 |  |
 
October 2012
August 2012 July 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003
     |
 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! April 12, 2006 Open PostBy GreyhawkLieutenant General (RET.) Gregory Newbold's Time Magazine piece has caused quite a stir. The passage that caught my attention on first reading was this one: I am driven to action now by the missteps and misjudgments of the White House and the Pentagon, and by my many painful visits to our military hospitals. In those places, I have been both inspired and shaken by the broken bodies but unbroken spirits of soldiers, Marines and corpsmen returning from this war.I really wish he'd explained better why their unbroken spirits were his motivation. But I think I'm clear on this part: ...I offer a challenge to those still in uniform: a leader's responsibility is to give voice to those who can't--or don't have the opportunity to--speak. Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important.So I'll get things started: General,Hey - exercise your free speech too. Open Post. Posted by Greyhawk / April 12, 2006 10:13 PM | Permalink 17 TrackBacksIt's racism you know. The terrorists and insurgents in Iraq can't possibly be sophisticated enough to make decisions according to their perception of the US will to fight Read More In a way, I suppose, it's like the idea of legalizing drugs. The simple fact that drugs are illegal supports a wide range of criminal behavior and vice that is probably worse than the drugs themselves. Read More Fellow fiction writer and erstwhile Oprah Winfrey pal James Frey, has come forward with some stunning new allegations that may open the door to further sex-related, criminal charges against the Duke University men's lacrosse team. Frey, known for autho... Read More The Democrats these days seem to be using the coyote’s tactics. They rolled the boulder of censure to the edge of the cliff of NSA eavesdropping. The cliff gave way and the democrats fell humorously to the ground and the boulder landed on them. G... Read More The weather is finally nice enough to open windows and let fresh air in. Being able to go outside without a bulky coat feels great. Only one problem though. Read More As alluded to in THE WEEKLY RETORT, I want to revisit an article MOGS posted last week. Here's an excerpt from CBS4 Denver:WESTMINSTER, Colo. The immigration debate and recent demonstrations over the issue have led to a change in the Read More What's old is new again and just like Hollywood, the adversarial press retreads old stories with only minor changes in constant attempts to damage the administration Read More Today Is Recruiter Day! Or so I have decided, all by myself. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile (bless your li'l hearts), know I have a very large soft spot in my heart for recruiters... Read More Sec Def Donald Rumsfeld (whether you love him or hate him) you have to admit he has the best press conferences where he does some impressive interpretive Hand Dancing. What’s your interpretation of what Rummy’s saying in each of these p... Read More A while back, may be last week, I made a comment on some other blog about annexing Mexico. Well, It looks like there are a few people out there who are considering the same thing, eventhough It may only be half-jokingly. Read More Today's winners are Kris and Sarah Everson Read More Hire the Best People, but don't get suedYour Business Blogger once ran the Human Resource function for a 14,000 employee enterprise. The boss demanded, "Get the best talent!" And don't get sued. It was like playing defense. You can't... Read More Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. April 12, 2006 'Iran seeks 'non-aggression pacts', joint military excercises with neighbors.' Read More I posted a couple of times about a column by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. Mr. Cohen implied that only the retired generals speaking out against the war were telling the truth, and decrying the fact that more troops were not speaking ... Read More I thought it would be interesting and informative to illustrate what our Nation might be like if it caved into all of the radical ideals of the ACLU. It ended up quite scary, and if we were to follow the law of consequence to its end, I’m certa... Read More We’re looking for military leaders, active, reserve, retired or former, commissioned and non-commissioned, and interested civilians to write on all aspects of leadership, policy, management, programs, professional development and other topics. Read More 13 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 |
Comments (0) |
|
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 |
Well that's utterly incredible. Now even our soldiers no longer have the right to criticize the war or how it's been conducted. Who's left? Oh...nobody. Which is exactly the way you want it.
Alexander,
You lost me completely there. What are you talking about?
You told the retired General to shut up. Shame on you. ;-)
Guess Alex doesn't know where he's commenting.
We have a similar issue going on in the UK at the moment. A serving RAF officer is up on court martial for refusing an order to go to Iraq. It's bad enough when enlisted men and junior NCO's diss the war but when officers start, it needs to be nipped in the bud.
An officers job is to serve his country as commanded. Soldiers aren't paid to do the politics. They are paid to do their job once the politics has failed.
G,
Nice.
f
I don't recall all the retiring Generals and Officers getting this much air play and credibility during the Clinton years! What's with these officers? Do they really believe they're hurting Rumsfeld or Bush with these antics. They are hurting those who are serving by providing ammo to the enemy.
Old Soldiers should just Fade Away. We got it covered old man. Enjoy a scotch and let us carry on.
Greyhawk, your reply was perfect. I would like to think he will somehow see it. I respect Gen Newbold's service, but he has given up the claim to be a soldier or he would realize the potential harm his words do to those in the field. Shame.
Sir,
With all due respect, thank you for your service. I appreciate and value your opinion. As a citizen I heartily disagree with it. As a sailor I am disheartened by it. In truth we are deep in the fog of war and clarity may not come for some time. I accept that. I also accept the fact that our enemy is tenacious, clever and encouraged whenever we whisper at defeat or surrender.
I will continue look after the men in my charge. I will make sure they are trained and prepared for whatever eventuality comes their way. Some are already serving in the C5F AOR, as I did for a period.
We see our duty clear and will execute it with courage, honor and commitment.
Alexander -- Here's my two cents on this kind of dissent
While I will not accuse this general of the moonbattery illustrated in the link, the criticism of the quality of thought behind his ent ... and the need for people like Greyhawk and myself to vigorously oppose it on those grounds ... does apply.
Frankly, this guy appears to be "fighting the last war" ... bringing up the conventional wisdom of more troops/more resources = success, ignoring both the diminishing returns of that approach in asymetrical warfare, and the plausible alternatives.
He also doesn't percieve the threat Saddam & Sons posed to the prosecution of this War on Terror ... including our pursuit of Al Quada ... if they were left in place.
Let me illustrate, by taking apart a quote from the article ...
Some of the missteps include: the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war,
If we were distorting intel, so was the rest of the world. What we did instead, was break a taboo instituted over the last 40 years ... our leaders made a judgment call ... and on many of the issues, from terrorism support to dormant WMD programs, to the non-sustainability of containment, they were right. It was truly "everything but the stockpiles"
McNamara-like micromanagement that kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job,
I think Tommy Franks would disagree with that ... and keep in mind, more resources means a heavier bootprint in "occupied" territory, which can be counterproductive.
the failure to retain and reconstitute the Iraqi military in time to help quell civil disorder,
General, could you really have done this any better than we did? Or ... were you going to wait around until we were capable of doing so, and ignore the ability of Saddam & Sons to further "perfect" their own defenses?
the initial denial that an insurgency was the heart of the opposition to occupation,
It never has been an "insurgency", as in legitimate freedom fighters -- it is a mix of jihadis, dead-ender Baathists, and ordinary criminals ... all the anthesis of the true freedom fighter. The fact that they target innocents intentionally is proof of this.
alienation of allies who could have helped in a more robust way to rebuild Iraq,
As in France and Germany ... Saddam's enablers?
They, and many others, were more concerned about American influence than about Saddam's brutality ... and acted accordingly. We didn't alienate them ... they chose to alienate themselves, by acting on their flawed core beliefs about America.
and the continuing failure of the other agencies of our government to commit assets to the same degree as the Defense Department.
Again, more isn't always better ... and we have our best in there, already.
He claims he was aginst the war - and his oath to the Constitution demands his criticism...now. So if he really believed his own #$%^ why did he wait 3 YEARS to air his brave "dissent".
Sir, we still in the fight will finish it. I am sure your book/speaking engagement contracts and such will keep you busy enough...
So we have another retired three-star defeatist publicly auditioning for the coveted CNN Armchair General broadcast position. Big whup.
What was it Chamberlain said? "There's nothing so much like a god on earth as a General on a battlefield." Or maybe he just said that in the movies.
In any event, what does that make a general in a living room?
"Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important."
So what exactly is it about the Iraq War that General Patent Leather finds unconstitutional?
It's funny, the CinC takes the same oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
So we're supposed to trust unelected and unaccountable men like el Commandante Newbold to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution in place of a man a majority of the country voted for barely 18 months ago?
Nice try, Generalissimo. But I think we'll stick with representative democracy if you don't mind.