Disclaimer: This blog is a little more emotional than usual. Sorry. I recently posted a blog about the coming bloodshed in Iraq, but I never expected it to come so soon. The Islamic State has taken over the town of Sinjar – a historical Yazidi home – forcing all in the town to flee for their lives or get beheaded, just like they did in Mosul, only this time, there was nowhere to run to. 40,000 people are now dying of thirst and starvation on the side of a [...]
I’ve seen the massive number of tweets from celebrities on the Gaza conflict and am flabbergasted at the capricious nature of American empathy. The Israeli incursion into Gaza has apparently sparked a fire of outrage in the conscious minds of the celebrity culture, and it’s become fashionable to show support. From Selena Gomez to Mia Farrow, #FreePalestine has become the hashtag of choice. But why? Ostensibly, it’s the number of civilian deaths, but there have been many more civilian deaths in our own backyard of Mexico due to [...]
I’ve received numerous emails, texts, and Facebook messages asking me my opinion on the Bowe Bergdahl release/swap for five Taliban commanders, and to each I replied, “There’s too much smoke and not enough fact. Everything is political posturing”, and that’s where I still stand, but the cacophony in the press has gotten so loud it’s obscuring whatever truth remains. The only thing I’m going to try to do is clear the air regarding some of the information out in the media. For instance, on the left, at the [...]
Every time Edward Snowden opens his mouth, another fabrication appears. In an interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams, he apparently took affront to being called a “simple hacker” and took great pains to explain that he was, in fact, just like James Bond. "I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover overseas — pretending to work in a job that I'm not — and even being assigned a name that was not mine," Uh…no. [...]
After my first GI Jennifer blog about opening combat arms positions to women I received numerous emails and comments from all sides of the spectrum. One thread that kept reoccurring was that if a woman could meet the standard, she should be allowed to enter the combat MOS, whatever that may be. For elite units, this argument is fine, as they are all volunteer organizations, but for the average combat arms position, such as Infantry, Field Artillery, or Armor, the more I thought about it, the more unfair [...]
When the Department of Defense announced that it would be opening combat roles to women, I immediately began receiving questions regarding my opinion on this issue. I strove mightily to be noncommittal, and begged off for the most part because I really didn’t want to poke the sore. Then, a couple of days ago, 2LT Sage Santegelo wrote an OpEd in the Washington post decrying the “double standard” she endured, which made her fail the Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course, and so I decided to blog. Against my [...]
Living in Charleston, South Carolina can be a little funny at times. Today was supposed to be “Snowmageddon”, with a light dusting of the fluffy stuff and the commensurate shutting down of any and all services. My kids left school early, and we all waited. By nine pm it hadn’t hit and I had to take the dog for a walk. As I turned the corner of our street, the rain/sleet finally began to fall, and the weather snapped my memory to times that I had once hated, [...]
The New York Times presented a lengthy report on the Benghazi attack in its Sunday edition (12/29), and one of its central tenants was that the attackers had no connection to al Qaeda. Specifically, there was “no evidence that al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault.” I was flabbergasted. No evidence? And not “any role”? Seriously? Pretty strong, quantifiable words. I could live with “not a preponderance of evidence leading to the conclusion that al Qaeda senior leadership directed the attack.” Or, [...]
Last Sunday on Sixty Minutes, the lead NSA investigator -- tasked with determining how much damage Edward Snowden has done to national security -- floated the idea of giving him amnesty to entice him to return to the U.S. and bring back everything he stole. The head of the NSA, General Alexander, was not of the same mind. He compared Snowden to a hostage taker that kills ten people then asks for amnesty if he’ll release the rest. I agree with Alexander, but not for the reasons he [...]
Well, it looks like this administration is finally realizing that just proclaiming victory doesn’t make it so. Before we went into Libya, I blogged that it would devolve into a mess without a heavy stability and support operation (SASO) on our part, and that the administration was rightfully hesitant to conduct a no-fly zone due to these realities. The administration then ignored my prescient blog and went ahead with “leading from behind”, with President Obama proclaiming No Boots on the Ground in Libya. We applied our air power, [...]
