
![]() | |
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! July 9, 2009 They walk among usBy Greyhawk
Over my career I served with thousands of young Americans. Some were into Star Wars. Some were talented singers, or had a knack for drawing. Others were skilled carpenters or mechanics. I have no doubt some were gay. Michael Jackson fans? We had 'em. Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash and Green Day fans, too. I've worked with, for, and over Christians, atheists, Muslims, Wiccans, Buddhists, Jews - brown yellow, white, "all of the above" - northern, southern, city, country, American, foreign... Some were alcoholics. A few were busted for drugs. (One declared he would never use the stuff - he just supplied it to others...) Every base/post newspaper has an at least once a week "blotter" section that lists the names of the small (but unacceptable!) percentage of the population busted for one infraction or another (many unique to the military, others not) that week, along side stories of those getting medals and other recognition for achievement, courage, or a job well done. The vast majority never made the paper at all. Some had blogs (I swear, it's true!) Some uploaded pictures of themselves to "Hot or Not". Others had pictures of themselves crawling drunk in the streets on their MySpace page. I know the last two for certain because they proudly showed me. (Bad judgement, says I - but at least they weren't in uniform, though I've heard of others who were...) I don't know if I ever met any Nazis or not.
I hate Nazis - Illinois or otherwise. There's an almost overlooked but interesting datapoint on military suicide in the story, too:
I suspect responses to the "Clark" story would reveal many people's real thoughts on the military suicide issue. For example, the Stars and Stripes story didn't even mention what level of disability rating he might receive, or what access to veterans' health care he might have for the rest of his life. It's almost as if they aren't the least bit concerned. Update: Nazi - it's the new gay! A comment from Boing Boing's coverage of this story:
I met many folks over the course of my career who may or may not have been gay. But I knew one guy who coincident with getting orders to Korea (back in the "pre-war" days when many - gay or straight - saw that as the worst thing that could happen to you) decided to "come out", even though it meant certain discharge from the military. That process took months, of course. During which 1) he continued in his job, was very effective, and was well treated, and 2) no replacement could be named for his Korea assignment (it couldn't "officially" be canceled until the inevitable conclusion was actually reached; ultimately someone else got a very short notice assignment.) Anyhow, imagine a future where gays are allowed to serve openly. I'm all for that, but I suspect "Nazi" (more likely "racist") would indeed become a fall back for someone wanting out of the military. Under those circumstances you might see a sudden rise in self-identified racists in the ranks. (Oddly enough, many are using a fraudulent "gays bad/Nazis okay" angle on this story in an attempt shame someone - right target: congress, wrong target: the military - into acting on the gays in the military issue.) As for the issue of authentic militant racists in the military - I know they're there, I'm against 'em, and I won't discriminate based on the color of their skin. The question becomes (and I'm not aware of any answer provided by the SPLC) what to do? "Kick them out" certainly ends the problem from the military POV (until those suicide stories start and the "victim's" racist status is conveniently forgotten) but most of these folks don't sport "racist" tattoos on their foreheads or exhibit any other outward signs of membership in unacceptable groups. This also harkens back to the DHS Report on right-wing threats, a document many labeled as "prescient" for citing an obvious problem for which no one proposed any answers. (My thoughts on that here - having made them clear I've got zero tolerance for those who might accuse me of holding any certain position that I do not.) But Congress is about to clear the table for a presentation regarding "dozens" of people on a web site who claim membership in the U.S. military - one of whom has actually been confirmed (and who is on the way out). This undeniably represents the tip of an iceberg of unknown size - and congressional attention indicates a significant problem. I'd rather they acted to give back the money they just stole from the pockets of military members, but I don't set the agenda. But given the impact of that congressional solution ("protection") I'm concerned with any other future "protections" congress might determine we require. So if anyone has any real solutions, feel free to provide. Elsewhere - Other milbloggers: My buddy Grim, just back from Iraq, points out the proper path to a solution. Non-military: Gawker? Raw Story? (Gosh guys - I didn't know you cared... sniffle...): "It's all about teh gayz!" Reason: it's about the gays. Think Progress: It's all about Iraq, and Chimpy ignored the problem. (Oh, and by the way, gays should be allowed to serve openly.) Crooks and Liars tags: Greta Van Susteren, Michael Savage, Military, neo-Nazis, Obama, poplawski, stripes, tiller - 'nuff said? More: In searching for a report on what action congress took today, all I find is this AP story:
"Sent a letter"? Is that what "On Friday, the SPLC will present its findings to key members of Congress" (from the original story) actually means? If so, I was mistaken in stating "Congress will clear the table for a presentation..." above. Still more: Yep - this entire story is based on a press release regarding a letter sent to four members of congress announcing the discovery of 40 "whites only" chat room participants who claim to be military. (This in no way invalidates any good discussion begun on issues raised, but does serve as a reminder that "news" must always be read with extreme caution, sucker.) Recap: 1. SPLC issues press release about letter sent to congress regarding claims by white-only chat room participants. 2. Stars and Stripes investigates, finds a suicidal racist about to be discharged from Navy. 3. Milbloggers take the report seriously. (Suckers all, we are.) 4. Other courageous bloggers hint that the military ban on gays should be lifted, the Iraq war was a mistake, the DHS report was "prescient", and Greta van Susteren is a threat to America who must be silenced. So far, no comment from congress. And ACTION! Here's a great idea - let's ban smokers from the military!!! So to return to my original point ("in this organization of over two hundred people, anything you can think of, from talent to perversion, we've probably got one here somewhere...") - if somewhere in the military there are suicidal gay Nazi smokers who just want to serve their country and watch Greta van Susteren when off duty is that really so wrong? Posted by Greyhawk / July 9, 2009 11:26 PM | Permalink 2 TrackBacksTrackBack URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16425 Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a ... Read More Lieberman: General Keane... Do you think that political correctness may have played some role in the fact that these dots were not connected? The first two words of the general's response were "Yes, absolutely". But there were more, including these:But... Read More 16 CommentsLeave a comment |
February 3, 2010Dawn Patrol 02/03/2010 [Mrs Greyhawk]
Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list. Hat Tips to the Dawn Patrol are greatly appreciated.Refresh for updates.
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTANPentagon Behind Obama Schedule for Deploying Troops to Afghanistan -- [FOX] Mullen: Afghanistan success window small -- [Washington Times] US Marines facing a 'different war' in Afghanistan -- [AFP] Predators pound terrorist camp in North Waziristan -- [Long War Journal - Bill Roggio] Eyes in the Sky -- [Army Live] Revenge on the Taliban, from 10,000 feet -- [Washington Post] Pakistan blast kills US soldiers (Video) -- [BBC] 3 G.I.s Killed in Pakistan. Now Can We Start Treating This Like a Real War? -- [Danger Room - Noah Shachtman] Never take it for granted -- [One Marine's View - in Afghanistan] It's the Economy, Undergraduate -- [At War] Around ANA Land -- -- [Afghanistan My Last Tour - in Afghanistan] Dari Keyboard -- [Afghanistan My Last Tour - in Afghanistan] Taking Tea with the Taliban -- [Commentary Mag - Michael Rubin] New Afghan police officers graduate -- [Helmand Blog] U.S. military officers could face punishment over ambush in Afghanistan -- [Washington Post] Afghans protest to Iran over border killings -- [Reuters] IRAQBomb kills 20 in Iraqi Shi'ite city of Kerbala -- [Reuters] Obama, Biden meet with Iraqi VP -- [AFP] Iraq court lifts ban on hundreds of candidates -- [Atlanta Journal Constitution] Blair Called a Liar in Iraq Inquiry -- [NY Times] U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLDMultiple Air Force crews, Landstuhl staff team up to save Peace Corps member injured in Kazakhstan -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany ] Iran hints at prisoner swap for 3 U.S. hikers -- [Washington Times] US Denies Speaking to Iran About Prisoner Swap -- [Voice of America] Ahmadinejad backs deal to remove bulk of enriched uranium from Iran -- [Washington Post] US wary as Iran president agrees nuclear deal terms -- [BBC] Emergency Assistance Still Hasn't Reached Many Haitians -- [Washington Post] China's threat to sanction US firms in arms sale could backfire -- [Los Angeles Times] Corrected: Obama to meet Dalai Lama despite Chinese warnings -- [Reuters] WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISMPanetta: Terror Attack in US Likely Soon -- [Military.com/AP] Would-be LAX terrorist's prison sentence overturned as too lenient -- [Los Angeles Times] Bill Would Forbid Civilian 9/11 Trials -- [Military.com/Atlanta Journal-Constitution] DOJ's New Tool Against Criticism: New Media -- [FOX] Brennan: All Transferred Detainees Who Returned to Terrorism Were Released by Bush, No Recidivism for Those Released by Obama -- [ABC News] Is there an adult in there somewhere? Bueller? Bueller? -- [The Armorer] MI5 hunting breast implants of death -- [WND] SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOTImpact of deployment on kids -- negative reporting and troop bashing hurts them too -- [You Served] Interview with Lorrie Nichols of The Journal of An Army Wife -- [Army Wives Lives] The Predictably Unpredictable Army Strikes Again.... -- [SpouseBuzz - Andi] They Ache -- [SpouseBuzz - Sarah] Military OneSource Tax Filing Services -- [Military OneSource] Wounded Warrior returns to West Point as WTU Commander -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany] MILITARYLaw barring lies about military medals faces test -- [Washington Post] Why Stolen Valor doesn't violate 1st Amendment -- [This Ain't Hell...] Air Force Academy creates worship area for pagans, Druids -- [USA Today] The Wiccan Cross -- [Greyhawk]
WELCOME HOMEArrival at Home- Final Post -- [Doc H - home from Afghanistan] I have been home for a few days now. Tricia and the kids met me at the airport around midnight. It was a joyous reunion that was just a little overdue. Amazingly the kids went to school and continued their activities the next day. There was a nice banner on display in the house welcoming me back home. Our trip to home was even more circuitous as time went by. Due to a heavy snowstorm in Baltimore, our transatlantic flight diverted to JFK airport in New York. We had a night in a hotel nearby and completed our journey to Baltimore the next day Shorn -- [OPFOR - Lt Col P - heading home from Afghanistan]
THE MEDIA/SOCIAL MEDIAIf Not Now, When?: Duty and Sacrifice in America's Time of Need Wins 2010 Colby Award -- [PR Newswire] CSI: Miami - Promoting the Good in Iraq -- [A Soldier's Perspective] Jeremy Renner nominated for best actor in 'The Hurt Locker' 'The Hurt Locker' may rewrite script on Iraq war movies -- [NY Daily News] Charlie Brooker - How To Report The News
POLITICSSeeking balance: the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review -- [Foreign Policy Review] Don't ask Don't Tell -- [Greyhawk] The Case Against Gays in the Military -- [Wall Street Journal] Credit Where Credit is Due -- [BlackFive - Grim] Marine Ilario Pantano for Congress! -- [BlackFive] HUMOR / SATIRE'Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,' Says General -- [The Onion]
Iraq, Afghanistan, War, Terrorism, Military, Politics, Media, MilBlogs, dawn patrol Mudville
|
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.
![]()
![]() 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 - 2009 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 ![]() |
I doubt many people care about the plight of Nazis whose personal bigotry makes them manifestly unfit for service.
For example, the Stars and Stripes story didn't even mention what level of disability rating he might receive, or what access to veterans' health care he might have for the rest of his life. It's almost as if they aren't the least bit concerned.
Perhaps they aren't concerned because the story isn't about disability ratings or the future of veterans' health care. Perhaps they have written other stories about those issues. We can't tell whether they have from your post. It's almost as if you aren't the least bit concerned.
Quite the moral conundrum, isn't it? If he's tossed out with no access, will he later kill himself and be featured in a story condemning the military for discharging troops for "psychiatric diagnosis" and them turning their backs on them?
The story I foresee won't explain (beyond "psychiatric") the specific nature of his "problem" - just as most stories of military suicide rates don't get into those sorts of details.
In many cases citing "Iraq veteran" status - or even just "veteran" status is as far as any reporter is willing to go by way of explanation. That's nowhere near far enough.
Two thoughts on this:
1. The military historically has been one of the most effective agents for actually changing the minds of individual bigots - far more effective than any laws or do-gooder organizations have ever been. We had a Civil War and much of the eventual reconciliation came from the descendents of that war's enemies serving together in later wars and in peace. More klansmen go into the service than come out.
2. In the other largely regimented institution in our society -our prison system, there are the Mexican Mafia and the Black Muslims in addition to the Skinhead/Aryan organization. Presumably there is at least some similarity in demographics, so if some minority of servicemen are in one group, another minority are in the others. I'd be willing to bet the SPLC isn't nearly as interested in these other groups. If they are truly concerned about domestic terrorism they should be. If this is just a setup to raise money they won't be.
"More klansmen go into the service than come out." Amen, brother.
"If this is just a setup to raise money..." oh perish the thought. ;)
I really must call BS on the sailor who declares himself nuts because he has to serve with people who have a different skin tone. I enlisted in 1964 and even back then I knew the military was integrated. I knew it before I raised my hand and swore the oath, taking that one step forward. Right up until then I could have turned around and left, of course the draft would have caught up with me unless I figured out some clever excuse.
My point is, even I, at that age being dumber than a pile of hammers, knew the Services were made up of everybody. We went into boot camp black, white, brown, etc. We came out green.
A couple years later the black guy from Detroit was sleeping under a poncho liner with a Georgia redneck with a California Mexican standing guard. Funny though, we'd get back in the base camp and the '60s racial strife was going full bore.
Last I looked the '60s have been over for a long time, except on the left where it's still 1968.
Look, SPLC makes its money (big donations and some small) from claiming that right wing racists are under every bed and planning to take over yesterday. It's resulted in a decent income for them for nearly thirty years.
It has one limitation. The number of racists has been steeply declining for at least fifty years. Half a century ago, much of the country had segregated drinking fountains. If someone publicly argued for them today, he'd be classed as a psychotic. Even the Klan (if you could find some of them) would disavow him as a lunatic.
So SPLC has hitched its economic wagon to fighting something nearly as dead as the smallpox virus. It has to go hunting for something on which to fundraise, and hopes every now and then to find a exhibitionist who doesn't mind looking like a loonie. OK, they found one, whipped out a story, and will probably pull in a grant from someone. No need to get excited.
BTW, the members of the Realsaxon website were just annihilated by guys from Normanskickass.com. The survivors are going to be turned over to angevins.gov, who are real hardasses.
Angevins? No way - those guys are fags!
But thank you, D.T. Hardy. A truly great comment from start to finish.
You too, Peter. (By the way, you might appreciate this story.)
To you and all others here (including Bluejay who rightfully called me out) - you have elevated the level of the discussion, and I appreciate that.
If you really want to amuse and/or depress yourself, read the comments at the Gawker or Raw Story links.
The hatred and contempt for people who serve (unless they're gay, I guess) is palpable.
But they Support the Troops™!
I read a few comments at Boing Boing - some were bad enough.
What's funny (meaning not funny) are those who can't imagine a recruiter or a commander or a First Sergeant/SNCO could be a black woman (or anything other than a white heterosexual male). That all these imaginary ignorant white male bigots in charge allow racists and rapists and various other ne'er do wells to run rampant in the ranks just because they need the numbers.
Kudos to those who call BS in comments there. (Some of whom are then accused of being blind like Germans in 1935...)
To understand the context of this, you have to understand that most leftists believe that neo-nazis, klansmen, christian-identity etc are large groups to which a significant percentage of the American right belong to and a much higher percentage are sympathetic to. When they find a web site with "dozens" i.e. more than 24, kooks merely claiming military service they see this as confirmation of the vast fascist conspiracy that underlies the American right.
In the fantasy world of the left, the neo-nazis are the distillation of the American right. They believe this with iron certainty even though neo-nazis and the like are (1) overtly hostile to capitalism and big business (2) hostile to mainstream christianity and often atheist (3) opposed to free trade (4) opposed the liberation of Iraq (5) hold Israel to blame for all the troubles in the middle-east etc. If you remove the racism from their ideology, you end up with an ideology very close to that of the American far left.
Their need to inflate there own self-righteousness leads them magnify a tiny, highly-marginalized, wacky subculture of racist socialist into this great threat to the republic. They especially like to stigmatize the military whenever possible so they absolutely believe that such people are common in the military. They see an ice cube floating by on the ocean an imagine a iceberg in the depths.
Conversely, they ignore the viscous anti-Americans on the far left. Almost all of the large anti-democracy rallies during the early part of the liberation of Iraq were organized by ANSWER a anti-revisionist i.e. Stalinists communist group. Bill Ayers was easily the equivalent of neo-nazi, complete with terrorism but no one on the left has any problem with him moving in the same political circles as Obama.
The obsession with neo-nazis is the leftist's version of Dungeons and Dragon were they get to imagine themselves heros fighting some monstrous evil instead deluded geeks obsessing over pathetic, powerless, losers on the margins of society.
What ever kills a lonely Saturday night I suppose.
When I reported to my battalion for duty (back in the 70's) they were just wrapping up a homosexual rape case that sent two guys to the stockade. A couple of years later when I was at Brigade HQ we got a Nazi transferred up to us because he was in "imminent" danger in his battalion. He was a great admirer of Hitler, and hunted up (so he said) a semi-clandestine Nazi club/shrine in Germany when we went over for ReForGer. They discharged him because he was distributing pamphlets. One of the other guys at HQ had a disgustingly perverse porn collection. We also had drunks, adulterers, fornicators and rabid Elvis fans.
It takes all kinds, and the military's got every one of 'em.
Are these the same ones who "told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Jenjis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside"?
If so, I want them out of the military and testifying before Congress. This is where our next generation of leadership comes from!
If anybody in the military is actually doing any of that stuff, they probably ought to be disciplined as well.
How many people are in the military again?
In 20 years of Army service, I encountered Nazis once. In 1989, I was a MILCOM's EO Advisor on my third tour in Germany and conducted an informal inquiry on behalf of the Community Commander. A group of three junior soldiers became loosely affiliated with a local group, the latter of which was banned by German law. While they had not participated in the group's activities while on duty or in uniform and therefore were not subject to punishment under the UCMJ, their conduct went to character. One of the three was administratively discharged and the other two were barred from reenlistment. Seldom was there a substantiated case of either Skin Head or pro-Nazi activity in Europe during my two years as an EOA. Beyond that, in was not uncommon for soldiers to purchase there some piece of Nazi memorabilia (which was not prohibited) and I met a few who collected it solely because of historical interest of for future profit. (I myself have a 1939 Reich-pfenning (a penny) with the Nazi cross on it.) Were there and are there bigots in our military? Sure, and they come in every color. Yet if they demonstrate discriminatory behaviors or act in any way contrary to good order and discipline, leaders and commanders then and now root them out and boot them out.
How many members of the nation of Islam are in the military, a group that openly hates whites? Is there any research being done on this? Of corse not! The black man ALWAYS has agood reason to vent against the white man in any fashion he deems neccessary due to the mistreatment that those white men's ancestors befell on his right? Gimme a fucking break...
How many members of the nation of Islam are in the military, a group that openly hates whites? Is there any research being done on this? Of corse not! The black man ALWAYS has agood reason to vent against the white man in any fashion he deems neccessary due to the mistreatment that those white men's ancestors befell on his right? Gimme a fucking break...