Post 9/11 GI Bill Interview

A few weeks ago, this nifty AP reporter emailed me, asking for a phone interview. She wanted to know about the Post 9/11 GI Bill, and about my experiences going back to school. "Great!" I said. "I just started this new blog to specifically talk about that."

Anyway, we spoke for about thirty minutes, and she gave me a few career tips concerning journalism. A few weeks had passed and I heard nothing, until today. Her story was bought, and went national:

Colleges focus on veterans as GI Bill ups numbers

By KRISTIN M. HALL

It would have been cool to have a link placed in the article for some traffic to the blog, but oh well...

My Mastercard Commercial

September 20, 2005

Oasis. Cake. Weezer. 311. Madness. Beck. Jet. Garbage. Live. The Bravery. Arcade Fire. Bloc Party.

OMG.

here's my mastercard commercial:

roundtrip airfare for one from nashville to orange county: $499

2 tickets, orchestra section, KROQ's Inland Invasion: $190

Venue Parking, Food, T-Shirts: $75

Stop lossed soldier's unauthorized travel to spend last weekend with pregnant wife before leaving for Iraq: Priceless

Memorial Day Militarism

A thought to ponder, raised by Chalmers Johnson in The Sorrows of Empire:

"The only truly common elements in the totality of America's foreign bases are imperialism and militarism--an impulse on the part of our elites to dominate other peoples largely because we have the power to do so, followed by the strategic reasoning that, in order to defend these newly acquired outposts and control the regions they are in, we must expand the areas under our control with still more bases. To maintain its empire, the Pentagon must constantly invent new reasons for keeping in our hands as many bases as possible long after the wars and crises that led to their creation have evaporated."

By James Madison, primary author of the Constitution:

"Of all enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debt and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few."

Chalmers Johnson:

"When the historical record is considered, American foreign policy over the past half century may not prove to be particularly exceptional or evil, but the gap between what the government has been doing and the explanations it has given to the public continues to widen."

"The onset of militarism is commonly marked by three broad indicators. The first is the emergence of a professional military class and the subsequent glorification of its ideals... with public support slackening (during the Korean War), the military high command turned to inculcating martial values into the troops, making that the most vital goal of all military instruction, superseding even training in the use of weapons. These values were to include loyalty, esprit de corps, tradition, male bonding, discipline, and action--generally speaking, a John Wayne view of the world. The second political hallmark of militarism is the preponderance of military officers or representatives of the arms industry in high government positions (consider Powell, Armitage, Teets, White, England, and Roche, in 2001 alone). The third hallmark of militarism is a devotion to policies in which military preparedness becomes the highest priority of the state. In his inaugural address, President George W. Bush said, 'We will build our defenses beyond challenge, lest weakness invite challenge. We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors.' But no nation has the capacity to challenge the United States militarily... Since his administration is devoted to further enlarging America's military capabilities--a sign of militarism rather than of military preparedness--it has had to invent new threats in order to convince people that more is needed."

"The purpose of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was to prevent the military from ever again engaging in police activities without the consent of Congress or the President... although the act has been modified many times... it still is meant to ensure that the standing army will not have any role in policing American citizens in their own country. However, the rise of militarism, aided by the attacks of September 11, 2001, has eroded these old distinctions. By expanding the meaning of national security to include counterterrorism and controlling immigration, areas in which it now actively participates, the Pentagon has moved into the domestic policy business. The Department of Defense has, for instance, drafted operational orders to respond to what it calls a CIDCON (civilian disorder condition)... in case of a large scale terrorist incident, the Pentagon can place on alert a Joint Task Force-Civil Support based at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and 'Task Force 250,' the responder, is actually the Army's 82nd Airborne, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina."

No thanks. Something is clearly not right.

I LOVE Coffee

Got an email from Hank, of Devil Dog Brew. Passionate, patriotic dude. Not my branch, but a damn fine organization promoting a good cause. I haven't personally tasted their coffee (I'd love to), but so what. Get some here. I'm not in any way affiliated or being compensated by promoting this, but proceeds benefit the Marine Corps. Why? 'Cuz they deserve some damn good coffee, that's why.

By the way, I prefer mine of light or medium roast, fresh ground, french pressed, with filtered water, and dark as deepest pits of fiery, blackest hell. Yeah, that's right. Cream and sugar is for pussies. 

The Sorrows of Empire

I just received some electronic propaganda from some public relations firm. I'm sure you'll notice the same email and article copied and pasted across the milblogosphere very shortly. Instead of doing that, I'm going to give you the link to the article, and in celebration of the end of school for the whole summer, am going to post up a (shitty) review I had to write about The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson. Fascinating book, a NY Times best seller. This is probably going to further the pro-Bushies into labelling me liberal, or anti-military. Well, fuck them. You can read my report, and the book. I dare you. 

------------------------

Dear Milbloggers:
Please take a look at Maj. Gen. Bentley Rayburn’s latest piece which was just published in National Review Online.  
The fight over military programs doesn’t end here with the latest abomination of a budget.  Please link to this if you can and let me know if you’d like to receive more pieces by our allies.
Best,
Audrey Mullen
Advocacy Ink
815 King Street – Suite 302
Alexandria, VA  22314
Ph. 703-548-1160

---

National Review Online - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGJhMjJmOWNiNmE3YThiN2ViZDMyMGQ0MTYxMDA5YTA=

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Official histories are neat. In textbooks, they are almost always clean; they usually lack specific detail, and because of the breadth of the overall subject, offer very little depth, or insight into the topics they intend to describe. Most often, they are neither investigative, nor analytical, but readily accepting of the shaped, or skewed dictations presented by the press, and the government, as the events occurred. This is not the most responsible way to record history, nor even an appropriate one. Fortunately, many historians are not convinced by these “official” stories, either as a result of newly uncovered evidence, or as investigative analyses have been used to expose previously received “truths.” Chalmers Johnson is one of those historians, and The Sorrows of Empire is an accumulation of facts, the dirty truths that have been buried by American institutions over the last century, that challenge the good-guy image America wears on its sleeve and forcefully carries abroad. And it’s a shame, too, that from childhood, we are purposely sheltered from the truth in books like Mr. Johnson’s, and are instead spoon-fed false histories in classrooms, as defined by politicians, and their personal agendas. The Sorrows of Empire is everything my textbooks are not: dirty, detailed, revealing, and above all, fascinating. In this sense, the propaganda machine responsible for the school texts are what relegate books like The Sorrows of Empire into the category of “conspiracy theory,” a term applied to the educated, weirdoes, wacko’s, and social misfits; this becomes the criteria whereby its revealing truths are deemed secret.

The Sorrows of Empire alleges that America is under attack—not from communism, or terrorism, as the recent neo-conservatives in power have asserted, but from an inner enemy Mr. Johnson calls militarism. This escalation of the military empire takes shape in three forms, but it is a quote from first president, George Washington, that gives warning in what we have too conveniently forgotten today. “Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican liberty.” (Johnson, 39) Washington’s words provide an interesting and alarming context to The Sorrows of Empire. He clearly foresaw, from first-hand experience, the dangerous conditions associated with a large military at the government’s convenience, and noted the potential effects it would have on the ideals our nation was originally founded on.

Mr. Johnson’s “militarism” is marked first by the “emergence of a professional military class and the subsequent glorification of its ideals.” Of professionalism, he asserts the goal “is to produce soldiers who will fight solely and simply because they have been ordered to do so and not because they necessarily identify with, or have any interest in, the political goals of a war.” (Johnson, 58) It is easy to trace this thought back to the middle of the twentieth century. In World War II, Americans were particularly moved to participate in the war effort, if even domestically. Despite intentional provocations with the Germans in the Atlantic, Pearl Harbor seemed to be the last straw for ordinary citizens, and their prior refusal to stay out of the war had turned into a fierce motive for vengeance. But American thought was changed drastically after the war as American veterans returned home. For them, this wasn’t a 162 game season, and with the war over, there was not a need to continue having such a large standing force.

The U.S. military debacles in Korea and Vietnam exacerbated the trend for soldiers to begin questioning their involvement and service at the hands of questionable politicians; conscription failed to keep the size of the military at the level politicians and big government envisioned, and as a result to these failed conflicts, and others, the military began to rely, successfully initially, on a volunteer force for staffing. By nature, those willing to enlist had agreed to waive their rights, especially in questioning the missions they would be given. From this arose a sense of pride that would be built over time, instilling in recruits new values that essentially made them nameless subjects at the government’s fingertips, and to do its bidding.

Today, the red-state propaganda is everywhere. If you don’t have a yellow, magnetic ribbon on your car to support the soldiers, then you are not patriotic. Fraternal catch phrases like “the few, the proud,” exclude those who just aren’t tough enough to handle the Marines way of life. The Army’s favorite slogan, “freedom isn’t free” is a guilt trip remembrance to “those who gave all,” and implies that those have not given anything are less entitled to share the reward and benefits for what has already been won. Perhaps even worse is that soldiers not only waive their right to personal opinion, but also are used at the government’s convenience for tests of inoculations and experimental medical practices in combat. An extreme example of this is documented by Eileen Welsome’s article, The Plutonium Experiments, contained in John Friedman’s book The Secret Histories. While Elmer Allen is the subject of the article, it goes on to explain that, in addition to the poor, black communities, soldiers were also among the thousands of human guinea pig experiments sponsored by the government, sometimes at the hands of Nazi scientists, in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. (Friedman, 63)

In The Sorrows of Empire, Chalmers Johnson attributes the second “political hallmark of militarism as the preponderance of military officers or representatives of the arms industry in high government positions.” (Johnson, 62) In 2001, former President George W. Bush’s regime went overboard by emplacing executives from Lockheed Martin, Enron, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman into key civilian leadership positions in the military, proceeding to then hand out large military contracts to those companies in an attempt to further bolster, as Johnson argues, America’s preparation for war, than its supposed aim to prevent it. (Johnson, 63) The marriage between business, technology, and weapons with government took a horrific and deadly turn in the first half of the twentieth century. In The Secret Histories, Edwin Black recounts his research into IBM and its involvement with German Nazi’s. He found that a German subsidiary of American IBM, with complicit knowledge from American executives, had created the tracking punch-card machines the Nazi’s used to find, sort, track, and monitor movements of every Jew in Europe. (Friedman, 17) The use of this technology implicates IBM’s partial responsibility for the systematic annihilation of over six million Jews. Clearly, this example illustrates what can go wrong when business, government, and military share the same bed.

Mr. Johnson’s “third hallmark of militarism is a devotion to policies in which military preparedness becomes the highest priority of the state.” (Johnson, 63) He describes the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center as the “manna,” a gift from heaven, enabling, perhaps justifying Bush’s desire that we needed to be more ready. We needed more troops, more guns, more bombs, and more planes. After watching “Zero” in class, I’m inclined to think 9/11 was not a gift from heaven, but a well-staged event that deceived the nation into believing we needed more of what Bush was proposing. In 2004, after returning from a year in Iraq, my Infantry Battalion allowed us to take thirty days of vacation, and upon our return, we dove headfirst into training for the next combat deployment to Iraq. A standing military is no good lest it is trained and ready to fight, but in defiance of Mr. Johnson’s first hallmark of militarism, professionalism, I wasn’t the only one beginning to question what we were fighting for. Here, we had just returned from war, and were, just thirty-days later, after finally relaxing and trying to reintegrate into family life, we began to train up for the next war! The Sorrows of Empire asserts the empire was already “well prepared for war” when Bush took office, but additionally questioned his “policies of enlarging its military capabilities.” Johnson also alleges that the enormous “growth of the armaments industry,” the “staggering overkill in our nuclear arsenal,” and the “lack of any rational connection between nuclear means and nuclear ends is further evidence of the rise to power of a militarist mind-set.” (Johnson, 64)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make one and one, two. If we are able to look past the doctored amnesia of the last critical event to occupy our short-term memory, to potentially see the repetitious patterns spread throughout the last century, one can arrive at the same conclusions Chalmers Johnson has. In this context, there is a resoundingly clear pattern of political attack in our government favorable to conflict. The disparity between lives lost, and revenues earned, as a result of war, makes it a very profitable endeavor. A seemingly endless supply of “professionalized” pawns will see that it remains, while politicians, and big business executives continue to grow their economic empires, and our country’s own imperialist expansion. In The Sorrows of Empire, Chalmers Johnson is more of a scientist than a historian. Americans do not have to believe the officially recorded versions of “truth” our government is feeding, especially when the facts are visible and available to all. Mr. Johnson is simply an observer. He asks questions, and arranges the answers in a logical manner. In that regard, he becomes the mathematician, adding snippets of evidence, until finally, some answers are in conflict with what the government sponsors. And in this regard, we need to challenge the neatness, cleanness, and vague descriptions supplied in our history books. Until this happens, or until changes are made, The Sorrows of Empire will be secret as long as the masses are learning what the government sponsors in the classroom. An examination of the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the recent history of our country will probably remain shelved, just in case anyone is paying attention. 

----------------------

And finally, some official reviews:

“Empires do not last, and their ends are usually unpleasant”

In Blowback, Chalmers Johnson, one of the most distinguished US historians of the Far East and a former consultant to the CIA, predicted the events of September 11 a year before they took place. In this successor volume, Johnson continues the story, deepening his analysis of the American Empire, critically examining its history, and forecasting its likely future.

The Sorrows of Empire scrutinizes the policies, past and present, that have led to American imperialism and the massive defence spending and overseas military deployment that necessarily accompany it. It suggests that the US could suffer the same “overstretch” that led to the demise of the Soviet Union. Johnson outlines the cost of Empire, both for the American people and their Republic, and for the rest of the -world.

Eloquent and impassioned, The Sorrows of Empire is a sombre and cogent analysis, written with an authority that is impossible to ignore.

“In this cri de coeur, he asks us to understand ourselves – to grasp, before it is too late, that America’s modern militarist empire threatens to destroy the democratic republic.’” — William Grieder, author of Who Will Tell the People?

“Chalmers Johnson’s relentless logic, authoritative schoarship, and elegantly biting prose distinguish The Sorrows of Empire. Anyone who reads it will have a much sharper sense of the costs of America’s new world–girdling commitements.” — James Fallows, author of Breaking the News

” The Sorrows of Empire is sobering, for it associates the United States with a dynamic most Americans still find unmentionable – our ever-deepening militarism, with all the sorrows of perpetual war and moral as well as political and economic bankruptcy that inevitably accompany this.” — John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Chalmers Johnson is President of the Japan Policy Research Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire and Japan: Who Governs?

What the hell is a BIF?

Ok, so I was fucking stuck. The assholes were definitely not going to let me stay home to be with Mrs. 13 for the birth of our child, and there was no way around it. After snooping around a bit too much for information, I was reassigned, for the deployment, to work with the Brigade MP’s in the STB. I wasn’t an Infantryman myself, but damn well near it, and when it came to matters of non-combat MOS’, the STB was a POG place to be.

My mission was to be the Squad Leader for a section of soldiers to assist the MP’s in the BIF, or Brigade Internment Facility, that would temporarily house the suspected “insurgents” our line units were bringing in. Here, MI would interrogate them for a period of not more than fourteen days, until reassigned to Abu Ghraib (minimum eighteen months stay), the Iraqi Police (for sure Police Brutality), or released, either because of innocence, soldier malfeasance, or simply lacking evidence.

By this time, Chris had already left the Battalion Scout Platoon for refusing to go to Ranger School. His “hardness” was not measured in Ranger Tab, but girth in mane. Ever meet one of those instantly likable dudes, friendly to all, but who could also wrastle your ass into combative submission, have a smart ass comment for anything in nanoseconds, fail weight, AND consistently score 270+ on a PT test? SPC Chris June was the dude, and this fuckin’ 11B was shamming in HHC as the Chaplain’s assistant! At JRTC in April (2005), when the Chaplain became a casualty, Chris actually set up the next week’s services before bureaucratic command interference intervened. That’s the kind of dude I’m talking about, a man I was privileged to fight with in 2003, and a good buddy to room with for our stop lossed tour of ’05-’06 (yep, him too).

Unfortunately, hard assery stopped with us. Each Company in the Battalion was ordered to give up one dude (1SG kept Chris and I from being sent to the line). So, imagine yourself being the 1SG of an Infantry Company, being forced to give up a dude, when really, you wanted an additional twenty. Who would you pick? That’s right—we got that dude from each Company. Remember little Tanner in the original Bad News Bears?

“All we got on this team are a buncha Jews, spics, niggers, pansies, and a booger-eatin' moron!”

Yep, that’s about the gist of the group I was to lead…

11Foxtrot is back

Just wanted to let everyone know that 11Foxtrot is back, and as good as ever. Stop on over and leave him a message!

11Fox

Also, I'm on a bit of a hiatus at the moment, with a huge report and presentation on Iraq due Monday in my PoliSci class. After that, I have finals in 2 weeks, and have thus, been extremely busy. From mid-May until September, I plan to finish my stop loss research and continue my own story. Stay on the lookout!

Random September 2005

From my Myspace blog:

September 6, 2005

i am so worn and broken down today, and not just physically. i have so much on my mind that my body just isn't keeping up. is this what it feels like to age? am i physically able to see in a slowed, blurry state the effects of aging on myself?

i'm not sure how i am going to make it through this. i'm not sure where i am going to draw out this extra power booster. even coffee isn't working this morning. i need to get my ass beat to a bloody boiling pulp of shit. i've always lamented how the worst most painful terrifying depressing situation can lead to rage, and in that rage a sense of purpose, cut clear and aimed steady in a single direction provides a way for me to accomplish something i wouldn't have ordinarily been able to.

but that's not what i want.

popeye had his spinach. the power rangers had a massive robot thing. edward norton had tyler durden. rafael palmeiro and jason giambi had the juice. the a-team had each other. macgyver had rubber bands and paper clips.

what do i have?

it has been reported that President George W. Bush does not like black people. (somehow I don't think he likes mother's either) this has to be one of the most crackpot things I have ever read. kanye west, some critically acclaimed rapper guy says you only hear about looting on cnn or tv when it's black people, and they show the whitey's looking for food, in referring to the victims of hurricane katrina and the newly impoverished new orleans homefront.

that's a pretty powerful statement. the president of the most powerful nation on earth, arguably the man who rules the world, does not like black people. (btw, what ever happened to Colin Powell?)

so this whole hurricane thing really gets my ass chapped. here is a golden nugget of a chance for President Cuckoo Brains to win over some support. Something actually happens on American soil. We couldn't prevent it of course, but now we have an amazing chance to help those in need. There is only so much water rescue teams and police can do. Some of the National Guard have been called in. I think now would be a great time for someone somewhere to rerout very soon-to-be deploying soldiers of the 101st Airborne in Kentucky from Iraq, to Louisiana to help curb the looting and and barbaric acts of survival violence. Shit, they can have all my MRE's if they need food.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd finally feel like I'd be doing something for MY country if I were doing it for AMERICANS and in AMERICA. And Kanye West is a bigot. Fuck you Kanye. And fuck you Cuckoo Brains.

This just in!!

Rucksack to Backpack!

I've started a new blog that I imagine will eventually succeed this one. While there is still plenty of story to be told here, there is much happening in the new one (no posts yet).

Rucksack to Backpack!

Old News and Smart Assery

Let's examine this article from the lens of today: Barack Obama is President, we surged to 150k troops in Iraq, and well, it's about 4 years later. What have our politicians accomplished? 

BTW, my comments are red, in parenthesis, were written the day this article appeared in the press, and was posted to my Myspace blog on the same day.

---------------------------

August 25, 2005

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A leading Republican senator and prospective presidential candidate said Sunday that the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.

(Wow, no kidding?!)

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, reiterated his position that the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq.

(Preach it brotha'!)

Hagel scoffed at the idea that U.S. troops could be in Iraq four years from now at levels above 100,000, a contingency for which the Pentagon is preparing.

(I would scoff too. I scoff now. Scoff. SCOFF DAMMIT!)

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

(Uh oh, our regime might not like those words...)

Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.

(Holy crap! This dude is smart! Actually, I wish more people would stand up like he is. Seriously, where is Nebraska anyway? Are they a state?)

President Bush was preparing for separate speeches this week to reaffirm his plan to help Iraq train its security forces while its leaders build a democratic government. In his weekly Saturday radio address, Bush said the fighting there protected Americans at home.

(Oh really? Fighting in Iraq makes it safer at home? Wait a minute...safer? Young men and women not even old enough to legally purchase or consume alcohol are making our country safer by dying in a different country? Wow. Mr. Bush, please tell my wife how specifically she is safer if I died in Iraq. If I die, how would a single young mother be safer in America?)

Polls show the public growing more skeptical about Bush's handling of the war.

(I'm sure it's much worse than the media portrays it.)

In Iraq, officials continued to craft a new constitution in the face of a Monday night deadline for parliamentary approval. They missed the initial deadline last week.

(Seeing these people argue is like standing in line at the DMV. No matter how long you wait in line, nothing is ever accomplished.)

Other Republican senators appearing on Sunday news shows advocated remaining in Iraq until the mission set by Bush is completed, but they also noted that the public is becoming more and more concerned and needs to be reassured.

(Please reassure me. My mom, dad, both grandparents, family, friends, the list goes on. I think I've run out of tolerance to be re-assured. I can't just get up and go, "Ahhhh, ok. I see now." Maybe it's because I only have a secret clearance, not the Presidential clearance. That must be it. Let's see Mr. Good Bush Coo-Coo Banana-Brains try to assure that woman and crowd outside his ranch....)

Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., another possible candidate for president in 2008, disagreed that the U.S. is losing in Iraq. He said a constitution guaranteeing basic freedoms would provide a rallying point for Iraqis.

(A rallying point to do what? Brush their teeth? Buy some new underwear? Learn how to bathe? What exactly are we winning? The war? I thought we already won that... in May of 2003. Truth is, I don't know what we're winning, but I can tell you what we've lost. Other than international credibility.)

"I think this is a very crucial time for the future of Iraq," said Allen, also on ABC. "The terrorists don't have anything to win the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq. All they care to do is disrupt."

(Actually, they have more to win than we do. The "terrorists, insurgents," or whatever you want to call them are actually trying to discredit whatever work the Americans have done, and by using that to WIN the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people into thinking we're a bunch of oil-hungry infidels. These people are not disrupting for the sake of disrupting. They genuinely believe with all their heart, all their minds, and unfortunately, with all their bodies, that what they believe in is truth.)

Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.

"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."

(Hallelujah! Dare me to say it? Hooah?)

Allen said that unlike the communist-guided North Vietnamese who fought the U.S., the insurgents in Iraq have no guiding political philosophy or organization. Still, Hagel argued, the similarities are growing.

(Politics is religion over there. Until important people like you realize this, we will continue to lose more that is valuable to us - our lives and our families and friends.)

"What I think the White House does not yet understand — and some of my colleagues — the dam has broke on this policy," Hagel said. "The longer we stay there, the more similarities (to Vietnam) are going to come together."

The Army's top general, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that the Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years as part of preparations for a worst-case scenario.

(I have no idea where they plan on getting that many soldiers....)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), a South Carolina Republican, said U.S. security is tied to success in Iraq, and he counseled people to be patient.

(Patient on what? AND HOW THE FUCK ARE WE BETTER OFF, SAFER BY STAYING IN IRAQ? US Security and Iraq have nothing to do with each other. The great big WMD lie has been exposed. A socialist dictator is ousted. The only Americans in danger because of Iraq are the soldiers deployed to Iraq.)

"The worst-case scenario is not staying four years. The worst-case scenario is leaving a dysfunctional, repressive government behind that becomes part of the problem in the war on terror and not the solution," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday.

(Hey, I have an idea. Let them figure it out themselves! Let me live my American life in America, and when you want me to defend my COUNTRY, send me to the Mexican or Canadian border, or to one of the coasts and I promise to kill the invaders.)

Allen said the military would be strained at such levels in four years yet could handle that difficult assignment. Hagel described the Army contingency plan as "complete folly."

(Allen=moron. Hagel=good guy.)

"I don't know where he's going to get these troops," Hagel said. "There won't be any National Guard left ... no Army Reserve left ... there is no way America is going to have 100,000 troops in Iraq, nor should it, in four years."

(The sad truth.)

Hagel added: "It would bog us down, it would further destabilize the Middle East, it would give Iran more influence, it would hurt Israel, it would put our allies over there in Saudi Arabia and Jordan in a terrible position. It won't be four years. We need to be out."

(Holy crap! I love my country... but could this be it? A prophetic vision of the future? Could we finally be spreading ourselves too thin? Is this the beginning of the end for the greatest nation ever on earth?)

Sen. Trent Lott (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., said the U.S. is winning in Iraq but has "a way to go" before it meets its goals there. Meanwhile, more needs to be done to lay out the strategy, Lott said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

(Well, at least this guy is not oblivious to reality... sorta put softly on his part.)

"I do think we, the president, all of us need to do a better job, do more," Lott said, by telling people "why we have made this commitment, what is being done now, what we do expect in the process and, yes, why it's going to take more time."

(In the absolute least, these questions need to be answered. Right now. Honestly. Truthfully. Completely.)

That Flickr Thing...

I have one.

I Want It!!!

I was checking out the website for one of my favorite photographers today, and was looking into one of the film cameras he uses. With a quick google, I found this eBay auction:%^&@$)*Y!!!!

GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!!!!

(I am accepting PayPal donations if you're a giver)

Rant

I'm been working on a new stop loss report. In the meantime, enjoy this (whiny) Myspace blog post from August 14, 2005:

Some people say that they would like to know when they are going to die. Others complain that it would ruin the time they did have knowing when it would be coming. But if you knew that you were going to die on Monday, and today is late Saturday, how would you spend your (LAST) weekend?

I’m not dying. I do fear for Monday, and I wonder whether I am accepting, in some small way, a sort of death to something I don’t want to lose.

Some tarded senior NCO said that we should be proud to be soldiers—that we are defending freedom and our way of life. They say that by being a soldier, we are making a better life for our family and ourselves.

Some people genuinely are happy and excited to extend the imperialist fist. But most trudge on knowing that they are going to have to do what they don’t want to.

Like me, they are worried and scared. They (we) sense that something is not right.

I think the guy who said this is a delusional, ignorant, uneducated piece of shit. I think he knows nothing more than everything he has been taught and formed to believe. He is a robot; saying and passing down the same things he is told to pass down to those underneath him. This is not motivating. This does not make me proud. This does not make me excited to think that I may in a few days be walking down the streets of Baghdad and have to fire my rifle at a small child carrying a weapon. Or a woman. Or a terrorist with a American for a human shield.

fuck THAT, fuck THIS, fuck YOU, and fuck ME.

I want to know how being away from my family for a year is better for them. How is being away from my family making my life better? How is my “service” benefitting America more than it is the pockets of our imperialist dictator? Why should I be proud of my life or my job? WHAT should I be proud of? Should I be proud that I’m going into a place where I will be responsible for bringing down death from the sky?

"Oops, excuse me. Don’t mind the American. I was just trying to land six 155mm artillery rounds in your kitchen, ma’am."

How the fuck can I do all that, and then just say, "Pssh, I’m defending freedom.”

They say extremists and terrorists are threatening our way of life. They say that our freedom is under attack. We must rise together like morons and kill half the planet because half the planet is not a friend to America. Well no fucking wonder—we’ve all been a bunch of assholes for the last fifty years!

Ok, so anyone who disagrees with the system is a terrorist, or a supporter of terrorism. Fuck that retarded logic.

I am not now stopping the problem before it begins. This is not prevention. This is not what America is about. We are not the world police. We can’t just invade and attack and kill those who disagree with us, regardless of the CIA’s subterfuge. There are many people that I work with that I do not like. I cannot use my freedom to say that I am defending freedom by killing them. Fuck this fucking backwards ass fucking situation, and government. How could this have happened? All that our founders had built up—all they fought for and protected has become this fucking mess.

This is how great histories are disgraced, and future histories made. 

This is my story, fuckers.

Stay tuned.

1-Year Anniversary!!!

"Panda Watch. The mood is tense; I have been on some serious, serious reports but nothing quite like this. I uh... Ching... King is inside right now. I tried to get an interview with him, but they said no, you can't do that he's a live bear, he will literally rip your face off." - Brian Fantana

A year ago today, in what was originally started as a few photos with snippets of words to describe my adventures in the Army and Iraq, I turned to telling my story here. Today, someone somewhere will be my 10,000th visitor. While this is all still pretty small, chump change really, I am thankful for those of you I have met along the way, and those that continue to encourage me to tell my story. I know it took a very long time for me to build up to the stop loss story that has not been fully told, but I wanted you to get to know me first. 

As I look back on my time in the Army and being stop lossed, and look forward to writing my story--I'll not forget how it felt to be trapped like the thousands today who are going through what I have already been through. The Pentagon says that stop loss is over (in 2010), and most of the world has already moved on to the next story. If you follow history, you'll know to expect another conflict/war sometime in the next 15 years. Folks, this is documentation. My generation has already forgotten 9/11, and my parents long ago forgot about Vietnam and the Draft. This injustice--this backdoor draft--is not over, and the next one, at the government's convenience, is only around the corner.

There are a few of you who comment occasionally, or regularly, but I know and can recognize that others visit frequently, but silently. Please take this moment to leave a comment, introduce yourself, like on a birthday card. If you don't feel comfortable, leave out your last name, use initials, etc. It can be like an electronic handshake--the fewer the words, the more wet-paper-like your grip.  :)

Thanks,

Jason

spend your time wasting
all the wasteful hating
now who are you blaming?
are we worth saving?

is this how it's always going to be...?

now you're stuck in our old year
but i believe in the new year
now who are you blaming?
are you worth saving?

is this how it's always going to be...?