This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Sporkmaster

  • What a peace message from the Taliban looks like.

    So it seems that the Taliban have killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council

    Rabbani, a former Afghan national leader, was killed and his deputy wounded as “they met two men who said they had come from Quetta, Pakistan, with a peace message from the Taliban,” said council member Habibullah Fawzi. Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanekzai said the men hid at least one bomb in their turbans, which guards failed to search when the men entered the home.

    Are we talking notes? If anyone thinks that the Taliban wants peace were they do not have control of everything is only fooling themselves.

    Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a former presidential candidate and Northern Alliance leader, summed up the sentiments heard from many Northern Alliance figures in the wake of the assassination: “This is a lesson for all of us that we shouldn’t fool ourselves that this group, who has carried out so many crimes against the people of Afghanistan, are willing to make peace.”

    Dr. Abdullah added: “We have to be realistic about what we are up against. We are up against people who don’t believe in any humanity. They assassinate people on the streets of Kabul, they assassinate those trying to achieve peace.” Last spring the Taliban had proclaimed that they would kill members of the High Peace Council.

    “No one took it seriously and they should have and it is also time for President Karzai to wake up,” he said. “These are the people who he calls his ‘dear brothers,’ they are behind what happened.” He referred to President Hamid Karzai’s predilection for calling the insurgents “dear brothers” or “upset brothers.”

    If I another video that tries to say some useless feel good message as a legit solution for Afghanistan it will be too soon.

    Here is a interview with the late Burhanuddin Rabbani.

    He was quoted with saying the following below before the suicide bomber attack.

    “Especially in our country, there are a number of individuals who kill Muslims in the name of Muslims. We should take a clear stand against this new phenomenon when the killing of Muslims is seen as something allowable,” said Mr. Rabbani, a former jihadist and Afghan president who, for the past year, had sought in vain to negotiate with insurgents as head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council

  • Ideals vs reality. 9/11 version

    Ok, so given that the tenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11th are coming up it is not surprising that people are putting out videos that said that 9/11 would not have happened if we could all just get along. The target of today is the group called Our Journey to Smile.

    If you have not heard of this group they talk a lot about ideals but never have anything about making those ideals happen. Not once.

    Lets go into the video.

    I think that peace is a state of being, that we choose to live in peace, and we choose to live in hate So if you choose to live in peace, it’s contagious If you choose to live in hate, it’s contagious
    So, if you live in hate, other people who are in contact with you will live in hate.

    Uh except that how do you intend to make that work? If it were that easy you really think that issues like gangs and crime would be still here. Yet you expect that phrase to work in one of the most violence countries in the world. Really?

    All of us can feel your pain, because you lost a family member on September 11. All of us can feel your pain because here, it’s like September 11 every day. Every day, Afghans are losing their family members.

    Again, really? You do not think that people in America have not lost friends and relatives to violence before 2011? Or what about the claim that 9/11 happens every day in Afghanistan. Your tying to say that over 3,000 people die in Kabul every day? Because that is what made 9/11 a big deal because of the large number of people who were affected in such as short amount of time. But it sound since despite the fact that it has no truth in reality.

    We can work side by side to end this war, & work for a non-violent solution in Afghanistan.

    By doing what? How are you going to bell that cat.

  • Fake video causes real murder.

    Everyone should know about the shooting of the two Air Force members in Germany that were going to Afghanistan. However a few days ago the shooter explained his motive.

    Uka blamed a video purporting to show American servicemen raping a young Muslim girl for prompting him to try and stop other US soldiers from getting to Afghanistan.

    Oh an to make interesting is who make the fake video.

    But the rape footage, billed as an authentic video entitled “what was done to our sisters,” turned out to be a fake using footage scene from the 2007 anti-Iraq war film “Redacted,” directed by Hollywood’s Brian de Palma.

    So here is a case where generic stereotypes if US troops has caused US service members to be seriously wounded and killed.

    The Murder says as much about the video.

    “I thought what I saw in that video, these people would do in Afghanistan,” he told the court.

    Does anything more need to be said about this?

  • Derik Hembree arrested.

    It seems that Derik Hembree was arrested in Lawton, Okla.

    Derik Hembree was caught in Lawton, Okla. Wednesday night on a felony warrant for the kidnapping of his daughter Brooke. He has been AWOL from Fort Carson since May and his family has been worried about the safety of both him and the baby.

    Colorado Springs Police told TARGET 13 Investigates that Brooke was dropped off at a Lawton, Okla. fire station Tuesday night, with a note with all of her information.

    Brooke’s mother, Nicole Brewer, says her daughter was in good health and will be back in Colorado Thursday night.

    Also it looks like TSO’s fears about him being a crazy vet as a defense being validated.

    She tells TARGET 13 by phone that Hembree was injured in Iraq and that his personality had changed over the last year.

    “He’s been in a lot of pain and I knew the Army has got him on a lot of medication nad that’s when he started to see the change in Derik,” says Calloway.

    Update: I got a hold of author of the post about his past and he said that he would look into his military records. I will post when I get a reply.

    Update X 2

    It seems that the child was in care of the state and it was the state’s opinion that nether parent have full custody.

    Local investigators said previously that Hembree allegedly knocked on the door Tuesday night at a Lawton fire station, handed his daughter to the fireman there and ran away. It is not known why Hembree fled from Colorado with the child, who was in the custody of the Department of Human Services but living with Hembree.

    Colorado Springs authorities would not disclose why the child had been removed from her mother’s care, but a DHS representative said they preferred to place children with a family member before entering the child into foster care.

  • New rules for Purple Heart.

    The Military is asking those who were denied thier Purple Heart for TBI cases to resubmit for further review. The change is due to identify TBIs easier then it was in the past.

    With medical advances in the treatment and knowledge of concussion and MTBI injuries, the Army has been able to further identify the characteristics of the unseen wound and clarify guidance for entitlement to the Purple Heart, said Col. Tom Quinn, chief of Soldiers Programs and Services Division at Army Human Resources Command.

    “In the past, concussion or MTBI injuries were very hard to diagnose,” Quinn said. “Treatments varied and were not the same across the board and medical officers weren’t always documenting that information in the Soldier’s records.”

    Those that are facing this issue can contact HRC. Just a reminder that there is no time limit on the Purple Heart.

    For Purple Heart award reconsideration, the injury must have occurred on or after Sept. 11, 2001. Active-duty and Reserve Component Soldiers must work with their chains of command, through the first general officer, by submitting a copy of their deployment orders, various Department of Army forms, a one-page narrative describing the incident and the conditions under which the Soldier was wounded.

  • My nice new Golden German Badges

    Some of you may or may not know but there was a chance to earn the German Schützenschnur and Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency sometimes incorrectly refereed to the Sportsman badge. It was from June to mid July to complete all the requirements of the badges. Yesterday I finally received one of the badges. I am still waiting to receive the Schützenschnur but I have the personal action paper in my OMPF (Online Military Personal File)

    I earned the Schützenschnur on June 6th. However I wanted to go in a corner and cry when people did not see the Irony of of earning a German award on the date of D-Day. Or perhaps it was the fact that no one knew that D-Day is on June 6th.

    I earned the second one on June 22nd with the Last event of the 3000 meters in 14:30. It was nice considering that I did not get the EFMB last year and missed a chance to go this year. Now I just have to figure out how to put this Schützenschnur on or just be lazy and wear the other badge.

  • The 64 Thousand Dollar Question.

    Considering all the fammine that is going on in places like Somalia why has there not been aid set there by Code Pink similar to the two failed ‘missions’ to the Gaza Strip. The anwer to that question is this. Real life threating personal risk. Consider the case below.

    Residents of Mogadishu’s largest famine refugee camp accused government soldiers of starting the chaos by trying to steal some of the 290 tons of dry rations that aid workers were trying to distribute there. Then refugees joined in the scramble, prompting soldiers to open fire, the witnesses said.

    “They fired on us as if we were their enemy,” said refugee Abidyo Geddi. “When people started to take the food then the gunfire started and everyone was being shot. We cannot stay here much longer. We don’t get much food and the rare food they bring causes death and torture.”

    You see all that gunpower would just ruin thier stylish outfits and seriously reduce the odd of liveing longer. Plus it was not done by US, NATO or IDF troops so does it really matter.

    Somali soldiers control just part of the capital and are poorly trained.

    “It was carnage. They ruthlessly shot everyone,” said Abdi Awale Nor, who has been living at the camp. “Even dead bodies were left on the ground and other wounded bled to death.”

    Oh and Code Pink continues to ignore how to deal with this problem that many aid groups face.

    Aid workers are puzzling over how to help the starving without helping gunmen who either prey on the refugees, compete for security contracts to guard the food, or steal it and take a share of the profits when it’s sold at market.

    Or how to protect the aid workers without contradicting themselves about the use of weapons for defence.

    Since the era of Black Hawk Down, aid groups say they have tried to tighten up their procedures by screening contractors, having independent checks on their operations and requiring truckers to pay a cash bond to ensure the food is delivered. Some say that Somalia is still too volatile to work in: WFP alone has had 14 employees killed in the past three years. Most foreign aid workers pulled out two years ago after a spate of killings and kidnappings

    So what is it going to be Code Pink? Another useless poltically motivated trip to Gaza or are you going to do something meaningful rather then just talk about it.

    UPDATED: Here is a link to the list of groups that are activly working in that area right now. Guess who is not on the list.

  • Helicopter crash kills thirty US Soldiers

    At least 31 US SEALs and 7 Afghastan Army Commandos died in a crash late friday night. It seems that it might have been shot down due to enemy fire in a night operation in a unnamed area of Afghastan. The Taliban are claiming credit for the attack.

    The toll would surpass the worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 – the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded. It was the highest one-day death toll for the Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

    Just another reminder about the dangers those that have earned the SEAL title and why pretending to be one is not just telling “little white lies”

    Out thoughts to go out the the familes of those who have been lost.