Disgusted

America has betrayed its legal and moral principles, and unfortunately plenty of faux patriots don't care. There can be no Rule of Law in regards to the misnomered 'war on terror'. That's because it is the Rule of Party. The 'war on terror' is a politically contrived reaction to an accumulation of backlash against colonialism, economic pillaging and military occupation. Thus, any reaction to legalities will only be steeped what is good for Party X or Party Y. Many times both.

We currently have the previous administration dead to rights, caught red-handed breaking US Code, the US Constitution, international law, signed treaties and the creeds of the US Armed Services. They have done backwards cheetah flips to manipulate law and public opinion through the media.

The pro-torture crowd cites the media testimony of politically appointed bureaucrats that torture somehow worked, against the combined analysis of human history by scholars, psychologists, intelligence experts and military personnel. They claim this even without regard to the fact that these CIA Directors and other accomplices are fighting hard to give themselves cover from prosecution. They claim that 'Cheney has requested 'secret memo's' that will surely highlight how torture has worked to keep us safe. Claiming this without regard to the fact that Cheney has no downside to this claim. Unless or until these alleged memo's are released, they are fantasy, and if they are not released, the Republicans can just claim cover-up. How convenient.

But this same party was so terribly gung ho to prosecute a Democratic president for shady real estate dealings and extra-marital sex. Sort of shows what patriots many are.

The law was broken. Write your Congressmen, jump up and down and scream....whatever....just deal with it. Not torturing detainees will not degrade our national security because it has been uniformly shown to not be effective throughout human history. The neanderthal desire for bloodlust and revenge only serves to weaken our security by validating the propaganda used by our enemies. I've never been so disgusted by so many of my fellow Americans.

The US Constitution was designed to check capricious and unaccountable executive power. We have surrendered what the founders bequeathed to us.

I knew there was something I liked about Shepard Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCWN9UWtWkc&feature=player_embedded

In Memoriam...

SSG Darrell Griffin Jr. was a motivated and energetic soldier when he was a member of my Platoon in Fort Lewis, WA. He was eager to learn anything he could, to make himself a better soldier. That effort paid off and made him a better leader.

I received the news of his death when our former Battalion XO (then a Battalion CDR) was posted on my FOB and we spoke to catch up. Darrel was one of those soldiers you always wish to have, even though you may not realize it until it's too late. The distractions of a peacetime army often cloud the necessity of what is required of a wartime band of brothers.

US News and World Report conducted an extensive interview with his unit [and Darrell] just 18 days before his death.

Four days before his death, Army Staff Sgt. Darrell Ray Griffin Jr., an infantry squad leader in Baghdad, sent an E-mail to his wife, Diana. "Spartan women of Greece used to tell their husbands, before they went into battle, to come back with their shields or laying on them, dying honorably in battle. But if they did not return with their shield, this showed that they ran away from the battle. Cowardice was not a Spartan virtue ... Tell me that you love me the same by me coming back with my shield or on it."

A few days later, Diana replied. "Are you ok??? I haven't heard from you since Sunday and it is now Wednesday ... I know you said you were going on a dangerous mission ... I get so nervous when I don't hear from you ... phone call or e-mail ... I just hope and pray your ok honey ... "

It was an E-mail Griffin would never read.

The rest of the article:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070513/21soldier.htm

A video and written word from Darrell's account of his Iraq tour can be found here:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/griffin/

His father, Darrell Griffin Sr. had vowed to finish the book his son had started. The pre-order is available on Amazon.com........I've ordered my copy.

I hope I have Kelly's permission to repost her words, as I do not have a way to contact her. It appears the blog this was taken from is not maintained but Darrell's memory should be.

SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2007
In Memorium

"our government officials often talk of the 'boots on the ground' in Iraq, most often forgetting that those boots were filled with thinking, living flesh-and-blood Americans"

"War is not just John Wayne giving an eloquent speech before he dies, but young men dying without a word and sent home with what is found of them."
(SSG. Darrell R. Griffin, Jr.)

The words above are words written by our dear friend. He knew what he was talking about more than most. His feet filled those "boots on the ground" in 2004-2005 with the 1/5 Infantry Battalion Bobcats and again in 2006-2007 with the 2/3 Infantry, both in Iraq. Darrell is the man who stood beside my husband through the toughest of times, who promised me before they left that he would take care of him as best he could and bring him home to me and our little girls. He kept his promise. But then, I knew he would. He was the friend my husband knew he could count on in any situation and his wife is the person that I could call at 3am when the fear of that deployment seemed overwhelming.

Throughout our lives, we meet many "good friends," friends we love to be with and friends that share many of the important events in our lives. But even more rare are those friends that we connect with at the heart, those who seem to know what our deepest fears and our greatest joys are without ever exchanging a word. This is the type of friendship that we shared with Darrell and Diana. Through each event in our life, we grew closer. We celebrated our husband's promotions, the birth of our two little girls, the addition of their "little girl," a whippet named Luna, and we cried on each other's shoulders during the tough moments of training deployments and a year long Iraq deployment. We laughed together, worried together, shared holidays and many a weekend BBQ together, debated the issues of the world, cried together, were outrageously silly together, supported each other, and gave strength when it was needed. We jokingly refer to each other as our "chosen family," meaning that while you can never choose your natural family, sometimes you get to choose to add some "adopted" members. Darrell and Diana are definitely part of our family.

When the guys of 1/5 Infantry returned from their year in Iraq, we both received orders. Duane and I PCS'd (Permanent Change of Station) to Eglin AFB in Florida and Darrell and Diana stayed on Ft. Lewis but moved to 3rd Brigade. Unfortunately, 3rd Brigade was preparing to deploy to Iraq. Just 8 months or so after returning from Iraq, Darrell deployed again with 3rd Brigade. Despite our distance, we have remained as close as family. Diana and I can talk for 3-4 hours on the phone without realizing it (much to our husband's chagrin) and when Darrell was home on R&R for 2 weeks, he and Duane spent hours discussing how to get back to the same duty station and be together again. We have spent the last 8 months of Darrell's 2nd deployment praying for his safe return to his lovely wife.

Diana and I shared pictures of our kids (hers is the 4 legged kind, and just as sweet!) and talked for hours about worries and joys and future plans. So, when she called me on the evening of March 21st, I assumed it was to dish about the latest and laugh a bit. What she said changed my world. She told me simply, "Darrell's gone." I knew what she meant but I somehow thought there must have been a mistake. There was none.

Darrell, the man who never left my house without telling me how precious my children are and what a wonderful mother I am, is gone.

Darrell, the man who never was in my presence without mentioning how beautiful his wife of 12 years was, is gone.

Darrell, the man who called me from Iraq when he could have called his wife, just to reassure me that my husband was fine after a close call, is gone.

Darrell, the man who rushed to the site of a battle when he heard that my husband's platoon was involved, who rushed to be at his friend's side without thought for his own safety, is gone.

Darrell, the man who told me that he would bring my husband home, that he wouldn't let my two little girls be without their Daddy, is gone.

Darrell, the man who sat on my back porch, drinking wine and discussing the issues of the world with my husband, or who did crazy, silly things with my husband that left Diana and I rolling our eyes in amusement, is gone.

Darrell, the huge body-builder of a man, who held my babies with a gentleness and reverance I have yet to see again, is gone.

Darrell, the man who could talk for hours about how in love he was with his wife, who still paused from speaking to watch her walk across the room as only newlyweds do, is gone.

Most days, it is a little much for me to comprehend.

In the month since he gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country, many people have memorialized him. Soldiers, chaplains, reporters, family, and friends have spoken about his dedication and commitment to soldiering, his intense study of the world around him and the book he was in the process of writing. All of the things they have said, at memorials in Ft. Lewis, Germany, Iraq, and his native California, are true portrayals of the man he was.

Me, I am just his friend's wife. I know he was an incredible soldier and philosopher but I remember him most as the man who stood by my husband, who shared dinners with my family, who rejoiced in the birth of my children, who loved his dog Luna like a child, and who loved his wife Diana as if they were newlyweds.

In my mind, these things made him great. And they make him irreplaceable.

Be Prepared.......and Afraid....

Make no mistake about it, the Zombie apocalypse is coming! Will you be ready? Are you prepared? Buy Max Brook's comprehensive survival guide and start stockpiling food and ammo, and discuss your emergency evacuation plan with your family. No time to waste!

While you're waiting for Amazon to ship your book, memorize these 10 simple rules:

Organize before they rise!
They feel no fear, why should you?
Use your head: cut off theirs.
Blades don’t need reloading.
Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
No place is safe, only safer.
The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

More Zombie updates as they are warranted. Stay tuned.....

One Year Ago Today.....

I redeployed from Baghdad.

Time sure flies when people aren't trying to kill you.

Random Quote.....

Of every one-hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are nothing but targets, nine are real fighters... We are lucky to have them, they make the battle... AH but ONE, one of them is a Warrior... he will bring the others back.

Heraclitus c. 500 B.C.

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

An ongoing debate on foreign policy concerns, regardless of the prognostications of pundits and politicians, is vital. A debate in the public forum that includes citizens, the military, regional experts and academics…..to forge coherent and smart directions for our foreign policy and national security. When those in the public eye speak of our moral duty..…..we must look at what our presence does to traditional Afghan culture and tribal governance. Does it enlighten them or does it cause upheaval that is ultimately damaging? We certainly have to face the reality that all peoples do not desire western liberal values, especially when accompanied by the barrel of a gun.

But this begs the question, what is our focus….and for what cost are we willing to pay for this presence? We have already failed Hartmann’s strategic principle of conservation of enemies. We are simultaneously fighting Al Qaeda, Lashkar e Tayyiba, Hizbi-i-Islami Gulbuddin, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, Tehrike Taliban Pakistan, and the Haqqani network. The vast majority of Americans can only name AQ or the ‘Taliban’ as our Afghani enemies, without coming close to understanding who it is we’re fighting or why. If a broad coalition government can be convened that would allow cross tribal support and suffrage; preserve the traditional social order of the Afghani tribes; with an influx of humanitarian, civil and agrarian aid…….maybe……Afghanistan will emerge eventually as a stable nation. As Bernard Fall points out, ‘A government that is losing to an insurgency is not being outfought…..it is being out governed.’ In many cases, the shadow judicial and civil system enacted by the ‘Taliban’ [usually of the Quetta Shura] are relied upon and trusted more than the representatives from Kabul. Al Qaeda and the 'Taliban' are not synonymous and do not represent an equal threat. That fact must be present in any coherent strategy. Thus far, it has not been.

We will absolutely not [in my estimation] win militarily. We fluctuate between tactical operations of persistent presence and repetitive raiding, which sows confusion in the people we're ostensibly trying help, not to mention our junior leaders who are still much better adapted to warcraft than statecraft. We have nowhere near the manpower to provide a sustained presence in the myriad of valleys that comprise Afghanistan, each with its own sense of sovereignty from Kabul, and it’s own varied relations with the fundamentalist groups that we are warring against. We have nowhere near the time to educate our forces on the intricacies of Pashtun honor, known as Pashtunwali; of how to conduct chai diplomacy with Baluch sardars [cheiftans]; or how to integrate Turkmen tribes into a confederacy, much less a central government. We have not even a fraction of people trained in the language, customs and social hierarchy of the Uzbeks, Turkmen, Pashtuns, Hazara, Tajik, Kirghiz, Kabuli, Baluch, and Jat tribes [among a dozen others].

What is going to be the panacea in Afghanistan? A 'Sons of Iraq' approach will not work. The tribes and Qawm [social ties of solidarity] are such that it is said in the remote hills and valleys regarding the prevelant internecine warfare: 'me against my brother, but me and my brother against a stranger.' Though some tribes find it in their interest to work with the coalition [at least for now], many others do not. The former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalali recently wrote a book titled Afghan Guerrilla Warfare, in which he states: 'The collapse of the central government of Afghanistan or the destruction of its standing armies has never resulted in the defeat of the nation by an invader. The people, relying on their decentralized political, economic, and military potential have always taken over the resistance against the invaders.'

Coalition trainers at the Kabul Military Training Center as of 2007, were not even trained in or trained to teach counter-insurgency tactics to the Afghan National Army. The Afghan National Police still receives none. A counter-narcotics plan has yet to be integrated into a counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategy. To their credit, coalition commanders are starting to shift from an enemy-centric to a population centric approach…..but given that eight years have passed, how much longer do we expend our blood and treasure in this effort? What is it that we think we can accomplish in a nation [in a loose sense of the word] where empires before us have invaded, occupied and failed to transform?

Spinning Our Wheels

A recent article in Foreign Affairs sheds light on the association between the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda, and posits the question of why are we still in Afghanistan:

President Barack Obama insists that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is about "making sure that al Qaeda cannot attack the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and our allies" or "project violence against" American citizens. The reasoning is that if the Taliban win in Afghanistan, al Qaeda will once again be able to set up shop there to carry out its dirty work. As the president puts it, Afghanistan would "again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can." This argument is constantly repeated but rarely examined; given the costs and risks associated with the Obama administration’s plans for the region, it is time such statements be given the scrutiny they deserve.

Multiple sources, including Lawrence Wright's book The Looming Tower, make clear that the Taliban was a reluctant host to al Qaeda in the 1990s and felt betrayed when the terrorist group repeatedly violated agreements to refrain from issuing inflammatory statements and fomenting violence abroad. Then the al Qaeda-sponsored 9/11 attacks -- which the Taliban had nothing to do with -- led to the toppling of the Taliban’s regime. Given the Taliban’s limited interest in issues outside the "AfPak" region, if they came to power again now, they would be highly unlikely to host provocative terrorist groups whose actions could lead to another outside intervention. And even if al Qaeda were able to relocate to Afghanistan after a Taliban victory there, it would still have to operate under the same siege situation it presently enjoys in what Obama calls its "safe haven" in Pakistan.

The very notion that al Qaeda needs a secure geographic base to carry out its terrorist operations, moreover, is questionable. After all, the operational base for 9/11 was in Hamburg, Germany. Conspiracies involving small numbers of people require communication, money, and planning -- but not a major protected base camp.

When we peel away the rhetoric and the fanciful ideals of promoting western, liberal democracy [in a region that has never known such], how can we logically justify our continued occupation of Afghanistan?

Tea Parties......part deux

I'm not trying to demean the Tea Party concept, but rather voice my pessimism about the longevity and the depth of fervor and willingness to radicalize of the participants, and the co-opting by the Republicans.

Quite obviously, a grass roots movement is the only way to break the cycle of abuse by the two major parties. But that movement has to be a brush fire across a dry plain to affect any change. The Tea Party movements are merely campfires in reality. The closest movement we’ve seen recently was the Ron Paul ‘revolution’, but even that did not do much more than get people excited for a short time. Of course, a managed campaign by the Democratic and Republican Party’s along with the MSM contributed heavily to its demise.

I believe that most Americans fear treading outside of their comfort zones in regards to political change. Americans have really only known the two parties. They are led to believe that these two parties are diametrically opposed and at odd ends of the political spectrum. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the concept of breaking that paradigm frightens people for a few key reasons: the media does not have any vested interest in promoting change because they are part of that paradigm. The media will by and large not even grant that there are more than Democrats, Republicans and the vague, grey group known as Independents…….who are universally implied to be disaffected or irresolute Democrats and Republicans.

I hate at times, to harp incessantly about the illogical and divisive influence of those two major parties, but I truly believe their existence to be the bane of citizen empowerment and the pursuit of the common welfare of the nation.

I don’t have the answers to how to break the political cycle of abuse. I’m not sure anyone does. What I do know is that the forces arrayed against breaking that cycle are legion. It will take strong, committed citizens with financial, intellectual and populist backing to return this nation to one of principle and ideals. Although I am a registered Libertarian, they aren’t the panacea. There are indeed good and honest Democrats and Republicans, but those who start out their political careers, I fear soon become co-opted by the party machinery. In today’s political landscape the party trumps the polity….and if there were ever an ideology opposed to that of our founders……we are witnessing it in our lifetime.

Who knows, maybe likeminded people can contribute to a movement to overhaul this pattern. Jumping on the bandwagon is easy after it gets started down the road. Building that bandwagon is a daunting task.

The 8th of November