Author: TSO

From NYT:

BAGHDAD — One by one, the Marines sat down, swore to tell the truth and began to give secret interviews discussing one of the most horrific episodes of America’s time in Iraq: the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

“I mean, whether it’s a result of our action or other action, you know, discovering 20 bodies, throats slit, 20 bodies, you know, beheaded, 20 bodies here, 20 bodies there,” Col. Thomas Cariker, a commander in Anbar Province at the time, told investigators as he described the chaos of Iraq. At times, he said, deaths were caused by “grenade attacks on a checkpoint and, you know, collateral with civilians.”

The 400 pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed to have been destroyed as the last American troops prepare to leave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter for The New York Times at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

I think about all I have to add is…..um…Holy Sheepshit are you effen kidding me?

I care less about the actual documents than I do us just leaving secret shit all around. It’s like when I leave the house and the wife invariably leaves the TV for the dog, who apparently has an innate desire to catch up on the news of SportsCenter. Um, no. Mr. Electricity gets shut off. I would say the first rule of international fight club should be, “burn all the shit before you leave.”

Dude, cut me some slack, it is done on an iPad. Hope to get better quality later.

Many folks are making much of this:

Listen, not all of us get choked up at the thought of a bloody sock, I get that. So cut Lizzy some slack. And to you Red Sox owners out there, and Red Sox fans who might not vote Dem because of this flub, remember this….

You built a World Series Team out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your team to Fenway on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired baseball players the rest of us paid to bring here from Latin America. (And taught them English, since Latin is not the official language of MLB) You were safe at home plate because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at the ballpark, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a great team and it turned into something terrific, or a World Series Champion and ripped the still beating heart from Yankees fans? God bless. Keep a huge banner in the rafters. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next Japanese guy who comes along and can pitch a gyro ball, or a guy who at pitch 101 decides to do his best T-Ball imitation while Grady Little stares slack-jawed from the bench…..

Crossposted from The Burn Pit.

 

[Picture above is me talking to loval villagers about their educational and potable water needs.  If my lieutenant sees that picture, I swear this may have been the only time I wore my Red Sox hat outside the wire.  Well, that might be a lie, but I swear I had the helmet somewhere.]

Here we go again.

 Thomas Walker, a “lecturer in the intensive English and orientation program” at Iowa State University has gone the way of the Law Professor at Suffolk, and taken issue with attempts to send carepackages to deployed troops.  I really wish it hadn’t been ISU as I have an affinity for the school because that is where my friend Past National Commander Rehbein spent the better part of his working life.  And the reality is that no one school should be culpable for the actions of one individual.  It amounts to a sort of “hecklers veto” where the school gets a black eye for the actions or statements of  a single miscreant, while the good work of so many others is largely ignored.  But so it goes.

Let’s look at what he has to say:

I read in Tuesday’s Iowa State Daily that the College Republicans have begun collecting sundries for U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why? Doesn’t the U.S. Army victual its soldiers? Don’t their families send them yuletide goodies? Aren’t GIs paid enough to buy what they need, and even what they want?

Yes, the army “victuals” its troops.  In fact, we get a lovely assortment of MREs whenever we headed out.  A true culinary classic is the spaghetti and meat balls.  The sublime experience of eating pound cake in the pouring rain is enough to bring the owner of even the least discerning palate to tears.  As I read his statement it conjured to mind the famous question of George C. Scott as Scrooge: “Are there no prisons?  No work houses?”

You know why care packages sent from home mean so much?  Is it because we were starving?  Is it because we were too poor to afford our own food?  No, because it meant something.  Sure, I could get heaping portions of food from a Mermite, but when you know that someone cared enough to send food halfway around the world, the food nourishes not only the body, but the soul as well. 

Some folks don’t have families to send them stuff Mr. Walker.  Many of us don’t have an extensive family support mechanism when we deploy.  Which is why groups like Soldiers’ Angels exist, and have mottos that encapsulate that:

May No Soldier Go Unloved

May No Soldier Walk Alone

May No Soldier Be Forgotten

Until They All Come Home

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Michael Yon apparently doesn’t understand the Geneva Conventions

For some inexplicable reason, Michael Yon continues to do his best Don Quixote imitation by suggesting (urging?) that soon a soldier will use the Birtherian logic of Oliy Taitz and crew and refuse to deploy to Afghanistan because of mandated violations of the Geneva Conventions:

It could happen tomorrow. A Soldier might say, “Sir, I want to go to Afghanistan, but I am afraid that by violating the Geneva Conventions, I could be accused of a war crime. I am caught in a bad place. I cannot violate the Geneva Conventions and so there is no need to send me to Afghanistan to fly. I must refuse that unlawful order. If ordered, I will go to Afghanistan but I cannot fly in violation.”

A Soldier is obligated to obey the law. A Soldier is obligated not to obey unlawful orders.

What would you do?

A fine rhetorical point Michael, I think what I would do is look up the specific Geneva Convention you claim we are in violation of, and then perhaps contact someone who knows the slightest thing about International Law. And, somewhat interestingly, that’s just what I did.

But just for giggles, let’s look at the portions that Mr. Yon is citing to. I’m keeping his bolded portions bolded, because he apparently thinks those portions buoy his position.

Art.22. Aircraft exclusively employed for the removal of wounded and sick civilians, the infirm and maternity cases or for the transport of medical personnel and equipment, shall not be attacked, but shall be respected while flying at heights, times and on routes specifically agreed upon between all the Parties to the conflict concerned.

I’m not sure why he included this portion at all, since the legal onus in this part is not on the party flying, but the party on the ground. Perhaps it is to highlight that we are “flying at heights, times and on routes” NOT “specifically agreed upon between all the Parties to the conflict concerned.” But of course this section refers to the obligations of those on the ground, not up in the air. It seems curious to include it in there, but since he felt it was important, I have left it in.

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Credit: Staff Sgt. Rebecca Petrie/116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

?Col. Blake Ortner briefs Maj. Kurt Kobernik during shift change at the Entry Control Point Nov. 24. Senior leaders took over the duty of manning the ECP so their soldiers could enjoy the holiday off.

From Stafford County Sun.

For those that didn’t know, TSO is a goof on Nietsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra” with the role of the Superman (ubermensch) being Col Ortner here. Can’t say I will ever look back at my time under his “leadership” fondly, but this is a good deed anyway. And there were precious few of those in evidence on our deployment together. Hope the boys enjoyed the day off.

Just wanted to wish everyone safe travels and happy Thanksgivings. I highly doubt I will be posting in the next week+, and I doubt even more that a single one of you would have noted except Jonn, and that’s only because the TAH Blogger Evals are due in January. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict I once again get no raise, and no COLA.

Leaving out Sunday to head to Craig, Alaska where I am writing a story on how service officers help veterans in far-flung communities get the help from the VA they earned. Should be fun. Weather forecast for Craig tonight and tomorrow is 6-10 inches of the white stuff. That kinda has me pumped, I love me some snow. Must be the Mainer in me.

Not so stoked to be in a 4 man plane, a la Ted Stevens plane of death. But, what can you do. If I die, hold a regular funeral for family, and then a viking funeral in Jonn’s backyard. The only beverages allowed shall be Guinness and Guinness related products like Irish Car Bombs and Bear Fights.

Also, I should probably buy a rain coat, since the 22 hour ferry ride from Ketchikan to Juneau looks to be rain-filled. Rain I can live with, but if I get seasick, I will be one unhappy TSO.

I swear the Jonothinghewont Inhale Sharkey motto/photoshop contest is still coming. Been a rough couple of weeks at Casa de TSO, with Mrs TSO losing her job. (A good thing.) Hope to do it within days of my return.

No, not that one, the one that is a “killer” of men, the one engaged in the shameful endeavor of protecting our country through service in Afghanistan.

Professor, Army Reservist quits Suffolk job after colleague calls troop care packages “shameful”: MyFoxBOSTON.com