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...and yet, the conspiracy theorists still say that it isn't a plane. These are the people that the leaders of one of our major political parties are listening to.
Heartless Libertarian reminds us that other athletes have done Good Things in difficult times.
Hello all. John Noonan here. Steve Schippert asked me to type in for him that it's an honor be be among present company. Once he learns to read and write, I am sure he'll be entering his own posts. (Jarheads...) Here's hoping he soon completes the Hooked on Phonics I sent him last month. At any rate, he's here, so learn to skip around the junk he asks me to enter for him.
I wonder who types for him elsewhere. It concerns me because, when blogging as 'USMC_Vet', he seems to have become the latest Tool o' the Left. Personally, I think he's positioning himself for a run at a Senate seat in Ohio or some other silly state. Next thing you know, he'll be picking fights with the Capital Police and ramming his POV into cement barriers. Greyhawk, please reconsider this contributor.
So Hollywood wants to put their version of Operation Iraqi Freedom (wonder if they even know that term) on the big screen. Let's start with the mad sofa-jumper:
If you thought the Sept. 11 film "United 93" was a little too immediate to bring to theaters, you haven't seen anything yet.Some of Hollywood's biggest names are already working on or signed on to films centered on the Iraq war, reports the New York Daily News.
Tom Cruise has optioned the rights to -- and is considering starring in -- "The Fall of the Warrior King," a drama based on a New York Times story about a disgraced Army commander in Iraq.
The buffet is now open.
Ron Howard has signed on to direct "Last Man Home," about the search for a missing American G.I. in Iraq.Ridley Scott will produce "The Invisible World," about a kidnapped female journalist.
And Kimberly Peirce, who directed the dark "Boys Don't Cry," will helm "Stop-Loss," which reportedly follows a soldier who doesn't want to go back to serve in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the Daily News says, "Crash" screenwriter Paul Haggis has just finished the script for "Death and Dishonor," about a father searching for a son who has gone AWOL on the way home from Iraq. He's also directing a film adaptation of former White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke's controversial book "Against All Enemies." Haggis said creating movies about a war that is still going on poses new challenges for filmmakers.
No thanks, we've got something better to see.
Dear Mr. President:
Once again, it looks like you might need some help in getting the right thing done. This time it seems to be immigration and the border with Mexico.
I see Senator Kerry and some others are worried that the National Guard is over burdened by those other necessary things over in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Fine.
I, as a military retiree, hereby volunteer to be recalled to active service to lend a hand on the US border. I encourage my fellow retirees to do the same. There are a lot of us, and I think we could work up a pretty good duty rotation and help the Guard get some down time. I don't think our ability to stand watch, drive vehicles or communicate have been much affected by retirement. But as we are not talking about a war zone, I'm not sure much else in needed.
I'm pretty sure there are some retired Swift Boat vets who might also volunteer, though I think Senator Kerry let his military affilation lapse short of retirement, so he may not be one of them.
I think there is some law under which this is possible. See here.
And even though, as a gray area retired reservist, I don't draw any retired pay, all I really ask is "3 hots and cot" and a chance to be useful to my country.
As for our fitness to serve, well, Tennyson said it pretty well:
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Very respectfully,
Eagle1
They're out today. I have all the links here. Yes, you can see the 757.
Well said, Dadmanly. Iraq changed after Abu Ghraib, most significantly the avg monthly US death toll up by about 40%.
John of OpFor brings up Duncan Hunter's thoughts for the "Big John" in his post below. There's a private entity already working on it (the disaster relief angle), though they aren't after using carriers. Beauchamp Tower Corporation.
And I see Smash beat me to the 'post' button on Chavez. Still - anybody think there's a Venezuelan or Cuban pilot who'd like to participate in a Live-Fire demo with a Carrier Air Group?
Of course, mebbe I'm just being bloody-minded on that live-fire thing.
Hugo Chavez is considering the sale of his 21 F-16s to Iran. Or maybe Cuba, Russia, or China.
Why? Because we won't sell him any upgrades or spare parts.
That's where Rep. John Hunter wants to send the aging carrier USS John F. Kennedy, as -get this- a way of shaming our allies into taking the NATO alliance seriously. Rep. Hunter commented:
"Typically the United States brings the T-bone steaks and some of our allies bring the plastic forks. The John F. Kennedy might be a center for ... inspiring our allies to do more with respect to defense."
Well yeah, I'll buy that. Sans the Brits of course. And those dudes are already working on their own supercarriers, with the Frenchies showing interest.
So who in Europe could afford the thing? Or staff it? Big John has a crew of several thousand...
The other idea floated (har) was to give her to the coast guard as a "floating disaster relief base."
I smell bacon!
Well there's Kerry's little twirl on the current immigration proposal... Once again, criticism but no plan... Man of words... man of inaction...
Here's an immigration reform site that grades every Congressman and Senator -- recently and historically -- on various aspects of immigration reform based on voting records... Kind of interesting... McCain's grade is hardly shocking given his moveable position on Immigration... Kerry's grade is somewhat surprising (but I still wouldn't vote for him) This site allows you to check the report cards of elected officials -- and has a link to send free faxes... I note that some of the information is a little out of date... but it's still interesting... Americans for Better Immigration
Buck here, sounding off. My unit recently moved up to Tal Afar from Mosul, but don't believe the latest MSM hype about the city falling back into chaos -- there isn't a darn thing going on up here. It's practically a ghost town. The battle damage from the 3rd ACR cleaning this place out is still plainly visible, but the IA and IP's have got the streets almost completely locked down with checkpoints everywhere you look. It looks like it'll take quite some time to get Tal Afar back to normal, but then again, I never saw it before so who knows what "normal" exactly is for this place. It's obviously never been very developed, but there are some nice, almost palacial homes.
I'll check back in when I can. Sixty days and counting!
Soldiers' Angel Celebrates 101st Birthday Filling Care Packages for Soldiers
Follow-up to Smash's post.
Blackfive and Greyhawk picked up this remarkable post by Armed Liberal over at Winds of Change. I’m glad they did. I’ve been meaning to get to this all day.
I share Blackfive’s opinion of Karpinski and how she dealt with what was surely a bad situation made worse by extreme failures of leadership. (Hers, among others.) I remember well when news of AG broke, and to say reports infuriated me would be grand understatement.
...to the President's immigration speech:
“This is a moment when the far right is horribly wrong and leadership is required to set a course for common sense. We need a comprehensive answer to immigration that includes tightening border security, but putting another burden on the backs of the National Guard troops who are serving their second tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t the right answer. The National Guard which has borne the burden of a broken policy in Iraq shouldn’t have to bear the burden of an incomplete immigration policy. The right answer is to listen to the 9/11 Commission and put the border patrol agents we need right there on the border. It won’t satisfy the right wing, but it’s the right policy.
You can read a chapter from the book here. This one is the story of Rafael Peralta, and it resonates today.
Rafael Peralta was not born in America, but he died defending her.Read it all.It’s the stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor,” said Corporal Rob Rogers, one of Peralta’s platoon mates.i
A Mexican immigrant, Peralta joined the Marines the day he received his green card. His love for America was no secret; it showed in everything he did.
Sergeant Peralta’s younger sister, Karen, 13, was left to confront life without a father and now older brother. She worried that his life and legacy would soon be forgotten: “I know that right now, people are really nice and everything. When it’s going to be like, one year, or two years, they are going to forget about him….Right now they are giving medals to my mom for everything. But I know that when it comes to later on, they are going to forget him, they’re gonna forget about him.”Not here they won't.
Just set up an account for Buck Sargent. That makes three bloggers here who are in Iraq, Trevor and Doc being the other two.
Dang - our first "security leak". Now that John has revealed the existence of the email, we'll just publish it in full.
(Okay, actually I've redacted the part about using our extraordinary wiretap privileges to get all the best stories faster, but the rest is just as written.)
Looks like I've attracted the attention of whole bunches of army.mil, pentagon.mil, and senate.gov lookers this morning on my post on how some wounded soldiers have been treated upon their return to their units... uh-oh...
ARMED LIBERAL has lunch with BGEN COL (ret) Janet Karpinski, and comes away unimpressed.
Snerk. In our Super-Sekrit email, we just got spanked by Mrs. G. for being slugs and ignorant rubes. Guilty!
Best part - she called Lex....
Wait for it...
Soldier.
Life is good.
Donovan isn't kidding, the Air Force plans to cut some 40,000 people from the ranks. Some of the jobs, like public affairs, are looking at a meager 20% retention for officers who were commissioned in 2002 and 2003. That means if you're a PAO, and an LT, you better start looking for that Fox News job right quick.
Luckily for me, I'm in a "safe" field. God Bless the operational Air Force!
Since it seems explosion pictures are desirable, I wanted to put one up - but the darn thing was a dud...
Damn, what a collection of bloggers....but who let the Navy in?
Thanks to the Greyhawks for letting this non-blogger play a little. Should be a lot of fun. Thanks to all of you guys for keeping me in the loop over the years. Some tremendous writers out there...you too Smash.
After a few minutes of reflection, I came up with a couple of thoughts. I put 'em here for what it is worth.
Hey, finally onboard and it looks like I missed all the initial fun.
First things first. SMASH, trust me: you don't want to know what I am wearing right now.
Second: In honor of The Corner format.....I want to be the first to bring up Battlestar Galactica. Why? Well, for years my "irregular heart beat got me knocked out of flight school and they sent me home" father wonders why I refuse to watch JAG. He asks me, in response to my harumph, what pray tell can he watch on TV that reflects what it is like in the Navy. After mild reflection, I stated, to my disbelief more than his, that he should "Watch Battlestar Galactica (TNS), stir in some Rescue Me - and balance with a watching of Gunner Palace." He still likes JAG. Hopefully this won't get me kicked out on the first day. Oh, in case you are wondering SMASH - sorry to let you down - but it is PT gear.
What the heck, since Noonan is writing about Army stuff, Dusty and I might as well write about Air Force stuff. At least Dusty was an A10 jock. Our take of the recent State of the Air Force memo is up at Castle Argghhh!.
One of the smart guys in the Navy's Strategic Studies Group, Jeff Cares, got out and started Alidade Incorporated. He's been thinking Big Thoughts for a while, and might just have an idea worth shaking up people: a critique of Network-Centric Warfare.
A critique is not a bad idea. I've long been unable to understand half of what I hear from most of the acolytes of Net Centric, and my attempts to read what Admiral Cebrowski was on about was like reading Wonkese in the original--highly unsatisfying and frustrating. Many times "net centric" "effects based" "FORCENet" devolves into handwaving that a guy like me can't translate into "break things and kill people".
Haven't read the book yet, but Alidade will be holding too-rich-for-my-budget seminars in Norfolk and D.C. to propagate the new ideas. For cheapskates like me, there's a discussion list for free.
Might be worth a look, might not.
The American Legion steps into the battle to save the cross at Mount Soledad.
The commander of the American Legion has joined those calling for President Bush to take action to save the Mount Soledad cross veterans memorial in Southern California, which a federal judge has ordered removed.In a letter to the president, National Commander Thomas L. Bock wrote, "We are particularly concerned in this case that a dangerous precedent could be set that would endanger veterans memorials across America, perhaps even the 9,000 crosses that mark the final resting places of our World War II heroes at Normandy Beach."
Seeing Major John report aboard reminded me of my story about the Illinois National Guard. So there I was, in a hotel bar in Warsaw, Poland. I was there attending a manning conference for the Polish-led Multi-National Division in Iraq as a CENTCOM REMF, and I had gotten an action item that afternoon to find out if the Illinois National Guard was going to be providing more admin support troops for the upcoming rotation. (The ILNG and the Polish Army had a pre-existing "State Partnership" relationship.) As I'm complaining about my tasker, some Army officers come into the bar and sit down. They weren't attending our conference, so we went over to check 'em out. One of them turned out to be the Adjutent General of the Illinois NG, who was in Poland in support of the aforementioned "State Partnership". Easiest action item I ever had.
If you are interested in what's happening in Iraq from a slightly more positive perspective, then you may be interested in this. . .
Multi-National Force - Iraq has developed an HTML weekly newsletter that is likely of interest to a large portion of the audience here.
You can see this week's edition here. If you like what you see, please sign up to get a new edition in your in-box every Monday.
We are also looking for constructive feedback.
My piece on the new CROWS simulator is over at Defense Tech.
How does the Posse Comitatus Act affect President Bush's plan to deploy up to 6,000 Guard troops to the border?
Sec. 1385. - Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus
- Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
It would appear to prohibit the use of the military (including the Guard) in the enforcement of our immigration laws without explicit authorization by Congress. Perhaps that's why Bush said, "Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities; that duty will be done by the Border Patrol."
Which brings up an important question: What, exactly, will these 6,000 troops be doing?
Bush says they will be employed in "operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building patrol roads, and providing training." But the actual enforcement will be left to the still-overtaxed Border Patrol.
So, if these Guard units run across any illegal aliens attempting to cross the border, all they can do is call the nearest Border Patrol station -- and if no Border Patrol agents are available, they're just specatators?
May marks the month we recognize the contributions of Asian/Pacific Islanders to the defense of America through their service in the military.
"Throughout our history, Asian/Pacific Americans have been patriots, answering the call to defend our Nation and to protect the blessings of liberty and democracy. Today, in the war on terror, Asian/Pacific Americans serve proudly as they carry on our Nation's noble tradition of advancing the cause of freedom around the world. We are grateful for the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and those who love and support them as we fight to protect our homeland and make the world safe for democracy."-From the Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Proclamation By President George W. Bush-
Take the 100th Infantry Battalion, Go For Broke, a Hawaii National Guard unit that witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor, but because the ranks were made up of mostly Japanese-Americans, were initially disarmed and not allowed to defend America.
Three days after the attack, their rifles were taken away and they were guarded at gunpoint even when they went to the latrine. Why? Their parents came from the country that attacked America. They were Nisei - American-born sons of Japanese immigrants. The next day the men were given back their rifles and resumed their duties, but the atmosphere of fear, hatred and suspicion continued.
But the patriotic spirit of the young Japanese-American (Nisei) soldiers pervailed and the 100th Infantry Battalion was attached to the 442nd Combat Infantry Group and sent to Europe in 1943. The rest as they say, is history.
"Didn't they teach you about professional appearance during your four years at the Virginia Institute for Wayward Boys?"
In other news, I just got off the phone with Michael Yon. I'm kicking myself, forgot to get the skinny on this Deuce Four movie we keep hearing rumblings about.
And ha @ Andi.
I guess this means the Guard is here. Just remember, nothing I say is official Guard (Illinois or otherwise) policy or position - just my own gums flapping (or would it be fingers waggling?).
...some order will be established, no doubt.
That said, since we're all being so jejune this evening...
Reporting for CQ Duty as ordered. I think that my friends of the seagoing service refer to it as "having the watch." None the less, I'm here and in full dress mess. I'm also pecking this out on my laptop sitting atop a stack of cardboard boxes, stealing service from a kindly neighbor via my WiFi bus card, wondering which spot on the floor I'll throw my fart sack tonight.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm in the middle of a PCS move, but didn't want the Navy guys to monopolize our opening ceremony so...
It's opening day here. Full dress uniforms are prescribed. I'm wearing my choker whites right now.
Noonan: this means no tennis shoes, torn jeans, or untucked shirts. Didn't they teach you about professional appearance during your four years at the Virginia Institute for Wayward Boys?
John Noonan - I hardly think SMASH "enforced" the dress code. Set a standard? Maybe. Looked more respectable than some? Possibly. But enforced? Nope. Now, if you want to talk fashion, you're speaking my language, but I doubt the readers of this blog are very interested. I do, however, have a few words to say about "milfashion." It's simply not for everyone.
While we're on the subject, I still haven't warmed up to the universal Beret policy. Not that I hold a grudge or anything......
John Donovan - thanks for bringing in the big guns, I was sinking in the Naval images. The Army needs to establish its presence in these parts. Hook and Matt, we could use your help.
And folks, I'm not a one-hit wonder (Cindy Sheehan). It's just that Sheehan has been in my backyard recently, and it takes a while to get her out of your system when she's been up close and personal.
...or hangover?
Is that why these guys here fire a noonday gun?
Kidding aside, I'm honored to be sharing pixels with folks like Jonah's Military Guys. Man, I wandered into a high class joint here...wonder how long my paycheck will last at this bar.
Oil tanker as mine sweeper? Operation Earnest Will, anyone? I do have a nice poster from my old Naval Control of Shipping days of the Bridgeton leading her 'escorts."
An old post sort of on topic here.
Chap is right, Smash is right. Bubblehead is right. Sea lanes. Sea lanes. Sea lanes. And the purpose of the Navy:
(quoted here)
A navy's purposes deal with the movement and delivery of goods and services at sea; in contrast, an army's purpose is to purchase and possess real estate. Thus a navy is in the links business, while the army is in the nodes business. Seen that way, a navy performs one or more of four functions and no others:
At sea, it (1) assures that our own goods and services are safe, and (2) that an enemy's are not. From the sea, it (3) guarantees safe delivery of goods and services ashore, and (4) prevents delivery ashore by an enemy navy.
You know, mine warfare is always underappreciated until you need it.
Checking in... nice job here, to the Greyhawks (and their invited guests!)
Fingle-danged gout. Okay, enough whining.
I see Smash has the dress code (snerk) and Matt will probably be bringing in the Brown Beverages.
So, Greyhawk - aside from the awesome setup - d'you think you can manage this group of miscreants any better than the chat room at the Conference?
Especially since many of the Usual Suspects were part of your problem there?
Hmmmm. There are *waaaay* too many sailors in here. Guess someone doesn't have much work to do. I know what this place needs.
Guns.
Like this Maxim in the Arsenal of Argghhh!.
And, this:
Just marking my territory, 'Hawk. I promise not to be a bandwidth hog if the Navy behaves.
I expect to be a bandwidth hog.
Hi Troops, honored to be joining the team. Nice look too!
So will SMASH be enforcing the dress code like he did at the milblogging conference?
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