Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
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Oddly enough - I'm resistant to bringing the flags to half-staff today. I kinda want to fly it full-staff - as an in-your-face to those who wish us ill. -the Armorer
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Go, read the latest and greatest (and it's *good*) over at The War on Big Tobacco. Meet the rough men who stand ready. And remember - they walk among you and you never know. -the Armorer
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Email from the Heartless Libertarian on where he spent 9/11/08:
Just remember to check six and keep up the scan, bubba! -the Armorer
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Voting is now open for the Milbloggies, btw. -the Armorer
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The Flea sends: A lawyer turned cannon-cocker.
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On National Review Online, David French, an Army reservist currently in Iraq asks Why Not Join The Fight?:
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Theory - "Close Door" buttons on elevators. They aren't real. They're a part of an alien study of humanity. All they do is record the number of times we'll push a useless button. Aliens are inscrutable. -the Armorer
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Oddly enough - I'm resistant to bringing the flags to half-staff today. I kinda want to fly it full-staff - as an in-your-face to those who wish us ill. -the Armorer
********************************
Go, read the latest and greatest (and it's *good*) over at The War on Big Tobacco. Meet the rough men who stand ready. And remember - they walk among you and you never know. -the Armorer
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Email from the Heartless Libertarian on where he spent 9/11/08:
Second note of the morning from HL:How does Bagram Air Field grab you?
We had a memorial ceremony here today, 1500 local, 0630 EDT. Excellent words were spoken by GEN McKiernan (the ISAF and USFOR commander), the 101st CG, and chaplain. Good number of media, both print and TV. They were all locals, not sure how many were stringers for the wire services and if any of it will actually make the Kabul news.
I've heard Amazing Grace before recorded or on TV, but today was the first time I've heard it live. Damn. Just damn.
I also noted this morning that all of the flags - all of the coalition flags, not just the US - at the NATO camp at Kabul airport and the ISAF HQ in Kabul were at half staff today.
Further note that there will be a Fallen Comrade ceremony to send another fallen American home from here at Bagram sometime tonight. This will be the third one since we arrived Saturday night. The previous two sent home five.
Make room on the Green.
Just remember to check six and keep up the scan, bubba! -the Armorer
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Voting is now open for the Milbloggies, btw. -the Armorer
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The Flea sends: A lawyer turned cannon-cocker.
That Red/Blue thing. It's more individual than state, really. We just tend to gravitate towards each other. -the ArmorerAnd so their puzzlement continues. One distressed friend, hearing of my present employment, pounds the table and unleashes obscenities. Another tells people she thinks I’ve “changed.” (My oldest friends tell me I haven’t, which is a comfort.) And another tells me that she’s happy “that you’re doing something you care about,” with the forced enthusiasm of a supportive parent. All of which I try to take with good humor. But I wonder how we came to a point at which young persons—of a class that once viewed military service as an ordinary expression of its own privileged relationship to the state—could come to see the act of entering service as an oddity requiring special explanation.
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On National Review Online, David French, an Army reservist currently in Iraq asks Why Not Join The Fight?:
Denizen Sergeant B did. Co-blogger Bill does so as a contractor. Denizen Boquisucio tried to, but was flummoxed by the incompetence of the MEPS... So, why *not* join the fight, especially if you've not already walked the walk, as so many of us here have. -the ArmorerWhat does all this mean? I think it means that there has never been a better time for a patriotic citizen to join the fight.
After spending almost a year in Iraq, I perceive two central — and competing — truths about this war: First, because our enemy is more evil than I imagined, losing is simply not an option. Second, the strain of multiple deployments is very real, and any given individual can only give so much before the hardship is simply too great.
And so, we face a dilemma. As we confront an enemy who will shoot infants in the face to “send a message,” individuals who would be happy to slice your head off on videotape and who are full of the most racist, extreme, and depraved hatred, we rely on the same people to come back and fight again . . . and again . . . and again.
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Theory - "Close Door" buttons on elevators. They aren't real. They're a part of an alien study of humanity. All they do is record the number of times we'll push a useless button. Aliens are inscrutable. -the Armorer
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Another mugging by reality. The rest is better, "Drawing What I see," over at LadyBlog. H/t, Wendy at RightGirl. -the ArmorerWhat do I see now? Well, I lost my “nuance”.
I see that cultural relativism is the new racism, one that denies humans their dignity based upon their geography. Cultural relativism tells us that some of us are low, barbaric, and inhumane by nature and we should accept that inequality. That certain people are born to be enslaved, and that’s okay. It tells us that democracy is for westerners. I am now the ethnocentric American that I had been taught to revile. I’m certain my culture is superior. A culture that honors life and freedom will always be superior to a culture of death and slavery. It’s that black and white.
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires. Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute. Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is. The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.
My (now ex)-brother in law is an elevator repairman. The 'close' buttons are only active when in 'Firefighter' mode. The rest of the time they just light up.
The fun thing would be to see a study done of elevator security tapes of how people deal with the ever-tempting 'close' button. I've seen them hit it, hold it (so the elevator won't stop), etc..
What I want is a working, active 'slam-door' button.
So, why *not* join the fight, especially if you've not already walked the walk, as so many of us here have.
Both forms of emphasis added.