Category: Politics

With the news that John McCain has a likely terminal form of brain cancer, the media is falling all over itself to heap sympathy, best wishes and praise on the octogenarian solon. While I am just as sympathetic to his family as I would be any other, I cannot play the hypocrite and act as if I do not feel a sense of relief at McCain’s future absence from our nation’s capital. McCain has always been a wild card, more truly a Joker, with unpredictability as his premier trait, a political capriciousness that did not endear him to many like me who served in the same war as McCain.

Many have forgotten that McCain’s BFF in the Senate was John Kerry before Kerry left to become Secretary of State. That totally inexplicable friendship, except as two rich guys, who married right, sharing their good fortunes, left me cold. John Kerry is to me the single most despicable thing that came out of the Vietnam War with his lying denunciations of his fellow servicemen for purely personal political aggrandizement. Jane Fonda was a traitor but at least she didn’t use her treachery to build a political career, which is precisely what John Kerry did.

That McCain could embrace this oily traitor was proof enough to me that McCain’s judgment was clearly impaired. I tried to credit that to his horrible treatment while a captive in North Vietnam but that line of credit ran out when McCain, as a supposed conservative Republican, time and again displayed a too eager willingness to cave to the liberal opposition and grant them their way. Again and again I tried to rationalize away his abandonment of our conservative principles with the excuse that he still was one of us Vietnam vets so that deep down, he held our best interests at heart.

That belief was totally crushed in 2004, when John McCain attacked the Swift Boat Veterans as “Dishonest and dishonorable,” in a deplorable attempt to defend that Stolen Valor candidate for president, John Fraud Kerry. Any former senior naval officer like McCain, who had achieved the rank of O-6 Captain, a wing commander, could have taken one look at Kerry’s Vietnam records and heard alarm bells going off all over the place. Instead he chose to ignore the obvious fraud, the manufactured fiction, and turn his back on his fellow Vietnam vets. That’s when I turned my back on John McCain, a political opportunist who had his finger in the political wind, hoping for a high appointment from a President Kerry, a shoe-in for the office, until the Swiftees launched their fact-based, evidence-supported assault on the would have been Stolen Valor President.

That folks, is why ol’ Poetrooper isn’t a wailing, teeth-gnashing, self-flagellant at the news that John McCain’s allotted time on this planet is soon coming to an end. While I can extend my sympathies to his loved ones, I cannot find it in my heart to bewail the fate of this betrayer of his battlefield brothers. Some here at TAH will disagree, considering me crass and disrespectful.

We are now weapons free: Fire at will.

Last weekend I posted up a link to “We Are The Mighty’s Complete Haters Guide to the US Navy.” You didn’t think I’d leave it at that, right?

The branches of the U.S. Military are like a very large family. They deal with one another because they have to, not because they always get along.

The differences don’t stop at uniforms. Each branch has its own goals, mission, and its own internal culture. At the upper levels of the services, they compete for funds and favor from civilians in DoD. In the lower ranks, they compete for fun and favor from civilians in bars and strip clubs (especially in North Carolina). The branches are like siblings, competing for the intangible title of who’s “the best” from no one in particular.

Of course, when it comes to joint operations downrange, a lot of that goes out the window. But when the op-tempo isn’t as hectic and frustration has time to build, the awesome Army platoon who saved your ass last month become a bunch of damn stupid grunts who steal everything you don’t lock down and leave their Gatorade piss bottles everywhere. Parsing out the best and worst of our services isn’t hard if we’re honest with ourselves.

Here’s how the other branches hate on the Air Force, how they should actually be hating on the Air Force, how the Air Force hates on the Air Force, and why to really love the Air Force.

I can’t actually hate the Air Force- seems son #1 is a member (associate?). It does on occasion bring up some interesting topics of conversation, though. Without further ado, here’s the link to WATM’s Complete Haters Guide to the US Air Force, enjoy!

We Are The Mighty

 

 

 

Samuel Oakford writes in the Daily Beast that “Trump’s Air War Has Already Killed More Than 2,000 Civilians“. No, really;

Airwars researchers estimate that at least 2,300 civilians likely died from Coalition strikes overseen by the Obama White House—roughly 80 each month in Iraq and Syria. As of July 13, more than 2,200 additional civilians appear to have been killed by Coalition raids since Trump was inaugurated—upwards of 360 per month, or 12 or more civilians killed for every single day of his administration.

Yeah, neither the White House nor the President are “overseeing” airstikes in the Levant. If you want to blame someone for the civilian casualties, you have to blame the troops who have eyes on the targets, but that’s not politically expedient, is it, Sam? Neither is the fact that ISIS should own the blame for hiding behind civilians as human shields.

First, you have to prove to me which casualties are civilians and which are non-uniformed fighters. Which are camp follower women supporting the fighters and which are innocent by-standers.

The high civilian toll in part reflects the brutal final stages of the war, with the densely populated cities of Mosul and Raqqa under heavy assault by air and land. But there are also indications that under President Trump, protections for civilians on the battlefield may have been lessened—with immediate and disastrous results.

Yeah, the Obama Administration was willing to sacrifice the lives of Americans to spare civilians. Read Dakota Meyer’s book Into the Fire to understand the ridiculous extremes that policy reached, costing lives of Americans as a result.

“Remarkably, when I interview families at camps who have just fled the fighting, the first thing they complain about is not the three horrific years they spent under ISIS, or the last months of no food or clean water, but the American airstrikes,” said Belkis Wille, Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Many told me that they survived such hardship, and almost made it out with the families, only to lose all their loved ones in a strike before they had time to flee.”

OK, maybe they tell that story, because it’s more profitable to tell about their losses due to American culpability than blaming ISIS which seems to be slower in paying for hardship stories.

On Feb. 27, Secretary of Defense James Mattis delivered the new war plan to Trump.

“Two significant changes resulted from President Trump’s reviews of our findings,” Mattis later said at a May 19 meeting of the anti-ISIS Coalition. “First, he delegated authority to the right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities. Second, he directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS.”

Though the U.S. military had shifted to such annihilation tactics—a change cited with glee by the Trump White House—Mattis claimed there have been no updates to U.S. rules of engagement. “There has been no change to our continued extraordinary efforts to avoid innocent civilian casualties,” he told reporters.

“Avoiding” civilian casualties is a reasonable goal, but like I said, this war has gone on for as long as it has because these fellows in the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, al Shabbab, etc…, like to hide themselves in among civilians, so some civilians are going to get hurt and killed when they do it more often as the war closes in on the insurgents. It’s not like the troops are doing it on purpose – targeting civilian centers, it’s the insurgents hiding behind them that have determined where the fighting takes place.

But for people like Samuel Oakford, it’s much more satisfying to portray the President and the troops as the bloodthirsty terrorists rather than the actual terrorists.

This is an open appeal to our media-besieged and much beleaguered President to exercise the power he possesses as Commander in Chief of our armed forces to be the ultimate determiner, as George W. Bush might have called him, in limiting matters of military insanity. The folly at hand is the reported move by the Defense Department to require all our military services to bend over so far to accommodate transsexuals within the ranks that the leadership of our various services appears to be viewing reality through their nether parts.

According to a very sincere, young, ex-Army captain appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show recently, the Army is disseminating directions to commanders on how to deal with issues arising from the presence of transsexuals of both genders in latrines and shower stalls in military barracks. From my own long ago experiences in such environments I can’t really envision any problems in male barracks where a female confusedly thinking she’s a male enters a barracks shower with only soap in hand. If forbidden by regulations to comment on the soldier’s lack of a male appendage, you can damn well bet that all eyes of her fellow soldiers will be focused on the triangle that is there in its place. This applies equally to the transsexual soldier’s mammary attributes. If that soldier isn’t flat-chested as hell, there’s going to be a lot of sidewise glances directed that way with every soldier in that shower stall thinking about soaping up those suckers, most especially if they happen to be a pair of youthful pointers. You can tell a young soldier all day to ignore those boobs and I promise you it is going to fall on deaf ears. Or deaf somethings.

On the distaff side, things may be a chance more problematic, particularly if the transsexual soldier in the shower room happens to be well-endowed and still hasn’t undergone the hormone therapy to reduce his natural testosterone driven reaction to naked female bodies in very close proximity. My seven decades of living have taught me, much to my chagrin at times, that as long as that male organ is just hanging there flaccid, it’s fairly easy for the opposite sex to ignore. However, and this is the big however, when that reproductive appendage is sticking out there in full present arms, as it very well could be in the scene set above, it is very difficult for females to ignore. I can imagine that in the case of one erection in a shower room of young female soldiers in sexual full bloom, it would be only natural for them to be wondering which one among them it was who was triggering that stand-out performance. I can also imagine that some of the more liberated of those female soldiers just might be thinking about soaping up that sucker as well.

Mr. President, our armed forces as they have traditionally existed have long had to contend with hormonal-generated problems, and the last thing they need is a social experimentation program concocted by the Obama Administration to add to the complexities of dealing with the problems nature hands them. You, Sir, have the singular power to stop this nonsense in its tracks by simply countermanding the ridiculous Obama order.
So, Mr. President, please just stop it!

Crossposted from an edited version at American Thinker

“The Soviets are our adversary. Our enemy is the Navy,” General Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force.

Folks over at “We Are The Mighty” have been posting hater’s guides to the various military branches.  Cut me and I bleed Navy Blue, and I could go off about Jar Heads, Zoomies, Mud Ducks, and Doggies, but I’ll post the link of we of the Nautical Service Arm, the United States Navy, and what’s good, bad and ugly about us. And with luck, some truth and humor as well.

Ward Carroll penned this; he’s a former F-14 RIO, author of several very cool books (check out his Punk series on Amazon), musician, and an editor at WATM.

So here’s a teaser, click on the link for the entire article.

The branches of the U.S. military are like a very large family. They deal with one another because they have to, not because they always get along.

The differences don’t stop at uniforms. Each branch has its own goals, mission, and its own internal culture. At the upper levels of the services, they compete for funds and favor from civilians in DoD. In the lower ranks, they compete for fun and favor from civilians in bars and strip clubs (especially in North Carolina). The branches are like siblings, competing for the intangible title of who’s “the best” from no one in particular.

We Are The Mighty

You all are my brothers and sisters, one big family. And fear not- your service branch gets the same treatment, written by those who know it well.

Novorussia Today is reporting on NATO’s “provocations” incurred by Operation Sea Breeze, an annual multinational navel exercise held in the Black Sea. Hosted by the Ukraine, the exercise began Monday and will continue through 12 September.

This year’s Sea Breeze is the largest yet, with up to 2500 personnel from 17 countries participating. The US will contribute 1000 sailors and Marines, 5 warships, various aircraft and other vehicles.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry press service reported that the exercise is aimed at “drilling a multinational security operation in a crisis region.”

“The maneuvers are to enhance confidence and security in the region, improve interoperability between the naval force of Ukraine and NATO and partner countries,” the ministry said.”

In addition, other NATO member states will send troops and military equipment, 6 ships, 3 submarines, 6 aircraft and 10 wheeled vehicles.

US Naval Forces Europe-Africa, US 6th Fleet Command reported that “Maritime forces from 11 maritime nations will begin the US-Ukraine co-hosted multinational maritime exercise Sea Breeze 2015 in Odessa, Ukraine, and the Black Sea, Aug. 31. Sea Breeze, now in its 14th iteration, is an annual exercise held in the Black Sea which seeks to enhance interoperability and strengthen regional security.”

According to NATO sources, participating nations include Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The exercise will include maritime interdiction operations, antisubmarine warfare, and defense against swarm tactics. Other skills to be exercised include air defense, damage control, and C-SAR.

Swatting down Nork-like Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, and now the largest Sea Breeze exercise in history is being conducted in Russia’s pond. Messaging, anyone?

 

Want to know what a stranger’s political leanings are? There is a simple question that may yield that information: Ask them what the term Swiftboating means.

They don’t even have to provide a well-formed, grammatical definition; rather, the answer you seek lies in the sense of whether it represents something positive or negative to them. If they respond with something like this: “a harsh attack by a political opponent that is dishonest, personal, and unfair,” which is the Wikipedia definition, then you should suspect you are dealing with someone whose politics lean left, at least to the extent that they get their news from the alphabet mainstream media.

If the person responds that the term describes the public exposure of a politician’s claims to phony war heroism and undeserved medals, then you can be fairly certain you’re talking to a conservative who gets his news from Internet sources and perhaps FOX News. You are also likely talking to a veteran. That second definition is mine, by the way, because there is no positive dictionary definition of the term, as all dictionaries appear to be compiled by liberals.

If ever there were a clear exception to the truism that “Victors write history,” it is the concept of Swiftboating which has been appropriated by the losing Left and twisted into an epithet which when directed your way by the liberal media, immediately labels you as some sort of especially treacherous turncoat. We should learn a lesson from this: The liberal movement and specifically the liberal media know the value of controlling the language. They took a term, Swiftboating, which should describe honorable behavior involving self-sacrifice by American veterans and twisted it into something foul and fraudulent, the Scarlett “S” of the 21st century, a bright burning brand on the brows of those brave men who gave up their private lives to save America from a Commander-in-Chief that they personally knew to be a fake, a phony, a Stolen Valor fraud.

With the mainstream media dropping all pretense of being objective in the recent election and in the current campaign to unseat President Trump, we no longer have to question just how the treatment of the Swift Boat veterans came about. From their first press conference, where the MSM discovered that the intent of these sailors was to attack John Kerry and his phony war record, the full wrath and fury of the elite liberal media institution turned on these small-boat sailors. The media, in full sucking support of John Kerry, Democrat, first attempted to bury the Swiftees. Then when that didn’t work, they leveled the big guns and did their very best to dishonor and discredit some very honorable combat veterans, depicting them as malcontents and men of no standing to challenge Kerry’s lies.

I know I’m engaged in a Sisyphean effort here because of the massed forces of the liberal media and the natural fading interest of the public. We tend to forget the past dishonesties of those reprehensible jerks, who laughingly purport to provide the “News” to a country they betray every day. They perpetuate the lies they have imposed upon our history simply because they control the public discussion and recorded events. So what I’m calling for is that those of you who agree with me that the term Swiftboating has been so dishonestly turned upon its head to mean its opposite, will agree that it should be taught to our children as a term of high honor among those of us who refute the collectivist, leftist views of America’s despicable mainstream media. May I offer this description for Swiftboating:

An honorable attempt by brave men of loyal military service to identify one of them, who served among them, as not worthy of high elected office.

Sweet and simple, and as honest as it can be. Tell it to Wikipedia.

Think about how naïve so many conservatives were back then in believing that the media was objective.

Crossposted at American Thinker