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

Category: Terror War

  • Rakkasan: SGT Aguina is mentally ill

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express sent me this link to the comments section of the Daily Kos  from the Angry Rakkasan, otherwise known as Brandon Friedman, one of Jon Solz‘ strokin’ buddies in the VoteVets front organization for attention-starved former Army captains who couldn’t make the Majors’ list.

    Freidman accuses the young buck sergeant, David Aguina, who confronted “Lil Mac” Clarke and his half-witted poodle Jon Solz with the facts of the surge at the YearlyKos Convention, of suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome because he doesn’t stand with Rakkasan, Clarke and Solz on the facts of the “surge”;

     We need to get to the bottom of this.  This is a soldier who needs some help–whether it’s more training in military bearing and discipline or treatment for complex PTSD, we just don’t know yet.  Either way, he’s being exploited by the right-wing blogs.

    Yeah, like the Left wing blogs aren’t using Friedman, Clarke and Solz  – at least their mental problems are more easily recognizable – penis envy. Now I haven’t seen a picture of Brandon, but I think Solz and Clarke must’ve got waivers for their height and weight in order to join the military – they’re the shortest little peckerheads I’ve ever seen to have worn a uniform. Since I can’t find a picture of Freidman, I gotta guess he’s the tall one – he has to be.

    As far as Aguina’s bearing and discipline, I think you’d better start with that gelding Solz. Aguina acted entirely professional, his bearing and discipline were just fine. It’s that pussy Solz that needs to be taught how to be a leader and not some power-starved lap dog for a retired diminutive general. If I had been in SGT Aguina’s shoes that day, the maintainence crews would still be picking pieces of Solz out of the ventilation system.

    Robin also tells us that Friedman gave the opposing response to a presidential radio address back in July. I guess he doesn’t think the Left is using him like a two-bit whore for that, huh? Those fat cows over at Code Pink must be falling all over their worn out udders to get seen with him. 

    And Friedman apparently plans on stalking young Sergeant Aguina;

     I would like to get contact information for Sergeant Aguina, if anyone has it.  I’m also working through VoteVets.org to get it.  I want to speak with him, Iraq veteran-to-Iraq veteran without any consideration of rank.  I’m willing to listen to him, as well as to give him some advice.

    Yeah, Brandon, I’d like to get your contact information, too. You ain’t worth listening to, but I’ve got some advice for you. Probably the same advice your first platoon sergeant had for you.

  • Beauchamps; it ain’t over yet

    I pretty much put the Beauchamps story behind me, it was worth a lot of traffic, I met some new people and I made my point – an indisputable point. My last word on Scott Thomas Beauchamps was “Told ya”.

    Well now I read from Little Green Footballs that The New Republic can’t believe its lyin’ eyes;

    We’ve talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account as detailed in our statement. When we called Army spokesman Major Steven F. Lamb and asked about an anonymously sourced allegation that Beauchamp had recanted his articles in a sworn statement, he told us, “I have no knowledge of that.” He added, “If someone is speaking anonymously [to The Weekly Standard], they are on their own.”

    And the left still clings to the fairie tales of Beauchamps; from the Washington Post;

    Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at George Washington University, called the Army’s refusal to release its report “suspect,” adding: “There is a cloud over the New Republic, but there’s one hanging over the Army, as well. Each investigated this and cleared themselves, but they both have vested interests.”

    See, the Army is “suspect” more than the New Republic is suspect for their shoddy journalistic procedures – especially if you check with “journalism” teachers. Um, I wonder why that is?

    Even the New York Times gets a quote exhonerating the troops;

    “We are not going into the details of the investigation,” Maj. Steven F. Lamb, deputy public affairs officer in Baghdad, wrote in an e-mail message. “The allegations are false, his platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”

    And yet, the NYT still doubts the Army’s statement. Why? Well, for the same reasons they think President Bush did cocaine and went AWOL – there’s no evidence supporting it, so it must be true.

    Any halfwit who spent even a day in the Army knows that those stories Beauchamps wrote are false. Especially since some of the stories were written before Beauchamps even got to Iraq (even New Republic admits that the melted-face contractor story supposedly happened in Kuwait while Beauchamps’ unit was staging for deployment to Iraq- if it happened at all). The Onion called it Pre-Traumatic Stress Syndrome back in November.

    Regardless, the damage is done – both to our troops reputation and to the New Republic. The Beauchamp Tales will be spun at every anti-war rally from now until the troops come home and repeated millions of times on the internet as reasons we shouldn’t support the troops – just like the “Bush was AWOL” and “Bush the coke-head” tales get repeated ad nauseum.

    Personally, I’d really like to take the high road, like Baldilocks – one of the classiest ladies on the internet – but I’m afraid if I ever bump into Beauchamps…well, he’d better practice begging for mercy now. And falling down and ducking.

  • Beauchamps recants fables/Kos defends Solz

    Well, I guess Michael Goldfarb of National Review Online has received confirmation from the Army that Scott Thomas Beauchamps has recanted his fantabulous tales of war;

    Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

    An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.

    According to the military source, Beauchamp’s recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military’s investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, “I’m willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name.”

    So, I expect that any moment now, he’ll be labeled a Karl Rove plant. Probably The New Republic will be fingered in the conspiracy, as well.

    All the things I want to say about Beauchamps, but I’m too much of a gentleman (and my Dad reads this sometimes) can be found here at Absolute Moral Authority (h/t to Beth at My Vast Wing Conspiracy).

    An Army Lawyer speculates on the charges and punishments but he neglects my favorite; failure to repair. Everyone is guilty of that one no matter what they do.

    In other drivel, the Angry Rakkasan, ( at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/5/3940/86488 sorry you’ll have to copy and paste the address into your browser, I’m not linking to that drivel) three days after the incident, more than two days after the internet had been running the video (um, we know what we saw Rakkie), tells the “real story” about Solz and the sergeant he mistreated for all of the world to see. Well after the obligatory “all of you right wingers should join the military if you love the war so much” chickenhawk crap, he explains that the young buck sergeant was at the convention the day before;

    The sergeant immediately zeroed in on General Clark and engaged him in a conversation.  Eventually, I noticed Clark pull the soldier aside and move away from the rest of the crowd.  I could see that the General was getting agitated.  I later learned that the soldier had been lecturing him, telling him that the U.S. military should stay in Iraq and that General Clark should support the President’s policies.

    Clark is said to have told the sergeant that, while he respected the sergeant’s opinion, political activism while in uniform was both inappropriate and illegal—and to do it at the much-publicized YearlyKos Convention would put the soldier in an unnecessary and precarious legal position.  He told the sergeant firmly but politely that it would be in the soldier’s best interest to leave.  And that was the end of it until the next day.

    Rakkie goes on to call the young sergeant a “troll” and ends with another “chickenhawk” rant against Michelle Malkin and Matt Drudge. Now see here’s my problem with the story; there’s nothing that says what, exactly Little Mac Clarke said to the young sergeant – only second-hand hearsay and Rakkasan’s interpretation of facial expressions.

    And I don’t give a tiny rat’s ass how Rakkasan, Clarke or any other number people interpret military directives on the subject, the sergeant said nothing political while in uniform, he didn’t say that he represented any official military policy or office, and the YearlyKoz, from it’s own website;

    US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more.

    Get that? It’s a “nonpartisan, grassroots” convention. So what did the soldier do wrong?

    Solz on the other hand, was completely wrong. No military leader would degrade and threaten a subordinate in public like that. If the soldier had been more of an asshole like I’m an asshole, he’d have made Solz either file charges against him or show him in public what he’d done wrong. I’m sure dorkboy’s head would’ve exploded on camera if it’s been me. Except that I probably wouldn’t have worn my unifrom to the event.

    But what choice did the sergeant have? As you’ve read for yourselves, this pussy Rakkasan trotted out the chickenhawk meme twice in his piece. Once at the beginning and once at the end – as if he has some absolute moral authority over who is allowed to criticize the Left and who isn’t. (And suggesting Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin join the military – c’mon. All Matt Drudge did was link to the story, and I’m not sure Michelle would do her unit much good – she’s barely the size of an ammo pouch) I’m sure the young sergeant wore his uniform as insulation against that intellectually vacant charge that I’ve had thrown at me whenever one of my posts get linked up to Kos or HuffPo.

    And why did it take three days for this to published? The Right had been tired of blogging about the incident by the time Rakkasan trotted out this defense. Seems to me that Kos would’ve defended itself Friday night instead of Sunday morning. That tells me that they had to recon the net to see what was being said and then manufacture a defense.

    A bad defense at that – full of gaping holes.

    Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House and Pajamas Media has an interview with young man now known to be Sergeant David Aguina, age 25, US Army Reserves.

  • Undermining our allies in the War Against Terror

    We all heard Barack Obama flex his puny foreign policy muscles while threatening to attack Pakistan for not killing enough al Qaeda operatives to suit Obama, and, of course the Pakistanis criticized Obama for his indiscretion, and brave Obama stands by his comments. if only he could be that resolute over Iran and the support they give opposing forces in Iraq.

    Well, I was reading my favorite writer on Latin American politics, Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, and I’m starting to see a pattern here. O’Grady writes in her The Real Uribe Record;

    Congressional Democrats out to quash the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement argue that the terror-torn South American country doesn’t adequately protect human rights and thus doesn’t deserve FTA status. In the Democrats’ book, the way to make Colombia more just is to deny it the chance to deepen its commercial relations with the U.S.

    This is curious thinking, and all the more so coming from a party that also argues that the U.S. ought to lift its trade embargo on the Cuban dictatorship as a way to help the Cuban people. Given Cuba’s dismal track record on human rights and the hard work Colombia has done over the past six years to defend human life, it is hard to square that circle.

    O’Grady goes on to recount that Uribe’s tactics in countering communist guerillas and terrorists in Columbia have driven their numbers down;

    Mr. Uribe’s government has demobilized 43,000 illegal armed combatants. Some 33,000 were paramilitary members and 10,000 were guerrillas. But the president notes that the country started with some 60,000 “terrorists,” so there is still work to be done.

    But Ms. O’Grady points out that Vermont Senator Pat Leahy is the major opponent of the the US-Columbia Free Trade Agreement;

     Funny enough, Mr. Leahy, like many of his colleagues — including New York Rep. Charles Rangel in the House — has no such qualms about trade with the despotic regime in Havana. The senator has said that the U.S. should seek engagement with Cuba by “lifting the embargo” and increasing “contact between Americans and Cubans — in other words, we should be tearing down the barriers between our countries not building them ever higher.”

    The Cuba Mr. Leahy wants to get closer to isn’t simply accused of failing to prosecute human-rights violators, as is the case of Colombia. It is a human-rights violator. It is regrettable that the senator apparently believes that the murder of thousands of Cubans, the torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of others, the exile of millions and the denial of all human rights, including the right to organize unions, is irrelevant.

    So by these two examples, I see a pattern emerging – the Democrats are willing to throw our partners under the bus while rushing out to embrace the worst criminals the world has in it for purely political reasons. Sure Pakistan and Columbia aren’t paradise for the people living in them, but certainly those conditions were created by the criminals the governments have to deal with every day.

    And while Leahy and Rangel engage in the old political  shuck and jive, Chavez is reaching out to the terrorists – I wonder who’ll get to the Columbian people first. I think Uribe has been very tolerant seeings how his father was killed by narco-terrorists. O’Grady ends her article;

    Even if none of this progress had occurred, it would make little sense to reject the FTA. Colombia needs the free trade agreement, Mr. Uribe said in New York, because it’s how “we can generate more employment of a higher quality, send more of our products to the U.S. market and in this way we will have less illicit drugs, less terrorism, more peace, more security, more well-being for the Colombian people.” If only the government in Havana cared as much about the Cuban population.

    Indeed. And if only our government, the one in DC, cared about people as much as they like to tell us they care.

  • Who’s afraid of the big, fat terrorist?

    Big, fat goofball, Adam Gadahn, the so-called American al Qaeda, is threatening us again for the umpteenth time, according to CBS News;

    American al Qaeda leader Adam Gadahn says al Qaeda will continue to target the United States at home and overseas, singling out U.S. embassies as a target, in a new Internet video released by as Sahab, the propaganda wing of al Qaeda.

    “We shall continue to target you at home and abroad, just as you target us at home and abroad, and these spy dens and military command and control centers from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq, and which still provide vital moral, military, material and logistical support to the Crusade, shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims,” says Gadahn, who hails from Orange County, Calif. “Stop the Crusade,and leave the Muslims alone.”

    And there’s the money quote; stop the crusade and leave Muslims alone. Think he’s talking to our troops? Nope, they’ll fight anyone anywhere to defend the nation – from all enemies foreign and domestic. Think he’s talking to the President? Nope, the President isn’t afraid of threats from some pudgy halfwit from California. And, apparently neither are the Iraqis nor the Afghans who are killing al Qaeda operatives in droves, too.

    Nope he’s talking to Democrats – they’re the ones cringing from the outcome of this war against goat herders like Gadahn. They’re the ones who think that we can’t win this war. Democrats even invented a useless term like asymetrical warfare to project their cowardice and sense of hopelessness on the American people.

    Mostly, the Democrats are afraid that Americans might just win this war. You’ve got their candidates attacking our allies in the war against terror like Pakistan and Columbia, while they visit our enemies like Syria and Venezuela. And folks like over-fed, small-penised Adam Gadahn give them hope.

    Um, if you think that “war is not the answer”, you didn’t understand the question.

  • YearlyKos moderator enforces DoD policy (Updated 2x)

    I picked up this story from Little Green Footballs who got it from American Prospect that some moderator shouted down an audience member in uniform;

    [A] young man in uniform stood up to argue that the surge was working, and cutting down on Iraqi casualties. The moderator largely freaked out. When other members of the panel tried to answer his question, he demanded they “stand down.” He demanded the questioner give his name, the name of his commander, and the name of his unit. And then he closed the panel, no answer offered or allowed, and stalked off the stage….

    Well, apparently Wes Clark, this century’s “Little Mac” McClellan, explained that a member of the military can’t participate in polical meetings in uniform. Funny, that wasn’t the argument the Left used when Adam Kokesh was bothering people while in uniform on the National Mall during anti-war rallies.

    What Wesley Clark was referring to was DoD Directive 1334.01 which states;

    It is DoD policy that:

     3.1.  The wearing of the uniform by members of the Armed Forces (including retired members and members of Reserve components) is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:

      3.1.1.  At any meeting or demonstration that is a function of, or sponsored by an organization, association, movement, group, or combination of persons that the Attorney General of the United States has designated, under Executive Order 10450 as amended (reference (c)), as totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive, or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means.

      3.1.2.  During or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest may be drawn.

      3.1.3.  Except when authorized by the approval authorities in subparagraph 4.1.1., when participating in activities such as unofficial public speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration, which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted.

      3.1.4.  When wearing of the uniform may tend to bring discredit upon the Armed Forces.

    Now unless Kos admits that it’s a totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive organization, the guy was within his rights to be there and in uniform. It’s just a lame excuse to keep people from hearing that current operations have improved life in Iraq, while hiding behind a DoD policy that the Left doesn’t agree with when it suits them.

    And in case this Jon Solz dude who dressed down the soldier is wondering – I don’t care what his rank is or was – I’d tear him a new aft-orifice if I ever caught him intimidating a soldier – especially like a lame little puss. “What’s your unit? Who’s your commander?” That’s stuff real leaders stop doing their first day.

    Its pretty disingeuous of Solz, representing himself as a veteran in everything he writes and says, representing an organization called VoteVets which masquerades as a  nonpartisan organization, but is clearly a tool of the Democrats, and then Solz silences a member of the military. 

    Solz didn’t seem to have a problem with the soldier sitting in the audience – until he had something to say. If there was something wrong with him being at the event, someone should have said something during the 44 minutes he sat there.

    More hypocrisy.

    Michele Malkin has more links and thoughts. mRed at Invincible Armor tracks Leftist reaction. Volunteer Opinion Journal faults global warming for their meltdown. Ace says it’s a good excuse to prosecute Beauchamps.

    Little Green Footballs now has the video.

    UPDATE: Pajamas Media‘s Andrew Marcus has an exclusive interview with the young buck sergeant (h/t Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive). 

    UPDATE II: It seems that Daily Kos is also censoring their diarists who question Solz’ treatment of the young buck sergeant at the center of the fury. One story remains, but LGF has a screenshot if it goes the way of it’s predecesor.

  • End the war; raise the taxes

    A bridge collapses in Minnesota and everyone automatically assumes the only answer is to raise Federal taxes. Well, except Barney Frank – he has a two-point plan. End the war in Iraq (he’s careful to say Iraq specifically, otherwise someone might think he’s a crackpot who wants to end the war against Pakistan) and raise taxes.

    LibertyPost records some of the mooniest/battiest internet posts from the Democrat Underground while Bob Parks, of Black and Right, ventures into the Daily Kos. 

    Can someone tell me why a taxpayer in Arizona should pay money out of his earnings so someone in Minnesota doesn’t have to drive around a body of water? Why should we abandon our worldwide struggle for national security to repair potholes in South Dakota?

    Well, of course, the real answer is that any straw the Democrats can grasp they use. They blamed the Republicans for two hurricanes, I guess they blame them for bridge collapses, too. Just so long as the people who vote remember that Federal government isn’t the answer to every-fricken-question-ever-asked.

    I remember in 1992, the Democrats blamed the President’s father for Hurricane Andrew and when he expanded the capabilities of FEMA (which was little more than a phone bank), the Democrats accused him of “growing government” in the election.

    Any group of people who thought that Al Gore and John Kerry were the best choices for the last two presidential races certainly don’t have the answer to two difficult questions – especially if the only answer they can come up with is “end the war and raise taxes”. A two-year-old could have think that one up.

  • Rumsfeld denies coverup in Tillman death

    Pat Tillman was a great American for the way he lived his life, his family is in pain over his loss, and to a lesser degree we’re all in pain over this, but I don’t think there was a intentional plot afoot to misinform anyone. But you can’t tell Henry “Nostrilitis” Waxman that;

    “You’ve all admitted that the system failed. The public should have known, the family should have known earlier, whoever was responsible,” Mr. Waxman said as the hearing ended. “None of you feel you personally were responsible but the system itself didn’t work. ‘The system didn’t work, errors were made’ — that’s too passive. Somebody should be responsible, and we’re trying to figure that out,” Mr. Waxman said.

    Why? Why just this case of friendly fire? Does anyone have any idea how many friendly fire deaths there have been since 2001? I don’t – but I know that this isn’t the only one. Yet, it’s the only one Waxman is concerned enough about to have public hearings. And guess what – it’s not the Army’s fault, it’s not DoD’s fault, it’s not even the fault of whoever the young Ranger was that shot him.

    It’s the fault of the laws of physics – steel jacketed bullets travelling at 2000 feet per second penetrate skulls – when you put a number of skulls and a large number of steel jacketed bullets in a relatively confined area, the two are bound to meet with predictable results eventually. Especially if the owners of those skulls lead from the front.

    Even the Washington Post sees a conspiracy (surprise!), and of course it’s the Bush Administration’s fault;

    Tillman was killed just as the U.S. military was becoming increasingly bogged down in Iraq and as horrific allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison were emerging. The Bush administration initially portrayed his death as an act of heroism against the enemy.

    Horrific allegations of penis-pointing at Abu-Ghraib inspired by the evil Bush cabal caused a friendly fire accident.

    The incident happened at night, and some misoriented soldiers who ended up in the wrong place. I saw it happen with even more devastating results when a platoon of Bradleys got turned around in a night attack on a dug-in Iraqi armor unit – three Bradleys were destroyed by US M1 tanks which inflicted a number of casualties.

    I watched an Apache put some Helfire missiles on a friendly Bradley and M113 APC one night – two were killed in that, too. The guncamera video of that incident is here. So I know that friendly fire happens alot – it’s an ugly creature of war, but a fact nonetheless.

    Immediate announcements of deaths are usually intentionally wrong, to protect people until the incidents are investigated thoroughly. That’s only fair.

    But I guess we can’t expect Waxman and his cronies shucking and jiving for the CSPAN cameras to understand that people in the military have rights, too.