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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! August 12, 2004 An UpdateBy GreyhawkUpdate to this post: Regarding an advance copy of the just published book, my source with the publisher tells me "there is no way the Kerry campaign could have received a copy - they were sent directly from the printer to the stores and galleys were not sent out to anyone". By the way, Kerry's a veteran with a blog... how come he hasn't joined the MilBlogs ring? Posted by Greyhawk / August 12, 2004 11:01 PM | Permalink 4 Comments |
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 |
Hmmm.
Ok. I got my copy of "Unfit for Command" at the office today but didn't get a chance to read it until 8pm or so. Took me a couple hours to read it and another hour to reread selected portions of it.
HOLY ****!! (edited out expletive)
Please excuse the language but I've never read anything more damning in my life. If these guys aren't telling the truth then they're in for the libel/slander/defamation suit of the century.
The book is only 200+ pages so it's not a hard read, but it's riveting. You get guided through every aspect of Kerry's Vietnam service and it's unreal. There are several points that should be considered.
1. Nobody liked Kerry or trusted him. Many of the officers in the SWIFT boats requested that they never go on missions with Kerry.
2. Kerry had an intense fantasy life where he was a John Wayne style hero confronting his superior officers about supposed issues. Instead he was a suck-up in real life. He was only the hero in his journals, which is the basis of his many biographies.
3. Kerry was unreliable. He would often "disappear" for long stretches of time from patrol. On one patrol, only 7 miles from Saigon, he actually deserted his post by taking his boat into Saigon for a night of drinking. He was also prone to firing without warning and exercised poor, or non-existant, fire discipline.
4. Kerry lied like a rug. He changed scenarios, times, situations and reports in order to gain medals. The action in which he won the Silver Star was actually completetly contrived. The night before the mission Kerry talked to his crew and the crews of two other boats. The basis of this "talk" was to convince them that, upon recieving fire, they would beach their boats and charge the enemy. The reason for this was to garner medals. What's more interesting is that each boat carried around 10 SVA soldiers who did the bulk of the fighting, and yet they weren't even mentioned in the citation.
5. Kerry didn't just think of the "3 Purple Hearts and you go home" routine himself. He was asked, or told to rather, to use this clause and get the hell out of Vietnam. The other SWIFT boat officers didn't want him anywhere near them anymore because he was such a liability.
6. Kerry, according to this book, was a physical coward who bitched about any level of danger and who either hung back or RAN the moment there was any danger. As an example Kerry spent only a week at An Thoi, a dangerous posting, because he bitched so much nobody wanted him around. So he got transferred to a much less dangerous post.
This literally goes on and on and on.
I didn't serve in the USN but I do a term in the USMC (starting in 1982, medical discharge in 1984) and I think I would have shot Kerry if he had done any of this crap to me or my buddies.
It's one thing to be a glory hound medal hunting bastard. It's another thing to leave wounded comrades to die by running away.
One thing is for certain. Someone is going to pay a heavy price for this book. Either it's the Swiftees, if they're lying. Or it's Kerry, if they aren't lying. Or it's the liberal media, once enough people have read this book.
Sooner or later there's going to be an accounting.
.... cross posting this from R.L. Simon's blog.
Well, Novak published his story on the 9th:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040809.shtml
It's reasonable to estimate that he got his copy on the 8th or 9th at the latest.
The Spectator article was date/time stamped just after midnight on the 10th:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6955
It's not inconceivable that the Kerry campaign wangled a copy or two on the 8th or 9th as well and rammed a damage control read through.
My shipping advice from Amazon came through on the 10th.
It's well within the realm of possibility, although more difficult to assess the probability.
John Kerry requests Purple Heart for Moqtada al Sadr
Teheran Times ^ | 8/13/04 | Abu al Dimikrati
Abu al Dimikrati reporting from Detroit USA for the TEHERAN TIMES
Detroit USA (TT) – Speaking before a crowd of Arab Americans in this city’s enlightened East End district, Favored Infidel of Allah John Kerry demanded that Spawn of Satan George W. Bush press the Navy Department to issue a Purple Heart to Moqtada al Sadr for a heroic scratch he received from infidel American shrapnel in action in the holy city of Najaf.
FIOA Kerry explained to the raucous, cheering crowd of true believers how this was his first initiative in his Sensitive War on Terror. FIOA Kerry brilliantly explained -
“As soon as I take office, my Sensitive Warriors will be forcefully directed to conduct serious studies to find out why all the world’s true believers were so mad at America. Then I will craft a warlike but sensitive, powerful but wise apology to al Islamia before pushing a massive reparations bill through my Democrat controlled House and Senate. This is the one true way to make America safer.”
He went on blaming SOS Bush for this
“…terrible state of affairs we find ourselves in with the entire world mad at us.” He continued that “After apologizing and reparating al Islamia he would wisely but powerfully direct his Sensitive Warriors to start the same process with the French, Germans and Russians. This is my vision for a peaceful world where America is loved, not hated.”
In a later one on one interview he averred to me –
“When I grew up in France I was taught the beauty of the Holy Koran and I knew that someday I would save the enlightened people of al Islamia from the Satans of the West.”
I am happy to report that America will soon be on our side when FIOA John Kerry smashes SOS Bush in November, and to that end we must kill as many Americans and
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/john_kerry_requ_1.html
John Kerry requests Purple Heart for Moqtada al Sadr
Teheran Times ^ | 8/13/04 | Abu al Dimikrati
Abu al Dimikrati reporting from Detroit USA for the TEHERAN TIMES
Detroit USA (TT) – Speaking before a crowd of Arab Americans in this city’s enlightened East End district, Favored Infidel of Allah John Kerry demanded that Spawn of Satan George W. Bush press the Navy Department to issue a Purple Heart to Moqtada al Sadr for a heroic scratch he received from infidel American shrapnel in action in the holy city of Najaf.
FIOA Kerry explained to the raucous, cheering crowd of true believers how this was his first initiative in his Sensitive War on Terror. FIOA Kerry brilliantly explained -
“As soon as I take office, my Sensitive Warriors will be forcefully directed to conduct serious studies to find out why all the world’s true believers were so mad at America. Then I will craft a warlike but sensitive, powerful but wise apology to al Islamia before pushing a massive reparations bill through my Democrat controlled House and Senate. This is the one true way to make America safer.”
He went on blaming SOS Bush for this
“…terrible state of affairs we find ourselves in with the entire world mad at us.” He continued that “After apologizing and reparating al Islamia he would wisely but powerfully direct his Sensitive Warriors to start the same process with the French, Germans and Russians. This is my vision for a peaceful world where America is loved, not hated.”
In a later one on one interview he averred to me –
“When I grew up in France I was taught the beauty of the Holy Koran and I knew that someday I would save the enlightened people of al Islamia from the Satans of the West.”
I am happy to report that America will soon be on our side when FIOA John Kerry smashes SOS Bush in November, and to that end we must kill as many Americans and
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/john_kerry_requ_1.html