Archive for the ‘Afghanistan war’ Category

Thank God for the English press…

Posted: November 9, 2009 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, war
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…for doing the reporting that the American media is afraid to say aloud:

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America’s Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.

He also told colleagues at America’s top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.

You don’t say?

Over to you Violet and company.

Update: Exhibit B:

Nidal Hassan [sic] is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.

Anyone? Bueller, Bueller?

Update 2: Ok lets say it all together. Major Malik Nadal Hasan is an Islamic killer. c’mon you can do it.

Q: Why did I not comment on the Obama visit to dover?

Posted: October 31, 2009 by datechguy in Afghanistan war
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A: He is still president and out of respect for the office I don’t want to publicly question how he chooses to honor our fallen troops.

The Debate is here, and I am not joining it.

If you want my private opinion visit me in Fitchburg or give me a ring and I’ll give it.

The difference between an enemy and someone you don’t care for

Posted: October 29, 2009 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, internet/free speech
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My mother is the quintessential Sicilian. There are people she doesn’t like or care for, but she is very proper in public concerning them as long as she isn’t questioned directly. She always taught me the value of being able to publicly associate with your enemies. And with enemies you need to establish “neutral ground” such as Church or a funeral where you can be friendly and not let your personal enmity harm or inconvenience others.

There were also other bounds, you would not hurt a foes family or attempt to cost them their livelihood. On shared occasions such as sporting events when you both cheered for the same team it was even acceptable to celebrate together and most importantly there were some rumors and accusations that were so beyond the pale that you didn’t repeat them even about your foes. I saw her do this with people that had directly hurt and insulted her publicly. It was amazing to see.

Most of this was taught by example. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me I tended to take my fathers example instead. He liked and got along with everyone and as long as they didn’t mean harm to his family he would help anyone. At his funeral I never saw so many people and neither did the funeral home guy for any non celebrity. (He even cooked his own funeral dinner but that’s another story…)

This is one of the reasons why I have taken such a hard line on Charles Johnson and lgf. His accusations against Robert Stacy are not only contrary to the personal experiences of people with actual expereince but it puts his ability to support his wife and family at risk.

Banning people from comments is childish, the comments on Jumping in Pools are childish an revealing, but the actions on the gentleman from Maryland are despicable and continue to be. (This doesn’t even count his actions against Pam Geller, Gates of Vienna et/al).

As I’ve said I’ve never met Charles so I don’t know his motivations, how he thinks, if he is having personal problems that lead to this stuff or anything, but right now I must say I don’t care much for him.

That said he has not yet crossed two particular bright lines that are significant.

He has not crossed over to opposition to Israel vs the Palestinians.

He has not crossed over to the defeat caucus concerning the radical Islam in general and the war in particular.

These are both important lines not only because of what they represent but because unlike some who support the above positions he has the facts and without a question knows better.

As long as those two lines are not crossed his chance of redemption is still intact and I will hope for it while still teasing him over his foolishness and chiding him severely for his offensives against a man I call friend.

Once those lines are crossed, once he actively supports the other side in war then all bets are off. Over time this will be the true test of him and if he just being petulant or if he is doing wrong.

I hope I’m wrong but I have a horrible feeling that this administration will very soon put this to the test.

The day Bill Whittle is wrong about this…

Posted: October 26, 2009 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, opinion/news, war
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…is the day our country dies:

Here is a sociological experiment that might have something to teach us:

Kick down100 doors of self-proclaimed French pacifists, grab the women and kids, and haul them away. Then try again in Texas, with 100 NRA members. Collate, or rather, have a surviving relative collate the results. Extrapolate the abductors’ rates of casualties to determine the total number of murdering swine needed. See what percentage of jackbooted thugs have a suicide wish and then determine the number of men you will need to disarm, kidnap and murder 50 million armed people.

You will need a lot of men. More than you can raise.

These trust the people freedoms are so deeply engrained in the fabric of America as to be almost hereditary, I think. I used to worry that we’d bred that out of us, and then along comes Todd Beamer and company on United Flight 93, who, first among us that day, realized they were being marched to their deaths and decided to do something about it. Not for themselves, because by taking that action they knew they were doomed. They did it for us. Not only to save the lives of those on the ground for whom their aircraft was headed, but to remind us of who we are as a people, to add to the list of ordinary Americans who can gather extraordinary courage and resolve because they have been trusted all their lives by their government and their fellow citizens.

He mentions another point worth accenting:

As PJ O’Rourke points out, the U.S. Constitution is less than a quarter the length of the owner’s manual for a 1998 Toyota Camry, and yet it has managed to keep 300 million of the world’s most unruly, passionate people safe, prosperous and free. Smarter people than me may disagree with that document – I’m for not touching a comma.

So as a proud son of those brave men, I’ll take freedom – all of it – and because I accept the benefits of those freedoms, I’ll solemnly take the responsibilities as well. I may someday lose a child on a trip to Spring Break, but I’ll never lock them in the basement to keep them safe. And I’ll accept the fact that living in Los Angeles puts me at risk for being shot to death because I feel the freedom is worth it. I breathe that freedom every day, and hey, we all gotta go sometime. I’ll continue to fly experimental airplanes because I am careful, meticulous, precise and responsible, and yet the day may come when I am out of altitude, out of airspeed and out of ideas all at the same time. Oh well. I have seen and done things up there that you cannot imagine and I cannot describe. Freedom.

I respect and admire Canada. Although we have chosen certain diverging paths since the days of the Revolution, we have been, and always will be, the best of friends despite our differences. Canada is unquestionably as decent, modest and good a society as exists on Earth today. And yet while Canadians frequently point out that they are free of our vices, I perceive that they are free of our greatness as well. You can’t have it both ways.

Me, personally, I’ll take the spirit, ingenuity and passion that can plant the American flag on the moon over pre-paid health care.

Everything costs something. It is a pain that we have to have troops in Europe, but the peace that those troops in Europe have preserved is not a pain, it is a pain that we have troops in South Korea and Japan, but it is not a pain that both of those countries have been good trading partners and peaceful for decades and have not been to war in 50 plus years.

It’s a pain that we spend billions on carriers and missiles etc, but it’s a blessing that when disaster strikes a world away we can with those carriers provide clean drinking water and relief at the speed of a nuclear powered ship.

It’s a pain that we have to be the worlds policeman, but it also means that instead of a subordinate position were we have to go along, we are in the decisive position where we act and others can deal with us instead.

Anyone knows if you run a business there is a lot of work but you are the man in charge, if you work for someone you have to on occasion take orders and like it. Right now we don’t have to take anything from anyone and because we are what we are, a lot of other places don’t have to either because they know we have their back.

As soon as we stop having their back then the next guy on the block will start running the show, and all those fellows who used to count on us and didn’t mind tweaking us because they had us had better hope the next guy thinks like us, otherwise they are back to the 18th century power struggle, because people haven’t changed in thousands of years, only their technology and the greatest socio/political change for the good for the world in the last 10 centuries came from a bunch of rich white guys wearing powdered wigs who conceived principles that a volunteer force currently upholds for an ungrateful world and a group of pols who think they can count on them forever.

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