Re: "Chest Candy"

[Eagle1]

For the visual learners among us, the NECC badge looks like this:

And, as a fomer MIUWU guy (like Smash), I like the idea of some good folks getting a little recognition for doing a challenging job.

You Don't Say...

[Andi]

Wonder what Plan B might look like?

Intel

[Greyhawk]

An enlightening interview:

Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”

“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.

That's from an interview with Silvestre Reyes, incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Here's a question his interviewer asked only of readers:

It’s been five years since these Muslim extremists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center.

Is it too much to ask that our intelligence overseers know who they are?

And here's Congressman Reyes' opinion on troop levels in Iraq:

Yet Reyes says he favors sending more troops there.

“If it’s going to target the militias and eliminate them, I think that’s a worthwhile investment,” he said.

For the record, I believe this is illustrative of one source (unfortunately a mere fraction) of frustration General Chiarelli expressed regarding the non-military commitment to Iraq. As the interviewer points out, Reyes is hardly alone in his world.

But lest you despair, here's a reassuring quote from his home page:

He remains concerned about the potential threats to our national security and continues to push our Intelligence Community to develop more human intelligence, to procure more advanced technology, and to share more information so as to prevent tragedies like the terrorist attacks of September 11th from happening again.

Way up north by the ice bound ocean...

[Eagle1]

An explorer, deliverer of humanitarian aid, law enforcer and -for a little longer- the oldest ship in the U. S. Coast Guard.

More here

Re: "Marine"

[Greyhawk]

I think you put too much emphasis on whether or not he's really a Marine. Don't forget Jonathan Hutto - who like Philip Martin joined the military after the invasion of Iraq. ("Philip Martin has been a Marine for 2 years"). Hutto is an obvious anti-war "implant" in the ranks, but active duty nonetheless.

Martin, on the other hand, may be exactly what he claims he is - someone who was completely and totally gullible enough to be duped into joining the Marines during an actual war, the sort of person who will "fall for anything". Now he's parroting extremist Lefty talking points about Bushitler.

A lot of congressional leaders (and other Americans) are insisting they were completely and totally duped by pre-war claims of WMDs in Iraq. I'm always curious as to why these self-professed "easy marks" are considered worth listening to when they announce their latest epiphanies.

A "Marine" Against The War

[Bubblehead]

I put "Marine" in quotes not because people on active duty don't have the right to have personal opinions, but because I'm not sure this guy is who he says he is:

The moonbatty anti-war sites are a-twitter today with an essay written by one Philip Martin, who claims to be an active duty Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms. The essay itself is fairly juvenile, filled with a bunch of simplistic leftist conclusions that one normally weans themselves of during freshman year bull sessions (high school, not college). For example, he seems to be claiming that nationalism in America is a recent phenomenon. Later on, he says things about President Bush that, if said by an officer, would clearly be in violation of Article 88 -- but he doesn't seem to be claiming to be an officer. It's hard to tell when he really wrote the essay -- he mentioned the leaked Marine intel report from September, so it had to be after that. He also says that on the day he wrote the essay, he had attended a memorial service for a Marine killed in April. Do Marines really wait that long to hold memorials? He says he's deploying again in April -- are there any major Marine units scheduled to deploy then?

Anyway, if there's any group that could determine if this guy is really who he says he is, or if he's just someone claiming to be an active duty Marine, the mil-bloggers would be the ones to do it.

Update: From a reader, here's a story on the OP-29 website that may be the memorial service Martin was talking about; it was held Dec 5th..

Chest Candy for the Naval Infantry

[Capt B]

December 7, 2006: The U.S. Navy will now issue a pin for enlisted sailors serving with the "Naval Expeditionary Combat Command" (NECC). Several other specialties have similar pins. Submariners wear a dolphin, aviators wear wings. The NECC sailors are being trained for ground combat, and this will let people know who they are. It's good for morale.