green-berets &laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed http://en.wordpress.com/tag/green-berets/ Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "green-berets" Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:26:45 +0000 http://en.wordpress.com/tags/ en <![CDATA[Veteran's Day]]> http://joilene.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:00:55 +0000 joilene http://joilene.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/veterans-day/

My maternal grandpa was an American ”Commando” during WWII (the Green Berets weren’t in existence yet, so he got British-style special forces training.). In honor of him, here is a story I wrote, based on truth.

He was a good and a brave man, and deserves to be honored.

Many of the incidents in the story are true, and the others, could be.

]]> <![CDATA[From War to Wall Street]]> http://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/from-war-to-wall-street/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:56:37 +0000 Bob Morris http://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/from-war-to-wall-street/

You Can't Predict a Hero

Yiu Can't Predict a Hero

In You Can’t Predict a Hero, Joseph J. Grano, Jr. provides a riveting, at times refreshingly candid memoir in which he shares the career and life lessons that he has learned throughout several decades of corporate leadership and public service. He served in Viet Nam as an officer of Green Berets, was severely wounded, returned to the U.S. (after six years of military service), bringing home with him “not just maturity, but a body full of shrapnel and enough broken bones and torn muscles, tendons, and ligaments to quality me as 60 percent disabled. Instead of a sheepskin, I had a Bronze star with a V for valor. Without a college education and with severe physical limitations, I did not know what my future would hold.”

Over time, demonstrating courage, determination, focus, and effort that remain (for him) “incomprehensible,” Grano achieved success in a series of increasingly more demanding corporate positions at Merrill Lynch, PaineWebber, and following a merger, UBS PaineWebber. He later chaired the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. Of special interest to me are the situations in which Grano “walks the walk” when setting an example of the core values he affirms. While serving in Viet Nam, he exercised his authority as commander on the ground and denied permission for the division’s commanding officer’s helicopter to land. The area was too dangerous. The pilot called back and repeated, “Requesting permission to land,” and then added, “Don’t you know who’s asking?”

Grano replied, “I know who’s asking, but I don’t give a damn. Permission’s still denied.” A day later, once the area had been secured, he gave permission for the helicopter to land. The general stormed out of it and headed straight for him. “Who the hell do you think you are stopping me from visiting my troops?” he bellowed. “Sir, we were having contact with snipers,” Grano explained, and pointing to the general’s gleaming belt buckle, said, “You see that big eagle on your stomach? Well, I don’t give a damn about you, but those guys are terrible shots. I’m afraid they’ll miss you and hit me.” The general stared at him for a minute, then burst out laughing. Leaders need to be decisive, making tough decisions under pressure, but it also helps to have a sense of humor. That certainly proved to be true on numerous occasions later in Grano’s career.

“One of the realities of combat is that you can’t predict a hero.” That may be true in most instances but Grano seems to be an exception because in combat and then later throughout his career as a corporate executive, his behavior was predictable because his values were non-negotiable.

]]> <![CDATA[Green Berets at Firebase Cobra, Afghanistan]]> http://soldiercitizen.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/green-berets-at-firebase-cobra-afghanistan/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:08:53 +0000 magus71 http://soldiercitizen.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/green-berets-at-firebase-cobra-afghanistan/ <![CDATA[Recruitment]]> http://gamegreenberets.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/recruitment/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:12:13 +0000 ☆★Ķŕİš★☆ http://gamegreenberets.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/recruitment/

Ok, Guys, We Need To Start Up A Few Recruitment Parties, or Rally’s to get large. So vote if you want a RECRUITMENT PARTY, a RALLY, or BOTH.

~!~DerKomma~!~

]]> <![CDATA[Welcome ]]> http://gamegreenberets.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/welcome/ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:15:45 +0000 ☆★Ķŕİš★☆ http://gamegreenberets.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/welcome/

Welcome to the Berets Soldier. To OFFICIALLY get your Title as “Green Beret Soldier” you just apply on the join page.

]]> <![CDATA[Pikes Peak]]> http://doodlemeister.com/2009/08/20/pikes-peak/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:54:40 +0000 Jim http://doodlemeister.com/2009/08/20/pikes-peak/

Summer, 1956

Tourists:2

Climbing Pikes Peak wasn’t challenge enough for the U. S. Army’s 77th Special Forces Group, home-based in an area called “Smoke Bomb Hill” at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Coffee:2When my gung-oh outfit — also know as the “Green Berets” — designed a training exercise that involved climbing a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado, to make it interesting they decided we’d begin the slog at least two 13,000 foot peaks away.

The Pikes Peak exercise was part of the Special Forces Summer Military Mountaineering course offered at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The march took three days to complete, which meant that we had to spend two Pluchek:Rock:2nights in the Rocky Mountains in sleeping bags, no tents allowed. We had fine weather, with sun during the day once the morning fog burned off, and cool nights, so the sleeping bags were not the problem. The problem for me — a picky eater in those days— was that during the operation we dined only on field rations. Military “C-rations,” as anyone who was ever in the service will tell you, consists of tasteless canned meat, stale crackers, and weak Sterno-heated coffee.Campfire:2 In my case the tepid brew was sipped from a can that had recently been emptied of its sliced peaches for my breakfast. (The nineteen-year-old version of me is on the left in the photo above. Click any image for a larger view.) When you wake up on a cold and damp morning in the mountains under a big pile of rocks, the C-ration coffee is plenty good enough to take the chill out of your bones.

On the first night out my buddy, Pluchek (military types call each other by last names only) and Tarras&Rice:2I slept under an arrangement of huge boulders. They seemed to have been placed on the slope of the mountain in such a way as to create a small cave-like shelter just for us. The idea of nesting there was to avoid the heavy dew that settles in the mountains each morning. Our plan didn’t work. Abundant moisture collected on the tops of the boulders and ran in rivulets to the underside, where it dripped onto us like water torture. Pluchek:summit:2The next morning we crawled from under the rocks like human slugs and dosed ourselves with some of that wonderfully bad coffee. Afterwards, during the “hurry-up-and-wait” military routine before the order to move out came, Pluchek used his rucksack for a pillow and napped on a warm rock like a lizard.

On the second night we camped in a pine grove in a small valley between Mountain Number Two and Pikes Peak. We relaxed around the campfire like boy scouts, telling stories, snacking, and goofing off. (That’s me at the right in the photo, sitting with a guy named Schmitz. Schmitz is drinking c-ration coffee. I’m the whittler.) We slept in the open that night, no tents and no boulders. The next morning, day three, we washed up and brushed our teeth and combed our hair using our canteen cups as basins.

We made the summit of Pikes Peak the next morning after our third long hike in as many days, this one all up hill. We didn’t have to actually “climb” the mountain. To me, mountain “climbing” brings to mind a hand over hand struggle using ropes and pitons and such. (Rock climbing was another of our Summer Military Mountaineering courses, but that’s another blog post.) As it was, we simply walked up Pikes Peak, strolled to the 14,110 foot summit as you would on any other hike. To be honest, the experience was rather anti-climatic — pun intended. We arrived at the summit to be greeted by tourists who, smarter than the average soldier, had opted to take the scenic cog railway. After a cigarette break and extra time to enjoy the view and take snap-shots, we were marched off and loaded onto two-and-a-half-ton trucks for the ride back to Fort Carson. (One of my favorite pictures is of Pluchek at the summit, in which Colorado Springs can be glimpsed in the distance through the morning mist.)

As we moved to the trucks, I spotted a cute girl posing for a snapshot by the Pikes Peak summit sign. I assumed the older man about to take her picture was the young lady’s father. She was a typical 1950s bobby soxer with bobbed hair, hip-length tan “car coat,” rolled up blue jeans to show off her white anklets, and what appeared to be classic penny loafers on her feet. The man must have noticed me and turned just as I was about to snap a final frame with my Kodak box camera. I love the blur that resulted from the smiling man’s movement — it creates a dynamic foreground element that serves to frame the girl and the sign — an example of what I’ve come to think of as photographic compositional serendipity. (In other words, dumb luck.)

When we returned to Fort Carson and were told about our Summer Military Mountaineering class for the following day, it turned out to be another activity that raised questions in my naturally non-military mind. (After two years in the army I was still not fully on board with the military logic of there being a “right way, a wrong way, and an army way” of doing things. That may explain why, after just one three-year enlistment, I happily left army life behind for good.) When briefed on our next assignment, my thoughts went something like this: Unless we where going to be prospecting for gold and silver in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, why in the world did we need to learn how to pack mules?

Copyright © 2009 Jim Sizemore.

]]> <![CDATA[.he twit me and it felt like a kiss.]]> http://vjesci.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/he-twit-me-it-felt-like-a-kiss/ Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:33:37 +0000 VJESCI http://vjesci.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/he-twit-me-it-felt-like-a-kiss/

]]> <![CDATA[Da trent'anni senza Wayne e i Coen rifanno il Grinta]]> http://contentistheking.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/john-wayne-coen/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:39:49 +0000 Stefano Ciavatta http://contentistheking.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/john-wayne-coen/

Cinema. L’undici giugno del 1979 moriva a Los Angeles il Duca di Hollywood. Il mito di un’epoca intera, forte di una identità chiamata America.

Tra un film in uscita nelle sale e un altro che forse sbarcherà a Venezia, i fratelli Coen stanno lavorando a una nuova versione del Grinta, il western crepuscolare diretto da Henry Hathaway nel 1969, interpretato da John Wayne e tratto dal romanzo Un vero uomo per Mattie Ross scritto da Charles Portis. Remake solo parziale perchè pare che i Coen saranno più fedeli al libro che al film che quarant’anni fa valse l’unico oscar al Duca, come veniva chiamato Wayne a Hollywood. Ma tanto basterà nel lancio promozionale a ricordare l’immagine di un ostinato anziano Rooster Cogburn detto il Grinta, che attacca i banditi al galoppo con le redini in bocca, tenendo una carabina in una mano e una pistola nell’altra. Un Wayne stanco, col parrucchino perchè devastato dal tumore ai polmoni contro cui lottava dagli anni sessanta, persino patetico ma con una strana grandiosità, ancora una volta epico lottatore. Morì dieci anni dopo, stroncato dal «the big C.» come lo chiamava lui, l’11 giugno del 1979, a Los Angeles.

Cosa rimane oggi della leggenda Wayne? Di sicuro è passata un’epoca, un’epoca di certezze. Anche molto banali, come il ruvido maschilismo del Duca. Quando in Borotalco l’architetto Manuel Fantoni, don giovanni e uomo di mondo, vuole stupire il mite e impacciato piazzista di dischi Sergio Benvenuti, ha un solo nome da tirare in ballo: «Eh, l’America è un paese bello affascinante, però è anche un paese strano, pieno di contraddizioni.. Tu lo sai per esempio che John Wayne era frocio?». La piccola commedia di Verdone è del 1982. La nuova Hollywood nel frattempo era risorta con nuovi registi e nuovi volti. Era cambiato lo star system, erano cambiati gli studios. Arrivano Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas e le sue Guerre Stellari, tra gli attori emergono con prepotenza De Niro e Al Pacino.

La forte impronta virile era solo una delle espressioni di un americano puro, alto, enorme, repubblicano convinto, anticomunista viscerale come lo era un’intera nazione, patriota all’antica. Se il suo mentore Ford incappò più volte nell’accusa di razzismo, lo stesso capitò a Wayne, soprattutto quando spese in prima persona la sua carriera come regista, suo sogno segreto da quando aveva lavorato per lungo tempo accanto a John Ford. Lo aveva confessato in una lunga intervista a Peter Bogdanovich, il più intellettuale dei registi della nuova Hollywood, suo grande estimatore, che ancora ricorda: «Il Duca era un mito, di cui rimangono solo i film e non le idee destrorse». Non fu un falco insomma, ma neanche una colomba.

Il contraltare al propagandistico Berretti verdi sulla guerra in Vietnam (regia di Wayne), uscito nel 1968, film che che Gianfranco Fini non riuscì a vedere proprio per una manifestazione di protesta, impiegò dieci anni per arrivare nelle sale (e nello stesso anno della morte di Wayne): si trattava dell’allucinazione di Apocalypse Now di Coppola. Le buone intenzioni dell’alienazione del reduce John Rambo (1982) diventate negli anni 80 un fumettone seriale, avrebbero ricordato i vecchi schemi «musi gialli e comunisti» di Green berets. Ma se il solitario reduce del Vietnam tentava di riacciuffare l’America perduta, il patriota Wayne dietro aveva l’idea forte di una certezza mai svanita. Ad uscire definitamente dalla propaganda ci pensarono film come Platoon e Nato il 4 luglio di Stone, Hamburgher Hill e Kubrick con il suo Full Metal Jacket. I Berretti verdi divennero archeologia. L’altra regia di Wayne che gli aveva procurato antipatie fu quella della Battaglia di Alamo, dove diresse se stesso nella storia dei duecento texani comandati da Davy Crockett contro l’esercito messicano. Via i panni del pistolero, e dentro ancora quelli del pratriota. Non fu un grande successo, nonostante avesse covato a lungo il progetto.

Sempre negli anni 80, Silverado di Lawrence Kasdan, più che rilanciare il western- la patria d’elezione di John Wayne, genre che era dato per morto anche in coincidenza della morte di Wayne, attore feticcio di John Ford – fu quasi un’espisodio isolato in attesa (lunga) degli Spietati di Eastwood, colpo di coda del genere di un altro americano, già volto dei western di Leone, conservatore come Wayne, ma col tempo diventato quasi un anarchico, amato e sposato dalla sinistra, impresa che ufficialmente non riuscì mai a Wayne.

Forse perchè il Duca, nato nel 1907, era invece un uomo degli anni 30/40, politicamente meno raffinato di Eastwood. Così come pure Wayne, antiliberal ma non reazionario, era agli opposti di un altro regista western particolare, adorato da destra e sinistra, l’anarchico Sam Peckinpah, autore tra l’altro del Mucchio selvaggio, western sanguinario e crepuscolare. Però Peckinpah per Hollywood era «uno stronzo con una bandana» mentre Wayne per gli Studios e per l’America era il mito di incassi e carisma. Quando Jean Luc Godard si chiedeva perchè odiasse Wayne quando faceva i Berretti verdi e lo amasse quando prendeva in braccio Natalie Wood alla fine di Sentieri selvaggi, dimostrava con una domanda retorica l’ammirazione per il mito di John Wayne, sconfinata come l’orizzonte della Monument Valley racchiuso dall’occhio di Ford nel vano della porta di casa, e controversa come la solitudine a cui lo stesso Ford condannava l’inquieto e razzista Ethan Edwards alla fine di Sentieri Selvaggi.

]]> <![CDATA[Warrior Writer: Blood Lessons—Deadly Sins of Writing (1-3)]]> http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/warrior-writer-blood-lessons%e2%80%94deadly-sins-of-writing-1-3/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:32:05 +0000 warriorwriters http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/warrior-writer-blood-lessons%e2%80%94deadly-sins-of-writing-1-3/

“Details are often the only difference between mediocre and magnificent.”

~Author Unknown

As a copy editor, I’ve developed a different set of eyes that detect details often unseen by the rest of the world. But let me clarify. Just because something is unseen, in no way means it has gone unnoticed. To the untrained, small mistakes can collect in the subconscious. A reader might put a book down and never know exactly why they couldn’t get engaged, or why he felt the text was too confusing, or why he simply just gave up.

Well, as they say, the Devil is in the details.

I love writing, and I love to make other writers’ work the absolute best it can be. I’ve worked with all skill levels, and after almost a decade of experience, enough writing has passed beneath my pen for me to see certain patterns emerge. I call these my Deadly Sins of Writing.  

The Deadly Sins are often among the first Blood Lessons for new writers. Why? Because formal English classes (high school and college), in my opinion, frequently:

  1. Permit bad writing habits.
  2. Encourage bad writing habits.

I’m in no way picking on teachers. It is incumbent upon any writer to learn her craft. To believe college English constitutes proper schooling for commercial fiction is like saying Home Economics is proper training for a chef. Yet, many new writers believe that because they made good grades in English, they know how to write (Yeah, I’ll confess. I was one of them).

So after a couple of years critiquing fiction, I began to notice a pattern of common errors. These flubs were so distracting that I often found I couldn’t even GET to critiquing plot, character, or voice. Thus, I wrote out my Deadly Sins as a reference. I believe that if a writer can eradicate most or all of these types of errors, then he will leave the reader with a clearer view of the story.

Today we are only going to go over three. Why? Because most of us haven’t had formal grammar since that awful experience with sentence diagramming back in the eighth grade. And while I could just list the Sins, I believe it will be more helpful if you understand WHY these errors can be so detrimental to even the best of stories.

Deadly Sin #1

Was Clusters— There is nothing wrong with using being verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, —Remember them?). But, they do tend to have a nasty habit of flocking together. A couple of being verbs are all right. But, if there are 42 on one page? You might have a problem…or an infestation.

Was often acts as a screaming beacon directing me, the editor, to places where the writing could be tightened.  Was can also lead you, the writer, into dangerous passive voice waters so beware.

The door was kicked in by the officers. (Passive)

The officers kicked in the door. (Active)

Deadly Sin #2

Overuse of “ing” Whether as Gerunds or Participles—First, a quick review for those of us who have slept since our last grammar class. A gerund is a verb used as a noun—i.e. reading glasses. Participles are often used with a helping verb to show progression (also called progressive verbs)—i.e. I am walking to the car.

***I have left Point A and have not quite reached Point B. Therefore the action is in progress, ergo the term progressive.

There is nothing wrong with using either, but like was, these critters also tend to cluster together. When they do so, they tend to:

a. Create a monotonous pattern

b. Signal places the writing could be made more active.

Joe was walking to the car while smoking a cigarette and thinking about his day. He was wondering if it was all worth the effort. Tired, he pulled out a set of reading glasses. He was scanning the Dear John letter one last time before driving home when a car came barreling out of nowhere heading straight for him.

Don’t laugh. I have seen more than my fair share of similar passages. Technically, nothing is incorrect. Yet, the pattern of ing ing ing ing ing creates a monotony that can diminish the literary effect.

Deadly Sin #3

Modifier overload.  Ever heard the term less is more? The same holds true in writing. Why? When you modify everything, you modify nothing. The reader can get so bogged down in lovely similes and metaphors that he forgets the original point of the story, and that is bad.

Have you ever been to a lecture where the speaker’s voice is flat, and nothing is emphasized? Think of Ben Stein, the guy who does the eye drop commercials.

Monotone.

Now think of that lunatic Billy Mays who does all of the Oxy Clean commercials. HE STRESSES ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!!!! By the end of the commercial, the audience needs a nap…or a drink.

Again, monotone.

Modifiers can make beautiful writing that transports us and makes us part of an entirely different world.

Or…

It can make us feel like we’re trapped in that nightmare where we never really graduated high school, and have been forced to repeat Sophomore-Level English if we want our college degree to be valid. Jane Eyre. Enough said.

Just remember some simple rules of thumb. Adverbs are almost always a no-no. Why use window dressing on an inferior verb if there is a superior verb that can take its place?

He walked quickly across the room.

He strode across the room.

As far as adjectives, similes, and metaphors? Use good judgment. Don’t be the Oxy Clean guy. Have a fellow writer look at your work and see which ones might be weakening your story. Or, take a highlighter and strike through all the modifiers, and see how many there are, and how many can go. Heck, if they are really good, you can use them later. I promise.

Grammar is not a whole lot of fun for most people, but it is necessary to understand it as part of understanding the craft. And you are going to make mistakes. Blood Lessons are a critical part of learning. Good writing comes from wisdom, and wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from writing some real crap. But as NY Times Best-Selling Author Bob Mayer constantly hammers into his writing protégés:

The Number One Rule of Rule-Breaking is ‘Know the rules.’ If you break rules without knowing the rules, you are not clever, you are ignorant.

Sloppy technique, bad grammar, and poor sentence construction can cling to your writing like a dirty film that obscures story and characters. Clean up your writing so your stories can shine.

Until next time…

]]> <![CDATA[IN PRAISE OF UNSPEAKABLE THINGS ]]> http://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/in-praise-of-unspeakable-things/ Tue, 26 May 2009 13:51:26 +0000 chuckman2 http://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/in-praise-of-unspeakable-things/

IN PRAISE OF UNSPEAKABLE THINGS

John Chuckman

When I turn to the opinion pages of a major newspaper in the muscular, brawling Midwestern city where I grew up, it’s an unpleasantly fascinating experience, a little like what I imagine a victim of child abuse might feel, smiling at a family gathering, still painfully hoping to sense some normal affection from someone who has done unspeakable things.

The newspaper’s opinion pages recently have overflowed like a plugged toilet with unappetizing sludge you might call Franklin Graham patriotism. This a lethal mix of baton-twirling Christianity and “Let’s nuke ‘em” – all delivered in the heartwarming drawl of speakers at a Jesse Helms testimonial dinner.

The poisonous sludge fairly bubbles with sentiments along the lines of: “Like Mom was telling me the time I was on leave from ‘Nam and we first met Mickey Mouse at Disney World….”

Letters praising people for flying little flags on their car antennas. Letters upbraiding people who let their little car-antenna flags fall on the street. A letter telling us how the writer stopped three times in one day to pick up fallen antenna-flags off the street. A letter from someone plaintively whining over a flag swiped from his lawn at night and pleading for its quiet return. I suspect this last one was from a newcomer to Chicago, because when I was growing up, everyone knew anything left outside would disappear.

Letters and editorials crow over the new show of patriotism, as though a lost art had been re-kindled, or a great idea re-discovered. An exciting renaissance of jingoism. It’s as though the Baby-Boom generation had pulled their SUVs en masse up to a revival-tent meeting and come forward to speak in tongues and roll on the floor. Gratifying, indeed.

It’s no use asking why that’s a good thing, although one suspects it’s so they’ll cheerfully pay the cost of a bountiful Christmas this year, and of many to come, for the those fine patriots in the defense industry. Likely too, it’s so they’ll meekly embrace the serious loss of freedom Mr. Bush has thoughtfully shepherded into law.

But the letter that meant the most to me was the one commenting on a front-page picture of a Special Forces soldier. The writer went into paroxysms of admiration for this shining, clean-living model for America’s youth, obviously unaware that this was the bunch of thugs that unquestioningly assassinated at least 20,000 civilian village leaders in Project Phoenix during the Viet Nam War. Ah yes, I thought, might this letter not easily, with a few names changed, be that of a middle-aged German in, say, 1940 praising the pressed uniform and smart attitude of a young SS officer as an example to all German youth.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

]]> <![CDATA[A Memorial Day thank you note]]> http://christopherwoodland.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/a-memorial-day-thank-you-note/ Mon, 25 May 2009 18:55:22 +0000 Christopher Woodland http://christopherwoodland.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/a-memorial-day-thank-you-note/

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the troops, soldiers, pilots, midshipmen, cadets, officers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Marines and anyone I may have forgotten for everything you have done for you country.

Past or present, no matter what the cause, no matter what the public perception, you have done your job as you were instructed, as well as you could.

Everyone from the early militia forces in the years leading up to the Revolution, to the men fighting in present-day Iraq have represented our country with pride and respect. Although the cause of some wars have led to some misunderstandings and conflicts of opinions, they have held steadfast and not wavered. The main misunderstanding regarding objections to the current war, revolve around the troops’ evacuation.

Some people have taken this to mean people don’t support the troops, this is not true. They simply do not want anymore of them to die in vain, but there is an aspect to this that I wasn’t the wiser to until I sat down and had a conversation with a Marine who had fought in the Iraq War. By simply yanking these men out of the Middle East now, we are sort of telling them that the last couple years they were over there was a waste. That the friends they saw alive one minute, and then laying in the street dieing the next died for nothing.

I saw one older man with gray hair and beard wearing a had reading, “Bring them home or send us back.”

The hat touched me, even though I have never joined the military, the hat spoke volumes. The message was one that I had not yet heard in reference to the war. An old vet implying he wished to take the place of the current troops in a current war. That is part of the reason the men who fought in Europe and the Pacific in the 1940s and in Korea in the ’50s are part of the greatest generation.

I have run out of time though, so I would just like to yet again, thank all those fighting in Iraq, and everyone who fought everywhere from Bunker Hill, to New Orleans, to Normandy, Okinawa and along the Cambodian border.

Thank you.

]]> <![CDATA[Commandos of Allah!]]> http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/commandos-of-allah/ Mon, 25 May 2009 06:24:11 +0000 Ibn-e-Pakistan http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/commandos-of-allah/ <![CDATA[Ft. Bragg Green Beret in ]]> http://yqwhalenflop.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/ft-bragg-green-beret-in/ Wed, 13 May 2009 12:46:11 +0000 yqwhalenflop http://yqwhalenflop.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/ft-bragg-green-beret-in/

A Fort Bragg Green Beret will be featured on a television show that claims to be searching for the best warrior. … The show, “Deadliest Warrior,” features trained soldiers or others from a class of current or historical fighters and pits them against one another. Past duels include the ninja versus the Spartan, and the pirate versus the medieval knight. Showing: Oldest first, Newest first, Most-recommended first, Least-recommended first …[More..]
Click here to play!

A Fort Bragg Green Beret will be featured on a television show that pits the best of today

]]> <![CDATA[Deadliest Warrior - Green Beret vs. Spetsnaz - XDTalk Forums ...]]> http://yqwhalenflop.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/deadliest-warrior-green-beret-vs-spetsnaz-xdtalk-forums/ Wed, 13 May 2009 11:27:45 +0000 yqwhalenflop http://yqwhalenflop.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/deadliest-warrior-green-beret-vs-spetsnaz-xdtalk-forums/

Green Berets or Spetsnaz Armed Assault – General Discussion.[More..]
Click here to play!

Who has the best training? Loaded question, but I

]]> <![CDATA[Author tells of Special Forces in Afghanistan - Army News, news ...]]> http://fictiveyvmatos.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/author-tells-of-special-forces-in-afghanistan-army-news-news/ Wed, 13 May 2009 05:57:00 +0000 fictiveyvmatos http://fictiveyvmatos.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/author-tells-of-special-forces-in-afghanistan-army-news-news/

Green Berets or Spetsnaz Armed Assault – General Discussion.[More..]
play

I am watching it now and I have to just say that I think the guys running the tests are morons. The give advantages to people for the dumbest reasons.[More..]

As outraged Americans waited for a full-scale invasion of the country giving refuge to Osama bin Laden, the Green Berets teamed with Afghan warlords and their militias struggling to overthrow the Taliban regime. …[More..]


]]> <![CDATA[Green Berets or Spetsnaz - Tactical Gamer]]> http://fictiveyvmatos.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/green-berets-or-spetsnaz-tactical-gamer/ Wed, 13 May 2009 05:36:34 +0000 fictiveyvmatos http://fictiveyvmatos.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/green-berets-or-spetsnaz-tactical-gamer/

Green Berets or Spetsnaz Armed Assault – General Discussion.[More..]
play

Who has the best training? Loaded question, but I

]]> <![CDATA[Violence was okay to end Black slavery, but not okay today to end genocide]]> http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/violence-was-okay-to-end-of-black-slavery-but-not-okay-to-end-genocide/ Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:54:31 +0000 eruptionsfromdownstream http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/violence-was-okay-to-end-of-black-slavery-but-not-okay-to-end-genocide/

By Meykandal

When the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says she is receiving around 1,000 emails a day on Sri Lanka – and no doubt President Obama is receiving a similar number - the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is finally setting to rights some of the errors of previous US Administrations, including her husband’s Administration.   On Friday she stated that “the Sri Lankan Army should not fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone. “  Finally! In the 30-odd years of war, while this practice by the Sri Lankan government has been rife, it has at last been acknowledged by the US that Sri Lanka is indeed deliberately firing into populated areas to kill civilians.

In an earlier post we saw how the UN’s Olara Otunnu had failed to get an undertaking by the Sri Lankan Government not to target civilian populations when he went on his 1998 visit to the country.  At the time Western governments, UN agencies and international NGOs,  heralded this as a great achievement – they were only interested in getting the Tigers, who were defending the Tamil population, to sign an undertaking not to target civilian populations, as well as an undertaking to limit the lower age of new recruits.  Given that Tamils (the population targetted in the war) had only ever protested killings by the Sri Lankan forces, not by the Tigers, this was clearly a case of politiking.   This international helping hand to the murderers, while Tamils were facing annihilation, had characterised the war from its outset.  The more Tamils protested they were being killed the more the international community found ways to maliciously misrepresent their case and make the mass murder more severe.  This politiking, with Otunnu’s visit and report, happened when Bill Clinton, a Democrat and husband of the present Secretary of State, was President of the United States.

What has changed in the world since then to make the new US Administration begin to acknowledge the genocide? 

Is it because the UN and other international agencies are now banned from the area by the Sri Lankan Government, and they really don’t like being banned from anywhere – it damages their public standing and impedes the progress of their individual careers. 

Or is it as Tim Martin of ACT NOW suggests, that the NGOs’ silence has always been calculated, so that they can reap the business of the ‘post-war’ reconstruction projects. 

Is it the number of deaths?  Now the death toll has risen dramatically, we have many thousands of Tamil children, women and men being killed within a matter of weeks.  So the first few thousand Tamils who are killed don’t matter? 

Or is it that the demonstrations against Sri Lankan Government atrocities by diaspora Tamils all around the globe are getting so large in numbers it is an embarrassment? 

Or is it that China’s economic interest in the areas relating to the South China Sea (where China is claiming an exclusive economic zone for itself) include Sri Lanka’s port at Hambantota which the Chinese are spending US$1 billion on are evidence of an expansionism that worries the US?

Is it that, apart from China, Sri Lanka’s aid now comes from Iran – the country the US now says is today’s most reviled?

Or maybe it is that we have a new kind of President in the White House?  Barack Obama, who writes in ‘The Audacity of Hope’ that ultimately US law and procedures could not bring about the end of slavery, the end came only with the violent struggle of civil war.  A president that admits he inherits parliamentary procedures used to prevent bills being passed to protect Black people, bills which aimed to outlaw lynchings of Black slaves. 

We might hope it is the latter of all the above reasons, it certainly is what I had hoped till I read the news on Friday.  My high expectations of Barack Obama have foundered… his Secretary of State has not decreed that Tamils have the right to their own freedom and their own voice.  Instead Hillary Clinton called on the Sri Lankan Government to put forward a proposal now to engage Tamils who do not espouse violence…  

So in the face of genocide are Tamils not allowed to defend themselves using arms?  Clearly no one else is going to defend them.  Is armed struggle against annihilation only good to free Black slaves in the US, but not to free Tamils from genocide? 

I see, so now the politiking starts again, just with a new face.  Or am I being too caustic?

]]> <![CDATA['Trapped in crossfire' used by Western governments and UN to collude in genocide]]> http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/trapped-in-crossfire-used-by-western-governments-and-un-to-collude-in-genocide/ Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:58:31 +0000 eruptionsfromdownstream http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/trapped-in-crossfire-used-by-western-governments-and-un-to-collude-in-genocide/

By Meykandal

Has the phrase ’civilians trapped in crossfire’ (rather than the reality of people being bombarded and fired on) become a phrase of appeasement to governments intent on genocide?  

For decades the Sri Lankan government has been bombarding and firing on the Tamil civilian population in the north and east of the island.  The loss of life, livelihoods, homes, and entire villages and towns has been huge.  All throughout, the international community actors on the ground witnessed these events, and even had access to the personal testimonies of the civilian victims, but they chose to dumb down such atrocities instead of protesting about them. 

For the most part these actors - powerful governments, international NGOs such as Oxfam, Save the Children, and international organisations such as UNICEF, UNHCR, ICRC etc – remained silent about the atrocities.  Whenever it benefited them to mention the mass exodus of people from their homes (maybe because it might enhance the agencies’ publicity or funding) they simply declared that people were ‘being displaced’ to escape being trapped in ‘crossfire’.   Compare the neutral term ‘displacement’ with the more accurate phrase ‘violent expulsion’.   Doesn’t it seem that the term ’displacement’  is used to sanitise the mass movement of people?  To conceal the state violence which has forced people to move?  It certainly inhibits any investigation or finger pointing.  If people are ‘displaced’ does it lead anyone ask who violently attacked them and forced them out of their homes?   Does it place any moral requirement on the international community to intervene to save lives? 

Clearly not.  The international community has stood by silently for decades while Tamil children, women and men have been slaughtered in their thousands by the Sri Lankan state.  The only people who have raised their voices against this have been Tamils themselves, living in Sri Lanka, living abroad, demonstrating in hundreds of thousands in front of Western governments and United Nations offices. 

If we occasionally get an explanation of displacement as people fleeing being trapped in ’crossfire’ we might feel we are now more enlightened.   At least it tells us there was violence.  But what it still doesn’t show is WHO is being violent.  It conceals acts of genocide by government forces.  When the Sri Lankan government uses war aircraft, like Pucarra bombers or Kfir bombers, to kill Tamil civilian populations and expel people from their homes - international community actors would typically say ‘the displaced population were fleeing crossfire’.   The international reading public would never even know that there were Pucarra or Kfir bombers used on populations.  The agencies’  justification for using  the term crossfire instead of violent expulsion was always obtuse, usually along the lines that they are impartial observers and they have no knowledge of who was firing. 

But any intelligent person would know that no one else has access to Sri Lankan airspace to fly war planes all these decades except the Sri Lankan state itself.  The only force which could carry out aerial bombardment on populations within its sovereign air space has been the Sri Lankan government forces – exclusively.   With it established that it must be the Sri Lankan state, and no one else, which was aerially bombarding the Tamil population, it would not be difficult then to conclude that it must also be the same government forces simultaneously shelling the same area and same population – it would make no sense to claim that any opposing force would be targetting the same area and population at the same time.  And given that this corroborates exactly the testimonies of the inhabitants of the bombed areas who were forced to flee this violence (testimonies that agencies such as UNICEF and Oxfam refused to record) one wonders how it is possible that so many international actors could continue to use the term civilians fleeing ’crossfire’ knowing they had not only witnessed genocide but were now colluding with it by deliberately obscuring it.

There is no doubt the choice of phrases, ‘civilians fleeing crossfire’ and ’internally displaced people’ could be thought of as deliberate, to inhibit charges of genocide and appease the Sri Lankan government.  All the Western media, including and especially the renowned ‘impartial’ BBC, are guilty of such appeasement, using such turns of phrase to silence the cries of genocide’s victims.  These phrases cover up the mass ethnic cleansing that has been going on in the north and east of Sri Lanka over decades, where entire towns and villages have been emptied out of all civilian habitation – because those civilians were Tamil – and have been replaced by Sri Lankan military-only camps and barren deserted landscapes of barbed wire and landmines.

Now the international community actors are going one step further.  By demanding that civilians be enabled to leave the area, suggesting that they are ’trapped in crossfire’, international community actors are forcing the expulsion of civilians from their homes – and implicating themselves further in the genocide.  Rather than demand that the Sri Lankan state stop firing on civilians, they say people should move away from the firing, even if it means abandoning their homes, their livelihoods, their villages and their towns to the Sri Lankan military’s exclusive occupation, even if it means living the rest of their lives in destitution in a Sri Lankan detention camp.  These international actors are in effect helping Sri Lanka realise its ethnic cleansing, while attesting that they desire the protection of civilian populations. 

I found (below) this interesting speech which shows the terrible consequences of the phrase ‘civilians trapped or caught in crossfire’.   With the recent calls by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the evacuation of people in areas being attacked by the Sri Lankan army, this phrase is now being used to help such genocidal governments in their ethnic cleansing of regions and delivering people into the hands of their murderers. 

Here’s the speech:

By Yogaratnam Yogi  

Human toll in Vanni, in the last two months has exceeded 3000, and Gaza deaths pale in comparison to the devastation in the Tamil homeland. International community has largely remained silent.

On average, Sri Lankan government is shelling Puthukudiyiruppu with more than 1000 artillery shells, daily. In the past, Sri Lanka has attacked our area with 30,000 to 50,000 artillery shells every month.

Artillery shelling is aimed at killing our people and to destroy us. Our neighboring country India and the world continue to issue vague statements of distress, which confuse and mislead. No constructive steps have been taken to improve the situation we face.

US South Asian bureau chief Richard Boucher is talking about evacuating the people prior to any talks on ceasefire. We have some questions regarding his stand. He is talking about people’s freedom; allowing free movement of people.

What is freedom, we ask. Is leaving your home and taking refuge in another place called freedom? What freedom is waiting for us in this land they are directing us to take refuge? They don’t answer this question. In the promised land of refuge, what await us are detention camps and army camps. Are people free in this area of refuge? Are the people allowed free movement?

There is another dimension to this plan. Those who want to remove the people – little more than 300,000- away from Puthukkudiyiruppu have neglected some important aspects.

Have they ever asked these people whether they want to leave this place? What are they going to do with the people who refuse to leave their homes? Will they allow these people to be destroyed by Sri Lankan shelling?

Sri Lanka and those governments supporting them believe that by denying food and murdering, they can make our people turn against the liberation struggle. They believe they can cultivate support for the Sri Lankan regime through force.

If you ask our people, they will say that despite the hardships, they are willing to live and die in their homeland. Why are the governments reluctant to ask our people their choice – do you want to live under Sri Lankan government or under self government? These governments know the answer to the question they don’t ask.

Let us compare our situation to the story of another nation, fondly remembered by the world. 2000 years after loosing their state, Jews returned to a sovereign nation in 1948. Same world has to answer why Tamils, with similar antiquity as the Jews, are asked to leave their land of habitation.

We ask again – what is freedom? If you ask this question to our people, they will say freedom is to go back to their homes, pray at their places of worship. For 20 years, their homes are designated as high security zones (military only areas – edit Meykandal).

If you ask someone from Champoor, he or she will say freedom means to go back to Champoor and live in his home. They are planning to build a coal electricity complex in Champoor, denying his right to return home.

Ask our people whether they like to live in Sinhala state? Ask them where they want to live. Our request to the world is to pose this question to our people and make the decision.

Even media organizations, such as BBC, pose questions with bias. Questions are asked referring our people as ‘Detained people, people trapped’. Media does not recollect how the people got trapped in Puthukkudiyiruppu? Who has detained these people?

Let us consider a question BBC posed to Richard Boucher – in relation to discussing Tamil issue in Sri Lanka. BBC asked whether US has changed its policy towards terrorists, to which Boucher answered in the negative.

The question that relates to our situation is whether America has changed its previous doctrine of considering every conflict in the world as terrorism. New US administration is planning to talk with Taliban, making plans to review and release Guatanamo detainees. There is a change in US world view and it is evident. BBC does not ask the right questions.

US methods and doctrine of fighting terror was followed by many world states to suppress dissent. We know Tamils have been adversely affected by this trend. Media does not highlight any of these issues.

This reminds us of an Easop’s fable about a lion and a rabbit. In order to curtail the killing of a lion, the animals came to an agreement with the lion. They agreed to send one animal as prey provided the lion agreed to let other animals live without fear. Later, the lion was tricked to jump into a well and die by a simple rabbit. Animals of the forest used diplomacy to initially limit and finally eradicate their destruction.

Our situation differs significantly from this fable. Governments of the world want our people to be herded to the detention camps, so that the lion can select and kill as many of us at will. The fable talks of diplomacy practiced by the animals of the forest. What the world governments preach to us is not diplomacy – a path that leads to the destruction of a race.

We hear members of UN acknowledge civilians are murdered in Puthukudiyiruppu; but as long as the murders are within an acceptable number, they consider it as ‘diplomacy’ that will lead to a solution. UN has reduced itself to tolerate murder and genocide to promote the welfare of its member states.

We know one thing – Tamils are the testing grounds of a new concept world has concocted to control the will of a people. The tested concept is a means for the world to dictate a predetermined outcome to a conflict between two warring factions.

World believes that it can demoralize the will of a unified people , where murders are tolerated, and force feed a solution and safeguard their interests. All these statements we here recently are issued under the premise that Tigers are fully wiped out. While, here in Puthukkudiyiruppu, people denied of food and medicine are bombarded from all directions.

They are talking of our children. How many days have gone since our children attended school? They have not eaten sufficient food for months, how many children have perished in this war.

A point to compare is how the media reported about the psychological trauma suffered by the Sri Lanka cricket team. World media decried the long term and short term impacts of trauma. Same day, in Puthukkudiyiruppu, over 100 civilians -20 children included- died due shelling, in the same country these six test cricketers represented. These deaths go unnoticed.

Even though, current world ignores our plight there will be change. World Tamil diaspora, eighty million Tamils, are behind us. They are raising their voices in support of us. Their protests take different forms.

There have been immolations – these extreme forms of protest, while portraying the collective frustration of the people, are questioned whether appropriate.

In time, our unified voice will be heard by the world states. Vietnam liberation struggle underwent similar dark moments. With time, we will make changes in world opinion. We must go forward.

We observe, Erik Solheim, Ysuhi Akashi, who moved closely with us, received our hospitality, ate at our table are now waiting for the day Tigers will be completely wiped out, hoping to reap the benefits. Showering praise to the murderous activities of Sri Lankan government, they hope to gain.

As expected by Solheim and Akashi, Sinhala government will not succeed in its objectives. We will prevail in our liberation struggle. Surely, we will reach our goal.

We have to realize one fact – even though eighty million Tamils are citizens of the world, they have no voice, because we have no state. If we had a state now, we would have prevented the current destruction of our race. Tamils, while being citizens of many states, are stateless people when their welfare is concerned.

All eighty million Tamils of the world must not be deviated by listening to the misleading statements issued by various countries; the statements promote their self interests. Such a statement was issued by Mr. P. Chidambaram of India.

He said that Tigers have broken the Indo-Lanka accord. India came to Sri Lanka protect Tamils; we gave our weapons believing in their protection. History reveals how India was unable to protect Tamils. They did not take any measures when the GoSL, breaching the accord, arrested LTTE leaders which eventually led to their death. The same India, in the name of protecting the accord, fought against us, killing 6,000 Tamils.

United North-East is the basis of Indo-Lanka accord. India did nothing when Sri Lanka separated unified North and East region. Tigers have no hand in the failure of Indo-Lanka accord. We, Tamils, should be clear of our objective and proceed towards our liberation.

We have risen from adverse situations. We will show to the world that we will reach our objective. We ask world Tamil diaspora to give its support. We will form our Tamil state in this island of Sri Lanka.

]]> <![CDATA[President Obama, a Truth Commission please!]]> http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/36/ Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:49:33 +0000 eruptionsfromdownstream http://eruptionsfromdownstream.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/36/

By Meykandal

I wrote to Barack Obama saying we should have a Truth Commission where victims of the war in Sri Lanka can speak. To date it seems that the UK and US governments have supported the Sri Lankan government in its war of persecution against the Tamil population.  This includes categorising the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, providing military support (including the green berets), sending military aid (often with the help of Israel), political support (through the UN as well as in the UK and US governments’ own statements, for example suggesting that the problem is about ‘discrimination’) and economic support – including through aid meant for the Tamil population, much of which the Sri Lankan government is known to have taken for its own use.   

For Tamils who are being persecuted, the force of UK and US governments opinions against us means no one listens to our voices even while our community is being destroyed. 

I will give you a clear example of how Western governments (through the UN) have allowed Sri Lanka to violently persecute us.  In 1998 the Sri Lankan government was describing its war was a ‘war for peace’.  The president at that time, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumuratunga, with this rhetoric had the full support of the international NGOs, UN agencies and Western governments, while pursuing the genocide that her father had begun in 1956 with a pogrom on the Tamils in celebration of his election, and her mother had continued when she was in office, turning the more and more frequent pogroms into Sinhalese army occupations of Tamil areas, all long before the birth of any armed Tamil resistance. All successive governments have increased the violence against Tamils, just as Tamils resistance to that violence turned to armed struggle and has had to grow stronger to prevent the total annihilation of the Tamil population.   

In 1998 Sri Lanka faced two damning human rights violations reports coming out of the UN, though, as usual, it had managed to get the authors of those reports to also condemn the LTTE for violence – not a difficult feat when the government is able to choose the terms of access of any foreign visitor (i.e. who they meet, who acts as an interpreter and where it is ‘too dangerous’ for them to go).  To overwrite the damage done to the Sri Lankan government in those reports, Olara Otunnu was invited to do another report.  At that time international NGOs were protesting about child soldiers in Africa, so Sri Lanka decided to include this in their own propaganda campaign against the Tamil resistance.  Olara Otunnu came out with undertakings signed by Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.   

However the undertakings were not the same.  Where the LTTE undertook not to militarily target civilian populations, the equivalent undertaking by Sri Lanka was completely absent.  Maybe Otunnu had not asked for that undertaking from Sri Lanka, or maybe he had asked and Sri Lanka had refused so it was deleted, the fact was that the two lists of undertakings were worded very differently.  It was clear deception, given that the war had at its core Sri Lanka’s military violence on the Tamil population, and that there was no similar targeting of the Sinhalese population by the LTTE (which was only interested in either military targets or political targets which were directly linked to the military capacity to destroy the Tamil population). 

As an academic and a filmmaker, I spent one year living in the war zone to get first hand experience of what was going on.  I lived mostly in the LTTE controlled areas, and also briefly in the army controlled areas.  One aspect of the war that I never see mentioned, but clearly shows the nature of the war is this:  When the Sri Lankan army fights the LTTE and takes over villages and towns, the entire population is wiped out – every village and town taken by the army become ghost towns, with no civilian habitation, the only life being the Sinhalese military.  What I saw was that town after town, village after village had been emptied of civilians.  The surviving populations had fled the Sinhalese armed forces attacks and lived on the roadsides of nearby towns which were under LTTE control (others who tried to go south to the Sri Lankan controlled areas end up in the concentration camps which the government calls ‘welfare centres’). 

 

At the time a village, Oddusuddan, that was not being defended by the LTTE (because the battle was elsewhere), was attacked by the army and I found overnight a population of 10,000 women, men and children on the roadside in Puthukudiruppu, the town where I was staying.  I spoke to the people and found that they had abandoned their homes and run from army shelling, they had been unable to take anything with them for survival, they were totally destitute.  Those who had tried to go back to gather some personal belongings, cooking equipment or their chickens had been shot by the army on sight.  For most of them this was the umpteenth time they had been thus displaced.  One woman told me how in the 1950s as a child she and her heavily pregnant mother had been running from the pogroms.  Like many of the other tea plantation workers from the Up Country, they had taken refuge in the Tamil areas in the North, thinking they would be safe from Sri Lanka’s persecutions.  But now as a mother herself decades later, she was still running.  When I spoke to the UNICEF field officer stationed in Vanni about the newly displaced population he told me people were fleeing ‘cross fire’.  He dismissed the idea that he could himself listen to the displaced people explain they were fleeing army violence because, he said, the people were not ‘objective’ witnesses.  And this is how I found that all the international NGOs involved relieved themselves of any responsibility with regards to their support to the government in the face of these army assaults on the Tamil population. 

 

This is why I feel it is imperative to have a Truth Commission, where refugee Tamils across the world can speak for themselves about what they have experienced, and we can put an end to Western collusion and support of genocide.

]]> <![CDATA[On This Day, March 3: The Feinberg Law]]> http://randyroberts.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/on-this-day-march-3-the-feinberg-law/ Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:21:06 +0000 Randy Roberts http://randyroberts.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/on-this-day-march-3-the-feinberg-law/

March 3, 1952

Supreme Court rules on communist teachers

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York state law that prohibits communists from teaching in public schools. Coming at the height of the Red Scare in the United States, the Supreme Court decision was additional evidence that many Americans were concerned about possible subversive communist activity in their country.

The New York state statute-called the Feinberg Law-banned from the teaching profession anyone who called for the overthrow of the government; the law was specifically aimed at communists. Several other states adopted similar measures. In New York, a group of teachers and parents challenged the law, and eventually the case went to the Supreme Court. The majority decision upholding the Feinberg Law, declared the New York Times, supported the belief that “the state had a constitutional right to protect the immature minds of children in its public schools from subversive propaganda, subtle or otherwise, disseminated by those ‘to whom they look for guidance, authority and leadership.’” The dissenting opinion from justices William O. Douglas, Hugo Black, and Felix Frankfurter charged that the New York statute “turns the school system into a spying project.” In New York, the Teachers Union vowed to continue fighting the law. Eight teachers had already been dismissed under the provisions of the law and as many others were facing hearings.

The Supreme Court decision was a barometer of the national temper. In the years preceding the case, former State Department official Alger Hiss had been convicted of perjury in connection with his testimony concerning his involvement with the Communist Party; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had been convicted and sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets; and Senator Joseph McCarthy had made a career out of searching for communists in the U.S. government. By 1952, many Americans were convinced that communist agents and supporters were actively at work within the United States, and that their forces permeated every aspect of American life. The Feinberg Law remained in force until another Supreme Court decision in 1967 declared most of its provisions unconstitutional.

“Supreme Court rules on communist teachers.” 2009. The History Channel website. 3 Mar 2009, 11:02 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2595.

 

On This Day

1791 – The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that created the U.S. Mint.

1812 – The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.

1845 – Florida became the 27th U.S. state.

1845 – The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

1849 – The Gold Coinage Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed the minting of gold coins.

1851 – The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.

1875 – The U.S. Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.

1910 – J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his withdrawal from business to administer his father’s fortune for an “uplift in humanity”. He also appealed to the U.S. Congress for the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation.

1910 – In New York, Robert Forest founded the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions.

1918 – The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia’s participation in World War I.

1931 – The “Star Spangled Banner,” written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as “Defense of Fort McHenry.”

1969 – Apollo 9 was launched by NASA to test a lunar module.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.

1991 – Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.

 

March 3, 1971

U.S. 5th Special Forces Group withdraws

The U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) departs South Vietnam. The Special Forces were formed to organize and train guerrilla bands behind enemy lines. President John F. Kennedy, a strong believer in the potential of the Special Forces in counterinsurgency operations, had visited the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg to review the program and authorized the Special Forces to wear the headgear that became their symbol, the Green Beret.

The 5th Group was sent to Vietnam in October 1964 to assume control of all Special Forces operations in Vietnam. Prior to this time, Green Berets had been assigned to Vietnam only on temporary duty. The primary function of the Green Berets in Vietnam was to organize the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDG) among South Vietnam’s Montagnard population. The Montagnards–”mountain people” or “mountaineers”–were a group of indigenous people from several tribes, such as the Rhade, Bru, and Jarai, who lived mainly in the highland areas of Vietnam. These tribes were recruited to guard camps in the mountainous border areas against North Vietnamese infiltration. At the height of the war the Green Berets oversaw 84 CIDG camps with more than 42,000 CIDG strike forces and local militia units. The CIDG program ended in December 1970 with the transfer of troops and mission to the South Vietnamese Border Ranger Command. The Green Berets were withdrawn as part of the U.S. troop reductions in Vietnam.

“U.S. 5th Special Forces Group withdraws.” 2009. The History Channel website. 3 Mar 2009, 11:06 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1706.

]]> <![CDATA[Die sexualökonomischen Grundlagen des Militarismus]]> http://nachrichtenbrief.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/die-sexualokonomischen-grundlagen-des-militarismus/ Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:59:05 +0000 Peter Nasselstein http://nachrichtenbrief.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/die-sexualokonomischen-grundlagen-des-militarismus/

Es ist schon etwas seltsam, wenn man ein militärhistorisches Buch über die „Militärische Organisation und Leistung der deutschen und amerikanischen Armee 1939-1945“ liest (Martin van Crefeld: Kampfkraft, ARES Verlag, Graz 2007, S. 26) und dabei unvermittelt ausgerechnet der Name „Wilhelm Reich“ auftaucht. Im Kapitel über die Rolle des Nationalcharakters in der Kampfkraft der deutschen und amerikanischen Armee referiert der Autor die typischen Charakteristika, die man „dem Deutschen“ gemeinhin zuschreibt, und er fährt fort: „All dies ist zweifellos das Ergebnis einer verfrühten Erziehung zur Sauberkeit, zu der deutsche Mütter angeblich neigen. Unter Verwendung der Gedanken von Wilhelm Reich sind einige Psychologen zu dem Schluß gelangt, die Deutschen hätten einen zwanghaften analerotischen Charakter. Das führt zu Starrheit, Disziplin und Unfähigkeit zur Entspannung. Ihr Verhältnis zu Frauen wird ‚oft durch bewußte und unbewußte Furcht, Aggression und Verachtung bestimmt’.“ Der Autor zitiert hier eine Untersuchung aus dem Jahre 1948 (Some Psychological Hypotheses on Nazi Germany) von Kecskemeti und Leites.

Interessanterweise sind die Ausführungen über den amerikanischen Nationalcharakter weit näher an Reichs sexualökonomischen Erkenntnissen. Der Autor referiert breit ein Buch über den Unterschied zwischen Green Berets und Kriegsdienstverweigerern (D.M. Mantell: Familie und Aggression, Zur Einübung von Gewalt und Gewaltlosigkeit. Eine empirische Untersuchung, Frankfurt a.M. 1972): Im Gegensatz zu den Kriegsdienstverweigerern wuchsen die kriegsfreiwilligen Elitesoldaten (Green Berets) in weniger harmonischen Familien auf. Zwischen den beiden Elternteilen herrschte eine Beziehung von Überordnung und Unterordnung. Es wurde in den Familien besonders auf materiellen Besitz, Sozialstatus, Arbeit und Fleiß, Ordnung und Sauberkeit, Disziplin, Anpassung, Gehorsam und körperliche Ertüchtigung Wert gelegt. Bei den Familien der späteren Kriegsdienstverweigerer waren es hingegen Güte, Freude am Leben und persönliche Leistung. Während bei den ersteren vor allem Stehlen, Lügen, Vandalismus und Ungehorsam als Sünden galten, war es bei den letzteren in erster Linie Rücksichtslosigkeit, die geächtet wurde. Außerdem waren in den „kriegerischen“ Familien Strafen und Drohungen viel weiter verbreitet.

Und schließlich: „Die Kriegsdienstverweigerer betrachteten Frauen als gleichberechtigte Partner und die Sexualität als gemeinsame Erfahrung. Obwohl zu oberflächlicher Beziehung fähig, lachten sie doch nie über Frauen oder verachteten sie. Im Gegensatz dazu waren die ‚Green Berets’ ‚bemerkenswert skrupellos und gefühllos’ in ihren Beziehungen zu Frauen. Auch waren sie männliche Chauvinisten in dem Sinne, daß sie die sexuelle Freiheit nur auf die Männer beschränken wollten. Das wiederum bedeutete, daß eine Frau, mit der sie schliefen, automatisch zu einem Gegenstand der Verachtung wurde“ (van Crefeld, S. 29).

full-metal-jacket

]]> <![CDATA[U.S. Helps African States Fend Off Militants ]]> http://arturoafc54.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/us-helps-african-states-fend-off-militants/ Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:19:41 +0000 arturoafc54 http://arturoafc54.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/us-helps-african-states-fend-off-militants/

Thousands of miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, another side of America’s fight against terrorism is unfolding in this remote corner of West Africa. American Green Berets are training African armies to guard their borders and patrol vast desolate expanses against infiltration by Al Qaeda’s militants, so the United States does not have to.

By Eric Schmitt
The New York Times

In an exercise last month near Bamako, Mali, American troops helped soldiers from Mali and Senegal in West Africa learn to guard their borders against infiltration by Islamic militants.  Photo: Michael Kamber for The New York Times

A recent exercise by the United States military here was part of a wide-ranging plan, developed after the Sept. 11 attacks, to take counterterrorism training and assistance to places outside the Middle East, like the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, a five-year, $500 million partnership between the State and Defense Departments includes Algeria, Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, and Libya is on the verge of joining.

American efforts to fight terrorism in the region also include nonmilitary programs, like instruction for teachers and job training for young Muslim men who could be singled out by militants’ recruiting campaigns.

One goal of the program is to act quickly in these countries before terrorism becomes as entrenched as it is in Somalia, an East African nation where there is a heightened militant threat. And unlike Somalia, Mali is willing and able to have dozens of American and European military trainers conduct exercises here, and its leaders are plainly worried about militants who have taken refuge in its vast Saharan north.

Read the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/w
orld/africa/13mali.html?_r=1&hp

]]> <![CDATA[10 Green Berets Get Silver Stars]]> http://nprfanboy.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/10-green-berets-get-silver-stars/ Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:21:42 +0000 Fan Boy http://nprfanboy.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/10-green-berets-get-silver-stars/

In Fort Bragg, N.C., 10 Green Berets have received Silver Stars, the third-highest combat award, for their efforts high in the mountains of northeast Afghanistan on April 6. The ceremony marked the most such medals awarded for a single battle since the Vietnam War.

read more | digg story

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