Osama bin Laden – DEAD!

After a decade of hunting him down in Afghanistan, bin Laden is being reported as DEAD. Hard to believe that our govt. spent 10 years and nearly $1trill in military operations all for this one man.

sheeesh. talk about inefficiency!

Sources: Al-Qaida head bin Laden dead

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Julie Pace, Associated Press – 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, is dead, and the U.S. is in possession of his body, a person familiar with the situation said late Sunday.

President Barack Obama was expected to address the nation on the developments Sunday night.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said bin Laden was killed in a ground operation in Pakistan, not by a Predator drone. The official said it happened last week.

Officials have long believed bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110502/ap_on_re_us/us_bin_laden

Wisconsin Police hunt Democratic Senator; Tyranny at its finest.

A perfect example of oppression and tyranny is to threaten private citizens with military force if they voice their opposition to government.

A perfect example of un-Contitutional and un-American measure is when it happens here in the States.

A perfect example of both is taking place right now in Wisconsin.

Shortly after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker threatened to use military against his own citizens if they protested his bill (tyranny, anyone?) – House Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald R. of Juneau beckoned state troopers to visit the home of Democratic Senator Mark Miller….

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin State Patrol was dispatched Friday to find a Democratic state senator who fled the Capitol to delay the near-certain passage of a bill to end a half-century of collective bargaining rights for public workers, a measure that’s attracted thousands of protesters for four days.

With Democrats saying they won’t return before Saturday, it was unclear when the Senate would be able to begin debating Gov. Scott Walker’s measure meant to ease the state’s budget woes. Democrats who disappeared Thursday at first kept their whereabouts secret, then started to emerge to give interviews and fan the protests.

The Wisconsin Constitution prohibits police from arresting state lawmakers while the Legislature is in session, except in cases of felonies, breaches of the peace or treason. Fitzgerald said he’s not looking to have Miller arrested, but he wants to send a signal about how serious things are becoming in the Capitol.

Fitzgerald said he spoke with Miller by phone late Thursday night and asked him to bring his caucus back to Madison for a vote on Friday morning, but Miller refused. Meanwhile, the protests are growing so large that Capitol workers and lawmakers’ staff cannot safely move through the halls, he said.

The situation has become “a powder keg,” he said.

“I’m starting to hold Sen. Miller responsible for this,” Fitzgerald said. “He shut down democracy.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110218/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

No, Fitzgerald – this IS democracy. The will of the people is NOT in compliance with the elected official and the people WILL be heard. That is democracy in its barest essence!

Wounded troops In Iraq/Afghanistan: keep them moving.

I found this disturbing article today and couldn’t believe what I was reading and seeing. But, then again… being an Army veteran and a veteran of a few combat deployments, I know just how much incredulous situations exist in the American military. And outrageous as this sounds – to THEM, our military commanders and personnel? – this makes all the sense in the world.

What bothers me even more is that the troops fighting over there…..the ones that give their lives and limbs for this ’cause’ – they are more than willing to go along with this madness without questioning the whys or wherefores, or if it makes any sense or not. I guess that is why I got out early….I could never  help but ask the Common Sense questions. Asking Common Sense questions…that sort of thing is severely frowned upon in the military.

Sorry, I digress.

I’m not sure how this ranks in the realm of the most bizarre stuff I’ve heard of, but its pretty high on that  list.

U.S. strategy for treating troops wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq: Keep them moving

Gallery

Treating the U.S. war wounded: Keep them moving

 

By David Brown

 

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 27, 2010; 4:57 PM

[….] The U.S. military’s ability – not to mention its willingness – to take a critically ill soldier on the equivalent of a seven-hour elevator ride epitomizes an essential feature of the doctrine for treating war wounds in the 21st century:

Keep the patient moving.

In the civilian world, victims of car accidents and gunshots hope to get to a hospital that can save their life – and then stay there. The military strategy is pretty much the opposite – and is, paradoxically, part of the reason the care of soldiers wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been so successful.

…

The patients, the aircrew and a few passengers occupied the forward two-thirds of the jet’s cavernous interior. At the forward end were containerized toilets. Toward the aft end was a 10-foot-high cargo box. Beyond it, in an area dark and 15 degrees colder, the retracted ramp sloped upward, piled with pallets of cargo.

A single row of seats lined the walls of the plane. Toward the center of the fuselage, the litters were clamped to hangers suspended from the ceiling. On these triple-decker bunks were patients whose wounds did not require constant vigilance

READ THE REST OF STORY HERE!

************

For Those of you who are unaware, a C-17 or a C-130 is the most uncomfortable flight you can imagine. They are extremely loud and very bumpy. There are no ‘real’ seats, but benches. Its like flying in a warehouse with zero creature comforts. There are no restrooms, but literally toilets attached to the wall, behind a curtain. SERIOUSLY. Even for a hardcore soldier, its the most uncomfortable ride you can imagine.

I cannot fathom how unbearable it must be for a severely wounded troop to endure this trip from combat theater in Afghanistan – all the way to Germany  – and then on to Walter Reed in D.C.  😦

Some of these troops literally have their GUTS HANGING OUT while in flight. No disrespect for the wounded, but the scene must be like a flying meat locker of pain and carnage. I’m just trying to bring a sense of realism into my writing.

See this guy? This is indicative of the mindset of many of our troops in action.

Unfortunately, Reality usually has something else in mind, no matter how tough a person thinks they are. The Reailty is that sometimes what doesn’t kill them – weakens them and leaves them spending the rest of their lives fighting for Veteran benefits once they are of no further use to Uncle Sam and released. The reality is that everything is fine until a troop is FUBAR (F___ Up Beyond All Repair) – and then they are dismissed with papers, ribbons, awards and tokens – and the promise of being ‘taken care of’.

Again – that is not the popular thing to say – but I only deal in Reality – not popularity. 😐

I’m sure some of you reading this are thinking, ‘Well, that’s what they signed up for. These troops fight for our freedoms while You are sitting her talking $%*#! You should be supporting them, not giving the military a hard time!’

……Right.

Hey look, I’m not going to go into the whole history of the lack of WMDs that Bush sent us over to Iraq in the first place

– or how it is an INTERNATIONAL VIOLATION and a WAR CRIME to start a war against another country without provocation – or, how we started this ridiculous hunt for bin Laden back in 2001, to pin the blame on him for Sep 11th – even though most of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.

I’m not going to do that.

BUT LET ME POINT OUT that even as a troop, (myself as a former troop), all we ever asked for was to be treated as humanely as POSSIBLE when we got injured. All a troop ever really asks for is to be treated with respect and honesty, point us in the direction of the ‘bad guys’, pay us on time, give us really good serviceable equipment – and to be treated humanely when we are of no further use in combat or service.

Most troops – even yours truly – thats all we ever ask for. That, and hot food. 🙂

…..but this right here??? This I’m not too sure about. But this is what our military is doing. Its either indicative of bad things really are ‘over there’ – or just another incompetent decision from higher ups. And trust me – THERE ARE PLENTY OF THOSE (incompetent decisions, that is)

I’ll be honest, when I write about stuff like this, most of the time I’m not sure I have a solution.

My first obvious answer would be to NOT do this. But – who am I, right?

I’m just a guy with a commentary. I just like to stay aware of what is REALLY going on behind the scenes. And I like to tell the truth about things.

But I do know about life from both sides of the fence. I spent 8 years living this lifestyle as a troop – first as a single guy and later with my family. I know about the harshness of deployments. The reality of PTSD – and not played on TV by gorgeous actors pretending to be troops. REAL PEOPLE with REAL PROBLEMS. People dependent on drugs to cope with life.

I saw my share of blood and guts. I admit, I wasn’t ‘in the s##t’ -as they say- but I definitely called in my share of medivacs and air evacs, manning radios at TOCs (tactical operation center) on FOBs (forward operations base).  I’ve stood on hand in a CASH (combat army support hospital) watching bodies, and sometimes – BODY PARTS come through the door. I know the REALITY of military life beyond the propaganda commercials and soundbites on TV.

So yeah…I guess you could say I have a strong opinion about this type of stuff.

Boehner to raise retirement to pay for wars

John Boehner (pronounced Bay-ner, not Boner) – has already admitted to dedicating the next 2 years to fighting Pres. Obama – not fixing the economy. And now Boehner announces that in order to keep the two illegal occupations going in Iraq and Afghanistan, he proposes to raise the age of retirement to 70 years – keeping American elders from collecting Soc Sec. money so we can fund war operations.
Even if we look past the facts that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan have a standing army – yet we have been there since 2001. Or the fact that there are no CLEAR objectives other than to fight against ‘terrorism’. Or even the fact that the Bush administration initially predicted less than $100Bil and a swift victory in the Middle East – only to have surpassed $1 Trillion and nearly 10 years of occupation….

Even if we look past all of that, the question remains:

why has Pres Obama continued this foreign policy of illegal invasion? And why aren’t American people not seeing this quagmire? That our presence overseas is bankrupting our economy?