Archive for the ‘Afghanistan war’ Category

A special greeting for the people of Doraville

Posted: May 27, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, blogger for hire, internet/free speech, opinion/news, personal
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I will be writing a much longer post on the subject but I wanted to give a personal thank you for the kindness and the hospitality that the people of Doraville gave to a stranger from 1000 miles away who was intruding on their celebration and reception for their police chief who has just returned from Afghanistan. I want to give a particular thank you to the Mayor who gave me some of his time privately.

At the Reception


To Lynn Watanabe of the library I want you to know I’ve burned a CD of the events and if I don’t get a chance to drop it off before I leave, my friend Vinnie will swing by afterwards and drop it off there. All of the video I took will eventually end up on my youtube account so feel free to refer people there as well.

Chief/Col King and some of the citizens of Doraville

You know I have talked to people from Lithonia , Doraville, Atlanta, Norcross, Decatur and I have to say to my compatriots up north, if you had the pleasure of meeting the people of Georgia as I have you would have a very different picture of the south than what is currently portrayed in the media and in popular culture. I have yet to meet a person that I would not mind living on my street back home and I’ve met MANY people who I wish did.

Update: Here is a brief clip from the presentation before the reception

On Morning Joe today they were talking about Afghan War

Posted: May 10, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, war
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And the subject of civilian casualties comes us as it always does whenever the US is involved in a war.

I personally think people have seen too many movies and seem to have the idea that we can magically only hit the bad guys. Generations will pass before that is possible, but something that Lesley Stahl said really bothered me.

She talked about how civilians die in drone attacks and how even at maned checkpoint civilians are accidentally killed. She talked about how it hurts our reputation in the world.

I never forget that she was the person who was questioning General Colin Powell about his supply lines in Iraq

I want to ask that great military tactician Lesley Stahl a serious question:

Since it is necessary to get further troops on the ground and further forward to decrease civilian risks and since such actions are inherently more dangerous lets bottom line it; How large an increase in American casualties (read dead American soldiers) would you be willing to accept Lesley in order to drop accidental civilian casualties by say 10%?

I’d love get an answer on this one.

I’m not a professional press secretary …

Posted: April 7, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, war
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but If I was asked about the ally question I would have said:

“Yes but even allies have disagreements and arguments on occasion. That’s just life.”

How hard is that?

Ok what about Don’t ask, don’t tell?

Posted: February 4, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, opinion/news, war
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I’ve teased supporters of this president in the past because he has been unwilling to address items such as “don’t ask don’t tell”, but I’ve never devoted a piece to my opinion on the subject so here goes…

My opinion on “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is a variation of Lincoln statement on slavery.

Our goal should be having the strongest most efficient military in the world. We need a military strong enough to reassure our friends and to give our foes pause. I am in favor of anything that supports that goal.

If we can meet this goal by officially allowing homosexuals to serve in the military openly, I would support it.

If we can do it by banning homosexuals from military service openly I would support it.

And if we could do it allowing homosexuals to serve openly in some capacity but not in others I would support that too.

Our enemies are trying to kill us, they are not going to wait to ask who we pick up in bars before they try. The most efficient military possible is in the interest of everyone of any race creed color or sexual orientation. My only interest when it comes to the military is its ability to fight and win.

I’m not a soldier, I will likely never be a soldier the people who can answer this will be our soldiers and those willing to serve. Not me.

I will say this to the two sides of the argument:

You might remember that according to Ken Burns Masterpiece The Civil War 85% of American Blacks in the north of military age served in the Union army. They understood what the war was about. Given the beliefs of Radical Islam, I think that Gay Americans would be highly motivated to serve to fight against a fundamentalist Islamic foe that wants them dead and would not be inclined to oppose it.

on the other hand…

We also have an all volunteer military, if the numbers of homosexual recruits are insufficient to make up for the number of straight recruits who would be unwilling to serve with them to the point where it hurts our ability to fight then the needs of the service have to be the priority.

What do you think and why?

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