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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! January 30, 2004 Not a True Coalition?By GreyhawkAnother round of Memefighting. Question: How many times will this particular insult to the world be run up the flag pole this year? "He embraced a radical doctrine of pre-emptive war unprecedented in our history; and he failed to build a true international coalition," Pelosi said. Answer: As long as these variations on the human form stand up and salute it, that flag will fly. Smash has rather adroitly presented the issue here, going so far as to provide a very nice picture to assist non-reading members of that particular hate cult to understand what "global coalition" is. (And here's another great visual aid for the "not a coalition" crowd.) Of course, "not a true coalition" is leftspeak for "France and Russia are against us". (although possibly "ignospeak" for those who believe it and repeat it without thought.) Pelosi is leftspeaking, I think, while the remaining glimmer triplets are possibly ignospeaking. Enough of that for now. Hand me the memehammer. Here's a look at one of the partners of that "true coalition" that Nancy and the gals so lust for: 200 Conscripts Ill Once is a tragedy. Twice is a crime - and at least two similar events occurred. More detail on the earlier case mentioned: Conscripts' Cold Comfort The poor parents fault? Not according to this LA Times version: CHERNOGOLOVKA, Russia — When he saw his son off to join the army in December, Mikhail Sorokin figured the boy was dressed appropriately for the relatively mild snowy weather in Moscow: jeans, track shoes, a light jacket. Yeah, without those guys the coalition just wasn't the same. Wasn't the same as a coalition that could accomplish this: ARUSHA, Tanzania — The former peacekeeping commander during the Rwandan genocide told a U.N. tribunal yesterday that world leaders allowed the deaths of more than 500,000 people by feigning ignorance of what was taking place. Belgium waffles? And meanwhile, having lost his great friend and ally Saddam, Chiraq is busy patching together other coalitions. (You really must click this one.) In contrast, lacking support from France, Russia, and Belgium, US unilateralism leads to this: Afghan Ambassador Said T. Jawad praised President Bush for his encouraging words in his State of the Union speech and said Afghanistan is "proud" to be a partner with the United States in the fight against terrorism. "We appreciate President Bush's words of support for Afghanistan," said the ambassador, after attending the speech on Tuesday night. "We cherish the close partnership and enduring friendship forged between our two nations, which has yielded mutually beneficial results." And this JEDDAH (Reuters) - Joyful Iraqi pilgrims arriving in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said they would thank God for ending the rule of Saddam Hussein in prayers during haj pilgrimage but other Arabs were thinking of the U.S. occupation. Of course, not everyone on the left is transfixed by Pelosi's hypnotic glare. Anyway, who is fighting in Iraq right now? The coalition is led by a Texas right-winger, which is a pity; but, in the second rank, by the prime minister of Britain, who is a socialist, sort of; and, in the third rank, by the president of Poland-a Communist! An ex-Communist, anyway. One Texas right-winger and two Europeans who are more or less on the left. But even the author of that article later expresses doubt that many more will come around to his way of thinking. After all, if 911 wouldn't do the trick, what would it take? A chance at the White House, perhaps? Having tentatively joined Dr Dean's post-victory anti-war movement prior to establishing his alpha male dominance, could the current front runner change tactics at this point? If not, could one of this week's also rans, in an effort to appeal to those who'd appreciate a sanity plank somewhere in the Democratic party platform, suddenly declare support for America in the war on terror? More to come... Posted by Greyhawk / January 30, 2004 3:27 AM | Permalink |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
