Category Archives: Troops

Reprise: The disappearance of American military service

Posted on November 12, 2011 | Comments Off on Reprise: The disappearance of American military service

A bit of Veterans Day insight, just one day late. Sorry about that:

I would not especially care to see the return of the Draft, which caught me just days after my college graduation in 1967 and sent me to war in 1969-70 and home again to job discrimination and psychological abuse.

The draft was inequitable then and likely would be again, but it would spread the burden among more of the educated than volunteering does now, to the detriment of those who do serve and, yes, even those who do not.

“The loss of the martial virtues weakens an entire culture. Whole generations begin to rate themselves too special, ‘with a special kind of hide to be saved,’ as Gen. Savage puts it in Twelve O’Clock High, to risk their careers, let alone their lives, for their country.”

Insight from an academic blogger who burned his draft card back in the day and now regrets his youthful arrogance. At least he’s not a wannabee politician lying about serving when he didn’t. A too-common phenom these days.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Infantry OCS, The War, Troops

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Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Posted on October 27, 2011 | Comments Off on Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Messy? You bet. Otherwise, however, we have as Lee Smith wrote last week in Tablet, become Iran’s ally in its drive to create a nuclear weapon. And Obamalot’s recent decision to withdraw our troops from Iraq, only adds to the problem.

“It was misguided to turn American soldiers into potential hostages to Iranian terror. It’s a hundred times MORE misguided now to pull our forces out of Iraq: we need the capacity to deter Iran from swinging its weight in Iraq and turning it into a Persian satrapy. (The Baghdad government might not like this, but if we really want to, we have ways to persuade regimes like this to cooperate.)”

After all, if we can cooperate in Daffy Gadaffi’s execution… And if Obamalot must remain gutless on Iran, at least they can pull our forces out of Europe. They’ve been there, and very expensively, since 1945.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Iraq, Obamalot, The War, Troops

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Vietnam War favorite

Posted on October 18, 2011 | Comments Off on Vietnam War favorite

As I recall (and it’s been 42 years) this little item from can 4 was the most popular C-ration. It’s the fruitcake. When you got one of these you felt blessed by the gods.

For more C-ration memories (if you’re so inclined) go here. Not only a photo of the famous P-38 (not the WW2 fighter but the 1969 can opener) but also the small four-packs of Marlboros and matches from those pre-PC days.

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Posted in Scribbles, Troops, Viet Nam

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Afghanistan: Death by politics

Posted on October 13, 2011 | Comments Off on Afghanistan: Death by politics

The death of an American soldier due to our Medevac policy:

“Specialist Chazray Clark was dying due to politics, and the Army and Air Force pilots are very angry about this.  Chazray’s is not the only such case…It is important to be absolutely clear–this is not about the Dustoff pilots and crews, who are incredibly courageous.

“They have earned enormous respect.  They’ll fly into hell to get one of our wounded troopers.  This is about politics getting in the way of saving lives…The General in charge of this fiasco needs to be fired.”

More from embedded correspondent Michael Yon.

Obamalot could remedy this with a phone call, and damn well better.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Obamalot, The War, Troops, Viet Nam

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Unarmed Medevacs arriving late

Posted on October 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Unarmed Medevacs arriving late

Incredible report from Afghanistan correspondent Michael Yon that our Army Medevacs are delayed in getting to their patients (find it in the first four minutes of this Glenn Reynolds interview with Yon).

Delayed, that is, because they have to wait for Apache gunship escorts. Not because the landing zones are especially hot but because the Medevacs wear Red Crosses and the Geneva Convention doesn’t allow them to carry defensive guns.

Jeeze, Louise. All our Medevacs in I Corps in Viet Nam in 1969 wore Red Crosses and always carried door guns. The enemy there had no more respect for Red Crosses than the Taliban does now. So much for progress, eh? Visit Michael’s web site and consider helping defray his expenses so he can continue to tell these stories that are NOT being told elsewhere. I do and have for years now.

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Posted in Afghanistan, The War, Troops, Viet Nam

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Islamist Head Start

Posted on September 23, 2011 | Comments Off on Islamist Head Start

“An Islamist insurgent-run radio station in Somalia says it is awarding guns, bombs and books to three children in a Quran recital contest.”

In 2009 the prizes were guns, mines and grenades.

Via Simply Jews

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Posted in Blogosphere, The War, Troops

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Who’s winning the war ten years later?

Posted on September 13, 2011 | Comments Off on Who’s winning the war ten years later?

Hint: It ain’t US.

“After all, [radical] Islamist groups have won elections in Iran, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Turkey.  The [Muslim] Brotherhood is set to become the largest single party in Egypt….

“One way the U.S. government achieves [victory] statistics is to redefine specific events — a shooting at the El Al counter in Los Angeles, an attack on a Jewish community center in the Pacific Northwest, the murder of a military recruiter in Arkansas, and even the Ft. Hood killer — as non-terrorist, non-Islamist criminal acts.”

Ever notice how quick the FBI is to say that the latest solo Jihadi act is NOT terrorism? If we can’t even get the enemy named, how the hell can we win?

UPDATE: Michael Totten, my favorite Middle East correspondent, has a good new piece from Cairo on Egypt’s failed Arab Spring and, among other things, its bizarre memorial to its bogus “victory” in the 1973 war with Israel.

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Posted in Obamalot, The War, Troops

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