COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, November 09, 2009

"Muslim first and American second."



All the sensitivity training, all the political correctness indoctrination, all the moral equivalency, marine guards wearing gloves to hand the Quran to murderers at Guantanamo, and what do we have? We have US military officers, fearful for their careers and derelict in their duties to report an obvious threat to US security. If American soldiers are dying for political correctness on a US Army post, what is happening to them in the shit holes of Iraq and Afghanistan?

And what about the tens of millions of American children being indoctrinated by the nonsense that "diversity is our strength" mantra? Every time I hear someone say it, I ask them to prove it. Still waiting.

Spartan warriors understood the concept of military cohesion 2500 years ago. It is such a basic concept, logical and proven and yet on Sunday, I heard Gen. George W. Casey Jr, US Army Chief of Staff, state that ""diversity is our strength."

What are we doing fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iran if we are led by such men who do not have the sense to protect American civilians in our own country? Getting killed for what?


Fire this second rate thinker.


______________________________


Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

By Nick Allen in Fort Hood Telegraph
Published: 5:00PM GMT 08 Nov 2009

He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.

It was the latest in a series of "red flags" about his state of mind that have emerged since the massacre at Fort Hood, America's largest military installation, on Thursday.

Hasan, armed with two handguns including a semi-automatic pistol, walked into a processing centre for soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he killed 13 and injured more than 30.

Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second."

One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.

Another, Dr Val Finnell, who took a course with him in 2007 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, did complain about Hasan's "anti-American rants." He said: "The system is not doing what it's supposed to do. He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out. I really questioned his loyalty."

Selena Coppa, an activist for Iraq Veterans Against the War, said: "This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was."

One of Hasan's neighbours described how on the day of the massacre, about 9am, he gave her a Koran and told her: "I'm going to do good work for God" before leaving for the base.

A civilian police officer who shot him, bringing the rampage to an end, said Hasan appeared "calm" during the massacre, hiding behind a telephone pole and shooting fellow soldiers in the back as they tried to get away.

"He was firing at people as they were trying to run and hide, said Sgt Mark Todd. "Then he turned and fired a couple of rounds at me. I didn't hear him say a word, he just turned and fired."

Hasan flinched after he was shot and slid down against the pole still clutching his gun, which had a laser sight on it. The officer kicked away the weapon and handcuffed him.

He said: "The guy was breathing, his eyes were blinking. I could tell that he was fading out and he didn't say anything. He was just kind of blinking."

Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security, said there had been "strong warning signs" that Hasan was an "Islamist extremist".

The committee would ask "whether the Army missed warning signs that should have led them to essentially discharge him, he said. He added: "The US Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone."

But General George Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff, said it was "speculation" that military authorities failed to pick up on warning signs. "I don't want to say that we missed it," he said.

Asked if military authorities had missed warning signs Gen Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff, added: "We have to go back and look at ourselves ,and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we doing the right things? We will learn from this.
"It's too early to draw conclusions but we will ask ourselves the hard questions about what we are doing and the changes we should make as a result of this."

112 comments:

  1. Gen Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff should have been fired after the debacle he led in Iraq, instead he was promoted.

    The "Peter Principle" is alive and well, in the US military.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DR, you wrote that comment before I edited the beginning of the post. You read my mind. Reread the beginning.

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  3. From an African perspective ...

    But now the Chinese are coming. Since 1995, when President Jiang Zemin ordered them to "Go abroad!", Chinese firms have been pouring investments into oil and other raw materials in Africa in order to fuel their own country's roaring economy. In the last five years alone, Chinese direct investment in Africa soared from 491 million dollars in 2003 to 7.8 billion dollars in 2008. Total trade between China and Africa surpassed 100 billion dollars in 2008, a tenfold increase in eight years. The Chinese dragons have also built schools, hospitals and clinics to fight malaria and have offered scholarships for Africans to study in China.

    However, envious Western journalists, academics and politicians are pouring sand into the Sino-African garri by alleging that the Chinese assist repressive African regimes in return for lucrative business deals and that they do not demand good governance or respect for human rights before they jump into bed with an African regime.

    Very good. Who is complaining about Africa's romance with the Chinese? Who was it in the 1960s who invented the word realpolitik? China is projected to be the next superpower, with an economy projected to overtake Germany's this year, overtake Japan's in a few years' time and overtake the US' Goliath economy anytime between 2035 and 2040. We Africans want to grab the short Chinese coat-tails and ride on it into what is expected to be the Chinese Century.

    All those people who are saying that the Chinese are a dangerous partner to Africa, what did they themselves do when they lorded it over this continent in the last 1,000 years? Beginning with the Romans; when Alexander the Great came charging into Egypt, all the books that the Greeks and Romans later wrote, allegedly plagiarised from looted Egyptian libraries, did they pay for the copyright?

    All the Arabs who brought mirrors and kaftans to African chiefs and marched away across the Sahara with long columns of slaves, were they better than the Chinese? The Portuguese too should shut their mouths in this matter. Since they came to the African coast 600 years ago and began carting away our palm oil and then their ace sailors piloted the ships in which 10 million West Africans were shipped away to slavery in the Americas, which human rights did they respect?

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  4. As for Ms Napolitano, doug, she was a Federal when she moved to AZ, she was a Federal when she left.

    Fancy that.

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  5. That the author of that African piece compares the current leaders favorably with their slave trading predecessors, is, I'm sure, unintended.

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  6. Janet's message:

    "We object to, and do not believe, that anti-Muslim sentiment should emanate from this,” she said. “This was an individual who does not represent the Muslim faith.”

    Describing the killings as “a terrible tragedy”, Ms Napolitano said a civil rights and civil liberties directorate in her department aimed to “prevent everybody being painted with a broad brush”.

    “That work is ongoing and is part and parcel of how we view security,” she said. “One of the things we’ll do is make sure that we’re reaching out to the state and local authorities within the US, because they often have better outreach to members of the Muslim community than we do.” Ms Napolitano was speaking to female students at Zayed University, and took part in a private question-and-answer session with them.
    "
    ---
    He screamed ali akbar because he's a Southern Baptist.

    ReplyDelete
  7. " overtake the US' Goliath economy anytime between 2035 and 2040. "
    ---
    I wonder if that projection was made before we entered our present no-growth (except government) condition?

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security, said there had been "strong warning signs" that Hasan was an "Islamist extremist".

    The committee would ask "whether the Army missed warning signs that should have led them to essentially discharge him, he said. He added: "The US Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone.
    "
    ---
    Joe's gotta go.
    Obviously behind the time.
    Obsolete interpretations of reality.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post! I really, really like your blog!!
    COMMON CENTS
    http://www.commmoncts.blogspot.com

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  10. Corrolary to Falstaff:

    Then, Fire all the Generals.

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  11. Walks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck?

    It's a Jihadist...

    case closed...

    Send canned SPAM to the FT Hood Shooter...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've watched the Mother Goose link 5 times and it still makes me laugh.

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  13. Gee. People were up early today to bash the United States Army. Or the United States military altogether.

    What we need is for the Agency to do something egregious or for State to go out of its way to be stupid.

    What we need is for the usual suspects to provide a diversion for the good guys, the world's one-armed paper hanger. (Our motto: Chewing that shit sandwich since 1784.)

    You'd think someone would have budgeted for that. An oversight.

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  14. I am not bashing the whole army. The present Army Chief of Staff says that the strength of the US Army is in their diversity. For the best part of three thousand years all military units strove for cohesion. He is a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am not bashing the whole army. The present Army Chief of Staff says that the strength of the US Army is in their diversity. For the best part of three thousand years all military units strove for cohesion. He is a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I haven't read where anyone was knocking the U.S. Military. I'm just saying that the higher the rank, the stupider. They prove me right, time after time.

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  17. Just be happy I'm calling them "Stupid." You would Really hate the alternative.

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  18. I am not bashing the whole army. The present Army Chief of Staff says that the strength of the US Army is in their diversity. For the best part of three thousand years all military units strove for cohesion. He is a problem.

    Mon Nov 09, 11:54:00 AM EST

    Casey's alright. He's doing what we're given to do in these cases, which is to attempt, however brilliantly or not, to calm the howler monkeys (wonderful phrase for which I cannot take credit). It's in the job description.

    In truth this is precisely the kind of shitstorm that promotes outlandish CYA in the form of stoopid policy - while every asshole with an agenda (unnamed don't-really-know-jack-shit source)is`being contacted. Or not even bothering to wait for the phone call.

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  19. Everyone is jumping to conclusions here. President Obama is right, we must stand back and wait for the evidence, and certainly not blame a whole group for one man's actions.


    4. Walt:


    When you jump to a conclusion
    It can lead to much confusion
    And that is something we don’t want to see
    Just because a man is saying
    That to Allah he is praying
    Doesn’t mean he’s not the same as you and me
    Just because he calls Al Qaeda
    Doesn’t mean that he would hide a
    Gun beneath his coat and shoot a man or two
    And though many heard him crying
    There are Muslim babies dying
    And he blamed the deaths of all on me and you
    Take the mosque that he attended
    He would surely be offended
    If we thought what he was told there was insane
    Even though his Imam praised the
    Men who gave their lives and razed the
    Buildings in New York by Boeing aeroplane
    And of course then we must never
    Think a Muslim man could sever
    Heads of innocents and those who mean no harm
    For he is a man most peaceful
    Who insists that we must cease all
    Taking acts and words of Muslims with alarm
    We must never think that single
    Muslim men with whom we mingle
    Are reflections of their countrymen at large
    No the peaceful Muslim masses
    Want to kill our Yankee asses
    And put their crazy Imams all in charge
    We should not jump to conclusion
    That they’re playing with nuke fusion
    For the purpose of destroying us this time
    We must honor that their version
    Of the truth is that the Persian
    Rule of all us infidels will be sublime

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  20. For the Africans' sakes, I hope the Chinese treat them better than they have treated the Tibetans.

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  21. This country wants us to eat turds to make sure it is indeed shit.

    Bread no longer provided for a sandwich, but here we are.

    Our Strength is our Diversity,
    Amen.

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  22. I don't think the Army itself can be blamed for this, though there were major breakdowns. There were signs about this guy all over the landscape. But the Army didn't start this PC stuff, it's been shoved on them by the civilians, especially the democrats, and the courts, and the lawyers....

    Left to themselves I imagine this guy would have been gone long ago.

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  23. Let's spend a year deciding if Hasan was a terrorist or not, Trish.
    OK?
    Was he, or was he not, a Jihadi,
    That is the question.
    Life is so complex.
    When "man" has no brain.

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  24. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  25. Oh, let it all hang out, rufus.

    "Everyone at the Pentagon oughta be strung up...blah...blah...blah..."

    There are guys who tie bed sheets together to get out of that place. Guys who would sell their own mothers to ride around bumfuck nowhere in their manjams for the ninth time just to escape DC.

    There are also those who, continuing to make successful careers of avoiding all such things, know nothing but the halls of the Mothership.

    But I digress.

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  26. "Left to themselves I imagine this guy would have been gone long ago."
    ---
    If they had any balls, he'd be gone, anyway.
    Obviously,
    They Don't.
    PBUPC

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  27. Casey is a disgrace, Trish, admit it.

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  28. ALL Armies are incompetent above "Company" level, Bob. It's the nature of the beast.

    That muzzie motherfucker was charged with "counseling" our returning troops. Instead, he spent his days haranguing them about the injustice of their mission.

    The Army knew this. They didn't fire him. They sent him down to Fort Hood where he could destroy the mental health of our returning troops down there. This is NOT unusual behavior. This is, absolutely, Normal behavior for ANY Army.

    The deal at Walter Reed was NOT Atypical. It was the Norm.

    Come to find out the Marine Corps has been poisoning its troops at Camp Lejeune with contaminated drinking water ever since I was there. They have known about it, and done Nothing about it.

    This is TYPICAL behavior for any army. For ALL armies.

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  29. "Don't Damage the
    (weapons filled)
    minaret,
    sacrifice a few Marines lives, instead.
    My Ass.
    "

    ReplyDelete
  30. "My Ass" was me,
    not the quote.

    ReplyDelete
  31. CYA, Today.
    ...and forever.
    Go Army!

    ReplyDelete
  32. "Let's spend a year deciding if Hasan was a terrorist or not, Trish."

    You got better things to do?

    Christ almighty, Doug, this has just given you another opportunity to exercise your chronic apoplexy.


    Not me.

    I just finished up an apoplectic year and I'm on hiatus (save the occasional outburst).

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  33. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  34. The fucking plan was NOT to abolish the Iraqi Army.
    Too easy,
    too pragmatic,
    not conducive to the long war.
    Kick out Garner,
    Fire Rummy,
    Run up the score.

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  35. Back in WWII days,
    Angels on pins was not considered worthy of the effort.
    ...back in the days.

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  36. Call it chronic apoplexy,
    I call the PC Army
    INSANE.
    ...and destructive to the Union.

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  37. Is it Terrorism, or is it not,
    that is the question.
    ...for the new Castrati.

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  38. My plan for winning in Afghanistan:

    Lock Fifty O-2's, and twenty five each, E-4's, and E-5's in a room, and tell them that as soon as "Their" Strategy wins the war they can go home.

    They'd be home in a year.

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  39. Still worshipping at that altar, Doug?





    Look, you wanna throw a fit today, go right ahead. You're going to have to find another partner to your tantrum.

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  40. You're gonna have to find another partner to your PC Bullshit.

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  41. Casey: " could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.”

    General George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, appeared on "Meet the Press'" on Sunday.

    “I’ve asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that,” General Casey said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union. “It would be a shame — as great a tragedy as this was — it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well.”


    Under the circumstances, that is so tone deaf.

    At the least, we need somebody that can mince words better than that.

    At the least, he might say, we are putting into place procedures to weed out potential problems in the future.

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  42. I here I thought the Chihuahua had been mercifully put down.





    Honestly, Doug. Fuck off already. Just. Fuck. Off.

    ReplyDelete
  43. You see, doug, you're just not "serious".

    Not to be taken "seriously", so just, as the Den mother says, fuck off.

    The Commanding General is not responsible for the conduct of the War. Though he had the budget and manpower at his command.
    We have to blame State, not the Federal Government or any individual.

    Those Federal agencies, they're all separate entities, you know.

    At least to any die-in-the-wool, second generation, Federal Socialist.

    Casey did a piss poor job in Iraq and should have been fired for it.
    Since he did not resign in protest of the political conditions he was working with.

    With the command authority comes command responsibility, Generals love the authority but do shun responsibility.
    As most Socialists do.

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  44. I saw one report/rumor that Hasan was seen with another man in white robes sometime/day previous to the attack.

    Also saw a statement that white is the color of mourning in islam. If that's true, it's news to me. Anyway he dressed up in white for some reason.

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  45. Casey: " could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.”

    I wonder if this "some" would be the "some" that are obvious screws like Hasan.

    If they are the "some" he is talking about, then I hope they run the fuckers out with extreme prejudice.

    I'm fine with the muslim soldiers who are good Americans. Glad they are on the team.

    It's the Koran over Constitution ones that don't cut it. In the military.

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  46. It's the Koran over Constitution ones that don't cut it. In the military.

    Or in civil society. And since the mosque is the institution, the place par excellence, where this damned doctrine is preached, the conclusion should be.....close the mosques.

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  47. Shooter Tied To Mosque of 9/11 Hijackers

    Everything is always tied back to some mosque or other.

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  48. Yesterday's news...

    Hasan Linked to Sept. 11 Hijackers.

    Sunday, November 8, 2009 1:19 PM

    Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 29 others at Fort Hood, worshipped at the same mosque as two of the 9/11 terrorists.

    According to the London Sunday Telegraph, Hasan attended services at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Va., in 2001 at the same time as Sept. 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour. Funeral services for Hasan's mother also was held at that mosque.

    The FBI wants to interrogate Hasan to see if he met or knew al-Hamzi or Hanjour, reports the Telegraph.

    The imam at the mosque at the time Hasan attended services there was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been described as a supporter of al-Qaida. A third 9/11 hijacker attended al-Awlaki's lectures in California.

    Walt: Take the mosque that he attended
    He would surely be offended
    If we thought what he was told there was insane
    Even though his Imam praised the
    Men who gave their lives and razed the
    Buildings in New York by Boeing aeroplane
    And of course then we must never
    Think a Muslim man could sever
    Heads of innocents and those who mean no harm
    For he is a man most peaceful
    Who insists that we must cease all
    Taking acts and words of Muslims with alarm
    ...

    Indeed.

    BTW, Doug's right on, Trish.

    Rufus, too, although I'd extend his committee to O-2s and E-7s.

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  49. You beat me by ten minutes, Bob. What I get for bein' long winded.

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  50. OOOOPs. Rufus did include O-2s in his committee.

    Damn.

    I'm gettin' old.

    I guess.

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  51. You're gonna have to find another partner to your PC Bullshit.

    Betcha you're off the list now. No Christmas card for you, Duggo!

    ReplyDelete
  52. So, first, it should be part of the mandatory duty of every member of the armed forces to report any remarks or behavior of fellow service members that could be construed as indicating unfitness for duty for any reason.

    Second, there should be a duty to report such data up the chain of command, regardless of the assessment of the local commander.

    Third, there should be a single high-level Pentagon or army department that follows all such cases in real time, whether the potential ground for alarm is sympathy with white supremacism, radical Islamism, endorsement of suicide bombing or simple mental unfitness.

    Let the first lesson of the Hasan atrocity be this: The U.S. Army has to be a PC-free zone. Our democracy and our way of life depend on it.



    Going Muslim

    This fellow has some practical ideas that might help for the Army.

    His ideas don't seem to reach out to the broader problem in civil society, however.

    I've suggested an alternative.

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  53. "BTW, Doug's right on, Trish."

    I gave you a t-shirt! One would think that in return I'd get at least a year's worth of not giving aid and comfort to the man who put me off my lunch entirely.

    I demand to have it back.






    Now for rufus: We used to joke that if you wanted something done - especially if you wanted something done yesterday - give it to an 03 and a couple of E6s. (If only to keep it away from the SESs.) Turns out there's an actual pool of ability and knowledge quite above that. Guys and gals of Jedi powers. All of them once 02s or E4s.

    We also used to remark that if you told the military that no one redeploys until the job's done, our operations would be considerably more brief. Of course, the war would be fought very differently. And to today's society, also very unacceptably.

    The military changes, for good and ill, along with the broader culture. It is fully a creature of that culture. And yet amazingly to some, one of the last institutions of broad trust in the US.

    As I've grown older I've grown to appreciate the military, our military, all the more. There are plenty of jackasses and individuals whose rank is inexplicable, but for the most part those who populate our armed forces are genuinely, spectacularly capable. (Doctrine helps.) All the while the wear and tear is unbelievable.

    OTOH, there will be no end of days like these. And they stretch out behind us as far as the eye can look back. If we aren't stepping in it over here, we're dicking something up over there while eating a bad decision someplace else.

    It remains, walking away, an awe-inspiring institution.

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  54. And for me to give that speech after the past year is most ironic.

    There's another speech I'd like to give - in the form a letter with words cut out of magazines.

    Not gonna do it.

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  55. I demand to have it back.

    You'll have to go get it, I'm afraid. Though I'm sure you'd happily go there, you might not be able to get in, for reasons beyond my control. Then again, you might be able to get in. Whatever. I no longer have the shirt.

    How about a nice bottle of 2BuckChuck? Never a bad year.

    ReplyDelete
  56. And yet amazingly to some, one of the last institutions of broad trust in the US.

    It's true. People, least most people, hold the military in high esteem.

    Our current fraud in the WH, being an exception. He doesn't.

    People always think of Congress as being in the toilet.

    One of the best institutions around here is Les Schwab Tire Company. Great service, decent price.

    On the other hand, we have the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

    The universities have lost their lustre. The religious institutions are hanging in there.

    It's the military most people admire.

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  57. "Though I'm sure you'd happily go there..."

    Is it warm? Is the sun shining? Can I get a good cheeseburger? And HBO?

    ReplyDelete
  58. The Major was a major malecontent, as the record will eventually prove. He was, nevertheless, promoted and tasked with duties for which he was morally, ethically and legally incompetent. I know he is not alone, his Islamic/Palestinian heritage/propensity notwithstanding.

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  59. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  60. In short, despite trish's admiration, someone up the line with stars was willing to write "definitely promote" on this guy's performance review...Amazing, given the amount of information now available. It is inconceivable that this fellow simply fell through the cracks. No, indeed, someone was willing to overlook all the reviews and rumors and advance Major Hasan. I would bet the farm that Islam MOST CERTAINLY had something to do with that decision.

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  61. Is it warm? Is the sun shining? Can I get a good cheeseburger? And HBO?

    Tomorrow's forecast:
    Tuesday
    Clear. High: 91 °F Wind NNE 13 mph Heat Index: 80 °F

    Tuesday Night
    Clear. Low: 71 °F . Wind East 8 mph . Heat Index: 82 °F

    Eat your heart out.

    You might be able to order a cheeseburger, more'n likely made of goat meat, and no bacon on it, for sure...best take your own DVDs, too.

    Had I only known, the shirt's proud new owner just flew out of Ft Gordon, or thereabouts, a day or so ago.

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  62. bob (whatever;) reported:

    "Ultimately it was Brother Nidal's doing, but the command should be held accountable," Mr. Benjamin said."

    Let's see...Hmm..."Brother Nidal"..."Nidal"..."Abu Nidal"...Palestine(sic)...Palestinian(sic)...

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  63. "Brother Nidal", as most Palestinian utes, was trained in tolerance and brotherly love by the good folk at the popular Quaker day school.

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  64. In short, despite trish's admiration, someone up the line with stars was willing to write "definitely promote" on this guy's performance review...

    - allen

    As an 02 not working Staff his senior rater would have been an 05 or an 06. We already know that he was at least below center of mass - probably rock bottom - coming out of Reed. That 03 could very well have been a gimme in his service contract, owing to his MD.

    Full-on shit-canning, along with continued surveiling, would have been the way to go.

    Obviously, that didn't happen.

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  65. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  66. Wanted to include the E-7's (gotta hav'em when the S hits the F,) but they're often a little old for "tactical/strategic" thinking.

    Also, anyone above the rank of O-2, or E-5 has, by definition, re-upped at least once. Definite disqualifier.

    I gotta stick with O-2's, and Junior Non-Coms.

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  67. Well, I guess "Buck" Sergeant isn't "Junior" Non-Com, but there's a chance that an E-5 with a tour in the War Zone hasn't re-upped.

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  68. "You might be able to order a cheeseburger, more'n likely made of goat meat"

    Mmmmmmmmmnothanks.

    I'll take freezing my ass off in DC with a Five Guys nearby come January.

    Besides, if they're serving goat I probably can't go in this lifetime. Thank God.

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  69. How about a roomful of your/our committee with a fast cell phone link to a couple of old E-7s for tactical and strategic advice. Names furnished on request. Trusted their judgement 40 years ago. Nothing's changed my mind.

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  70. trish,

    His former boss at Hood, an O6, is on record with mind-boggling complaints of the Major's behavior. It will be interesting to learn if that O6 bothered to put any of his concerns on paper. Something tells me he did; and going to the press was his way of saying, "Hey, take a look; we weren't all delusional or PC."

    Look, I am a reluctant critic. The legal headaches of dealing with a guy with Hasan’s demographics are daunting and fraught with peril. Add to that his professional credentialing and the task could be a career killer. But, if it is proved that this man spoke openly, as alleged, then, we are looking at criminal negligence under civil law.

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  71. No matter how you slice it,
    or what kind of bun you put it in,
    it's still Bullshit.

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  72. Ah, you're right. They gotta be in the mix somewhere. (If nothing else to guard the door, and keep out the O-4's, and above.)

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  73. Pray to Allah that they won't waterboard him.
    Poor Soul.

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  74. Five Guys is to die for, it's a shame, I don't eat meat anymore.

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  75. "His former boss at Hood, an O6"

    I thought it was an O6 from Reed who worked the same department.

    In any event we're certainly not lacking for individuals who saw a full bore...problem. And you're right. What anyone did or didn't do is the question.

    I'm curious to know by what route he came to the attention of the CI guys, DOD or FBI. Or both. Someone, at some point, did raise that flag.

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  76. "At the 1st Cavalry Memorial Chapel, Colonel Frank Jackson asked the congregation to pray for the 13 dead and 29 wounded in Hasan's rampage. The chaplain also asked the worshippers to pray for Hasan."

    And, what? The brothers from 9/11 are chopped liver (Or Why America can no longer win wars)

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  77. trish,

    As to why his former boss, the retired O6 (whether at Reed or Hood), would be so vocal so early on is probably the easiest question to answer. He knows (as shown by Senator Lieberman) that others than you and Linear are looking for goat meat.

    This is going to become ugly. On this occasion, the failure will not find convenient relief from the enlisted ranks, ala Abu Ghraib.

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  78. Having a nice afternoon, Doug?







    Unfortunately I can't stay for the evening's chorus of, oh, whatever.

    Mrs. Federal Socialist must, alas, procure dinner. Something politically correct, I'm thinking. I'm positively famished.

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  79. The bins were placed in the chaplain’s closet late in 2005, when the hospital had an influx of soldiers injured by roadside bombs in Iraq, said Army Chaplain (Col.) James Griffith, director of pastoral services at Landstuhl.

    Griffith recalled two soldiers looking for shoes; one had had his left leg amputated, and the other had lost his right foot. They both happened to wear the same size.

    “One took one shoe and the other took the other,” Griffith said


    Amputees' Sacrifices

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  80. And allen is loaded for - no, not bear - but at least a two-banger.

    Good luck, allen.

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  81. trish wrote:

    "Mrs. Federal Socialist must, alas, procure dinner. Something politically correct, I'm thinking. I'm positively famished."

    And a darned good thing, too. I could feel a Zoroastral Abrahamic Feral Socialistic Soliphist whacking coming :)

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  82. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  83. A straight up wacko, counseling 1st Cav troopers returning from the war zone.

    An obvious fuck up that the CYA teams are out in full force for. Why his former "boss" from where ever is saying "Not Me!" to the media. He knows it's CYA time and is coming out guns blazin'.

    allen is also right, this as ALL ABOUT the Officer Corps, no E4s to air out on this debacle.

    It does address the rot that exists throughout the military. That exists in any socialist modeled culture.

    There was reason beyond the threat of an attempted coup for the Founders to distrust a "professional" standing Army.

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  84. Deuce and Whit are to be commended for the public service performed by the posting of "MBS (Mind Blowing Sex) can cause TGA (transient global amnesia)". This malady, possibly affecting at least three Americans, has gone too long unrecognized as the greatest single cause of the loss of precious bodily fluids. Moreover, on a personal note:

    Nobody knows how lonesome I have been. As the great American philosopher, Paul Lynde, responded when asked, "Why do you beat meat?" - "Loneliness". At last, to be able to peek out of the closet of…?...?!...uh...I seem to have forgotten...

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  85. This week's print edition will have more coverage of the tragedy at Fort Hood, but as I'm sure our commenters have been thinking about things over the weekend, please add your thoughts below. One more quick comment from me: all things considered, it wasn't the best idea for Mr Obama to spend the weekend at Camp David.

    (He does plan to visit Fort Hood tomorrow. Mr Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and George W Bush have already visited.)

    One more grim note to this grim story: after I left Killeen yesterday I continued up the road to Oklahoma City, and I was thinking about that city's history. Supporters of capital punishment often refer to Timothy McVeigh.


    Fort Hood

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  86. Five Guys

    Looking at their store locator, I see a 5 Guys in Spokane. Who says I live in the wilderness. I'll have to try that, going up that way in a couple of days.

    Never heard of 5 Guys before. And I'm not a vegetarian.


    Hasan to face military justice, news says. They got that much right.

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  87. The day I was introduced to Five Guys, I ate there 4 times that week. Very addicting. So, enjoy.

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  88. Is it better than Carl's Jr.?, my wife wants to know.

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  89. It hasn't been mentioned that our great President isn't celebrating with the others-- leaders of all 27 European Union countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, plus Gorby himself--the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    He's got other things to do.

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  90. In late 2008, officials said, a separate investigation revealed Hasan's communications with another individual they declined to identify. Separately, another U.S. official said the person Hasan was communicating with was Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical imam overseas who has come under scrutiny for possible links to terror groups.

    ...

    Awlaki, who was released from a jail in Yemen last year, writes a blog that denounces U.S. policies as anti-Muslim.

    Investigators tried to interview Hasan on Sunday at the military hospital where he is held under guard, but he refused to answer and requested a lawyer, the officials said.


    Wasn't Ordered to Attack

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  91. What's Carl's Jr?

    It doesn't matter they're the best. Trust me. Tell your wife, I would never lie to a superhero.

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  92. Oh and their french fries are awesome, too.

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  93. Carl's Jr.

    Me? I'm still stuck on the Big Macs.

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  94. I should probably mention that "two-banger" is not a sexual reference.

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  95. A military tribunal for Hasan poses this possible problem for Obama. They will probably give him the death penalty. But I think he can't be executed without the President signing off on it.
    ----

    Almost done with Dinesh D'Souza's book on the evidence for life after death. Good book, pretty well written. But, D'Souza was on some panel today talking about Hasan, and made a fool of himself. A man can be many things....

    ----

    I would never lie to a superhero

    O Melody, Melody, such music to my ears
    Which does embolden my self, emblood my being, harden my purpose
    If I should such as fib to thee,
    Would'st thou deign to lie with me?

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  96. Cute, Bob,
    very cute.
    You could very well have just come right out and said that your special purpose got hard,
    but,no.

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  97. "What we need is for the Agency to do something egregious or for State to go out of its way to be stupid."
    ---
    There ya go:
    Only a true believer believes they have to go out of their way.

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  98. UPDATE:
    Check this out:

    Mosque: Dar Al-Hijrah

    The suspected Fort Hood terrorist's former mosque in Maryland is controlled by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a Saudi-funded worldwide jihadist movement which controls many of the mosques in America.

    Same mosque as the 911 Muslim terrorists: mmm Muslims of a Feather, Jihad Together: Major Muslim Fort Hood Terrorist Linked to 911 Terrorists

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  99. Investigators had no indication Maj. Hasan "as planning any attack," a senior federal investigator said Monday. Despite the contacts, the Fort Hood attack isn't classified as an act of terrorism, the official said. In part because of that, Defense and Justice department officials decided Monday that Maj. Hasan will be charged in military rather than civilian court.

    "We don't have any indication he was directed. We don't have any indication he had co-conspirators," the senior investigator said.



    Maybe it's best they don't classify it as terrorism, who knows?

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