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Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone U.S. Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time.
Really, REALLY? What exactly are they going to do? Not a damn thing. This is all some eye-wash and hot-air by Iraqi politicians to make it look like they can do something. Sorry it didn’t turn out the way they wanted, but the facts of the case are the facts of the case. It was war, things happen in war, bad things, that is why war is hell and why it is something we don’t like to do.
Votevets.org is about the most left leaning and ultra-liberal organization as IVAW and even a little more than IAVA. On their about page they state
While non-partisan, the group is the largest progressive organization of veterans in America
That is one of the biggest lies told on the site and goes along with many others. Jon Stoltz should be ashamed as a former NCO to put such lies on the web and portray him and his scrappy gang of left-pushing followers as anything close to non-partisan.
They are now generating their own news because they sent a letter to GEN Odierno asking him to block LTG (ret) Boykin from speaking at West Point. LTG Boykin has more than earned his opportunity to speak at West Point. Just pick any one timeframe of his career. You can start when he graduated form the very first Delta Force Selection course, his work on Operation Desert One, Just Cause, Gothic Serpent, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom or any number of other “conflicts” he was involved with.
VoteVets (or as I call them, VoteforLiberalVets.org) is swallowing to the hilt, the lies spread by the MSM and the liberal left about LTG Boykin.
Had they read his book or did their research and not listen to the MSM and liberal, atheist-loving, religion-hating groups then they would know he was NOT comparing Christianity against Islam. He was comparing his God (The Lord Almighty) against the “God” of the guy he was interrogating (which was money and greed) when he said “My God is more powerful than your God”. Just because the not so skinny “skinny” was a skinny (i.e. somali) does not make him muslim or a practicing one at that.
Oh and in case you are wondering when this happened, watch Black Hawk Down. They portrayed BG Garrison as doing the interview of Osman Atto they got at the start of the movie, but that was actually Boykin.
Atto was stealing UN food and support from his people to make money for himself. He was not taking care of Somalis and instead was worshiping the false idol of greed.
GEN Odierno, I ask that you support LTG (ret) Boykin speaking at the US Military Academy and if possible even attend yourself. If Votevets.org was truly non-partisan then they would focus on getting vets elected and not attacking every Bush-era appointed leader that doesn’t see things their way.
Prior to 9/11 the National Guard was looked down upon by Active Duty forces. Since I served half my career in both both services I can tell you some of that was earned and some was just ignorance by active duty forces. When I was active duty we never took the National Guard (or as we sometimes called them “Nasty Guard, “No-Gos”, or “Nasty Girls” ) seriously. They never trained as hard as us, had as good equipment as us, or were as disciplined and professional soldiers as us.
However that was while I was active and I only had limited visibility of the National Guard and well, that visibility was not always good. Once I came into the National Guard I found there were many professional and technically expert soldiers who called the National Guard home. I have served with some awesome and highly motivated soldiers in the National Guard and I have also seen some pieces of crap (both soldiers and leaders). However I had also sen plenty of bad soldiers when I was active duty too.
After 9/11 the game changed, the “weekend warrior” was dead once our op-tempo kicked into high gear overseas while we also took on many new unforseen homeland security responsibilities. In 2003 my company deployed to NYC 3 times with two times having less than 12 hours notice. Think about that for a second. One day my soldiers left their campuses, cubicles, work-places, etc. thinking they were going home for the night and would be back the next day only to get a phone call telling them to bring any gear they had from home and report to the armory. I remember being on a bus to NYC handing my cell phone to soldiers so they could tell their bosses they would not be in to work and were not sure when they would be back. In addition to those homeland deployments, we also went to Germany for 3 weeks to help train up an active duty Brigade for an Iraq deployment and we were alerted 4-5 times ourselves for deployment. The last alert in November of 2003 finally came to fruition and most of the company deployed in January 2004. Continue reading →
You may have noticed that the Bouhammer Blog was down yesterday. Yes, I took this site offline to join many other sites like wikipedia.org, reddit.com and many, many others in order to raise awareness and protest the SOPA and PIPA. It is a terrible act and if they became law, it would empower the Government to violate the US Constitution and give the Government the ability to block you from the websites you want to see.
See, if these were to become law and lets say I have an image or a quote from a story or something like that which the Government considers a copyright violation, they would be able to block all internet users in the USA from getting to this site or any website they considered violating a copyright law.
In my opinion that is a gross abuse of the law and Government responsibility. Please join me in contacting your Representative or Senator today and let them know you don’t support SOPA in the House or PIPA in the Senate.
I am convinced that Karzai has officially lost his ever-loving mind and gone crazy…
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said if the United States and Pakistan ever went to war, his country would back Islamabad, drawing a sharp rebuke Sunday from Afghan lawmakers who claimed the country’s top officials were adopting hypocritical positions.
This guy has repeatedly opened his cake-hole and spouted some really stupid things. At a time when more and more Americans are starting to question our involvement and continued presence in Afghanistan, this was a dumbass thing to say.
It looks like some the members of the Afghan Parliament feel the same way.
The comments set off a firestorm of criticism in the country. Afghan lawmakers argued they were particularly hypocritical coming just weeks after the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide bomber.
I almost want to see us go to war with Pakistan so we can see if he is talking B.S. or if he would really try to commit the fledging Afghan forces we are training, against us. That would be about the most destructive thing that Karzai could do for Afghanistan. The last ten years of progress would be wiped out almost instantly if he tried to turn the Afghan Army against US Forces. Of course I doubt the Army commanders would listen to him since he is nothing more than the Mayor of Kabul anyway.
I have said in the last couple of blog posts about him that I think he is crazy or drunk with power or something. The guy really needs to be removed and replaced. If he keeps up stuff like this, that may just happen.
I first heard about SFC Cashe and his superbly heroic actions over at Blackfive.net (www.blackfive.net/main/2011/09/sfc-alwyn-c-cashe.html). Lately he has been back in the news as there is finally talk of upgrading his Silver Star to the Medal of Honor. However it seems his name is back int the news for another reason.
Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe was awarded the Silver Star six years ago for running into a burning Bradley multiple times to save his fellow soldiers. Friends and family believe that he deserves the Medal of Honor, and have been pushing for that recognition for years.
But amazingly, as top Army officials consider whether to upgrade that honor, Cashe’s grave site doesn’t even reflect the award he did receive. Instead of the Silver Star, his headstone lists only the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
There is nothing wrong with a Bronze Star as it is a very honorable recognition. However the guy earned a Silver Star (actually I think he deserves the MoH also) and after several years you would think the Army could somehow find the time to fix this and give SFC Cashe’s gravesite the recognition it deserves. How long does it take to do the right thing?
The mistake is just the latest headache for the hero’s family, who have also struggled to get their deceased soldier’s awards records and medical files, as well as reimbursement for some funeral costs.
Does it take a call to a Congressman to start an inquiry? That seems to always get the Army moving. Not that I am saying you should call a Congressman but hey if you happen to have their number on speed dial and have nothing else going on…..
This post is a follow up to one I wrote the other day on Military Pundits Blog (militarypundits.com/2011/09/is-bloomberg-an-atheist/). Besides the controversy over Bloomberg not allowing clergy at today’s ceremony at Ground Zero, another big controversy is that not all the first responders that rushed to the air of those trapped in the building and then rushed to the “pile” to look for survivors.
The excuse given is that there is not enough room foe everyone. Which I find completely asinine. How could a city that hosts over 1 million people to watch a crystal ball drop at midnight not handle the men and women who were willing to risk their lives? I am sure the first responders realize not everyone can be right around the memorial, but would be willing to just be there, even if it meant in the streets around the memorial. This is the city that never sleeps, and is one of the largest most recognized and visited cities in the world,
I just can’t conceive how this is the excuse. These people are heroes, not on a foreign battlefield but on our homeland, in our country, amongst our citizens. These responders didn’t do it for money or to be famous. They did it because they cared and it was the job they wanted to do. Many of these first responders lost friends and family in the attacks. People they cared for and loved.
To be honest I am not sure which is worse, not allowing clergy or not allowing these first responders. Both are crimes against the people of our country in my opinion and damn Bloomberg for doing this. I can’t believe one pompous ass like him can make these decisions and get away with it.
