Entries from July 2006 ↓

Steven Green stands accused of horrible crimes. Combat stress can do some terrible things to the human mind, but it seems from reports like this young man went wrong a long time before he arrived in Iraq.

Green clearly faced daily danger. He watched fellow soldiers die in front of him.

He described how after an attack on their traffic checkpoint, he and several others pushed one wounded man into the back seat of a Humvee and put Casica, who had a bullet wound in his throat, on the truck’s hood. Green flung himself across Casica to keep the dying soldier from falling off as they sped back to the base.

“We were going, like, 55 miles an hour and I was hanging on to him. I was like, ‘Sgt. Casica, Sgt. Casica.’ He just moved his eyes a little bit,” Green related with a breezy candor. “I was just laying on top of him, listening to him breathing, telling him he’s okay. I was rubbing his chest. I was looking at the tattoo on his arm. He had his little girl’s name tattooed on his arm.

None of what he experienced excuses the crime he is accused of. The wheels of justice are turning, but there are many unanswered questions, not least of which is - how could a crime like this have been pulled off? Where were the NCOs and officers? What happened to the moral compasses of those involved, assuming they had them to begin with?

Arab-American pollster James Zogby has an opinion on what must be done.

It is clear that the current situation is untenable. Hizbullah’s recent reckless actions gave Israel the pretext for a massive and disproportionate assault on Lebanon, killing hundreds of innocent Lebanese and exacting an enormous toll on the country’s economy and infrastructure. As Hizbullah acted without the concurrence of the central government, they were rebuked by the Prime Minister and the majority of his cabinet–before the extent of Israel’s onslaught became clear.

So who is going to build this strong Lebanese central government? Arabs seem to have problems coming together. Syria and Iran have no interest unless they control that government. Israel doesn’t seem interested. The United States is overextended already. The U.N. is completely ineffective. So who is going to fix what’s broken?

Why Hezbollah Fights reminded me of a similar article i found last week.  Definitely not as in-depth as that article but a close outline of it.

Under the leadership of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah is one of the strongest and best organized bodies in Lebanon.  Nasrallah is both a determined man of religion and a master of psychological warfare. He’s manipulative and knows how to drag people behind him.

With 20,000 troops and at least 10,000 rockets trained on northern Israel, Hezbollah remains a potent force in Lebanon — the only remaining private militia after others were disarmed. Its strength also derives from its civilian arm: It runs hospitals, schools, food-distribution centers, orphanages and a television station, partly thanks to about $60 million in annual aid from Iran. 

Hezbollah supports the destruction of Israel and cooperates with other militant Islamic organizations, such as Hamas, to promote this goal. Analysts see increased coordination lately among Hamas and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah was also believed to be the driving force behind several attacks on Western targets: the April 1983 suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people; the October 1983 attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 troops; and a simultaneous attack on the French multinational force headquarters that killed 58 French soldiers. In September 1984, seven months after U.S. forces withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah supporters staged a second attack on the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut. Twenty were killed.

Hezbollah has ignored U.N. Security Council resolutions ordering that it disarm, feeling that it has political backing from Iran and Syria, and popular support because of its successful guerrilla warfare against Israel.

In the Company of Soldiers has an excellent report from Stratfor that discusses the mindset of Hezbollah. Entirely worth reading. Here is a small excerpt:

That pedantic lesson complete, we can now locate Hezbollah’s ideology and intentions more carefully. Hezbollah is a Shiite radical group that grew out of the Iranian revolution. However, there is a tension in its views, because it also is close to Syria. As such, it is close to a much more secular partner, more in the Nasserite tradition domestically. But it also is close to a country that views Lebanon, Jordan and Israel as part of greater Syria, the Syria torn apart by the British and French.

Go read it all. Perspective on the whole Israel/Lebanon/Palestine greater Middle East can be found.

One of the hardest parts of being away from home is that you cannot be for your family members when they are going through a tough event. I’ve mentioned before that my wife rescues dogs - it is her passion to save them from bad owners and give them good lives. I love dogs too, but my wife has a much bigger heart.

Gonzo came to us about three years ago I think. He was old then. Someone had thrown him away, and he ended up at a kill shelter. The man who actually gassed the dogs at the kill shelter couldn’t find it in his heart to put the little guy down, so he made a phone call. Eventually Gonzo ended up with us, and there he stayed until yesterday, when his life came to its end.

Gonzo was a little guy with no teeth and a messed up spine. His back legs didn’t work right but he always displayed plenty of spirit. He got along pretty well up until recently even though walking was a tough battle for him due to years of neglect and mistreatment. My wife kept him alive and happy. He doted on her and she on him. Gonzo slept comfortably in a nest of pillows on our bed in his last years.

Yesterday, he slipped out of the world. His health had been declining, and when I was home on R&R I knew I probably wouldn’t ever see him again. I’m terribly sorry I couldn’t be there with you Barb. I’m sorry I couldn’t be with Gonzo at the end, to give him a final ear rub as he went into the great unknown. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to give you a hug. I know you are in pain right now. I know your heart hurts.

Gonzo brought many smiles to your face, and to mine. I’ll always remember him hobbling around outside our house in the mountains, enjoying the bright sunshine and tasting the air with his tongue. He was perfectly content as long as he could see you. You rescued him and gave him a comfortable, loving existence in his last few years. He gave so much back to both of us. I’ll miss him.

I’ve been trying to get promoted since February. The process for a Georgia National Guardsman to be promoted is convoluted to say the least.

In our unit, the lynchpin to my achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant is one knowledgeable individual I work with who knows the paperwork involved and which people to lean on to speed up the process (assuming you can call a six-month bureaucratic battle speedy).

This person has been working on my behalf for months now to get a special promotion board convened back in Georgia to consider whether or not I qualify to move up in the rank structure. To say that I get frustrated by the level of incompetence and indifference involved would be a major understatement.

The people in the rear don’t know me. They don’t know whether I am competent. They have no idea whether I can make sound decisions. They have no stake in my life, nor I in theirs. Every piece of documentation they receive is filtered and rewritten multiple times before it reaches the desks of the people who can sign off on a new rank for me.

While these strangers allow my paperwork to grow dusty sitting on their desks, my bottom line is directly impacted thousands of miles away in a war zone. My wife and I are both affected financially by the foot dragging and bureaucracy of this process.

My special board convenes on August 6. I am hopeful that I will be added to the promotion list on that date. Once I make the list my unit can then request my promotion. Perhaps I will leave Iraq a staff sergeant. I’ve met all the requirements and busted my ass for a year now. I’m more than ready. Of all the types of recognition that get doled out by the Army, the only one I crave is rank because rank means financial reward. Awards are great, but they do not pay the bills and they cannot put food on the table for my wife back home.

The Department of Homeland Security is a parasite living on the backs of the American taxpayer.

Did you know that air marshals are required to fill a monthly quota of entries into their secret “suspicious persons” database. Here’s hoping your name or mine doesn’t end up there just to meet some bureaucratic requirement.

The power of unchecked government is spooky.

Hat tip: Bruce Schneier.

For Dedicated Gamers, a PC With an Unearthly Look

I would love one of these.

The Alienware Area-51 7500 is the kind of computer that kicks sand in the face of wimpier PC’s. Based on Intel’s latest processor and motherboard — code-named Conroe for those who are keeping track — the 7500 has a processor speed of about 3 gigahertz, which means you’ll be able to play blindingly fast games of Solitaire.

I would NOT play solitaire on such a wonderful machine. There are so many other more useful things you could do with one of these sweet little rocket machines.

I’ll likely end up building my own custom again when replacement time rolls around. It’s just fun.

Kofi Annan accuses Isreal of murder

From Boortz:

An Israeli air strike yesterday in Southern Lebanon killed 4 U.N. observers at a post. Immediately, and without hearing Israel’s side of the story, Kofi Annan issued the following statement: “I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon.” The accusation is clear: Israel killed the U.N. observers on purpose.

Israel responded by saying they were shocked by Annan’s statement and that the air strike was an accident. Why wouldn’t it be? What possible motivation would the Israeli Defense Forces have for killing innocent U.N. observers? War is a messy business. Missiles go awry…coordinates get punched in by mistake…miscommunications happen. Remember when the United States blew up China’s embassy in Belgrade? It happens. Southern Lebanon is a war zone. It is a risky place.

Give your customer service rep a break today

I’ve complained before about how hard it is to understand some Indian customer service people. However, I’ve recently been privileged to work with an extremely competent Indian programmer. Instapundit relates his recent tech support experience involving a rep from the subcontinent:

ANOTHER NON-HELLISH CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE: Installed a new wireless router, and had some trouble getting it to talk to the modem. BellSouth customer service was nice, but told me it was a Linksys issue. Talked to the Linksys guy — he said his name was “Joe” but he was somewhere in India, I think — and though it took a while we figured it out. He seemed pathetically relieved that I just went through the steps politely and didn’t yell at him.

I don’t like the outsourced tech support firms that force their employees to pretend they are in the U.S. However, I do think some patience is in order. If you’re having a hard time understanding your rep be patient. You might find out the person you’re dealing with is competent, even if they are somewhat hard to understand.

Patience is something I have had to practice a lot in the last year of my life. It can pay off sometimes.

Wall Street Journal on MilBloggers

Blackfive reports that the Wall Street journal is talking about milbloggers. Article here.

If you don’t know who JP Borda is you should. Visit milblogging.com right now. A great resource if you’re interested in the view from the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Rare counting ability induced by temporarily switching off brain region

Just place a pulsing magnet over the correct area of your brain and become a math genius a la Rain Man. OK, it’s not quite that simple, but it is certainly interesting research. My dad has the ability to do a lot of math in his head, and I’ve often envied him that. Maybe I need the right kind of magnetic helmet so I can show him up at the next family meeting.

We’ll let the man himself, Neal Boortz, write the burst this week. Well, not really. From Neal’s Nuze of 24-Jul-06 at his web site:

FAIRTAX STATUS REPORT

The FairTax movement is going strong my friends, stronger than you might imagine. I can assure you that the FairTax is attracting an ever-increasing degree of attention in Washington. I wish I could share the details, but the wonderful world of politics is such that it is much better to let the people involved spill the beans than to jump the gun by disclosing their interest or involvement ahead of time.

There have been three events in recent months that have really peaked interest among the political class. First was the debut of The FairTax Book on the New York Times Bestseller’s list for paperbacks. We’re still there ranking very high in the business category. Second was the FairTax rally in Atlanta a few months ago. When we packed a room full of 4,500 people, and then turned another 4,000 away, the shockwaves were felt inside the Beltway the very next day. On the morning after the rally Congressman Linder, who had returned to Washington overnight, was buttonholed by a number of colleagues to explain “just what it was you did there in Atlanta last night.”

Last week’s Georgia primaries in Georgia also opened some eyes. The FairTax was on the Republican primary ballot in three metropolitan Atlanta counties, and in each county the idea of replacing the income tax with the FairTax was approved by over 85% of the voters. When a reform idea as huge as the FairTax receives that type of an approval rating people, especially politicians, take note.

Another thing happened last week that impressed a number of high-ranking DC political-types. I received about 15 emails from people who told me that they originally had no intention of participating in the primary … UNTIL, that is, they heard me say that the FairTax was on the ballot. Those emails are now in the hands of some of the most powerful people in Washington.

Simply put — when you have an issue that (1) sends people to the polls who would otherwise not vote, and (2) gets the support of over 85% of the voters, you have an issue that can drive an election. Politicians know it.

Now … what’s next?

ORLANDO! THAT’S WHAT!

This coming Saturday on the steps of the Orlando City Hall we’re going to have a rally in support of the FairTax! Our Orlando affiliate, News Talk 580 WDBO has done a spectacular job of setting this rally up, and Jesse The FairTax Babe has added a pancake breakfast to hungry rally participants!

Come on, folks. We can do this! We can bring about this massive transfer of power from the government to the people, but only if you’ll get off your keesters and help us out!

Yesterday afternoon I was talking to a friend in Naples. I told him we were trying to get at least 10,000 people in front of the Orlando City Hall, and asked him if he was going to come to the rally. He told me that if there were going to be that many people there, then it wouldn’t make much difference if he showed up or not!

That, my friends, is the type of thinking that can lead to a small turnout; and a small turnout takes a lot of steam out of the FairTax movement.

I can promise you that if we put 10,000 into downtown Orlando for this rally it will be the talk of Washington the next Monday. What happens on Saturday will have a lot to do with whether or not we make any progress toward making the FairTax a prime issue in this Fall’s election.

WE NEED YOU!

Yes. It’s a sacrifice. Reform like this doesn’t happen without sacrifice. You can be a part of a revolution here. It can’t be done with you sitting on your hands.

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry or Jonathan . You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.

Does the United States have a responsibility to evacuate you from a foreign nation if war breaks out while you are there?

Apparently some spoiled American Arabs think so.

An Arab-American group sued top Bush administration officials, claiming it bungled the evacuation from Lebanon of US nationals, leaving them vulnerable to the Israeli military offensive.

In their suit against US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld filed in a Detroit, Michigan federal court, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) asked the court to order the government to stop shipping weapons to Israel as long as US citizens remain in danger inside Lebanon.

The U.S. government didn’t force any American citizens to travel to Lebanon. Sure, they should try to get Americans out, but this lawsuit is garbage. The government is not your damn nanny.