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

Category: Media

  • Some things just aren’t news

    I guess I should say this publicly so some of you don’t think I’m ignoring you or your tips. This is my blog, that’s my real name at the bottom of this post, so I get to set policy here. All of that bullshit that you’ve been reading in that entity which calls itself our media about SSG Bales’ personal life is exactly that – bullshit. Someone coughed up the $39.95 for a People Search account and dug up a whole bunch of shit on his financial woes and his arrest record. Any of you with an extra 40 bucks could do the same from the comfort of your home computer. I’ve done it when it was germane to the story. But in this case, it doesn’t matter.

    The media is trying to find explanations for Bales’ crime when there is none. In the event the government proves that he did kill those 16 Afghans in cold blood that Sunday morning a week ago, there will be no motive, anymore than Ted Bundy had a motive. Can you think of a reason to kill 16 innocent people? Of course you can’t. Because you’re a reasonable person. Bales actions that morning can not be mitigated. But the media is trying to explain the unexplainable. It’s journalistic malpractice. The only people who will end up bearing the burden of this unprofessional behavior is Bales’ family, who in the end, regardless of the outcome, will have to live among us – and that should shame the press, but it probably won’t.

    My opinion is that Bales is guilty, and he’s the only one who perpetrated the crime. I don’t know what triggered his break with common decency, but I know it can’t be blamed on the military, it can’t be blamed on his debts, or decades-old arrests, or even on PTS.

    As one of you said yesterday, what Bales did took a measure of planning. And he was fully conscious of the fact that what he was doing was wrong. Regardless of his prior exemplary service, it only takes seconds to go to “Aw, shit”.

    Anyway, if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted your links or commented on them, that’s why. Some things the media thinks is news just isn’t, except in their minds.

  • F!F!F!F!F!

    USAToday link;

    “I hear that in World War II they only did 11-month tours of duty and then they rotated out,” says Fred LaMotte, 63, who teaches soldiers at Central Texas College.

    “That’s nothing compared to what these people are doing. Four tours of duty. That erodes the soul. For most soldiers, it’s just too much,” he says. “Imagine coming home from Iraq and hardly being able to breathe for a few months and then you’re sent back?”

    “I hear” that at Central Texas College that the teachers are so f*cking stupid that they can’t find the f*cking library.

    So mad, I can’t think past phrases punctuated with “f*ck”.

    UPDATE: So I called the Fort Lewis-McChord Central Texas College office and they tell me that no one by that name teaches there. The people at the Fort Hood CTC office have no record of him either. Looks like another case of the media taking shit at face value.

  • The attack on Iran

    Our buddy, Rowan Scarborough at the Washington Times writes today about what an Israeli attack on Iran would look like and the probable response from Iran in “Plotting Against Iranian Nuke Sites“.

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) — with its vaunted pilots and American-supplied warplanes — are so adept at surprise that Iraq and Syria never knew what hit them until their nuclear facilities lay smoldering.

    But Iran and its scores of buried and cemented nuclear sites present a much more daunting campaign — one of days, not hours, and multiple weapons, not a few laser-guided bombs.

    And unlike Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007, Iran can be expected to launch a fierce counterattack that likely would draw the United States into a low-level war with Tehran.

    You should read the whole thing about the last battle in the war against terror.

  • Post sees ambivalence in Prez’ words

    You know a Democrat President is in trouble when the Washington Post suddenly comes to the same conclusions that we came to years ago. They compare his words of strength before coming to office in regards to a renewed commitment to the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the words that come out of his mouth these days.

    While saying that he was “confident that we can continue the work of meeting our objectives,” the president said his goal was to “responsibly wind down this war” and “bring our troops home.” He promised to “continue the work of devastating al-Qaeda’s leadership and denying them a safe haven,” but he made no mention of defeating the Taliban or of peace for the Afghans themselves.

    Yeah, where have you been Washington Post? We’ve been saying that for years. No one in the current administration has been able to form the word “victory” on their lips in the past 3 years.

    The U.S. official most able to work with the Afghan leadership, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, was abruptly pushed out of his post because of a hyped magazine article. Mr. Karzai is an erratic personality — but is it any wonder that he has grown increasingly resistant to the Obama administration?

    And the Post led the charge for forcing McChrystal into an early retirement.

    The president reluctantly accepted the advice of his generals that he adopt a strategy of counterinsurgency against the Taliban and send additional troops to carry it out. But he arbitrarily cut the number of troops sought by commanders; set an equally arbitrary deadline for beginning their withdrawal; and rejected the military’s advice that the pullout be staged after this year’s summer fighting season. Now his aides are reportedly pushing for further troop withdrawals next year, once again against the Pentagon’s recommendation.

    And columnists in the Post cheered him every inch of the way and continue to push for an even earlier withdrawal.

    As they watch these moves, Afghans, the Taliban and neighbors such as Pakistan can reasonably conclude that the United States, rather than trying to win the war, is racing to implement an exit strategy in which the interests of Afghans and their government are slighted.

    It’s nice to see that the Post is making the same observations that this blog has been complaining about since the Fall of 2009. The Washington Post Editorial Board concludes;

    If it’s evident that the president won’t defend the war, and is focused on “winding down” rather than winning, why should anyone else support it?

    In other words, paraphrased from John Kerry’s 1971 declaration “Who wants to be the last to die for the Obama reelection campaign?”

  • Left’s media hit squads trying to censor AFN

    (Updated)

    As a full disclaimer: I don’t like Rush Limbaugh. I don’t enjoy his programming, his attitude or his incessant partisanship. That being said I’m not in a huff about his existence behind a microphone or the pleasure others take in it. If anything the man serves more as a reliable PR foil for Democrats than as a leader for Republicans.

    What does really irratate me though is the effort of partisan media flaks trying to remove his show from our Armed Forces Network. AFN carries all sorts of programming for troops based not on political affiliations but on the popularity of that programming among the under-served demographic of overseas military personnel. So this petition to get Limbaugh taken away from the troops, despite his popularity among those troops, is pretty low.

    Well, good news. There’s a new petition for the White House to keep Limbaugh on AFN. The White House’s guidlines say that if a petition reaches 25,000 votes it will give an official response. The petition to censor Limbaugh is a few days old and at about 22k over 25k. The petition to retain the popular programming is brand new and under 1k. I’m sure, though, it can rely on a few more clicks via TAH.

      Anti-censorship petition. Keep Limbaugh.

      Pro-censorship petition. Ditch Limbaugh.

  • TAH in Business Insider

    So, I guess someone at Business Insider was listening to my time on BBC yesterday;

    Military veteran blogger John Lilyea was asked by the BBC to join a discussion of the shooting. Lilyea says the BBC wanted to frame the shooting in terms of PTSD and troops spending too much time in combat, but says that’s not a foregone conclusion. “We don’t know who the guy is, so how do we know that his participation in the war had anything to do with it.”

    And, they liked Pinto Nag’s comment;

    A repeated concern is summed up by another commenter on Lilyea’s blog: “[I]f it were any other administration, I wouldn’t be worried. This one? It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him handed over to either the Afghanistan government or the World Court.”

    So, the world is listening to us (you and me). That’s a feather in our cap.

  • TAH on MSNBC

    While I was interviewing on BBC today, I got an email from Jeff Black at MSNBC who wanted an opinion he’d find no where else;

    Retired Army platoon Sgt. Jonn Lilyea, a Desert Storm veteran who writes the blog “This Ain’t Hell,” told msnbc.com he expects the military to make an example out of the shooter as the case moves through the justice system.

    Still, Lilyea cautioned that people should not rush to blame the killings on the soldier’s deployments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    “I’d wait to see if he really was in a position that would have affected him in this way,” Lilyea said. “But I’m more concerned people will try to use this like they did after Vietnam with the My Lai massacre and taint all combat veterans of this generation as if they were like this one guy.” Millions of Americans have served in combat, seen and done “terrible things,” but have gone on to normal productive lives after their service, Lilyea pointed out.

    Yeah, I know my interviews are less sexy than the interviews that IVAW does, and I’m kind of boring and no broad brushes, but I hope that I’m helping you guys out. Which is why this blog is here.

  • IVAW’s Jorge Gonsalez weighs in on Afghanistan shootings

    In a link sent to us by Patrick, CNN goes straight to Iraq Veterans Against the War when they want to blame the military for those shootings in Afghanistan. They take the same tone as the Washington Post, blaming the leadership at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, because the media likes to see general officers take the fall. But CNN goes to Jorge Gonzalez, apparently, according to his profile at IVAW, one of the few remaining actual Iraq veterans left in the organization, if that tells you anything about his character. But, of course, CNN needed the insight of a five-year specialist to judge the leadership of the Joint Base;

    “This was not just a rogue soldier,” said Jorge Gonzalez, executive director of G.I. Voice, a veteran-run nonprofit organization that operates a soldiers’ resource center near the base called Coffee Strong. The base is “a rogue base, with a severe leadership problem,” he said.

    “If Fort Lewis was a college campus, it would have been closed down years ago,” Gonzalez said.

    In the wake of Sunday’s shootings, he called for a congressional investigation and hearings “into the multiple crises” at the base.

    Of course, it’s not the first time we’ve heard of Gonzalez. NSOM wrote about him a few weeks ago doing the same shit.

    For those of you who have never served, we senior leadership in the Army get to hear the opinions of Soldiers in the E-4 pay grade like Gonzalez everyday, all day long and we don’t pay attention to them, because most of them think they have valuable opinions, but that’s hardly ever the case. According to Gonzalez’ profile he spent five years in the Army and only managed to get promoted three times. that’s a little on the low side for soldiers. But he’d probably tell you it’s because the man was keeping him down and didn’t recognize his talent.

    So, good job, CNN, finding the least credible person in Washington State to support your story. Gonzalez hasn’t been stationed on Lewis-McCord since 2009, so he’s basing his expertise on listening to the more current E-4 Mafia as they bitch and complain about things they don’t understand.

    Then to further support their story, CNN uses the case of Benjamin Colton Barnes, the Army-trained survival specialist who was found face down in a creek when he dies from hypothermia (like a true survival specialist whom the Army trains) who was booted from his service at JB Lewis-McChord more than three years ago. Of course, CNN used him as an example of “vets gone nuts” a few weeks ago, too. So it must be JBLM that’s at fault, even though the nut they used in the “vets as nuts” story with Barnes was a Marine.