“The two pilars of political correctness are: a) willfull ignorance, b) a steadfast refusal to face the truth.”
George MacDonald
Never forget
To start off- I have no problem with a counter-insurgency program. What I do have a problem with is expecting Marines, now engaging in an offensive in Helmand Province, to have to second guess whether or not to fire their weapon in self protection if a civilian crosses their field of fire. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-civilians9-2010feb09,0,7485061.story
You may think that harsh, however anyone who has been in combat, especially in a country where everyone looks the same and where the enemy uses the civilian population for cover, it is virtually impossible to prevent collateral damage.
Now enter the ROEs. This offensive against the Taliban was pre-announced by the political generals in an effort to warn the civilian population to stand clear. The problem is if the Taliban whose modus operandi is to infiltrate the civilian population, melt away with those civilians, they are then free to turn around and kill those Marines in this offensive.
In the military there are a few names and acronym labels applied to politicians and political command staff. They are variously, FUBAR, fu&*@#d up beyond repair, or ALPHA HOTEL, ass h*&@s, or my favorite one just simply; ass clowns. That last one of course applies to the politically FUBARED – ALPHA HOTELS in the White House and the lawyers in the Pentagon who make up these rules of engagement.
In summary, the politicians and their fellow Alpha Hotel travelers are once again treading in places where they have no knowledge or are too cowardly to go. Their ignorance is responsible for all past and future casualties of American troops killed; it is another sure prescription for losing a war. If there is one true fact in these miserable times it is this, political correctness is the refuge of cowards. Semper Fi. Just my opinion.
William McCullough
Obama uses cut outs? I knew something looked glossy about his entourage. Wow, do you think Bin Laden will rise from the rubble near Tora Borra and negotiate a truce with the great American devil, Obama? I am thinking that maybe they’ll just have a chai tea and maybe some men only friendship relations…wink, wink. A true Muslim past time.
Off topic? Not at all. Are you sure these Frenchmen are not consulting with the high speed low drag Obama cut outs? The bad guys tell me that with Obama in office they are “shaking in their Florsheims” for fear of the resolute, aggressive relentlessness soon to fall on their asses.
I know this is off topic, but I just received an urgent AP news flash;
NEWS: After a warning from Belgium, the terror alert level in France has been upgraded from ‘RUN’ to ‘HIDE’. Authorities have been told to prepare for further increases in the alert level to ‘SURRENDER’ and possibly even ‘COLLABORATE’ , should the security condition continue to degrade.
WH: Some Critics ‘Serving the Goals of al Qaeda’*
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/02/wh-some-critics-serving-the-goals-of-al-qaeda.html
Last paragraph of this article, is the pearl of great price from Kit Bond
“…The Administration must do better, because trying to pass the buck for their dangerous decisions and divulging sensitive information to al Qaeda is not an effective terror-fighting strategy…”
Look at that again “…their dangerous decisions and divulging sensitive information to al Qaeda…”
I’m shocked that someone is actually tracking!!!!!!! That “sensitive” (read classified) information being passed to the enemy elements contonues to emanate from Pennslyvania Avenue and the numbers of occurences are starting to accumulate to me. It is indeed espionage in war time on its face.
Notice Brennan didn’t say dick about that.
It’s a lot worse than you think Bill. The product desired is the emaciation of the American will, and the demoralization of the American fighting man.
I’m very angry, dead dawg tired of these sheltered, comfortable, insulated leftist radicals in governance speaking as if they actually have some real experience with what they so arrogantly lead and make decisions with and to whom it affects. Yes, I agree with civilian control of the military-but when it becomes blatant exploitation, that seems to be the norm over the last 13 months, I get more than concerned.
When this exploitation is bolstered by and combined with willful and egregious compromises of classified operational national security information coming out of Pennsylvania Avenue, seemingly deliberately – DURING WAR TIME NO LESS – the issue is far removed from Bush or Blackwater or the Marines- all THREE of whom are guilty of trying to do nothing more than explain themselves too much to appease these assholes. We see the results of demonizing decisive action by private military operatives in Africa, and a tactical rules of engagement that in effect gave carte blanche to gencoide of human l;ife in Africa and the upper hand to the enemy who are now in bed with combatant Islamic radicals moving to dominate the continent as a Caliphate.
Enough nice talk and dancing around the issues.
This is bullshit and a complete set up coming out of the left, lay down out arms, do not be too aggressive or productive-or we will destroy your career and put you in front of the Hague.
What these leftists who have quietly done since penetrating Washington is brainwash the electorate to grow tired and annoyed with protracted war as an instrument of foreign policy, an unwillingness to hear the painful, and a surrender mentality when things go as precisely as the enemy plans for them to go.
This administration is continuance of useless, vulnerability branding Clintonian crap whence during the bloodletting of the 1990s, the defense budget was cut 40 percent and so was the roster-then we wonder why so many contractors are necessary after the enemy was given a very factual eight year head start and spread to every continent.
These Kremlinesque political operatives and their political generals have done it in in such a way that is aggressive, void of guilt and very, very, very provocatively-and get away with it. Self-appointed intellectuals and subject matter experts, supported by television educated voters who do not listen and contrast and compare, just swallow everything being said about the evils of an aggressive, relentless American national security architecture.
In short, the enemy is unafraid because they know we are afraid to fight and kill and get down in the dirt wickedly and fight this like it must be fought.
We refuse to show loyalty to young men and women whose passion is not comfort, whose birth right is destiny to fight for this country because of a deeply rooted love of county and its God who protected it for over 200 years.
“…Love the warrior-hate the war my ass…” “Bush Lied People Died” My ass. Weak willed useless fools.
“…The preparations for and conduct of the war were marred by endemic and profound intelligence failures and unprecedented politicization of the military planning and actual fighting. … The errors that have plagued the U.S. war in Iraq can be traced directly to long-term institutional problems within the intelligence community and defense establishment. These problems are the aggregate outcome of forty-five years of warranted fixation with the Soviet Union, followed by eight years of systemic emaciation and abuse of the intelligence agencies by the Clinton administration. The gravity of these endemic problems was made clear on September 11, 2001. Although the new administration immediately committed to an uncompromising war against international terrorism and its sponsoring states, no administration has the ability to instantaneously reverse decades-old institutional shortcomings in intelligence collection and analysis…” Secret History of The Iraq War by Yossef Bodansky
“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is
no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Sir Winston Churchill from his book The Gathering Storm
Just for laughs watch a WWII movie and when the American troops encounter German troops apply today’s ROE and in your mind’s eye see our men as sheep walking into the slaughter. Enough said.