Greetings good people.
Sorry for being so slow, it has been a month plus since the last post here. I could say that I had not felt very great and it would be true. I could also say I have been lazy about the blog and that also would be true. I'll go with plain old lazy. Overwhelmed is also a possible. Good grief, there has been so much going on and every new day seems to just bring more of the odd, strange, and just plain crazy to the computer screen.
We started out earlier with the vile NDAA. Just recently, the clowns who populate the US congress gave us the next installment, by that I mean HR 347, the "trespass act". It seems it isn;t enough for the president to claim(!!) he has the authority to kill anybody anywhere, even Americans on American soil, now we the people are not to be allowed to protest anywhere that we might upset some "grand personage" who has Secret Service protection. To do so will be a felony. And here we thought that Shrubbie and the "dark creature" Cheney had done us in with the "free speech zones" crapola. Now even those "zones" will be further away from any government buildings/property. Yes, keep the protesters far away from all federal buildings, never know when some "important people" might be there for a visit. Well, sure, after all, we don't want to make the job of the Secret Service any harder than it may be.
In view of the above, today there was a news item that really got me "up and running". According to NBC and MSNBC news sources, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was in Afghanistan and yesterday he gave a speech to some 200 US Marines. Now you might say big deal Charlie, so what? Well, yes, normally it would not be any story at all, except for this; the Marines were asked to leave their weapons OUTSIDE the tent where Panetta was giving his speech! No screaming eagle shit folks! The bloody Secretary of Defense for the USA asked that US Marines leave their weapons outside the place he was speaking! this is absolutely amazing to me. I remember back in my days in the imperial war in Vietnam, the commanding general for 1st Marine Division was going back to the states and there was a ceremony for him in DaNang. Some of the Marines I was with went to the party. Hey, they got a nice ride on a CH-47 and all plus a day away from the boonies.They did NOT have to leave their weapons outside of the building where the ceremony was vein held. Hey, it was a war zone. Afghanistan is a war zone. Why did the troops need to be unarmed to hear the speech?
Well, according to Major General Mark Gurganus, there were some two dozen Afghan troops also in attendance and they were unarmed and the general didn't want them to think they were being treated differently. Why in hell would they not be treated differently? The recent killings of US and NATO troops by Afghan Army and/or police is why. Of course I am NOT excusing the murder by a US Staff Sergeant of 16 Afghan civilians. By now, if you stop by here very often, you know that I oppose all killings of fellow human beings. War IS mass murder, true, but the killing of these civilians is a war crime and should be prosecuted as such. Some articles have called it the Afghanistan My Lia. It just may be and then some.
No matter what the media calls that murder, it is a war crime, period. The person who did the killing must be held to account. Add this along with the desecration of dead Afghans, the burning of the Koran and you have a very nasty situation for the US/NATO troops still in Afghanistan. No matter how nasty and messy that war gets, the commanders cannot allow discipline to break down to the point of killings like this recent one.
One needs to step back though and take a hard look at what is going on there. In my view, the first offense in this damn fool war of choice is fighting it. Second, a very close second, if we are going to fight this idiotic war, the troops need to have a better understanding of the culture of the Afghan people. To me there is no excuse for the US/NATO troops to not know that the Koran is the most revered book in Afghanistan. For a majority of the Afghans no doubt it is the ONLY book they know of. For any foreign troops to desecrate that book will provoke an outrage. The commanders should have known this and instructed the troops accordingly.
Well, hell, why bother? Sure, we didn't get much, if any, indoctrination into the Vietnamese culture before we left to go fight there either. Well, remember how that imperial war ended? Yeah, with the last helicopter taking off from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon. Any bets the Afghan war ends the same way?
All that and I have not even commented on the morons in the elephant party and the freak show they have been putting on for all to see. I had some articles set aside on good old Rick Sanitarium and was going to link to articles that show how he deviates from even his own Roman Catholic Church and how he does not follow faithfully his own Pope, but why bother. The guy is just so disgusting and I don't feel up to looking to closely at that train wreck just now. Same goes double for Newt. That guy sure does think very highly of himself. One comment I saw about Newt dealt with why he in on marriage number three. The person who made the comment speculated that it was because no other human being could love Newt as much as he loves himself. I think that person has a very valid point.As to Mittens, he is a typical weather vane, he goes which ever way the wind blows. To say that Mittens is a flip-flopper is both obvious and an understatement. Looks like we just may be in for four more years of Gobomber, or as he has been called; "Mr. Hopey-Changey".
I still fail to see how Gobomber is worth my vote. He and his (in)Justice Department claim he can kill anybody, anywhere, and at any time. Who knew that the US president was judge, jury, and executioner? I sure didn't, but then I have read the entire US Constitution. More than once even. As recently as three weeks ago in fact. Yes, I have a personal, pocket size copy of that document. It even includes the Declaration of Independence. I also swore an oath to defend the Constitution when I enlisted in the Marines. When I was released from active duty and later when I got my final discharge, there was no asking me to revoke that oath. While it is not perfect, which no document or any form of government can ever be, it is still the best that we have devised yet. I still believe in both of those documents and I think they are worth protecting and defending; against all enemies, foreign AND domestic. How this congress can allow such a power grab by the president to go unchallenged is beyond me to comprehend. One really begins to see just how it is that the richest 1% are able to get control when the congress critters pass such crap as the "patriot act", the vile NDAA, and now HR 347. All these bills restrict the civil liberties of US citizens. None of these act/bills make us any safer. Our rights and liberties are being eroded right before our very eyes. We are fast becoming a police state. Economically, we are fast becoming a third world country. Neither of the two wings of the war party care at all about this. Hell, they are the ones who vote on and pass the damn bills that restrict our civil liberties. Be a congress critter, it is one really sweet job. Hey, they vote on their own pay raises and they almost always exempt themselves from every law they pass that we the people must now obey. Yes sir, one really sweet gig, if you are rich enough to grab one. And when you do finally quit, as very few incumbents ever go down to defeat, you get some really swell, high paying lobby gig and/or a seat on the board of directors for some multinational corporation, maybe even the same ones who funded your campaigns.
America, what a country.
semper fi
