Moral waivers ...

Or, Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel. Via Avedon, the Army is taking anyone they can get:

...

A yearlong examination of military and civilian records by The Sacramento Bee involving hundreds of troops who entered the services since the Iraq war began identified 120 cases of people whose backgrounds should have raised the suspicions of military recruiters, including felony convitions and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems.

Of those, 70 later were involved in controversial or criminal incidents in Iraq.

...

The 70 were among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services, entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds previously would have barred them from serving.

...

That's it. Take violent, anti-social offenders, hand them a rifle, and tell 'em it's okay to kill brown folks. And we wonder when shit like Abu Graib happens, or when they come home and commit violent crimes against American citizens.

These clowns shouldn't be allowed to possess a BB gun, let alone be put in a war zone, and is a testament to how badly the situation in Iraq has crippled our military. The latest line from the White House this weekend is that there will be "a drawdown" of troops from Iraq, but that's only to send them to Afghanistan because we don't have the reserves to fill in the gaps (though Afghanistan was treated like the red-headed step-child from Day One) our half-assed commitment created.

Cdr. Huber:

... The Bush spin machine was quick to declare that the administration is considering increasing the pace of the pullout from Iraq (as if they were actually considering "pulling out" in the first place), not as a reaction to Maliki's invitation to pack sand, or because the force is collapsing from the deployment tempo, but because the extra troops are needed in Afghanistan.

...

The real moral waiver came when the U.S. Congress gave these assholes carte blanche to start this war and continue to fund it into its sixth year. Unfortunately, the way things are going, any grip we get on Morality is a long time coming. As long as insane foreign policy is considered mainstream, we will continue to field a military made up of convicts, gang bangers, and low lifes. Atrocities will continue and American credibility will continue to circle the bowl.

John McCain wants to stay in Iraq forever? Answer me this. Where is he gonna get the troops? Or is he just gonna empty out the prisons?

Cross-posted at the Brain.

Help Keep Us Out of Iran

Dear MoveOn member,

By all accounts, the news coming out lately about Iran is scary. Iran is testing more missiles, and the Bush administration is promising swift retribution for any attack on the US or our allies.

To top it off, John McCain keeps joking about killing the Iranian people—discussing rising U.S. exports of cigarettes to Iran, he joked, "Maybe that's a way of killing them." And we all remember McCain's infamous, "Bomb Iran" song. (See video below)1

War is not a joke. The truth is that the Bush-McCain policy of reckless saber-rattling and threatening doesn't work—it just makes things worse and increases tensions in the region. What we need is serious, tough, and smart diplomacy—not another war.

Right now, Congress is considering bills that could clear the way for escalation or war. But they can act to make sure President Bush and John McCain don't lead us into another reckless war. Can you sign this petition asking Congress to push for diplomacy and demand Congressional authorization before getting us into another war? Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/diplomacyiran/o.pl?id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=3

The petition reads: "Saber-rattling and threats towards Iran without diplomacy is not working. Please support a new direction towards Iran and demand President Bush get Congressional authorization before getting us into another war."

For years, the Bush administration's policy has been the same—tough talk and no real diplomacy. So far, that hasn't helped curtail Iran's apparent nuclear ambitions or advanced American interests.

Unfortunately, John McCain's belligerent comments only make matters worse—at a moment when the Persian Gulf is on the brink of war because of leaders who dehumanize and demonize folks on the other side, John McCain is offering more of the same old approach.

As NPR reported this morning, "McCain believes that the Bush administration's approach has been the right one."2

What we need right now from this administration, and from our next president, is serious diplomacy. As Barack Obama said, "The United States has to gather up others in the region, as well as internationally, to apply pressure on Iran. But it's very difficult for us to do so when we haven't shown a willingness to engage in the sort of direct negotiations with Iran that would give them carrots and sticks for a change in behavior."3

We don't need more saber-rattling, belligerent rhetoric or jokes about killing Iranians.

Too many lives—American, Israeli, and Iranian—are at stake. Please click here to tell Congress to help avoid another war:

http://pol.moveon.org/diplomacyiran/o.pl?id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=3

Thanks for all you do.

–Nita, Wes, Peter, Eli and the rest of the team

P.S. Check out Video of McCain's comments:


Sources:

1. "Bad Joke," Progressive Accountability, July 9, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3918&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=6

2. "Candidates Diverge On How To Handle Iran," NPR, July 10, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3919&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=7

3. "Iran Tests Missiles Able To Reach Israel." US News and World Report, July 10, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3920&id=13193-8552455-1.3QX4x&t=8

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

Let 'em serve ...

I've served with gays and they performed at the same caliber or better than the rest of us. And, truly, they were the most fun to hang around with. Now there's proof:

WASHINGTON - Congress should repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.

The study was conducted by four retired military officers, including the three-star Air Force lieutenant general who in early 1993 was tasked with implementing President Clinton's policy that the military stop questioning recruits on their sexual orientation.

"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers states.

...

Now, let' em fucking serve if they want. There is no reason to marginalize any segment of our population, in any capacity, let alone denying them the chance to serve the country they love.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

Cross-posted at the Brain.

A long, long time ago in an ocean far, far away...........

A steel cigar slid silently through the depths of the Mediterranean sea, a small body of water as oceans go, but chock full of sea-craft ranging from small fishing boats to mighty aircraft carriers. These ships, boats, and as-sundry watercraft sported flags of damn near every nation with access to the open ocean, and at least two of these flags did not approach each other with any kind of affection. The Stars and Stripes kept a watchful eye on the Hammer and Sickle, and vice versa, each waiting for the other to make the wrong move, the move most of us onboard these vessels prayed would never come. But we all had our fingers on our triggers, for that was what our respective countries had trained us for, and I for one know that MY side was damn good at hitting what we shot at.

However, the world that all this angst was flavoring was a different one than the ones our fathers and grandfathers served, for this was not the life and death struggle between two distinct philosophies brought to a head, but a slow, simmering bickering between two superpowers with Armageddon at their disposal. Then, it was us or them. In this new "cold war", it could easily be us AND them. Our superiors knew it, we knew it, and perhaps that knowing kept us from having a hair trigger. None of us savored the possibility of our own families suffering their own private Hiroshima.

On top of all this posturing of man and machine above and beneath the waves, was the entanglement that the United States found itself involved with in Vietnam. I can safely say that a good portion of the ranks of both the Navy AND the Air Force was filled with patriotic young Americans who were not quite patriotic enough to wish to find themselves wading through rice paddies with no earthly idea who their enemy really was. The fly boys dropped their bombs on coordinates; THAT was their enemy, and most of the time they never had to actually SEE that enemy. Likewise, out here in the oceans, our targets were ships of designs different than ours with a different flag flying from the mast. Our torpedos would seek out a THING, a great big STEEL thing that was going to kill us if we didn't kill it first. We could not afford to worry about the flesh and bone within those steel hulls, just as they couldn't afford to worry about us. So, you had at least ONE branch of the service facing down an easily identifiable enemy, a cadre of sailors who felt much more comfortable risking annihilation by an easily understood enemy than those in Vietnam who increasingly found themselves BECOMING the enemy, against all those ideals they thought they had been raised with and measured by.

I was just one of a crew of a hundred-odd individuals who found themselves in a decade of transitions, who didn't quite understand the history they were making, who in a very human way were more worried about running out of cigarettes on a long deployment and getting laid back in port than they were with the geopolitical implications of the missions they were participating in. It wasn't until long after I had satisfied my active duty requirements and did a few years of Reserve duty did I finally come across a book that spelled out in startling detail some of the dangers I had been exposed to and didn't even know it. You see, loose lips sank ships, and there was so much secrecy involved in OUR branch of the Navy that half the time we didn't even know ourselves half the stuff we weren't allowed to talk to anyone about, including our own spouses. If you want to know how fast and how deep my submarine could go, you can find out in this book, but we were never allowed to divulge that information, no matter how common knowledge we suspected it might actually be. So, years after the fact, instead of the disaffected Personnelman who served aboard two nuclear attack submarines who could not wait to get back to civilian life in order to find some sort of respect, I have become the enlightened veteran, who had no idea that yes, I actually played a major part in contributing to the ultimate downfall and disillusion of the Mighty Soviet Empire. Contrast against those fine young men who survived a FUBAR only to watch the North Vietnamese Army drive a tank through the gates of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace. How do you come to grips with THAT?

The decades since have passed beyond us much faster than any of us imagined they could. WE are now the older men, with memories to pass on to younger generations who perhaps think of us more as the baby boomer hippies rather than the young men out to change the world for the better, who both utterly failed and succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. Old threats vanquished, we now face new and confusing challenges, and once again finding those in power failing us and this fresh new generation paying THEIR price for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The mantle has been passed to US; shall we stand idly by while caskets draped in American flags continue to return across oceans that no longer protect us, while people in places most of us can't find on maps learn to hate us for manufactured reasons having nothing to do with who we are as a people? America STILL can stand for something precious in this world; it remains to us to lend voice to that truth.

My brothers, thank you for finding me worthy to join you here, practicing with full force the rights we served to protect, in one capacity or another. You will find me a harsh practitioner of those rights, for I have lived long enough to actually think that I could be called to arms to protect those same rights, only this time from DOMESTIC threats, which I never in my wildest dreamed imaginable. No, I doubt very seriously that any of us will find ourselves becoming involved in some sort of insurgency against our own brothers, as we did back in the civil war, but I do believe that those now here will utilize this amazing and powerful forum to speak out and shine the bright light of reason on these outrages perpetrated by our present administration and those in congress who enable them to do such damage to our precious constitution, our armed forces, and the prestige that we once enjoyed around the world as that "shining city on the hill".

So, once again, thank you, and you can be rest assured they can shut me up when they pull this keyboard out of my cold, dead fingers.

Welcome To The American Patriot Institute, Michael

Nothing seems more appropriate to me than welcoming a new Resident Scholar to the American Patriot Institute on Independence Day. So it is with great pleasure that I ask you to welcome Michael, of Pendragon's Hold, to our ranks.

Our little ragtag bunch has grown. What started out as a "Rogues Gallery" is becoming something of a minor force in the socio-political blogosphere. When Moderate Man took the Rogue's Gallery one step further, and founded the American Patriot Institute, it was more of an inside joke than anything-else. Why shouldn't we, he reasoned, who have served our nation and believe in the oath we swore to defend the Constitution of The United States of America, have an "umbrella organization" from which we could "issue papers" countering the propaganda of other "patriotic" organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute, and none has done so more effectively than the Moderate Man himself. (With the possible exception of Kitchen Window Woman, whose posts continue to amaze me.) Yet we all have something to contribute in our own way, and we all do. Whether it be Spadoman regaling us with details of "The Longest Walk" or the Ashland Peace Vigil, or Buffalo spinning a tale that takes us back to our lost youth, we have all continued to "fight" for the America we were once so proud to serve. We are all in accordance that the path this current Administration has chosen is terribly wrong for America and we are united in our efforts to change it for the better. While we don't always agree on all things, we do agree that we love our country and that our meager efforts to restore her to her once great glory is Patriotic and that by doing so, we are fulfilling the oaths we swore, (for some of us), so long ago.

Michael's voice will strengthen us. His writing is poignant and insightful. His dedication to our cause is clearly evident in his posts. His service in the United States Navy provides him with a perspective no chickenhawk can ever have.

Welcome aboard, Michael.

At some time in the near future, please post a your "baby picture" (boot graduation pic or any pic of you in uniform), for inclusion in the image map posted in the sidebar of many of our sites. Your pic will be included and will link directly to your site, These Thoughts Escape Me. You may copy and paste the Flag and Eagle logo of the API in your sidebar, as evidence of your membership. You may also copy the link-list to the other members from my site, (I believe I have the most recent list). Shortly, you will receive an invitation to post here with full admin rights. This site is a "we" thing, so feel free to add links, change the template, whatever. This site will only grow if we all water and feed it.

Once again, welcome. Welcome home, Brother.

d.

Michael posts at These Thoughts Escape Me.

Please update your API linklists to include Michaels' website.

Oh, and Happy Independence Day Brothers and Sisters! Let us continue our efforts to win our Independence from those who have abused our nation and it's Constitution!

Semper Fi!

Also posted at deuddersun says...

Embrace Democracy Website

Deuddersun asked where I had gotten the "Embrace Flag". I hadn't saved the link so had I to search for the envelope with the mailing address and website. I ordered our flags two years ago from Dr. Paul A. Redstone, M.D., whose concern led him to take action. I visited the website today and it appears to still be active but no where is anything dated.

Here it is: www.embracedemocracy.org

Peace,
KWW

The Gunny

I saw him from his left side. I could see the letters “M C’ on his blue ball cap. My ball cap says “U S Navy - SCPO.” Eventually, I saw all four letter “U S M C” at least two inches tall in gold embroidery.

I paid for the fresh peaches, tomatoes and green beans Mrs. Chief picked up at this farmer’s market and proceeded to put them in the car while she went to find her mother. In the parking lot I spotted a red pickup with a license plate that only a career Marine would have.

He was just finished paying for his fresh strawberries so I asked him, “That your red pickup?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“How many years,” I queried.

“32”

“Holy shit,” I said, “ I only did 21.”

“That’s a long time.”

So we chatted a bit. His 32 years had taken him to a tour in Kuwait, two tours in Tunisia, two aboard the Forrestal. He was on the Forrestal in ’67 when they had the big fire.

As we parted, he said, “Thank you for your service.”

I was somewhat surprised by that, because he had served more than fifty percent longer than I. I said, “But you gave more than I did.”

“But some gave more than either of us,” he said.

On that note we waved good-bye.