited Oklahoma City again. They lined up across the street from the First Southern Baptist Church of Del City near I-240 and Sooner Rd. The Phelps clan waved some new signs, God, America’s Terrorist, Thank God for 9-11, Fag Nation-Fag Troops, and God Hates America among many others. They also flew the flag of the United States upside down, a sign of distress, and they kicked a crumpled American flag around on the ground, wiping their feet on it. They pray for a high body count for American troops abroad, and they justify these actions by stating that the United States has incurred God’s wrath because our culture tolerates homosexuality.

Phelps and his congregation are not trying to call people to repent so that our nation can avoid a wrathful judgment. They believe it’s already too late, that the Judgment has arrived, and the mounting costs of the War on Terrorism are evidence that the end has begun. Their picket protests are their way of gloating about being right. Each funeral of a dead soldier is a cause for celebration, from their point of view.

However, this time on October 16th, various Oklahoma veterans groups and other patriots staged a counter protest. They effectively told Fred Phelps and his group that they didn’t want to hear their version of gospel preaching. The counter protest numbered in the hundreds, perhaps exceeding a thousand people. Add to that hundreds of bikers who rode in procession up and down Sooner Road rolling on their throttles! The thunderous roar of motorcycle engines upstaged Phelps and his followers. Quite possibly nobody heard a word they said.

The latest tactics of the Westboro Baptist Church have developed some unlikely alliances. For the first time, members of Oklahoma’s glbt community are standing side by side with groups who may not have been hostile to the interests of glbt Americans, but one could say that they have been definitely indifferent. Now however, everyone is offended.

On October 5th Oklahoma State Representative Paul Wesselhoft R-Moore announced that he will file a bill to ban protests in the vicinity of funerals. This bill is similar to the Senate Bill 1020 introduced by Oklahoma State Senator Mary Easley, D-Tulsa. Both measures are a response to the offensiveness of Fred Phelps’ crusade.

Wesselhoft said he attended the October 16th counterprotest. “I applaud the demonstrators who came to challenge bigotry and hatefulness,” he said.

Wesselhoft’s bill, entitled the Oklahoma Funeral Protection Act would make it unlawful for people to picket, protest, or demonstrate within 500 feet of any funeral, whether it is at a private home, funeral home, church, synagogue, temple, mosque, cemetery, or mortuary. The bill also would bar protests two hours prior to a funeral, during the funeral, and for two hours after the funeral.

Anyone convicted of disregarding the proposed law would be guilty of a misdemeanor and could face a fine of $1000 and up to 30 days confinement in jail. Wesselhoft said he is pushing for a mandatory 30 days in jail.

“These people see being arrested as a badge of honor,” Wesselhoft said. “They pay their fines and move on.”

He explained that a mandatory 30 days in jail will attach a real consequence to their actions and cause a great deal of inconvenience. “It’s about true deterrence. I don’t think these people will come across our border if you can put them in jail for 30 days.”

Wesselhoft described himself as a retired U.S. Army Chaplain and an Airborne Ranger. “I have conducted many military funerals, and this is all so personal.”

He asked interested people to call their State Representatives and State Senators to get the bill passed in February. He also hinted at the fact that there may be similar legislation proposed on the national level.

About Lyndie England . . .

2005-10-28T21:59:00.000-06:00

My husband was on an airplane a week or two ago carrying Lyndie England from Fort Hood to Dallas/Fort Worth, presumably to begin her sentence. He said that she looks exactly the same as the photos we've seen of her walking to and from the courtroom. She was traveling alone, which surprised me.

I have my opinion of her, gleaned no doubt from the same sources that you've been exposed to. Before I talk about mine, I'd be interested in hearing what you think of her role in the Abu Ghraib scandal, and about her sentence.

Tell me again: what is the job of a Supreme Court Justice?

2005-10-22T13:21:00.000-06:00

This post isn't about war, but it is about rhetoric. Headline from today's Dallas Morning News: "Business leaders say Miers would add new perspective" (15A).

Quote from Sidney Stahl, a "lawyer friend of hers and a former council member . . . 'She had a good understanding of the business community in terms of the kinds of things that cities should do to attract business and industry.'"

Steve Taylor, president of a local Chamber of Commerce, "called her 'smart as hell'" and Donna Halstead, president of "an organization made up of leaders from Dallas' largest businesses" insisted that "'She would give other justices with no real world experience an opportunity to view issues from the private sector position.'"

I am not weighing in on Miers. But if conservatives take as a tenet that there should be no "legislating from the bench," then why is her "good understanding . . . of the kinds of things that cities should do to attract business" being raised? Are Supreme Court justices supposed to interpret the Constitution, or are they supposed to bring pro-business, pro-environment, pro-evolution, distinctly pro-anything perspectives to the Court?

I'm trying to get worked up over this, but it's hard.

2005-10-20T21:54:00.000-06:00

Regular readers know that I consider myself a centrist, although to my dear conservative friends that makes me a MSM-loving liberal. And I do tend to get my dander up about what I perceive as abuses of power or the mistreatment of the disenfranchised. So I feel as though I ought to be outraged about our servicemen burning the corpses of insurgents killed in fighting . . . but I'm not. They were dead. Gone. No feeling, no reaction. Already meeting their Maker and receiving their just reward.

Now I realize that the outrage being expressed is primarily because of the insult to Islam, and I am sympathetic to people's devotion to their faith, whether it's one I hold or not. But I just cannot manage a lot of sympathy for those who claim that God has been insulted by the desecration of the dead while at the same time piling on the body count of men, women, and children who are not combatants, but just ordinary people trying to live their lives.

I'm also troubled by the attitude of the journalist who shot the video. I heard him speak on NPR today, and he seemed quite sure that he had produced an artifact that would stir the world just as strongly as the photos from Abu Ghraib did. His disdain for the U.S. and the U.S. military was palpable, and while he is entitled to feel anything that he wants, he came across as just a little too smug that he had captured damning evidence that the world was waiting to see.

I may change my mind after I see the video, but right now I simply can't make myself feel righteously indignant.

Of course they needed bonuses! People were crying!

2005-10-17T21:55:00.000-06:00

Proof that we live in a disjointed world: some state employees (not fire, police, or emergency workers) got bonuses after 9-11 because Robert Ryan, who was Pataki's campaign manager, "saw an employee crying over the traumatic assignment" at the WTC. Ryan, already paid six figures, took bonuses, too, because, as he says, "I know what I saw, it changed me forever, I carried body bags . . . . " I am not dismissing the emotional pain of anyone who worked at the WTC after the attacks, but did any emergency workers get bonuses? And, more germane to my interests, has Mr. Ryan considered what our soldiers in Iraq are going through? And for what sum of money? Does he think that perhaps any of them have "carried body bags" or "been changed forever"? Maybe he might feel led to share some of his bonus with them.

N.Y. Official: Sept. 11 'Bonuses' Paid
October 17, 2005 8:44 PM EDT
NEW YORK - Some state employees reaped thousands of dollars worth of "bonuses" for their work after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, a state official testified Monday.
Robert Ryan, who headed a state agency after being Gov. George Pataki's campaign manager, said at an Assembly committee hearing that he increased his six-figure salary and the pay of all 14 of his employees with bonuses.
The extra compensation, in cash or extra days off, wasn't approved by the agency as required. Ryan said he got approval from his chief financial officer to compensate staff working at the World Trade Center site after he saw an employee crying over the traumatic assignment.
The Assembly committee is investigating reports of abuse, political hiring and lack of oversight at hundreds of state authorities. The authorities were created by the Legislature to be independent of the governor and politics to run specific services such as highways, mass transit and economic development.
"We have evidence of compensation to top management when, as far as I know, firemen and police of the city got no extra bonuses for doing worse, more grotesque work," Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said after the hearing of his authorities committee.
Ryan said he received 234 hours of bonus time - worth $13,859 according to a 2003 internal report - of "World Trade Center Appreciation Bonuses." His base salary then was $121,143, according to the report, which Brodsky released Monday.
Ryan, who headed the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., offered no apologies for taking the bonuses, which he said he only accepted after his employees insisted.
"I know what I saw, it changed me forever, I carried body bags. It was a horrific scene," the 49-year-old Ryan said.
The Pataki administration responded with a statement saying the issues raised had been addressed two years ago.
---
AP Staff Writer Michael Gormley contributed to this report from Albany, N.Y.

Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, and hurricanes

2005-09-22T20:05:00.000-06:00

This came from the latest issue of Newsweek. I'm not weighing in on the presidential responses, but I thought the article was interesting.

In September 1965, a massive hurricane hit New Orleans. By the next day the president--a Texan in a time of war--was in the city, visiting a shelter. With no electricity in the darkness there, Lyndon Baines Johnson held a flashlight to his face and proclaimed, "This is the president of the United States and I'm here to help you!" Almost precisely 40 years later, when another horrific hurricane hit the city, the president was, again, a Texan in wartime. But rather than hurry to New Orleans from his Texas ranch, George W. Bush decided, three days after Katrina hit, to fly back to Washington first. Photographers rarely are allowed into the forward cabin of Air Force One, but consigliere Karl Rove and other aides summoned them so they could snap pictures of the Boss gazing out the window as the plane flew over the devastation. Republican strategists privately call the resulting image--Bush as tourist, seemingly powerless as he peered down at the chaos--perhaps among the most damaging of his presidency.

Katrina's winds have unspun the spin of the Bush machine, particularly the crucial idea that he is a commanding commander in chief. In the NEWSWEEK Poll, only 17 percent of Americans say that he deserves the most blame for the botched early response to Katrina. But, for the first time, less than a majority--49 percent--say he has "strong leadership qualities," down from 63 percent last year. That weakness, in turn, dragged down his job-approval rating--now at 38 percent, his lowest ever--as well as voters' sense of where the country is headed. By a 66-28 margin, they say they are "dissatisfied," by far the gloomiest view in the Bush years, and among the worst in recent decades. Katrina has deepened concern about the nation's ability to respond to catastrophe--natural or man-made. "I'm unsatisfied with where we are right now," Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist told NEWSWEEK, "because I cannot be assured now that if a similar event were to happen today, that anything would be different."

Katrina seems likely to blow away much of Bush's agenda, already burdened by an expensive and increasingly unpopular construction project in Iraq. Congress already has shoveled out $62 billion in relief money alone, with several times that likely to be spent on rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Democrats declared Bush's costly Social Security-reform plan dead (again), as well as his plan to repeal the estate tax. Few Republicans disagreed. Frist didn't shut the door on a tax increase, saying, "I'm not going to rule it out nor am I going to endorse it." But he noted that Congress faces "the most expensive redevelopment project the country has ever seen. I would think, and predict, that it is going to cost money."

Rove sent press secretary Scott McClellan into the media maw to decry "the blame game," but even Frist called for a swift investigation--though not the independent commission demanded by Sen. Hillary Clinton. Backpedaling, the administration did something unusual: under fire, it more or less fired someone (hapless FEMA chief Michael Brown).

The Democrats' own public standing is low, and it's unclear how big an opportunity the storm presents. Respected handicapper Charlie Cook still sees only modest gains. But Simon Rosenberg of the New Democratic Network predicts something more. "Voters see not just a failure of execution, but of the Bush brand of conservatism," he said. The alternative? Senator Clinton offered one, informally launching her 2008 run by touting the last president's record on disaster relief. She wasn't proposing another Johnsonian Great Society, but, at least for Democrats, she was offering a flashlight in the dark.

Colin Powell on the Iraq war

2005-09-21T08:49:00.001-06:00

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1456650.htm comes this report of Powell's regret over his U.N. speech in favor of invading Iraq. I like a man who can express regret over a "blot on his record" instead of fixating on his "legacy" or blathering nonsense such as "mistakes were made." Click on the link above to read Powell's position on the war in Iraq now.

Former US secretary of state Colin Powell says his United Nations speech making the case for the US-led war on Iraq was "a blot" on his record.
Mr Powell has also said that he had "never seen evidence to suggest" a connection between the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States and the Saddam regime.
In the February 2003 presentation to the UN Security Council, Mr Powell forcefully made the case for war on the regime of Saddam Hussein, offering "proof" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The presentation included satellite photos of trucks that Mr Powell identified as mobile bioweapons laboratories.
After the invasion, US weapons inspectors reported finding no Iraqi nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
In an interview with American ABC TV news to be broadcast on Friday (US time), Mr Powell said "it's a blot" on his record.
"I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now," he said.
Mr Powell spent five days at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters ahead of the speech studying intelligence reports, many of which turned out to be false.
He said he felt "terrible" at being misinformed.
However, he did not blame CIA director George Tenet.
Mr Tenet "did not sit there for five days with me misleading me," he said.
"He believed what he was giving to me was accurate."
Some members of the US intelligence community "knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up," Mr Powell said.
"These are not senior people, but these are people who were aware that some of these resources should not be considered reliable," he said.
"I was enormously disappointed."

"Sorry we forgot to tell you how your son really died"

2005-09-10T16:31:00.000-06:00

"The Army said Saturday it knew for more than a year after 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard's death in Iraq in May 2004 that he was not killed in action, as it initially reported. The family was not told the truth until Friday."

It seems that the military told Ballard's family that he was killed in a "firefight with insurgents." What they found out within a few days, and didn't reveal for 15 months, was that he " actually died of wounds from the accidental discharge of a M240 machine gun on his tank after his platoon had returned from battling insurgents in Najaf," when the tank "accidentally backed into a tree and a branch hit the mounted, unmanned machine gun, causing it to fire . . . Ballard was struck at close range and died of his wounds."

His mom, who has attended some events at Camp Casey, is understandably less than pleased to find out at this point that his death was caused not by enemy fire, but by a steering accident.

The Army has stated that it "regrets that the initial casualty report from the field was in error as well as the time that it has taken to correct the report and to inform his family."

http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050910/43225a40_3ca6_15526200509101114228829

"You rescued people without asking?!"

2005-09-07T22:32:00.000-06:00

I lifted the following straight from Steve Houchin's site:

According to this article, two Navy Pilots received counseling for using their helicopters to rescue people trapped in New Orleans. After they dropped off the supplies that constituted their mission, the pilots used their H-3 helicopters to pick up 110 people stranded in the city.

"They were not reprimanded, they were counseled," points out civilian Public Affairs Officer Patrick Nichols. (Counseling is less severe than reprimand in the military, but is still corrective action.)

The problem wasn't that these pilots, one of whom was temporarily assigned to kennel duty, rescued the people. Rather, the problem was that they did not follow orders. Their Commander praised their actions, but then "reminded them their orders were to run water and other supplies" to three places in Mississippi.

One of the pilots did receive permission to return and continue saving people after he stopped to refuel.

What I get from this is that the pilots have to make sure that these stranded people must get supplies until they are able to be properly rescued. I love how bureaucracy works!

I understand that following orders is paramount in the military, but since Steve, a veteran, can see the inanity of this, I don't feel bad about shaking my head over it either.

Leavin' th' maid with th' dogs

2005-09-07T08:40:00.000-06:00

I learned about this on NPR's Morning Edition today. A very wealthy family in New Orleans lives in a big mansion with their three dogs and their maid from El Salvador. In advance of Hurricane Katrina, the family left the city and went to Atlanta for shelter, leaving the maid behind to care for the dogs in their absence.

The maid said that she would like to leave and go to Atlanta, as well, and that's what she plans to do, once someone from the ASPCA comes to rescue and care for the dogs.

I guess we should revise the colloquialism "That place is goin' to the dogs" to "That place is goin' to the dogs . . . and maids."

Note to all wealthy families with their heads screwed on right: won't one of you please hire this woman and treat her as a human being?

A voice from Mississsippi Gulf coast

2005-09-05T11:47:00.000-06:00

I have plenty to say about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but so does everyone else, and I probably wouldn't say anything that others haven't already thought of. So instead of my weighing in here, I'm just pasting below an email I received this morning from a friend at church. The message is verbatim, but I have taken the liberty of highlighting a few passages.

"My sis lives 15 miles north of Gulfport in the outlying areas.
They have only canned foods. No perishables being delivered anywhere. No power since. They do have well water. My sis described the area as a bomb hitting. Stayed in their house watching 100-mph winds for 12 hours continuous. The barn is gone, well house gone, fence gone, trees gone. FEMA has locked the gas pumps down for their trucks only and not thinking about the folks that are using gas for their generators. She was really scared yesterday when I called earlier in the morning. She said they had 2 gallons in the generator for refrigeration, and about 5 gallons in the car/truck to get to town and hopefully get more gas. The lines were horribly long just to get $20.00 worth. Of course, that's only 7 gallons now!!!!!! No milk, eggs, just canned stuff. Dale and my son-in-law were going to fill up a 100-gallon tank and take it to them. Go to the grocery store to load up on food for them and she called back saying there were gangs roaming and shooting people that looked like they had gas on them and not to come as power was beginning to come on in Hattiesburg which is 50 miles away. It's a pretty desperate situation as you can imagine. Especially when FEMA said if anyone had a complaint to log it on their web site. Be nice....if you had electricity!!!!!!
Need lots of prayer for those outlying folks that no one is hearing about."

Bragging on my University

2005-08-31T17:35:00.000-06:00

This post isn't about war, but about a response to Hurricane Katrina which makes me proud. We just received the following announcement from our Chancellor:

Devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama has left thousands homeless, businesses destroyed and livelihoods uncertain. Universities in the area, including Tulane, Xavier, Loyola, and Dillard, all located in New Orleans, have sustained major damage and there is great uncertainty as to when they might re-open. To that end, *** is offering admission until Tuesday, September 6 to local undergraduate students previously admitted to a university severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. I am asking that each member of the *** community be flexible in accommodating these late arriving students and help them feel welcome. Although we are at our maximum for this year’s freshman class, we feel a great sense of duty to offer this gesture of goodwill to these college students.

I have deleted the name of the university, simply because it provides more information about my identity than I want floating around the blogosphere. If you have a real need to know, you can contact me. Otherwise, you can just feel good with me about one small way that our community is trying to help those who need it.

Where is the National Guard?

2005-08-31T12:08:00.000-06:00

The gulf coast is in ruins, the looters have the run of some areas, police don't have the manpower to protect property because they're already stretched terribly thin trying to rescue people stranded from the water. This is a job for a massive number of National Guard troops--but many of those troops have been sent to Iraq. Anyone care to discuss the wisdom or the implications of having those dedicated to keeping peace at home fighting in a foreign country? Any and all comments welcome.

Also, a word about looters: I was told, although I haven't heard specifics, that a policeman was shot to death by a looter in New Orleans this morning. What are your thoughts on a shoot-on-sight policy toward looters?

Update: it turns out that I'm not the first person to think about this. A quick Google search turned up a few random sites dealing with the National Guard issue here and here . I'm sure there are more.

Oh, just what the anti-war movement needs

2005-08-25T21:46:00.000-06:00

"NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to join peace activist Cindy Sheehan, known as the Peace Mom, on Sunday near President Bush's Texas ranch. " (www.news.yahoo.com)

I may have to swear off reading conservative blogs for a few days--they're bound to have a field day with this news.

Pat Robertson calls for Hugo Chavez to be killed

2005-08-23T09:54:00.000-06:00

Well. Here's one way of looking at the world. Perhaps Robertson has forgotten that "those who live by the sword will die by the sword" (Jesus Christ). I think Robertson's comments speak for themselves.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."
"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Source: http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050823/430a9f40_3ca6_1552620050823-54242001
Robertson's site: http://www.cbn.com/700club/

"An Interest in Protecting Human Life"

2005-08-18T21:49:00.000-06:00

A Navy sailor's wife was pregnant with a baby which had a fatal birth defect; they opted to end the pregnancy with an abortion at five months, and wanted the Navy to pay for it. Ccoverage for the procedure was denied. She then filed a lawsuit claiming an armed forces health plan owed her $3,000 for the procedure.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that U.S. armed forces medical benefits should cover abortion costs only when a mother's life is at risk, a decision that the judges acknowledged was "callous and unfeeling." They said that they were not judging the "wisdom, fairness or logic" of congressional legislation that limited abortions under military medical plans.

I pulled all of the above information from various AP sources. I think it's pretty straightforward, and I'm not particularly interested in debating the morality of abortion in this space.

Here's what interests me:
"The government argued that refusing to cover such services 'furthers the government's interest in protecting human life in general and promoting respect for life.'"
We're talking about the military here. Soldiers learn all sorts of useful skills during their time in the service, but the main thing that they learn is how to kill people.

I'm not a pacifist; I know that war will always be with us; I also know that in war, all kinds of people--soldiers, the elderly, babies, pregnant women, children--die. So it strikes me as strangely incongruous to link the military to "protecting human life." It tries to protect some lives; it tries to protect our national interests and our way of life. And it does that by killing other people, not by "protecting human life in general."

Does this strike anyone else as odd?

Running down crosses

2005-08-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

As you know, Cindy Sheehan is camped out at Crawford, Texas, asking for a meeting with President Bush in regard to the war in Iraq, in which her son was killed. Judging from news reports, it seems that many Crawford residents don't mind her peaceful protest, but are tired of the traffic and congestion that is accumulating around it.

Regardless of how you feel about Sheehan and her actions or Crawford's residents and their reactions, I hope we can all agree that purposely running over the crosses she had erected in memory of fallen soldiers is a callous act.

Here is how Reuters reported it:

"Some 800 white wooden crosses, bearing the names of soldiers killed in Iraq like her son, have lined the road near the area where Sheehan has pitched a tent. Witnesses said they saw a lorry dragging a pipe and chains drive over some of the crosses on Monday night.

Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.

'We're trying to be good neighbours,' said Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in combat in Iraq in April 2004. 'We're trying to make everybody happy and the only thing I want is to talk to one of their neighbours. If they want us to leave, they should talk to their neighbour, George Bush, and tell him to come to us.'

By Tuesday morning, many rows of crosses had been put back in the ground, where they are adorned with flowers and flags.

'It's so ironic that I'm accused of dishonouring my son's memory by doing what I'm doing, by the other side, and then somebody comes and does this,' Sheehan said.

Charles Anderson, a 28-year-old Iraq war veteran from Virginia Beach, Virginia, called the vandalism of the crosses a 'sacrilege.'

'These crosses represent five of my comrades in my battalion who are no longer with us,' he said at a news conference with Sheehan. "

So, what do you think?

General removed for . . . adultery!?

2005-08-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

Four-star general Kevin Byrnes, with a reportedly-unblemished 36 year record in the Army, was relieved of his command 3 months before his scheduled retirement. Separated since May 2004, divorce finalized August 8, 2005, Gen. Byrnes's offense was an affair with a private citizen.

Now, I realize that adultery is against the UCMJ, and I believe it's wrong, unwise, and a generally bad idea. But holy smokes--relieved of his command? If I recall correctly, Eisenhower was more than just good friends with his driver, Kay Summersby, and I feel quite confident that we could quickly turn up a search of other military officers who have been less than true-blue to their spouses.

When I hear "relieved of his command," I think of Captain Bligh, or someone who purposely puts soldiers at grave risk for his personal glory (think Catch-22), or someone who participates in and encourages gross atrocities (think William Calley). But a single adulterous relationship? Seems odd to me.

Welcome home, Tex!

2005-08-07T16:42:00.000-06:00

I am delighted to post another message to a veteran friend returning from Iraq.

Captain T.W. "Tex" Williams returned safe and sound to the United States this week for the first time in 2 1/2 years.

Welcome home!

"I Don't Need 20,000 Dollars"

2005-08-03T23:04:00.000-06:00

A book by John Crawford, a National Guard veteran who spent a year in Iraq, has just been published: The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq. He was interviewed today on "Fresh Air," and told the story of two friends of his from high school, both wealthy, who were discussing the current war with another friend of his, a soldier.

Both young men stated that they support the war, believe it is an appropriate action for the U.S. to be involved in, and would certainly join if they were needed.

If they were needed? There are recruiters all over this country who would walk five miles through the rain to sign up two new soldiers.

If they were needed? The military eligibility age has just been raised to 42.

If they were needed? Replacements will need to be found for the 14 Marines killed today, in addition to the soldiers killed yesterday, and the day before that.

If they were needed? The army is offering signing bonuses of up to $20,000. Their response to this information? "We don't need $20,000."

Then what I think they need to do is to shut up about how they would go if they were "really needed."

Hello Again

2005-07-19T17:52:00.000-06:00

Regular readers of this blog have kindly noted my absence over the last few months. Sorry--I've been on a different schedule since the semester ended, and I've missed you all. I see that the blogosphere carried on nicely in spite of my absence.

Book recommendation: In Pharaoh's Army, by Tobias Wolff. It could be a fast read, except that you don't want to hurry over any of his prose. Simply a fabulous book about his time in Viet Nam.

Soldier Mom vs. High School--Who's the Authority?

2005-05-06T11:46:00.000-06:00

Does it surprise anyone that the kid got a bit cranky?

Student Suspended for Call to Mom in Iraq

COLUMBUS, Ga. - A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said.
The 10-day suspension was issued because Kevin Francois was "defiant and disorderly" and was imposed in lieu of an arrest, Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham said.
The confrontation Wednesday began after the 17-year-old junior got a call at lunchtime from his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, who left in January for a one-year tour with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion.
Mobile phones are allowed on campus but may not be used during school hours. When a teacher told him to hang up, he refused. He said he told the teacher, "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom."
Parham said the teen's suspension was based on his reaction to the teacher's request. He said the teen used profanity when taken to the office.
"Kevin got defiant and disorderly," Parham said. "When a kid becomes out of control like that they can either be arrested or suspended for 10 days. Now being that his mother is in Iraq, we're not trying to cause her any undue hardship; he was suspended for 10 days."
http://www.mcsdga.net/schools/high/spencer.html

When good recruiters go bad

2005-05-02T11:39:00.000-06:00

This is an isolated case, I desperately hope. Anyway, I put it out there for your consideration. Original source: http://news4colorado.com/topstories/local_story_118125046.html

How Far Will The Army Go?
Apr 28, 2005

How far will U.S. Army recruiters go to bring young men and women into their ranks? An Arvada West High School senior recently decided to find out. The following is CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger's report..ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4)

Last month the U.S. Army failed to meet its goal of 6,800 new troops. Aware of this trend, David McSwane, a local high school student, decided he wanted to find out to what extent some recruiters would go to sign up soldiers who were not up to grade. McSwane, 17, is actually just the kind of teenager the military would like. He's a high school journalist and honor student at Arvada West High School.
But McSwane decided he wanted to see "how far the Army would go during a war to get one more solider." McSwane contacted his local army recruiting office in Golden with a scenario he created. He told a recruiter that he was a dropout and didn't have a high school diploma. "No problem," the recruiter explained. He suggested that McSwane create a fake diploma from a non-existent school. McSwane recorded the recruiter saying that on the phone." It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something -- whatever you choose," the recruiter said.
As instructed, McSwane went on the computer to a Web site and for $200 arranged to have a phony diploma created that certified him as a graduate of Faith Hill Baptist High School, the very name the recruiter suggested. It came complete with a fake grade transcript.
"What was your reaction to them encouraging you to get a phony diploma?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked. "I was shocked," McSwane said. "I'm sitting there looking at a poster that says 'Integrity, Honor, Respect' and he is telling me to lie."
McSwane also pretended he had a drug problem when he spoke with the recruiter.The Army does not accept enlistees with drug problems." I have a problem with drugs," McSwane said, referring to the conversation he had with the recruiter. "I can't kick the habit ... just marijuana." "[The recruiter] said 'Not a problem,' just take this detox ... he said he would pay half of it ... told me where to go." Drug testers CBS4 contacted insist it doesn't work, but the recruiter claimed in another recorded phone conversation that taking "detoxification capsules and liquid" would help McSwane pass the required test. "The two times I had the guys use it, it has worked both times," the recruiter said in the recorded conversation. "We didn't have to worry about anything."
Then the original recruiter was transferred and another recruiter, Sgt. Tim Pickel, picked up the ball. A friend of McSwane shot videotape as Pickel drove McSwane to a store where he purchased the so-called detox kit. CBS4 then went to the Army recruiting office and confronted Sgt. Pickel. CBS4 played him a conversation McSwane had with Pickel on the phone. The transcript of that conversation follows:
Pickel: When you said about the one problem that you had, what does it consist of?
McSwane: Marijuana.
Pickel: Oh, OK so nothing major?
McSwane: Yeah, he said he would take me down to get that stuff, I mean I have no idea what it is, so you would have to show me. Is that a problem?
Pickel: No, not at all.

Pickel quickly referred CBS4 to his superiors. CBS4 then played the tapes and showed the video to Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur, who heads army recruiting for the region. "Let me sum up all of this with one word: unacceptable, completely unacceptable," Brodeur said. Hearing recruiters talking about phony diplomas and ways to beat drug tests left Brodeur more than a little disturbed. "Let me tell you something sir, I'm a soldier and have been a soldier for 20 years," Brodeur said. "This violates trust, it violates integrity, it violates honor and it violates duty." The army says it is conducting a full investigation.
Brodeur said there is no pressure or punishment for recruiters if quotas are not met. They are, however, rewarded when their goals are surpassed.

CBS4 Video:Watch Rick Sallinger's Investigates Report Full Interview With Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur (8 Minutes)

Additional Resources: The U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion Denver office released the following press release on April 29 in relation to this case: "Yesterday the Denver Army Recruiting Battalion took action against two Army recruiters for alleged impropriety. One recruiter is suspended from recruiting until completion of the investigation. The other recruiter, who was in transition to a new duty location, is being called back to the area for the investigation and is also not recruiting. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur, Denver Army Recruiting Battalion commander, said: 'We began conducting an investigation immediately upon finding out about the allegations made toward these recruiters and are required to complete the investigation within 30 days. Recruiter misconduct is not acceptable and it violates honor, duty and trust.' The Army takes a very serious approach to proper enlistment procedure and integrity. All allegations are investigated. We do not tolerate unprofessional behavior and our stringent guidelines for policing the recruiting force is evidence of that commitment."

Reading List for Soldiers

2005-04-26T10:50:00.000-06:00

I only recently became aware that there are official reading lists for U.S. soldiers, ordered by rank; e.g., enlisted personnel read these four books, captains read these five, etc.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has knowledge of how these lists are used. If you've been a soldier, were you given lists with the option of reading the appropriate books? Were you ordered to read any of them, or rewarded for having done so? Or have you never heard of these lists?

If you have not been a soldier, do you know anyone who might comment on these book lists--dad, uncle, best friend, etc.? And if you don't live in the U.S., do you know if your country has a similar program?

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you.

Can you get any more evil than this?

2005-04-20T22:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, I should be working on my papers right now, and no, this post doesn't have anything to do with war as we typically discuss it in this space. But I am so filled with anger and disgust right now that I have to post something. Prepare to be outraged.

HOMOSASSA, Fla. - A 9-year-old girl was raped, bound and buried alive, kneeling and clutching a purple stuffed dolphin, state prosecutors said in documents released Wednesday.

Jessica Lunsford's body was found March 19 buried about 150 yards from her house in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa.

According to the documents, Jessica was found wearing shorts and a shirt - different from the pink nightgown her family said she was wearing when they reported her missing Feb. 24.

The body was wrapped in two plastic trash bags knotted at her head and feet in a grave covered by a mound of leaves, the state attorney's office said in the documents.

Detective David Strickland wrote that Jessica's hands appeared to be bound in front of her with speaker wire. Strickland also wrote that a medical examiner noted signs of sexual battery.
Jessica died of asphyxiation, according to a coroner's report. A convicted sex offender, John Evander Couey, 46, is charged in her slaying. He has pleaded not guilty.

I say with all sincerity, not as taking the Lord's name in vain but as a sincere plea, "God, damn this man." How sick, and evil, and depraved do you have to be to perpetrate such an act? I have had it with child molesters ever being let out of prison--ever!

You can read the whole story here: http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050420/4265d3c0_3421_1334520050420-862713159

You can also check for sex offenders in your neighborhood here: WWW.CRIMINALCHECK.COM. But prepare to be outraged again. I looked up offenders in my zip code, and found cases that said "Aggravated sexual assault/child. Victim's age, 7. Sentence: 2 years." Two years! Are you kidding me? How about "until the day you die and go to meet your Maker."

It's that time of the semester . . .

2005-04-16T17:11:00.000-06:00

when I am so swamped that I can't blog or respond to others as I would like. If something important comes up and you think I should know about it, faithful readers, please email me at the link provided by blogger.

I hope to be blogging again soon.

(Steve, feel free to write a haiku about my plight.)

Credit where credit is due

2005-04-16T16:53:00.000-06:00

Politickal recently posted an essay on Terri Schiavo written by a former professor of mine, Dr. Janet Smith. He referenced me as the source, and I just want to make sure I give proper credit to Dr. Smith. Her website is http://www.aodonline.org/SHMS/Faculty+5819/Janet+Smith+9260/Dr.+Janet+Smith+-+Welcome.htm.

Welcome home, Adam!

2005-04-07T08:26:00.000-06:00

Regular readers of this blog will remember when I wished Adam "Godspeed" as he headed off to his second tour of duty in Iraq after coming home injured the first time. I am happy to report that Adam is now safely home with his wife, daughter, and dauchsand.

Welcome home, Adam!

Keep America Safe--Extend Daylight Savings Time

2005-04-07T08:15:00.000-06:00

Congress has evidently made the connection that sending dollars to the Middle East for fuel is not in the best interest of our national security. Their solution? Extend daylight savings time. Read it for yourself--you can't make these things up.

Lawmakers crafting energy legislation approved an amendment Wednesday to extend daylight-saving time by two months, having it start on the last Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in November.

"Extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who along with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-sponsored the measure.

The amendment was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that is putting together major parts of energy legislation likely to come up for a vote in the full House in the coming weeks.

"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," said Markey, who cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day.

The country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050407/4254b040_3ca6_1552620050407-225271475

Detroit, Gas-Guzzlers, and War

2005-04-05T09:22:00.000-06:00

Scott Burns writes a financial column for the Dallas Morning News. He recently took a small departure and accused the Detroit car-makers of being a threat to national security. I'd like to hear your opinion about his ideas. Full disclosure: I drive a 1994 Honda Civic that gets 37 mpg. Before that, I drove a 1983 Honda Civic. Clearly I do not share some Americans' taste for large or luxurious transportation.

Security threat: Detroit
Nearly 35 years ago, General Motors Corp. asked a consulting firm to examine a problem.
Imported cars, mostly Japanese, had captured 25 percent of the California car market. GM management was worried. The Big Three still had 90 percent of the national market, but top brass at GM saw California as the future.
So the study was done.
Today, General Motors' market share is down to 25 percent nationally. The Big Three have seen their share shrink to 57 percent.
Our domestic automakers, including Ford and Chrysler, have lacked foresight and innovation for so long that they are now fighting to hold market share in the big categories essential for survival: midsize cars, sport utility vehicles and minivans.
Management will blame this on intractable labor costs. Although labor costs are definitely a problem, it's time to consider a larger problem: Intractable Bonehead Management.
The same Japanese managers derided for their conformity and slow decision-making are eating Detroit's breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's a management problem.
Today, GM and Ford are well positioned to be dinosaurs. So is Chrysler. Worse, they are threats to national security.
How is this happening?
Here are three main thrusts:
• The industry has consistently lobbied against any changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency, or CAFE, rules, even as our dependence on imported energy has increased. The domestic carmakers talk about a global industry but have acted as though the United States was peculiarly immune to rising energy costs. One side effect is that domestic cars are unsuited for foreign markets because foreign markets are geared to fuel efficiency.
• The industry has focused its profitability on gas guzzlers that are supersized – like the Hummer H2 (10/13 mpg), the Lincoln Navigator (13/18 mpg), the Chevrolet Suburban (14/18 mpg) and the Cadillac Escalade ESV (13/17 mpg) – or on an array of super-muscle cars that are remarkably fuel-efficient relative to their forebears but still send plenty of money to the Middle East.
• Rather than innovate and invest in hybrid technology, as Toyota and Honda have done, the industry has repeatedly labeled the most successful car introduction in a decade as a "niche market" car. Ford, belatedly, is licensing Toyota technology for its first hybrid.
When fuel efficiency becomes crucial, American consumers will have two ugly choices: Send enormous amounts of money to the Middle East for oil or send enormous amounts of money to Japan for efficient cars.
The consequences of all this are neither good for the country nor pleasant. As some talk about $3 gasoline by summer, no remedies are available in auto dealers' showrooms and lots. That's a pretty good reason to brand GM, Ford and Chrysler as major risks to national security.
Is there something we can do?
I believe there is.
A recent survey showed that two out of three Americans, including NASCAR fans and conservatives, think buying more fuel-efficient cars is patriotic. Skeptics should check out www.40mpg.org, a new organization devoted to convincing the other boneheads – the ones in Congress – that government-enforced higher fuel-efficiency standards are essential.
Conservatives have regularly defeated efforts to raise the CAFE standards, arguing against government intrusion in the private economy. I consider myself a conservative, but it's time to recognize that our national security is being threatened by Detroit.
The 40mpg Web site offers an online calculator that shows the benefits of moving from any mileage you enter to 40 mpg. You can also check the three online calculators at http://www.scottburns.com/ to see the economic benefits of driving a more fuel-efficient car.

What do you think? This was written by a conservative--is it time to rethink our Hummers?

And the war continues . . .

2005-04-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

News the last few weeks has been dominated by the tragic Terri Schiavo case.

As an update on what's been happening in Iraq, 36 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in March. One of these was Spc. Eric L. Toth, of Edmondton, KY. He died March 30 on a supply route when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. Toth was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 623rd field Artillery Regiment, Tompkinsville, KY. (http://icasualties.org/oif/)

Spc. Toth was 21. I am sure that his loved ones will miss him greatly and that the country at large will mourn his death, as it will the other 1,533 American men and women who have died since the war started.

Why the military uses down-range spotters

2005-03-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

PLEASANT GROVE — Scott and Lori Connors' family room looks like it was bombed. There are random holes in the walls, gashes in the fabric of the couch and chair. There's broken glass everywhere and a sheet of plywood where the window used to be.
Outside, a shed is in tatters, and there's a boulder-size crater in the lawn. Upstairs, there are pieces of shrapnel imbedded in the bathroom wall. A large mirror has what looks like bullet holes in the glass.
It looks like it was bombed — because it was. A 105mm howitzer shell fired near Sundance in Provo Canyon overshot its mark and landed with a bang in the Conners' back yard. The boom was heard over several blocks.
Debris from the 3 p.m. explosion Wednesday also damaged a car across the street from the Connors' home and two other houses in the vicinity of 1600 East and 500 South on the Pleasant Grove bench.
It was a miracle no one was killed or injured, said Scott Connors.
"If the school bus had just been a minute or two earlier, kids would have been walking in the street where the shrapnel went across," Connors said.
The Connors' 3-year-old son was lying on the family room floor watching television when the mortar exploded. If he had raised his head or if he'd been standing, he would have been in the path of several bits of deadly flying shrapnel. As it was, he was covered in broken glass and badly frightened, say his parents.
"He's telling everybody, 'Our house exploded!' " said Lori Connors. Lori Connors chokes up when she thinks about it. "Every time I walk downstairs, I think, "What if?' " she said. "We figure it was a minor miracle. No. It wasn't minor," said Scott Connors.
Utah Department of Transportation officials, who have taken responsibility for the errant mortar, say the event is a rarity, even though they set off 560 rounds of explosive material every year in an attempt to control avalanche danger in the Provo, American Fork, Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.
"Of the tens of thousands of blasts done in Utah, there are extremely few incidents like this," said Liam Fitzgerald, supervisor for the Avalanche Safety Program in UDOT's Region 2. "This one was recorded as a dud because the crew did not see or hear an explosion," Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald said the cannon was fired from a fixed launch site on the north side of Provo Canyon — a spot above Sundance — that's been used many times before.
"Most of our firing is done when we cannot see the target," he said. "That's when we have avalanches, when it's storming." The blast was at least 3 miles off course. Avalanche-control operations are being temporarily suspended in Provo Canyon until officials can determine how the accident happened.
UDOT blames the misfire on too much gunpowder. UDOT spokesman Geoff DuPaix said the shells come pre-packaged in bundles, so it isn't clear who is responsible for using the larger charge.
Carlos Braceras, UDOT deputy director, said UDOT takes responsibility for the accident and wants to make certain it doesn't happen again. Exact damage estimates are still coming in, but it could reach $100,000. "We obviously have a little bit of work to do here," he said.
Investigators for the Federal Bureau of Investigation were initially called to the scene until it was determined no terrorist or malicious intent was involved. "We were actually relieved to find it was so random, not a targeted event against us," Connors said. Connors said insurance investigators are trying to estimate the extent of the damage, and UDOT Executive Director John Njord has promised Thursday that the department would do what it can to restore things. Meanwhile, the Utah County Sheriff's Office is continuing to investigate the exact cause of the overshoot, and the Connors are collecting shrapnel and counting their blessings.
"You just don't think you'll have a bomb in the back yard," said Lori Connors. "It's just not something you think you have to worry about."

President silent on Native American shootings

2005-03-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

I received this in email today, so I don't have the original citation. I do think it bears thought and discussion.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.

'Very telling' response
The reaction to Bush's silence was particularly bitter given his high-profile, late-night intervention on behalf of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman caught in a legal battle over whether her feeding tube should be reinserted. "The fact that Bush preempted his vacation to say something about Ms. Schiavo and here you have 10 native people gunned down and he can't take time to speak is very telling," said David Wilkins, interim chairman of the
Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the North Carolina-based Lumbee tribe.

Read This Only if You are Going to Die Someday

2005-03-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

If you believe that you will not live forever--that the physical laws of the universe do indeed apply to you--then please show some love for the people who will outlive you by doing the following:

Make a will. It can be as simple as writing on a piece of paper that you leave all of your earthly goods to your spouse, or as elaborate as hiring an attorney to set up various trust accounts. The amount that you own and your family situation (divorce, stepchildren, etc.) will dictate how you need to proceed.
Talk to your family about end-of-life issues. Ideally, have an attorney draw up a living will for you, along with an advance health care directive. If you can't afford an attorney, write out your wishes on a piece of paper; or, have someone videotape you while you talk about how you want to be treated if issues of life support and pain management become applicable to you. Be honest: if you want life support to be continued for as long as your family can afford it, say so; if you absolutely do not want to be resuscitated if your heart ever stops, say that, as well. This is not about what's right for other people--it's about what's right for you.
Draw up a durable Power of Attorney. This gives the person you name the legal standing to speak for you in case you can't speak for yourself. An attorney can prepare this for you; you may also be able to do it yourself with the proper forms. Think carefully about who you choose: most people choose their spouses, but if you believe that your spouse would be too emotionally distraught to think clearly, or that s/he might not operate in your best interest, then you can choose someone else: a parent, a sibling, a close friend.
Review the above documents every five years, or whenever you have a major life change: birth of a child, death of a spouse, divorce, remarriage, etc. Things change--make sure that the directives you leave accurately portray your wishes.

Preparing these things is not difficult, particularly when compared to the difficulties your family will go through if you don't make your wishes known. Show them you love them--just do it.

Trip to San Francisco

2005-03-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a professional trip to San Francisco, my first visit to that city. I just missed an anti-war march--the group planned to parade through the Union Square area where I was staying, but they started one hour after I left for the airport.

I did sit beside a nice gentleman on one leg of the flight home who works for an airline whose primary job is to shuttle soldiers to and from Iraq; his basic route is Ft. Still, OK; Bangor, ME; Frankfurt; Kuwait. He seemed to enjoy his job a lot.

This is the first trip I can remember in several years in which I did not see any soldiers in uniform in the airport, and I was in three of them in California--San Francisco, John Wayne, and LAX.

If you need recommendations for Chinese or Italian restaurants in San Francisco, I've got them!

War Movies

2005-03-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

What I've watched in the last week:

Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb)
The Atomic Cafe
The Manchurian Candidate (with Frank Sinatra)

It's been quite an experience.

Shooting the Italian Hostage

2005-03-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Well, by now everyone has heard about the incident in which American troops fired on the car carrying the recently freed Italian hostage. (If not, read it here.) I know there will be an investigation; I know that we want the Americans to have, in fact, acted properly; I know that the Left will be accused of hating America if they criticize any facet of the U.S. military over this incident.

Here's my question: the story told by Giuliana Sgrena, the freed hostage, contradicts the story told by American soldiers. What reason would we have for believing that she is lying? Granted, there are multiple sides to every story, and we understand that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of all of them. We know that American soldiers for the greatest part perform admirably and honorably; we also know that honest mistakes happen in war, and that unfortunately every barrel has a bad apple or two.

I'd like to hear your comments on this. I'm hoping for a discussion that goes beyond "the U.S. is always right!" or "War is always evil!" Sgrena is the one who was shot and whose rescuer died on top of her, saving her life. What good reasons do I have for believing, or not, her story?

Syrian comments and WMD

2005-03-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

I heard a Syrian government spokesman interviewed yesterday on NPR. I confess little knowledge on Syrian involvement in terrorism, but his comments were pretty much what one would expect him to say: "we do not sponsor or tolerate terrorism; we have repeatedly told the U.S. that we are open to dialogue with them [when did dialogue become a verb?] on this topic; if they find any proof of terrorist activity among our people or in our borders and will come show us that proof instead of taking the case to the media, we will immediately take swift, severe action against the guilty parties. "

But here was the kicker: "This sounds very much like the U.S. run-up to invading Iraq, in which assertions were made without any proof, and which turned out to be patently false" (my paraphrase of his comments). I wonder for how many decades "WMD in Iraq" will be held up as the paradigm of American intelligence/posturing/rationalizing/willful blindness/etc. (Please don't dredge back up the arguments of whether we should have entered Iraq or not--that is not the point of this post. I'm simply wondering how long the non-WMD will be the lens through which America is viewed.)

And a quick question which I could find out with a little time but I'm hoping someone who knows will just answer for me: are today's Syrians the descendants of the ancient Assyrians?

Isn't he an ex-something besides "soldier"?

2005-02-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is not an anti-MSM post; I happen to be a fan of the press. But when I opened my web browser this morning, here was the headline: "Ex-Soldier Kills Two of Wife's Kids." (You can read the story here.) He had received a general discharge, never saw combat, and was never posted overseas. He was a psycho with a history of domestic violence.

Do you suppose he had ever done anything else in his life by which he could have been identified? A few examples: ex-City High student; ex-Spelling Bee champion; ex-gang member; ex-skateboard fanatic.

Or, how about this one: "Domestic Abuser Kills Two of Wife's Kids." That seems more relevant to me than "ex-soldier."

"Supportive Letters" to Soldiers Actually Accuse

2005-02-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

I just became aware of this through PalmTree Pundit. It seems that a social studies assignment in a Brooklyn school went terribly awry when a soldier received a packet of letters, some of which were encouraging and others in which students "pointed out" how many civilians were being killed, that mosques that were being destroyed, etc. by the U.S. That's just what every soldier in a war zone needs--to have a stateside child point out to him what is going on in the war.

Wouldn't a little common sense tell the teacher that actually reading the letters before shipping them off to a soldier overseas might be a good idea?

Update: I went back and read the article more closely. The soldier who received the letters is a 20-year old stationed at Camp Casey, "10 miles from the North Korean border." He's not even in Iraq! You can click on this link to read it yourself.