More Power To Them… Not Us December 30, 2009
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On December 17, 2009 President Obama gave INTERPOL, which stands for International Criminal Police Organization for those that don’t know, immunity within the borders of the United States and placed it above American law.. This came in the form of an amendment to Executive Order 12425, originally signed by President Reagan that recognized INTERPOL as a law-enforcement agency that supported several investigations launched by international tribunals. Now why is this a problem?
Well maybe this guy:
Ft. Hood terrorist shooter
Or this guy:
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aka The Pantybomber
What do the two have in connection? Not much. But its already been acknowledged that several missed chances to intercept both of these men have come and gone prior to their actions. Both men were detected by the appropriate agencies or organization and then reported up the chain. So what failed? How about the glaring fact that the United States of America, still 8 years after September 11th, 14 years after the Oklahoma City Bombing, and 16 years after the First WTC attack, has no single agency or law-enforcement arm responsible for internal security that has a direct pipeline to the White House?
The CIA handles overseas threats. The FBI and the polyglot of law enforcement agencies handle the internal threats. DHS? Not really a law enforcement arm and really nothing more than a think tank full of analysts who gin up reports like this. This lack of a counterintelligence and counterterrorism arm that allows the FBI to focus on crime and treats terrorism and espionage for what they are, acts of war, is going to further endanger American lives for the foreseeable future.
So why is the Obama Amendment to EO 12425 related? He just gave INTERPOL more power and authority than the entire United States of America Intelligence Community has to investigate or cooperate with investigations on Americans. EO 12333 was the “wall” that many referred to during the 9/11 Commission’s hearings and how law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were afraid to communicate with each other for fear of being sued or fired by hypersensitive bosses. EO 12333 currently prevents the 16 different intelligence agencies from participating in “law-enforcement” and investigations of Americans. Now, warrantless wiretaps are an intelligence function so before you start down there think about that… we still can’t use them in prosecution. Enhanced interrogation techniques? Nope, can’t use those either.
So… more power to them, not us.
We need a single agency that is responsible for all counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations within the United States of America. It is time we have a domestic intelligence agency that is accountable to our laws (INTERPOL no longer is). Do we create this agency on top of the mess that we already have? No. We restructure DHS and remove investigating jurisdiction and funding in order to allow it to firmly take over its new role. We also must stop treating terrorists like criminals. Thats why the FBI is given the primary jurisdiction when we know that terrorism is an act of war. It kills hundreds and thousands of people and is a tool by a hostile enemy, foreign and domestic.
Does the Left Feel this Way? December 1, 2009
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“Enemy camp?”
What does bringing up Paul Wolfowitz have to do with this?
The United States Military Academy is the one of the nation’s best colleges and regularly sends future officers of the United States Army on Rhodes Scholarships. Its a premier security and international relations think tank that offers opinions of all kinds. Its not an Obama 2008 campaign rally or an ACORN members meeting, there was never going to be a warm reception. The students at West Point have a long 4 years in their chosen college while Obama’s wild and crazy Ivy League was only challenging in the paper cut realm. The men and women at West Point wrote that blank check to Uncle Sam between four to one year ago and did it regardless of who the Commander in Chief was.
Enemy camp?
If the left likes to think Rush Limbaugh speaks for “the right”, then Chris Matthews and the regime at MSNBC speaks for the left… do this include the Obama administration?
November 6, 2009
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Who is Private John Galt?
I began reading Atlas Shrugged in last March. From the start I was struck by the intimacy I felt with the novel. It is the work of a lifetime for Ayn Rand. If you’ve read this much you now know what the book is about… or maybe not. Let me explain. It is about a movement, initially a man but it expanded to include the “motor of the world”. To remove obscurity, that means everyone who took initiative, proactive, is responsible, seeks intelligence, individuality, originality, knowledge, and is all those things in themselves. What if that person… those people just went away? How would the world get along? How would the world cope? Compensate… It wouldn’t. It couldn’t.
So there is Atlas Shrugged in a nutshell. No I don’t do is justice but now you know. John Galt is the originator. He took many along with him.
So what if there was or is Private John Galt? What inspires a soldier like him? He fights to secure the society he protects. He willingly, freely volunteers his time, body, soul, work, sweat, and if necessary blood, limps, and life. He also believes in fair and just payment for services rendered. He swears to defend a simple document, the United States Constitution. It limits government power and authority over the citizenry. It places the citizen over the government in the form of their representatives and State governments. Private John Galt is the embodiment of the Eighth and Ninth.
He seeks a stable future with liberty sustained. For his family, for his nation, for his republic. That same republic is to be secured from within and outside. He stands ready to defend the republic as he volunteered his very life and the livelihood of his family to do so. Why? Because he loves all that was mentioned above. He wants to stop fighting…
He is worried that the republic he serves will become greedy. They will become dependent upon the government for everything. They will not give him his fair and just compensation. He is worried that you will forget him. He is worried that politicians will turn on him… more to the point that you will let them. You is who he is concerned about… because you are his protector, his defender.
Yes it may seem like a contradiction that a government servant, the soldier, would oppose being a government slave. We are paid by the government, our health care is provided by it, some of us even live in government housing, those of us who don’t are given a subsidy. We follow orders and are a uniform mass. But there is one overriding role of government:
“…the purpose of a military … is to protect from violence the citizens who paid for it, which is the proper function of a government.”
- Ragnar Danneskjold, Atlas Shrugged.
That is our job. That is the only function that the Constitution explicitly defines as a role for the Federal government and does so in the Preamble:
“…in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense … and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
I left out the “general Welfare” because… its not defined as we are currently finding out. It can be determined that our Forefathers arranged it in this order for a reason, you can’t insure and provide without a military that secures and provides for the general Welfare.
So back to Private Galt. What happens if he walks away? What happens to you? Will your government fall? Probably not, someone will always signed up for money or to escape jail. Fine, everyone has their reasons but there is a core to the Oath of Enlistment & Commission. There is a core to the military of the United States of America. And it is made up of Private John Galt… dont make us walk away.
9/11 September 13, 2009
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There’s something odd about staying up past midnight. Only humans know the turning of the clock signifies the change of a day. Only humans know what that day brings. Today will be basically no different than every other day of the week, of this year. Sun will shine, clouds will roll over the blue sky, children play, adults work. The men and women of the United States Department of Defense will continue to avenge the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans.
We did not want to be here.
We did not ask to be here.
We do want to go home.
We do not our enemies to follow.
We will destroy as many of them as we need to.
We will not be remorseful
We will return if necessary
We hate you for what you have done to our country.
We did not want to be here.
Today will remember the eight anniversary of… well you know. Do I need to say more? Was not the title enough? The number “3,000″? “Here”? Where do you think “here” is? Do I need to explain who our enemies are? Remorse over what? What did “they” do to our country? Again, where is “here”? Who are “they”? Do I need to remind you?
If I do, that is shameful.
If I don’t…. thank you. You remember.
Just an update September 2, 2009
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still here in Afghanistan. Been busy but the old connection I had went down for a while then it just flat out sucks. So now I’m paying for it, literally. Anywho. Things are kicking up down south as the news is reporting and the elections are over. Last tiem I looked Karzai was ahead with 46% so there still might be a runoff… personally I think that would be good for this country. A contested election that is settled without bloodshed between the two opponents… hopefully.
I’ve ben here for about 4 months now and ever so slowly counting the days till I can go home on R&R. I am shooting for Christmas so I can be with my kids and hopefully back for my son’s birthday in March. We’ll see how that goes.
Agents of Wrath August 11, 2009
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The chaplain has lead prayers and the flag flies in the coming dusk. High above this mountain valley rests a browning horizon turning into blue. There is a calm over the airfield and all are rested it seems, but that is the lie on the surface. Inside we are a mix of emotions and thoughts. A volcano rumbles within our souls as we deal with what we witness.
This day, among all the others, is like so many before us. We want it to end quickly so our emotions will crash down and wash over us, quickly receding to the ocean of thought. We also want it to linger just one more minute, another second to watch it go down and finish our thoughts. You see on this day, we said good bye. Good bye to a comrade who gave the last full measure doing what was asked of him.
It was said this day “the enemy could not of been more accurate” and that speaker was correct. War is a complex web of luck and skill, more luck than anything. Skill only comes into play when you get a chance to use it, the rest is up to Fate or Luck or Fortune. On this day the chaplain’s prayer included the words “agent’s of wrath”.
This is to symbolize that the soldiers of a righteous government are the soldiers of God and are His agents of wrath. It makes me uncomfortable to hear these words and ponder if we really are His agents. The Bible speaks in the tongue of a time written when kings were given to divine rule. Those who serve the king therefor served God. However, in our secular but religious foundation, we are a volunteer force to a selected (in Armyspeak that would be “volunteered”) government. Are we His agent’s of wrath if we do not subscribe to the belief that our government was established with His good graces?
You may question God. You may question the United States of America. But you cannot question the fact that our nation has swam against the tide many times and come out ahead. We’ve struck against kings and tyrants alike to free ourselves and the oppressed. We’ve delivered peace to places that knew only war. Brought water and food to those whose bellies rumble. We’ve given heart and soul to those who would see us dead. We’ve sinned and asked for forgiveness and sought redemption. We’re not perfect and never will be. Man is made in God’s image and a government must serve the people. Thereby, the government must serve the philosophy of righteous God. Not as a zealot worships the cross or the crescent but as the devote seek solace in the love of the spirit.
So are we, the men and women of the United States of America Armed Forces God’s Agents of Wrath? That answer lies with the people and the government it chooses. We serve the foundation of the nation not its leaders. We serve the tenants of a righteous monolith, not the preachers of disparate religions.
So we can be the agents of wrath but we must be used and act in accordance with such a label. That part lies with the people.
The Gym July 13, 2009
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The Gym
The gym is a place most Americans tend to go to get fit and a new lease on life. For deployed Soldiers it is a place to lose yourself from the chaos, from the stress of the environment. Many of us come with goals in mind because we have nothing to do but the mission, workout, and sleep. There is little time for anything else but we do find time for that too. So the gym is our place to catch a breathe while shedding pounds and weakness.
I have been here for just shy of three months now and have lost fifteen pounds on a steady and strict diet along with exercise. Just to show you that if you’re a fatty, you can lose weight, no matter where you are. I mix it into a typical twelve or eighteen hour day.
The one thing that every person in the gym has is some sort of MP3 player, for me its my iPod Classic I bought for when I’m on my Harley. Yes, I’m breaking a law… so what? There are far worse things that can take my life. So we all have a MP3 player and mine is filled with everything from rock, metal, country, classical, some pop and hip/hop. Then there are the podcasts like the Onion News video, some Mark Levin and Dennis Praeger, and my favorite the Hawaii Surf Session Report. You really can’t get a better mix of video and music than the HSSR, it truly is the “greatest show not on TV”.
I don’t have many movies but I do have Rush Limbaugh’ s 2009 CPAC speech. The rest of the iPod is devoted to the pictures of my family. I like to look at them when I do get a spare moment to break away from it all.
But the gym is my temple. I worship everything there is while inside it. I destroy my body with a method I have termed “suicide by gym”. This SBG is designed to keep my heart rate up and running for nearly three hours. I spend that much in the gym everyday, except Sunday, and I have essentially banned all sugars, excess carbs, and heavy proportions.
The gym is where I think about what to do without the stress of making the decision. The gym is where we see others and push ourselves to challenge them and try to rise to the occasion. Its where I lose myself in the tunes that rattle my brain as it switches from Sevendust to George Strait while I’m pushing nearly 300 pounds on a bench press. Or I imagine I’m waiting in the water on a killer set to come in while listening to Stunt Ditch and I’m straddling an indo-board. Then there’s the brain shattering riffs of Metallica, Mudvayne, and Megadeth as I’m stretching the muscles and tendons of my arms and legs through pain.
The gym is where we progress ourselves as the chaos outside tries to stop us. The gym is my home.
The Wooden Box July 13, 2009
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When we get a moment of respite from the war that we wage we want to talk to those that love us. At least that’s what we hope anyway. We walk to a building usually called the “morale” center and look at the banks of computers and phones. In this case we have to pay for the use of these VOIPs that allow us to call without the burbs and signal disruptions of the traditional DSN switch phones.
These phones are inside a wooden box in this case. I look at them and always want to get the first one because its a little wider and well lit. I can kick back, put my feet on the wall, and talk to whomever I call that day. So far I’ve talked to just about everyone I want to since I’ve arrived in Afghanistan. There are those I avoid calling because I don’t know what to say and those who don’t answer their calls or are away. Its hard to sync up my schedule with theirs. Most of friends and family live in the Eastern Time Zone but the eight and a half hours make it difficult.
These little wooden boxes give us a moment of solitude from the world. We carry index cards with numbers or a page of numbers to call. Mine is on an index card with the code I insert every time I place a call. These boxes let us talk to our family and hear about how your son is going to day camp. I hear him talk to me and know that in a few months I’ll see his face and he’ll see mine. I pray I’ll remember his and vice versa. Some of you may as how can a father forget his own face, simple… you meet so many others, memories cloud your own, images you want to shut out, and of course- children grow up fast. We talk to ex-lovers who make us smile about the times we ad together, both intimate and not. We talk to family who ask us questions we can’t answer and make you feel guilty about even calling sometimes, but you do because you want the last words your mother heard from you to be “I love you”. We call to hear our friends tell us all the parties they’re going to and put on a brave face to say we’re having our own.
These wooden boxes are a place to seek some familiarity with life outside of Afghanistan, away from war. They connect us with the world that we left behind and the lives that are still there. They must live their lives while we’re away- we don’t want to hear that they miss us every five minutes. I want to hear about you, not talk about me. I want to talk about our children and not about the same lunch I had today that I have every Sunday.
These wooden boxes let us escape. When we open the door to step out of the booth, we’re reminded that we’re no longer back home… we’re here.
Hope With Change June 14, 2009
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Today was an odd day I must say. We had a lot of work that made it worthwhile to be here. To my list followers and those who read on Parcbench, I apologize for the absence. Its not as if I haven’t had much to talk about its just difficult to judge what I can and can not discuss without compromising the men and women in our charge. That being said a lot has changed since my last posting. A new commander is in charge here in Afghanistan and scandals involving our use of air strikes have cropped up.
On the appointment of General McChrystal, I can tell you that the force is energized. His reputation precedes him as a fighter and a commander who knows how to wage an intelligent war against a savage enemy. Its uncharacteristic to use terms like “savage” but that’s what the Islamofacists we face are, if this offends you then crawl back in your hole an we’ll let you know when it safe to breathe, please hold your breath. But everyone is excited that he is taking command of operations in Afghanistan, even the privates who don’t know his background to those who do. I can’t speak about General McKernnan but McChrystal could walk through Hell itself and I think a good many of us would follow. Changes are coming and for many Americans you may not notice because of the news coverage but know that here we will be making a difference.
Speaking of air strikes. I feel it important to join along with my official spokesmen brothers that we take every civilian lose of life as if it was one of our own. We take great strides to avoid civilian casualties and its not unheard of to not drop a bomb if it risks too much collateral damage. I have seen operations planned with such care that every mosque and school within two miles are marked and briefed to every Soldier to avoid them and marked as a no fire zone. Now, that goes out the window if we’re shot at from them, the enemy knows this and uses it against us at every chance he gets.
The Taliban has their own website and they exaggerate… A LOT. They talk of slaughtering us by the dozens when they might of wounded one from an IED attack. I’ve already mentioned losses we have and those are typical when we do lose a soul to Valhalla. But the Taliban has taken staggering losses that shock even the hardest grunt. Recently United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) has taken to Twittering some of our activities in the war. This includes body counts of Taliban dead and wounded. While it may seem anarchic to many and reminds them of the Pentagon body count rolls from Vietnam, this is far different. It’s a direct counter to the Taliban’s lies about coalition casualties and we’ll have to see if you, the American people, take a positive reaction to it.
What I noticed from Iraq and Afghanistan is that many Americans believe that we don’t actually have a fight on our hands. They recognize that we endure certain hardships but when it comes to the ground truth that we’re killing people they don’t want to hear that. This is not push-button warfare, this is old-fashion trigger pulling with very real consequences. We may have fighter jets, bombers, armed UAVs, and automatic gun turrets on vehicles but they are adjuncts to the infantryman who’s taking down a house or a logistics convoy that is now holding its ground against an attack while it recovers a vehicle.
So that sums up some thoughts I’ve had. The 82nd has taken over here as well and new units are arriving and they are all eager to start. They want to fight and win, simply put. Me? I still want to come home to a Republic. Fight for us as we fight for you.
Command Post May 25, 2009
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I stood in the command post and listened to the daily update brief. This briefing informed everyone in the command what was happening within the unit and across Afghanistan. Today was different though. I had a flash back to the first night in country; A flash of the families that would soon be notified of a terrible loss.
Yes. We lost four American Soldiers today in northwest Afghanistan along the Pakistan border in a serious fight that resulted in far more enemy killed in action than our own. While a victory on the battlefield… its pyrrhic to a degree and chilling at the same time. The command staff stood listening to the liaison officer read the details of the fight. This happened often enough that they tend to sound the same:
“Sir, in RC East, in the vicinity of Asadabad there was an IED that detonated on a convoy…”
That’s how these snippets of daily life in Afghanistan outside of BAF go on and it’s how we connect with the field so we know what’s at stake: the life of a nation, the people of a land, the security of society, and most importantly- our comrades. The LNO continued repeating his transcript with notes off to the side just in case the commander asked the rare question. But he didn’t need to continue.
As soon as his slide came up everyone read the callout boxes that pointed to where the attack and ensuing firefight occurred to understand what happened. Despite the reports from earlier on the multiple media outlets in country and the plethora of sources we have at our disposal, there is nothing more chilling than listening to an officer read off the details of a deadly incident. It’s a story that many of us inside this dark computer and plasma screen lit room have been through ourselves. The box could have said Usama bin Laden captured, and we still would have remained focused with a stone silence on the following simple shorthand:
3x US MIL KIA
No one said a word. The hardest among us stood and read it over and over again. A once buzzing war room was not draped in silence as soldiers began to pray for the lives of those who had lost their lives. Chances are that not one man knew the deceased or anyone in their unit… but they were still ours and we felt it as if they had been.
A rage consumed the room and glares focused on the words:
3x US MIL KIA
Visions of counterattacks and pitched gun battles took over people’s minds as we played the attack out in our heads. Reading the rest of the slide you learned that at least eight other men died that day from the Afghani and Latvian Armies, in addition to the ten or so dead insurgents.
The officer continued to brief and moved on to what would be more positive news, yet no one could remove the incident from their minds. The story itself was amazing; the numbers of ordnance that was rattled off was astounding, the courage shown by the survivors of the attack was inspiring.
Another LNO picked up his part of the brief and a sick sense of satisfaction took over:
14x EKIA, 10X EWIA, 5 DETS
Fourteen Taliban dead, ten wounded and five taken prisoner in a firefight on the Kandahar border. Yet, I can’t stop thinking of the families who will soon be notified that their sons wouldn’t be coming home. That image of the metal coffin covered in the American flag still fresh in my mind:
“There will be a Fallen Comrade ceremony…”
