 |
|
 |
| [-] |
| [−] |
| [−] |
| [−] |
| [−] |
Prev | List | Random | Next |
This is not satire...
NORAD, the section of the Pentagon that monitors and assesses U.S. airspace for risks of attack, has decided to delete references to American Indians in titles of readiness exercises by October.Amalgam Fencing Brave? Does this make sense in Japanese? In which order would you replace the the words?The decision does not apply to the rest of the military.
In July, Adm. Timothy Keating, head of Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, sent a memo to the Pentagon that said exercises such as "Amalgam Fencing Brave" will, as of October 1, be referred to as "Amalgam Fencing Dart." As another example: The exercise "Amalgam Warrior" will be called "Amalgam Phantom."
<...>
A spokesman for NORAD told CNN there were no complaints that led NORAD to decide on the name changes. The agency's intent, he said, is to avoid using names that might offend American Indians.
When Air Force uniform officials were first briefed on new utility boots that airmen are now testing, a question came to their minds: Would religious groups be offended by boots made of pigskin?The story does not mention whether pork products are used in the manufacture of smart bombs.The answer ? ?yes? for some Muslims ? could be a factor in what boot the Air Force ultimately chooses.
The use of pigskin unless for medical reasons is ?clearly prohibited? for Muslims and is only made lawful when its use is a dire necessity, wrote Qaseem Ali Uqdah, the Muslim chaplains? senior ecclesiastical endorser, in a July 6 letter to an Air Force chaplain.
Uqdah, responding to an Air Force request for his input, cited the Koran verse, ??He has only forbidden you dead meat, and blood, and the flesh of swine and any [food] over which the name of other than Allah has been invoked.?
Uqdah wrote, ?It is forbidden for a Muslim to wear pigskin because the impurity of a pig?s skin is not removed even by tanning their skins, as pigs are impure in themselves. So the issue here is not confined to just eating it ??
The concern from some involves not only the idea of Muslim airmen being asked to wear the boot, but the international implications of Americans wearing them in Muslim countries.
Mahmoud El-Yousseph, a Muslim and active member of the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military, said he ?freaked out? when he learned the boots were being tested.
?It is almost like an ?in-your-face? attitude,? said El-Yousseph, a Palestinian-born U.S. citizen who recently retired from the Ohio National Guard as a technical sergeant (E6). ?Most of our troops are stationed in Muslim nations. You can?t win people?s minds and hearts in the Muslim world if you go there wearing uniforms made of pigs.?
<...>
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, America?s largest Islamic civil liberties group, had a similar recommendation for the Air Force.Spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed said airmen wearing pigskin would be an offense to Muslim sensitivities and could give extremists further ammunition to say, ?The West doesn?t respect Islam.?
Navy:
The U.S. military plans to ease conditions for some detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba ? housing them in a renovated section with televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean, the detention center?s commanding officer said in court papers.However, seems not everyone has gotten the memo. The Army (from the NORAD story above):
One Army official said he's heard no talk of changing the name of the Army's Apache, Black Hawk or Kiowa helicopters, all of which are named after Indian tribes or leaders.Marines (from the boot story above):
The pigskin boot has been in the Marine Corps inventory as an optional item for about a year, though that boot could be replaced. Although there are no specific regulations for wearing the boot, commanders can make special uniform considerations for religious preferences, according to a Marine Corps spokesman.Obviously they haven't experienced enough hours of PowerPoint "Sensitivity Training"...Asked for comments from Marines wearing these boots in Iraq, Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a Multi-National Forces-West spokesman at Camp Fallujah, wrote: ?There is not one person I have spoken with who knows what their boots are made of. I don?t have any idea what mine are made of. This is not an issue or something one considers.?
...yet.
Update: This, however, is satire (in it's finest form).
