Book Burning and That Little Issue of Freedom

The President has commented on the matter that the stunt is, as he put it, "... completely contrary to our values as Americans," noting that this country was built on religious freedom and tolerance, and that the stunt would endanger our troops in Afghanistan.

As you saw in the video above, General Petraeus said the mission in Afghanistan would be made more difficult due to anger among the Afghans at images of the Koran burning, causing, possibly, a violent response.

And here I was thinking the mission in Afghanistan was to protect our freedoms. That's what we've been told, anyway. So, how is it that we have a military presence in Afghanistan for the purpose of defending freedom, and when that freedom is used it makes Afghans angry, so we then must put a stop to the use of that freedom? It doesn't make sense! Our troops are there for the specific purpose of defending that pastor's right to burn the Koran, and we tell him not to? Our President says it is contrary to our values to use our freedoms?

Some have said it is a pointless stunt. Why? Because you think it is pointless? Then protest it. You're free to do so, just as the Afghans are; and if the Afghans don't want the military of a free nation in their enslaved country, then we should either get out or start shooting them. And, frankly, Afghans have the right to be an enslaved, backward, hateful culture if they want to be, so I favor pulling out, and I would never support killing people for religious differences.

So, what is our mission in Afghanistan? Forcing them to accept freedom they don't want at the expense of our soldiers' lives, or protecting our own freedoms until the cavemen complain, and then acquiesce to their whining?

The Floridian pastor has been pressured to the point that he has canceled the burning, a victory for Muslims abroad, a defeat for the sovereignty of our freedom.

What would our dead troops say, having supposedly died for that pastor's rights, if they knew the Muslims that killed them got their way, not by defeating our military, but because the skulking, putrid, degenerate people in their own, American government were slime enough to let them have their way.

Shame on all political and media voices who spoke only in condemnation and contempt of the Floridian pastor.

National Guard: Internment and Resettlement of Civilians?

You know those crazy "FEMA Camper" conspiracy theorists? The ones Glenn Beck debunked by showing a video of a train station that somebody thought was a prison? (Uh... case closed.)

The National Guard must be full of such people; why else would our National Guard be advertising for this as a specialist occupation in the Guard?

(There is an automatically playing video in that link that describes the duties of this position, and includes their motto, "Of the troops, for the troops." I thought it was, "Of the people, by the people, for the people.")

"31E - INTERNMENT / RESETTLEMENT SPECIALIST

Description

Internment / Resettlement Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. Internment / Resettlement Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to US military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; provide custody, control, supervision and security to internees within a detention/internment facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.

Some of your duties as an Internment / Resettlement Specialist may include:

• Assisting with supervision and management of confinement and detention operations
• Providing internal or external security to confinement/corrections facilities or detention/internment facilities
• Providing custody, control, supervision and escort to all security levels of U.S. military prisoners or internees/detainees
• Counseling and guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program
• Preparing or reviewing reports and records of prisoners/internees and programs

Training

Job training for a Internment / Resettlement Specialist requires 19 weeks, one day of One Station Unit Training (OSUT) which includes Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training. Part of the training is spent in the classroom and part in the field. Some of the skills you'll learn about:

• Military laws and jurisdictions
• Level of Force Procedures
• Unarmed Self-Defense Techniques
• Police Deviance and Ethics Procedures
• Interpersonal Communications Skills
• Close confinement operations
• Search and restraint procedures
• Use of firearms
• Custody and control procedures

Skills

Helpful attributes include:

• An ability to think and react quickly
• An ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• An interest in law enforcement and crime prevention

Responsibilities

Advanced level Internment / Resettlement Specialist supervise and train other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level Internment / Resettlement Specialist, you may be:

• Responsible for all personnel working in the confinement/correctional facility, including security, logistical, and administrative management of the prisoner/internee population
• Supervising and establishing all administrative, logistical and food support operations, confinement/correctional, custodial, treatment, and rehabilitative activities
• Conducting stand-alone operations, providing command and control, staff planning, administration and logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of an Enemy Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee (EPW/CI) camp (emphasis mine), detainee internment facility
• Conducting stand-alone operations, providing command and control, staff planning, administration and logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of a displaced civilian (DC) resettlement facility

Civilian Related

The skills you'll learn as a Internment / Resettlement Specialist will help prepare you for a future with federal, state, county or city law enforcement agencies. You might also be able to pursue a career as a security guard with industrial firms, airports or other businesses and institutions."

You crazy conspiracy theorists...

Thomas Jefferson on Standing Armies

The following quotes are all from Thomas Jefferson at various times and occasions:

"There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army." -1789

"I do not like the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for... protection against standing armies." -1787

"Nor is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of peace for [defense against invasion]." -1801

"A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." -1801

"There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war." -1776
(Found in a draft of the Virginia Constitution.)

I would like to note that the idea of the U.S. not having a standing army, at least today, is as foreign to us as gun control would be to Jefferson. What was Jefferson's idea of the structure of our national defense? The following quotes should explain:

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated." -1803

"A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." -1801

"A militia so organized that its effective portions can be called to any point in the Union, or volunteers instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be ready yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use. They will maintain the public interests while a more permanent force shall be in course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its course and issue, and toward throwing its burdens on those who render necessary the resort from reason to force." -1806

"Militia do well for hasty enterprises but cannot be relied on for lengthy service and out of their own country." -1787

"[The] governor [is] constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms." -1811

"Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading foe, it is best to rely, not only to meet the first attack, but if it threatens to be permanent, to maintain the defence until regulars may be engaged to relieve them." -1801

"Every rational citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." -1786

"I am for relying for internal defense on our militia solely till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing army in time of peace which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy which, by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us, will grind us with public burthens and sink us under them." -1799

I would say, in my interpretation of his words, that he almost overstated his view that there should be no standing army, but there should always be a trained militia - an armed citizenry, comprising the whole of the people; and that, in time of war, the U.S. would then begin actively raising "regulars" - Federally trained troops. But, a Federal navy would have a constant presence on our coasts, and this would be increased in time of war.

This fits well with the conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

It is my opinion that we have strayed quite far from our country's founders' intent when it comes to our military and defense policies.

Thomas Jefferson on the Draft

"In this country, [a draught from the militia] ever was the most unpopular and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people, even under the monarchical government, had learnt to consider it as the last of all oppressions."

~Thomas Jefferson

Pentagon Says N. Korean Threat is "Silly"

And this is the first time I have agreed with anything coming from Washington D.C.'s general direction!

How can we take seriously the threat of a " thousand-fold retaliation" and a "merciless military strike" if the U.S. does something NK doesn't like, when they only have a fraction of our military power, and only a few thousand miles of open sea to cross?

They can get away with talking to their citizens like that, and it might affect them, but they seem to forget about the whole "sleeping giant" thing.

I think our policy towards them should be, "Kim, give us back the Pueblo, and we won't send a laser-guided missile through your palace's dining room window," or something like that. No boots on the ground or anything like that, just a simple, short request followed by cooperation or an explosion.

Didn't the North Korean missile program have to be postponed due to the punk getting wet?

Sample of North Korean Missile Program.
(Heavy Artillery)

Then there was the time that the bottle fell over.

And the nuclear program was postponed because someone forgot to stir it every thirty minutes...! *Fingers pointing at Sung-Twong*

The True Story of PFC Lynch's Capture, as Told by Lynch

Private First Class Jessica Lynch, U.S. Army

Remember her "POW" story? Kinda fell down the "memory hole" a few years back, huh?

I needn't go into any great detail about girls in the military, need I? Let it suffice to say that it's a ridiculous trend.

Lynch continues to refute the "girl Rambo" stories of "shooting until her magazine ran out", when, in actuality, her gun jammed before she could fire a shot, as did several other soldiers' firearms that day.

Also, she was never shot, but had extensive injuries consistent with that of a car accident, likely caused by a collision with another U.S. vehicle when an RPG hit her truck.

The hospital where she was taken had not one enemy combatant, rather a team of nurses who tried to take her to the American lines, but were fired at until they turned back.

Lynch's unconsciousness prevents exact detail of what happened, but it is an oddity indeed that her story was twisted so.

Let this not diminish her amazing story, or the legitimacy of her injuries, as she served honorably; it is, simply put, a strange series of events.

Her Full, Congressional Testimony (Toggle Full Screen, top right):
Testimony of Jessica Lynch

Battle of Bunker Hill Anniversary

(Flag similar to that flown at the battle.)

Tomorrow marks the 234th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

More accurately known as the Battle of Breed's Hill, it was a loss for the Americans, but a Pyrrhic victory for the British. Out of over 3,000, 1,000 Redcoats, with a disproportionately high number of officers, were put out of commission as they assaulted the American redoubt on Breed's Hill.

450 out of 2,400 American militiamen were killed, wounded, or captured.



An excellent account of this battle may be found at Sipsey Street Irregulars.

VFW Arms to be Accounted for, Possibly Confiscated

This has been confirmed by the VFW.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi Captured... Again!

(Or, "A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Mosque")

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to introduce this one.

“Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested today in Baghdad.” ~Major General Qasim Atta (I hope General Qasim Atta is in the Iraqi military.)

The only problem with the above quote, told to AFP today, is that they've kind of captured the guy before. And they killed him two years ago.

To quote Andy Griffith, "Folks jes' don't come back after they's gone, it jes' ain't decent!"

Oh yeah, the U.S. military then said he never actually existed.

Color me overly suspicious, but I think there's a polecat in the henhouse.

I'm going to take this opportunity to open the comments up for best fake Muslim names.

My suggestions:

Baruq Quaqbar al-Puffdadi

Nomar Goat-Formi Iemfull

Qari al-Qlipbord

Iceqreem al-Amode

Al-Sgotta Sqar-On Hiz-Owi

Qrawdad al-Aqart

Falzof Hiz-Qamel al-Lot

To Execute the Laws III

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

“Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock.”

“An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home…”

“Already predisposed to defer to the primacy of civilian authorities in instances of domestic security and divest all but the most extreme demands in areas like civil support and consequence management, DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.”

~Retired Lt. Col. Nathan Freir: from a report by him at the U.S. Army War College entitled, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development".

The above quote is courtesy of Infowars.com.

Executing the Laws II

"As we reported yesterday, the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center has dispatched uniformed and presumably armed (we have no confirmation of the latter) soldiers to assist the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in the operation of unconstitutional sobriety checkpoints in San Bernardino County, California, the largest county in California and the country (San Bernardino County is directly east of Los Angeles)." ~Infowars.com (Emphasis mine.)

This is in gross violation of the laws of this nation. This injustice only stands as proof of the blatant disregard for all law by those we would call "Authorities".

Firstly, on the issue of sobriety checkpoints in general, the random and warrantless searches of lawful American motorists' persons and private property without probable cause is undoubtedly illegal.

The 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which was ratified 217 years ago today (the 15th), states in full:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Those who engage in these activities argue that it is state-law that they can perform such warrantless searches.

May I direct their attention to Article VI, Section II of the U.S. Constitution:

"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Emphasis added.

Secondly, concerning the issue of members of the U.S. Military engaging in the enforcement of civil law, this violates the oft mentioned Posse Commitatus Act:

"Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

They might try to defend themselves by saying that the Marines are not a part of the Army or Air Force, but are a detachment of the Navy, which is not covered by Posse Commitatus. That would be silly and not in keeping with the nature of the law.

How far will it go?

To Execute the Laws

"The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials."
~Washington Post

"Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
~Posse Commitatus Act

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power."
~Reasons for Separation, U.S. Declaration of Independence

Posse Comitatus Ignored

The Army has deployed the Third Division's First Brigade within the U.S., though it is unclear exactly where.

The stated purpose of this deployment is "crowd control" using "non lethal" weapons, but the troops will have access to automatic rifles and firearms, as well as tanks.

They are slated to remain deployed in the U.S. for twelve months; this is clearly wanton disregard for the Posse Comitatus Act.

Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the men responsible for the deployment of the military to enforce the laws of the United States may be fined or imprisoned for two years, or both.

I will update to include the place of deployment just as soon as I can.