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

Category: Military issues

  • The danger of speaking about things you don’t understand

    I’ve been watching a whole bunch of people lining up outside of the New York TV studios of the morning shows to express their irrelevant opinions on the fate of General Stan McChrystal. So far the stupidest statement was made by Donald Trump on Fox and Friends this morning.

    When asked who should replace McChrystal if he left his position, Trump named “Admiral Mullens” – oh, really? Why would the chairman of the joint chiefs – the guy in charge of all of the services – want to take a demotion down to a regional commander?

    There are several other idiot opinions floating around out there, but few are as ill-informed as real estate agent Donald Trump. Finally, I had to turn off the TV because there are two people who know what’s going to happen to McChrystal and neither of them are talking to me.

    I always expect the worst to happen, and the worst would be if they called Eikenberry (or as some ill-informed idiot talkers call him Eikenburg) back to the service and put him in charge of Afghanistan. Nothing that dick would like more and Joe Bite Me is likely to suggest it. And it’s absolutely the worst thing that could happen.

    So there’s my prediction which is just as valid as Donald Trump’s idiot mumblings.

  • Rolling Stone Posts Full McChrystal Article

    Here.

    The only thing I have to add to this is that I really think McChrystal is using this article as a way to get himself forced out of Afghanistan. The Rolling Stone reporter responsible for the article was just on CNN and said that pretty much all the controversial stuff was said by McChrystal and his aides within the first 24 hours of him following around McChrystal. McChrystal is not an idiot. He knew Rolling Stone was going to print what he said.

  • McChrystal recalled

    General Stanley McCrystal was recalled from Afghanistan yesterday, apparently to answer questions about an interview he did in Rolling Stone magazine in which he disparaged that dick US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and expressed regret about his vote for President Obama, according to the BBC;

    In the article, Gen McChrystal said he felt betrayed by US ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry.

    The general’s aides mock Vice-President Joe Biden and say Gen McChrystal was “disappointed” in President Obama.

    Meanwhile a US congressional report said the US military had been giving tens of millions of dollars to Afghan security firms who were channelling the money to warlords.

    As I’ve said before, Karl Eikenberry was my platoon leader when I first joined the Army and he’s a dick, so I concur with McChrystal. Also, Joe Biden is a joke without equal and that brief meeting Obama had with McCrystal was disrespectful and did little to bolster Obama’s image as a war fighter.

    Given all of these facts, I still think McCrystal is wrong to disparage any of the civilians under whom he serves. WTH was he doing talking to Rolling Stone? Its a piece of shit hippie magazine that lives for drama like this to boost it’s dreary sales. McCrystal and his staff showed poor judgement in allowing these pot-smoking doofuses anywhere near them.

    McCrystal admission that he voted for Obama doesn’t really redeem him either. Now I really question his judgment – he wasn’t thinking of the troops when he cast that ballot, and that’s going to become real obvious real fast to him.

    McCrystal should have let me call that dick Eikenberry names while he sticks to doing his job. I see a shortened military career – Obama was already pissed when McCrystal went to the Washington Post last year, this one is going to do some damage.

  • Ethan McCord: “360 degree fire” was SOP

    One of the two soldiers who have been the “go to” guys for the Wikileaks so-called “Collateral Murder” video, Ethan McCord charges that “360 Rotational Fire” was the standard operating procedure for reaction to an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. In an interview published in OpEd News, Steiber said;

    …we had a pretty gung-ho commander, who decided that because we were getting hit by IEDs a lot, there would be a new battalion SOP [standard operating procedure].He goes, “If someone in your line gets hit with an IED, 360 rotational fire. You kill every motherf*cker on the street.” Myself and Josh and a lot of other soldiers were just sitting there looking at each other like, “Are you kidding me? You want us to kill women and children on the street?” And you couldn’t just disobey orders to shoot, because they could just make your life hell in Iraq.

    Throughout the interview, there’s no unit designation, no one names the company or battalion commander – it’s just a completely irrational charge against some unnamed commander in an unnamed unit vacant of any details.

    Of the Wikileaks video, McCord says;

    McCord says the scenes captured in the Wikileaks video are “an every-day occurrence in Iraq.”

    Really?

    McCord says that when he found the two children wounded in the van, another soldier began to vomit and ran off.

    A soldier reacts by vomiting and fleeing to an “every day occurrence”?

    I ran up to the Bradley and placed [the injured boy] inside. My platoon leader was standing there at the time, and he yelled at me for doing what I did. He told me to “stop worrying about these motherfucking kids and start worrying about pulling security.”

    I would have told him the same thing. They were in an unsecured area in indian country and unsure of the situation. The first thing infantrymen do is secure the area. How much good would any of them been to the children if they were all dead? Typical private BS – they always think they know better than their leaders.

    Both Ethan McCord and Josh Steiber were in Bravo Company, 2d Battalion 16th Infantry when the video was shot in 2007. Steiber is a member of IVAW, and McCord may be a member by now, although I can’t find evidence of it yet, so they have an agenda.

    I have to think that there’s someone among my readers who was either a member of this company or knows someone who was there during this time who can verify or deny the accuracy of this order. My opinion, based on my decades-long experience as an infantryman, is that it’s bullshit, but I wasn’t there, so if you were, or if you know someone who was, speak up.

    Thanks to Rob for the heads up.

  • Nine month deployments?

    Some of you may have seen that story in the Army Times about a planned reduction from twelve to nine and have at least two years dwell time. The proposed plan would go into effect in two years.

    “We know 12 months is too long to sustain repeatedly, and we know that six months is too short for the operational environment,” he said, adding “so once we get demand down to about 10 brigade combat teams, we’re looking to revert to nine-month deployments,” Casey said.

    I wonder is this possible with the fact the it took a extension of three months to have the number of troops needed for Iraq. Even with the draw down in Iraq, would we be able to maintain a nine month deployment cycle for such combat zones like Afghanistan?

    It seems like a good idea on paper with any people going on multiple tours with dwell time being a year or shorter before going again.

    “We’re not going to get there, I don’t think, in the next two years, but shortly after that I think we’d be able to do something,” Casey said. “Right now, the volume of the deployments is just too fast, too much.”

    But that is the whole point of a reduce deployment cycle is to be used to reduce the stress from a multiple deployments. So if the face that we cannot do it with the high level of deployments now what is going to change in two years if the tempo is the same.

    I mean over all a nice thought, but I do not think that is is possible. I mean for a while the twelve months was not enough. So expect this policy to not last very long or being postponed all together.

  • No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy (And How The Obama Administration Is Weakening the Marine Corps)

    When the first battle of Fallujah in April 2004 reached its climax and it appeared that the Marines and soldiers assaulting the city were close to securing the insurgent stronghold, General John Abizaid travelled to Anbar to order General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, to stop the assault. Disingenuous news reports from Arab media outlets which painted the assault as a massacre of innocent civilians had caused an outcry in the international community and as a result the Bush administration and its Iraqi allies waivered in its support for the operation. Abizaid met Mattis in his command post outside the city, where he had been leading the battle from the front for weeks. Over three dozen soldiers, sailors, and Marines had died in the assault. Mattis’s own command element had been attacked multiple times by this point and had suffered casualities. His uniform was soiled and dirty from the weeks of constant combat. When Abizaid (a four-star general in charge of CENTCOM) told Mattis (a two-star divisional commander) to stop the assault Mattis looked Abizaid in the eye and growled IF YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE VIENNA TAKE FUCKING VIENNA. Abizaid just nodded and Mattis stormed out of the room.

    That story for me is the embodiment of General James Mattis, whom I think many Marines would agree is the greatest Marine general since Chesty Puller.

    (more…)

  • Shooting at Fort Gillem. One Soldier dead.

    A very recent story coming from the US Army Times reports that a reserve soldier died after being shot by another reserve soldier.

    An Army reservist was shot to death and another was in custody Thursday at a post south of Atlanta that is a gathering place for area reserve units.

    Army spokesman Col. Dan Baggio said the victim died at the Army Reserve Center located on Fort Gillem. He could not offer specifics about the shooting that happened between 4:30 and 5 p.m.

    Authorities said they were withholding the names of the soldiers until they can notify family members, but did say both were men.

    There does not seem to be any known motive at this time.

  • Logic Fail

    Logic Fail

    Yea, found this on Face-book and could not resist commenting on it. So this post is a full reply to a response that I got back. This is insulting beyond words. I am not sure about the rest of those that went but I made sure that I helped the people there when I could. Also it does not take into account that there are many photos like the one below.

    But we are the one’s without humanity because we are on guard due to the fact that the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda sending women, children and the infeasible to the slaughter as human bombs/shields?