American Foreign Conflict Status? It's Complicated OR Obama, I'mma Let You Finish, But Kissinger Had The Best Peace Prize Speech OF ALL TIME

American Foreign Conflict Status? It's Complicated OR Obama, I'mma Let You Finish, But Kissinger Had The Best Peace Prize Speech OF ALL TIME

Ok, that was a long title, but I just merged two topics I have been meaning to talk about into one. The Afghanistan proposed 18 month decision and the recent Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. You see, for the first one, the United States Department of Defense and The Joint Chies of Staff brought us (via PA Consulting Group / PA Knowledge Limited) the layout for Afghanistan.


Full PDF presentation from PA Consulting

As you can see, it's beyond complicated on how they're going to do this... and do it in 18 months.
Then again, I could make a similar chart trying to decide what cereal to buy at the store. One could even say that this was him being scared. Every time I've tried to map out every nuance of a decision it was because I was too scared to just make a move.

The New York Times - At War From the Front Lines Blog posted:

For anyone wondering why it took President Obama three months to decide on a strategy for Afghanistan, a look at these military schematics uncovered by NBC’s Richard Engel might help explain the weeks of deliberation that went into the plan. The material outlines the military’s counterinsurgency, or COIN, strategy.

The maps, which look like something Cy Twombly might put together on a spirograph, make it plain that whatever the timeline for deployment and withdrawal, there appears to be no straight line to victory in Afghanistan

For those of you who complain that he took 3 months to decide on Afghanistan, you shouldn't be. As you can see, it was pretty complex. Though it does seem that now the plan seems to be Kill Browns. Got it?

In hindsight, it is sort of a waste of time simply because all his careful deliberation still led him down the BURN AFGHANS path. It looks like half of it is cultural/belief tolerance and respect and building some sort of infrastructure. We're still going to lose tho... but maybe if they do A LOT of humanitarian aid it won't be a complete waste of blood shed. Maybe the US will even work to remove every landmine... ahahahahahaha yeah, never mind.



I know it would be a task to try to complete, but it would actually do a lot more good. There's people in Laos that still fear walking in the field do to landmines and other explosives we dropped on them. It wouldn't be that difficult. there's Sprayable "eco-friendly" bacteria that illuminates on contact with organic explosives vis-a-vis landmines. The site is pretty impressive and it includes a photo of an elephant who's hoof was blown off by a landmine.

Back to the graph and let's see what it actually says:

1) despite being there a while, we still don't understand the all-important local situations very well
2) the central government is a complete and utter failure
3) because the government is fucked nobody trusts it enough to support them over the insurgency. if they're on our side it's for reasons which have nothing to do with the government and everything to do with local politics which we still don't really understand.
4) we can't seem to fix their economy, which goes hand in hand with the central government being worthless
5) at least the insurgents are having trouble working together and haven't all allied under the banner of some third party to drive us into the sea

This is why Obama's decision was basically a catch all that let him make no decision while buying himself 18 months of free reign and making pullout of Afghanistan a non-issue for the next election. We've been here before. I'm not even going to say Vietnam. That's not what I'm talking about. During the whole Rambo II style of liberating Afghanistan from Russia by armoring them, it was a mess. The guerrillas didn't work together during the soviet-afgan war. They were fighting36 different groups.

Moving on to the second part of this. The Peace Prize... specifically the speech given. Well, let's get to the prize first. The Dalai Lama, who never says anything bad about anyone ever, had this to say:

As President Barack Obama prepares to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, the Dalai Lama told Sky News he believes the award is "a little early" and cautioned the U.S. president against relying too much on his advisers.

The exiled Tibetan leader won the Nobel prize 20 years ago for his peaceful opposition to Chinese rule in his country.

President Obama is in Norway to collect his award, which he has controversially been awarded in his first year in office. Some commentators have joked that the award was for "not being George Bush".

The Dalai Lama told Sky News: "I think if you are realistic, it may have been a little early but it doesn't matter, I know Obama is a very able person. Sometimes these individual persons rely on different advice from different people so like former President Bush junior, as a human being I really love him, really wonderful person, very honest, very truthful.

"But I think due to his advisers' views, some of his policies have been a disaster."

Obama declined to meet the Dalai Lama during a recent visit to Washington, with observers pointing out it may have been awkward to do so just before the president travelled to China.

This is a guy who praises and prays for the leaders of the CCP who order monks and nuns to be rounded up and tortured for owning pictures of him. He is the DEFINITION of patience. And he thinks it was unwarranted.

In the speech Obama said things like;

"Peace movements wouldn't have stopped Hitler"

I'm sure the two dozen or so remaining members of Al-Qaeada hiding somewhere in Afghanistan are not Nazi Germany...

"I reserve the right to unilaterally defend my country"

Against? Again, the terrorist have moved to Pakistan. So I don't know what we're defending ourselves from. Then he goes on and name drops Ronald Reagan.... That has to be worse than anything else. The whole visit so far felt like a bunch of backwards villagers trying to impress the cool city guy.

"We can have war and still strive for peace"

Summary: we need to kill everything in afghanistan because of peace. Obama, I'mma let you finish, but Kissinger had the best peace price troll OF ALL TIME. The Kissinger Peace prize was pretty awful in retrospect, but at least it was given for a specific reason (the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam) and was shared between him and whoever the Vietnamese representative was.



You have to be ballsy and evil to accept the Nobel Peace Prize fter committing nmore troops to an unjust war. Oh, and after you just sold out your country to the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies. Ha, now that's the slap to the face.

In other news, Obama accepted the Slimmer of the Year award while wearing curry-stained track pants. His speech was largely inaudible, as he insisted on eating a 12" deep-dish pizza through the ceremony.

My Nobel speech would be something less preachy and with more buzz phrases.

"Bring back Chappelle Show, cancel Gossip Girls." "I hope Avatar bombs."

I guess the real problem here is that it's not even so much that he's a politican and goes back on his word and promises. It's the way he does it. Obama ignited the passions of a generation of youth whose political coming of age was to rally around this HOPE and CHANGE of Bush's policies coming from one of the most traumatic single incidents in the nation since the Peal Harbor attacks and he just seems to follow the same sort of mentality, only he's a lot better at giving the speech to why he's doing it.

It's only now that those who voted for him are actually aware of what his policies were the whole time. it's not that he just lied or he baited an entire demographic who up until then had nobody acknowledge their fears, they lied to themselves. They never really knew his policies and were dazzled by the idea of change. But this speech as well as his recent actions just shit on those voters dreams and idea of what is change. It's not like he actively shit upon the hopes of a generation, he just opened their eyes to what the reality of politics is.

Modern Combat 2 - We're A Sick Nation

Modern Combat 2 - We're A Sick Nation

This post is about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (in stores now) and the rather surprising racism contained within it highlighted by a section of game play. So that you're in the loop, early on in the game you take the role of a CIA operative who has infiltrated a Russian terrorist cell and, not wanting to risk your cover, you go along on a terrorist raid to an airport in Russia (in mother Russia, airplanes fly you!); Your crew of terrorist pals walk out of an elevator and open fire on a group of unarmed civilians murdering all of them. Tally that up to the cost of freedom.

The people scream, bleed, twist and die in a way that is frighteningly realistic. The player is expected to shoot at the civilians because, if they do not, their cover is compromised. The player is given free reign to walk through the airport terminal and pick off fleeing, wounded civilians at their leisure - it is not until you cross a checkpoint do local law enforcement officials arrive.

Activision, the publisher of COD:MW2, have said though that there will be a checkpoint where the game stops and says to the player "the following sequence has content that some players might find distressing." I have played a lot of very violent games and I feel I can say that this section of MW2 takes things to a whole new level of fucked-up. But it's okay because you can skip it...



No wait. That's exactly why it's terrible. Why give the player the ability to kill fucking innocent people in such a sick manner to prove they're with the terrorist? I've played GTA for as long as I remember, running over hookers is one thing, this is something else entirely. Take a look at this video clip of the airport scene if you can stomach that sort of thing...



As you can see, if you waited for the ending.. you did all that blood shed for absolutely NOTHING. Perhaps this is what makes it brilliant. The CIA dude gets shot in the head by the terrorist leader, basically showing that the CIA is evil, incompetent and actively elped the terrorists' cause. Just like in real life. Though, if it really was a CIA agent his gun would jam or something, the CIA is not competent enough to do these kinds of things.

But then again, most of the gamers playing this aren't going to realize this, even with this ham fisted message in their face. They'll consider the CIA agent as the protagonist and any game that the CIA agent is the "Hero" is a shameful game. If not for the before seen game play where he goes along with mass murder for the sake of information or to get in good with the terrorist. But hey, want to see that part again?


Those scenes are entirely brutal not just in concept, but the sound. That Youtube video doesn't do it justice on how sick and over the top this is. It's beyond scary. Then you have to remember that there are people who would willing do this in real life, for either faith or politics or just because they are crazy, and that real bodies, real blood, real screams, and real guns are much messier and louder respectively. Personally, I'm glad video games aren't all that realistic in the grand scheme of things. But the fact that you're numbing someone to these really just screams bad taste. There should be a game where you play as a CIA agent and do actual CIA agent stuff like checking in to a Moscow hotel room, waiting around until you are paralyzed by ennui after your 49th hour of Russian state tv, and then being informed your mission has been canceled due to bad intel



Why can't I just kill Makarov in the elevator during the airport level instead of mowing down hundrest of Russian citizens? Sure, I'll die.. maybe, but I mean, what the fuck. Are you not suppose to value the life of Russians because they aren't Americans? I think you could definitely kill all three of those dudes before they ever fired a single shot. Forcing you to go through with it would make sense if General Voldemort and Makarov were in cahoots to start the third world war, but apparently they hated each other since the beginning. So the story doesn't even make sense.

It would be an interesting social experiment if they would keep track of the average number of civilians killed in the airport level and post it on the internet. I'm pretty curious as to how horrible our youth really is.



Then again, this isn't new to Modern Warfare. The first game had a bit where you are in a bomber a few thousand feet up and you can shoot and kill people that run back to their homes from a mosque. Again, killing civilians from the safety of a bomber is OKAY AS LONG AS THEY ARE MUSLIMS.. or brown people. Hooah!

Just think of the "enemy infantryman's" last moments as they are spent in absolute terror as hell rains down around them, but to you it just looks like you're shooting at ants on the screen while you circle thousand of feet above free from any threat of harm. You and your bro share a chuckle as a tiny ant torso flies across the screen. God bless you, America.


"Hey roach, imma torture this towelhead in shorts, you go shoot someone or something"

I mean, look at that image. The black guy is just staring into space. They clearly already worked him over and got essential information out of him that we all know torture provides. In the original modern warfare, the player takes on the role of the president of an unnamed middle eastern nation. You are dragged through the streets of your former capitol city, beaten with the stock of an AK, watch unarmed prisoners be executed and are powerless to stop it. You are then knocked out and dragged to a pole in the middle of town square, tied to it and executed.

In another sequence the villain of the game detonates a nuclear bomb in the middle of a the aforementioned middle east city. You are playing the role of a Marine at this point who has confirmed his status as a hero by rescuing the pilot of a downed troop carrier helicopter when a nuclear bomb goes off. Your evac chopper crashes and you crawl through the destroyed city bleeding out until you are dead.

But the kids keep on eating this shit up. Why hey, what do you know, Modern Warfare 2, Guitar Hero 5 Among 'Tweens' Most-Wanted For Holidays

A survey published by U.S. video game specialty retailer Game Crazy this week found that 86 percent of teens and "tweens" will ask for a video game this year, with Guitar Hero 5 and the M-rated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 among the most wanted.

AHHHHH, MOM. I WANNA PLAY SHOOTERMAN 5: FALL OF FALLUJAH!

This game is going to sell over 10 million copies and at least, AT LEAST 1/10th of those people are going to fist pump or go "Hell yeah!!" at the torture scenes. Let that settle in your mind a little. Then again, the percentage that will fist pump their arm at the airport scene is more frightening.

Then there's those that are angry that this game comes out 2 days later on steam. Which I suppose is justified question. Why should people want the game on demand without the need of putting on pants not be able to play it on the day of release? All it does is make them want to pirate the game.

Besides, who will want to play multiplayer on this piece of shit game? The multiplayer feature really is awful. Not as awful as playing as a piece of shit CIA agent killing hundreds, but still pretty bad. But for those who don't have the game in hand now and numbing themselves to the problems of their fellow man, they are playing the first mission, which is a lot of teaching Iraqi's to be self sufficient. The entire first mission is Generation Kill, The Video Game.



As much as I dislike farmville, It's not teaching people to be completely numb to the deaths of innocents or pushing the marine/military mentality. The idea that as long as there's no naked titties or dead children, people aren't going to have that much of a hard time with it.

The whole plot of this game is tons of people getting murdered because the CIA fucked up. And really, that's what the CIA does. You know, like how they'll be captured and tortured before they even get dinner because they had known the CIA agent was coming for about 3 weeks thanks to intel gathered from spies and communist sympathizers.

It's games like this that make us completely ignore the fact that ARE troops, post serving their time and without any other sort of option for career, join "security forces" like Blackwater and, well, if the news have showed us anything, they're pieces of shit. Take for example what Former Blackwater execs said: "So we killed 17 civilians and tried to cover it up."

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The idea of executives at a private security firm like blackwater resigning over ethical concerns is so unbelievably bizarre to me I don't know what to make of it other than these are clearly some of the most hate-able whistle blowers ever. Black Water is one of the few cartoonishly evil things in the world. There's little ambiguity about it. But I should stop referring to them as Blackwater. If I keep doing that, then their name change t XE will be a success as that name is currently not as reviled and associated with murder and corruption.

At midday on Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire on Iraqi civilians in the crowded intersection, spraying automatic weapons fire in ways that investigators later claimed was indiscriminate, and even launching grenades into a nearby school.

Blackwater is the Soviet invasion force from Red Dawn.



Then again, I could write an entire blog the size of this one dedicated to the evils that is Blackwater/XE, let's get back on the subject here.

If you play Modern Warfare 2 unironically, you're a piece of shit. Any game that has Dick Cheney quotes when you die is something you shouldn't play. But for the sake of the argument, I played a little of it so I can complain about it with some insight on seeing evil first hand.

I was on the first mission and just got onto some mounted machine gun as a grunt in the desert. My troopmates were all cheering over some explosion and clearly they programed them to act just like military douchebags and I couldn't help it and I just fucking shot them all. I failed the mission, but left my mark. Ft. Hood. Oooooorah!



The scary thing is that apparently there were Army Recruiters at various midnight release lines. This fucking country, I tell you. Cause what the military really needs are the kind of people that line up at midnight for an Xbox game. Let this be a reminder that the army literally uses call of duty to entice kids to sign up.

Who the fuck plays this game and thinks "Hmm, yes, I'd like to do this in real life." How exactly is this any good in promoting the army? You die like once every five minutes in these video games. I hope that anyone who really feels the need to join after playing this game falls cock-first on an IED.



Video games that recreate the horrors of actual historical conflicts and attempt turn them into fun point grabbing adventures are morally abhorrent. I could just picture the young grandson sitting the living room with his grandpa with the xbox on:

"hey gramps remember when you stormed the beaches and watched your best friend die? Well if you weren't satisfied with only being dragged back to that terrible event in your nightmares you can now watch me play it on the big screen during the day. Did your buddy die on this part of the beach or that part? Where was it the shrapnel gave you a permanent limp? Watch me stab that guy in the gut, oh I know he's on our side, but I'm just having fun"

Modern Warfare 2 is neocon American flag waving piece of shit that puts the show 24 to shame in terms of ridiculousness. Basically the story is 50% red dawn and 50% kill-random-brown-people served with torture sauce. With moralistic quotes from kleptocrats such as Dick Cheney and Donald motherfucking Rumsfeld, this should be banned for more reasons other than "it'll turn your kids into terrorist."

This game is seriously terrifying. So much so that it's hard for me to accept this as anything but parody. But that's the sad part. It's not parody. It's not any sort of satire. It's really scary to think that anyone would have fun playing a game like this. I can only wait for Modern Combat 3 for when we get more Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Featuring actions such as Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

The War On Christmas Begins Today

The War On Christmas Begins Today

It's may be the end of September, but it doesn't seem to be too early to begin the war on Christmas that Christians love to claim is something Atheist or anyone else who doesn't believe in the silly concept that baby Jesus was born in a desert during winter on that CHRISTmas morning. A holiday I've got problems with it? let me tell you, all of them. Every single last one of them. But a war on one specific one? Nah, that's small fries.

As you will find out in this news piece, they're already claiming that the war on Christmas is on and the battleground is the state where the Alamo had it's last stand.. Texas

Proposal would delete 'Christmas' from 6th grade lesson

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A proposal for new social studies curriculum in Texas public schools removes a mention of Christmas in a sixth-grade lesson, replacing it with a Hindu religious festival, a change that's riled conservatives who say it's another battle in the "war" against the Christian holiday.

"It's outrageous that the war on Christmas continues in our state and in our nation," said Jonathan Saenz, a lobbyist for the conservative Free Market Foundation. "This effort to mislead students about current society is shameful and must be stopped."

The draft proposal being considered by the State Board of Education won't be formally adopted until next May for the 2011-2012 school year. The standards will remain in place for the next decade, dictating what is taught in government, history and other social studies classes in elementary and secondary schools. The standards also will be used to develop state tests and by textbook publishers who develop material for the nation based on their largest market, Texas.

The standards currently instruct sixth-grade students to be able to explain the significance of religious holidays such as the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. The proposal, which is set to be debated during a hearing next week, removes the words Christmas and Rosh Hashanah. Diwali, a Hindu festival, is added.

How dare we try to get students to learn a little bit about religious festivals from cultures other than their own at the expense of giving them the trivially simple assignment of explaining the significance of something from their own culture! How dare we do that!

I wish I could sign up for an actual war on Christmas and other corporate consumerist 'Christian' Holidays. While my girlfriend may not like it, I still don't dig Valentine's Day and Easter? Fuck that Holiday. I'm going to be celebrating a Birthday around Easter. No time for a stupid bunny to steal that thunder.

To be honest, we wouldn't have to start the war on Christmas so early if they wouldn't start Christmas so early. It's not even Halloween and I'm seeing some places pop up with festive cheerful things already.



How the hell could they claim persecution? As a member of the world's largest religion, how can you feel your rights are being trodden upon? I'm curious as to what history these Christians are referring to that makes Christmas their holiday? It's just the standard winter festival, only they attached the birth of Jesus to it, which never made sense because a kid born in the desert just sounds like one frozen dead baby. It's pretty clear that it's the same date as the Roman winter festival

Christians only really started getting heavy recently, just over the last 100 years-plus, basically since Dickens. I guess the whole Ghost thing got to him. In the early colonial days, celebrating Christmas was still illegal in some parts of the BUILT ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES U.S., because people would get shitfaced and start tearing shit up. And I don't mean their gift wrapping..

What's funny is this is more or less how it's always been and exactly what happened in the late 19th Century. Christmas had always been secondary to East in the Christian calendar and mostly a holiday to get drunk and party hard. Then in the late 18oo's, the "reason for the season" stuff started, but it was completely different from how it is now.



For proof of this, just look at the most famous example of literature from the era, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A novel which specifically denounces capitalism and has its protagonist redeem himself by becoming a socialist. I think it's a pretty big slap to the face that there's such a commercial holiday to it now.

Why would they teach Christmas in a history course anyway? High school English classes aren't teaching the bible, although it is an important literary work to the religious type. That has to be some war against Christians as well, right? The bible is the most god awful novel around. They might as well teach John Grisham novels in school.

This is all just another problem caused by trying to create a universal public education system instead of letting parents choose where to send their kids. Oh wait, the universal health care debate isn't this blog.. Sorry, it sort of melts altogether with me.



If I were president, my first act would be to bomb all walmarts with cruise missiles at 6:15AM, Friday after thanksgiving. This would solve so many problems. Such as killing poor people that partake in consumerist holidays when they clearly can't afford them.

I'm only going to be buying my relatives charity donations for Christmas and only asking for books anyway. I'll more than likely be wearing a Dawkins shirt for the entire season for shits and giggles.



Don't even tell me it's a reason for family togetherness. That's the part I hate most about Christmas. It sucks having your family guilt trip you into driving or flying hundreds of miles to see them for a few days when you'd be much happier relaxing at home or going somewhere with someone whose company you actually enjoy and do something fun while everyone else is stuck with their family.

How about if you really cared about your family you just have the same togetherness the rest of the year without having to rely on a commercialized Holiday one day out of the year just so you could check "made awkward small talk with blood relatives" off your list.



One would wonder, if you want to wage war on Christmas, what would be the first step?
1. Kill God
2. ?
3. Did you kill God yet?

Let me tell you what the calendar looks like for that time of year;

Liberal atheist agenda for 12/25

09:00am-War on Christmas
11:00am-War on Kwanzaa
12:30am-Lunch with Janice
01:30pm-War on Chanukkah

It's not like I'm sending Christmas an unending rain of mortar fire, exploding tree shrapnel and manger scene fragments everywhere hitting civilians with cheer. You don't see me slapping some economic sanctions on Christmas first in an attempt to work something out.



I have to say, most Holidays celebrated in America are boring as fuck. Shit like Dia De Los Muertos and Holi are way cooler than anything we celebrate. Arbor day? Flag day? What a bunch of loser holidays. Dia De Los Muertos: awesome bread, sugar skulls, serious reflection on life and death. Halloween: Free candy to keep our children fat and 'sexy' costumes as an excuse to dress like a slut. Seriously, dress like a slut everyday, I will be the first to tell you that I wont mind. Fuck halloween, Dia De Los Muertos owns

But I guess the American economy would be decimated without Christmas, so a war on Christmas is a WAR ON AMERICA! That's right you non-Christmas celebrating heathens, you're terrorist of the worse kind. All of you!

Holidays are just the government telling you when you can go on a three day bender. I shouldn't have to get permission from big brother to get shit faced for three days. So fuck it, let the war begin. I'm ready to practice a scorched earth sort of strategy. Ho ho Fuckin' Ho!

Offending Your Sensibility

Offending Your Sensibility

This is going to be graphic. I'm warning you right now because I don't want to surprise you, but really, it should come to no surprise that war is not pretty. It's not like what you see in the movies. At least not all movies. There's some gritty ones every so often. For the most part Americans really white wash the images they see of war and fool themselves into thinking that War is nothing serious.



The Huffington Post reported on this soldier in this article

The U.S. patrol had a tip that Taliban fighters were lying in ambush, and a Marine had his weapon trained on the trees 70 yards away. "If you see anything move from there, light it up," Cpl. Braxton Russell told him.

Thirty seconds later, a salvo of gunfire and RPGs – rocket-propelled grenades – poured out of the grove. "Casualty! We've got a casualty!" someone shouted. A grenade had hit Lance Cpl. Joshua "Bernie" Bernard in the legs.

A Marine and son of a Marine, a devout Christian, Iraq war veteran and avid hiker, home-schooled in rural Maine, Bernard was about to become the next fatality in the deadliest month of the deadliest year since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The website used a photo taken by the AP that was deemed to some to be lacking taste or tact. But it's getting a whole lot of shit right now.

theloon: @bouhammer - May God forgive photographer, AP, & all who have made $$$'s off of LCpl Joshua Bernard's death because I won't.

Why so much shit? Because It showed Joshua getting helped by two other soldiers after the RPG grenade attack right before he died.

The Associated Press is distributing a photo of a Marine fatally wounded in battle, choosing after a period of reflection to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it.

Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, of New Portland, Maine, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

The image shows fellow Marines helping Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he died on the operating table.

The picture was taken by Associated Press photographer Julie Jacobson, who accompanied Marines on the patrol and was in the midst of the ambush during which Bernard was wounded. She had photographed Bernard on patrol earlier, and subsequently covered the memorial service held by his fellow Marines after his death.

So in short, The AP has published the photo in spite of the family's request that they not...

Although that's a terrible picture that looks like it was pulled off a cell phone, this photo as well as other "tasteful" dead soldier photos should absolutely be published just to let people know that yes, this is in fact happening every goddamn day. It's amazing that for such a cruel and destructive society we're actually just a bunch of pussies.



You mean... sometimes ARE TROOPS die in war?!?! Oh, you're prepared to send your son off to die as long as no one actually sees it. I get it. Like the man said, if he didn't print this photo, people like his grandma will think war is what they see on TV.

This isn't me not supporting our troops. This is me showing you the gritty reality of war. Of what you suggest we must do to preserve our freedom in a war that has very little to do with our safety. So while the following image may be graphic, it's really no more graphic than things you've seen on television. Hell, Breaking Bad last season had a man's leg get blown clean off because of drug runners. This is very much tamer than that. I suppose the only difference is you know now that this guy didn't survive this.

But here it is. This is what War really is. Gritty, nasty and all around dangerous for anyone and everyone involved.



My sympathy goes out to the family of Joshua, but he died serving this country. While I do not believe in the cause of this aggression, I do believe that his life was needlessly sacrificed in a pointless battle. I don't believe that this image should be covered up. It's like censoring the Nadia tape. While I believe that got way too much hype, I do believe that this one should be a wake up call and a question as to why we're really there.

P.S. If you feel I'm offensive in my handling of this situation, please don't click on this blog on 9/11. Not unless you can handle my wacky sense of humor.

You Know That Brutal Massacre I did? Yeah, Sorry About That

You Know That Brutal Massacre I did? Yeah, Sorry About That

Sometimes news stories come across my computer screen and I really don't have any way to process them other than looking blankly at my screen and then taking a nice strong drink of bourbon. This is one of those stories.

The BBC is reporting that as mass murderer is sorry for his actions

The US army officer convicted for his part in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War has offered his first public apology, a US report says.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened," Lt William Calley was quoted as saying by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

He was addressing a small group at a community club in Columbus, Georgia.

Calley, 66, was convicted on 22 counts of murder for the 1968 massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam.

Cold blood

"I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry," the former US platoon commander said on Wednesday.

He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killings in 1971. Then-US President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to three years' house arrest.

But Calley insisted that he was only following orders, the paper reported.

He broke his silence after accepting a friend's invitation to speak at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club, a US-based global voluntary organisation.

At the time of the killings, the US soldiers had been on a "search and destroy" mission to root out communist fighters in what was fertile Viet Cong territory.

Although the enemy was nowhere to be seen, the US soldiers of Charlie Company rounded up unarmed civilians and gunned them down.

When the story of My Lai was exposed, more than a year later, it tarnished the name of the US army and proved to be a turning point for public opinion about the Vietnam War.

It's nice to see that after his terrible ordeal watching TV at home for a few years followed by a completely normal life for several decades, he's a reformed man and has found the courage to apologize, not only to the families of the victims but also to his fellow perpetrators....

Just imagine I built a big brick wall around myself so I could scream loud enough for this sort of news story. You see, after reading something like this, I can't believe old Television shows like The A-Team.

"Plot: A group of Iraq War veterans looks to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed"

After reading a story like this it only makes one wonder how much shit do you have to stir up before you're ever faced with a situation of being out of their good grace?

I sure hope Calley's sudden change of heart and attempt to rewrite history doesn't mean he has cancer or something and is about to die. I'd perfere he had a few good years of suffering for the terrible shit he committed. It would be even more perfect if his motivation to come forward involved finding Jesus and forgiving himself for all that he did with the blood of his savior. But that's wishful thinking. I mean, he's still making excuses as to why he did it:

But Calley insisted that HE VAS ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS MEIN FUHRER!!!, the paper reported.

I wonder at what point C company received the order to carve their initials into the corpses of the women they raped? You'd think that would cause their OC to pause for a second, right? I'm sure that if you weren't claiming scalps it would be hard for the government to give out medals, right? It's sort of like the way Belgium accounted for military actions in the Congo.

The truly horrible thing about all this is that there was pro-Calley bumper stickers and songs back when he was convicted of this shit. Many in America were outraged by Calley's sentence; Georgia's governor Jimmy Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on. Then US president Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to three years' house arrest. Nixon did this in response to the public outrage, if you can believe that shit. And of course Nixon was pardoned, surely making Nixon one of the worst human beings who ever lived.

On the flip side, some black guy gets life for a third strike of stealing a candy bar and is still in jail. How about that case where one stole a few slices of pizza and got life cause it was his third strike? Or a golf club? Or a couple of videotapes? Yes, these all happened.



Anyone recall that story about that black kid who got lief in prison for smoking a joint while on probation for attempted robbery (Attempted because he got remorseful while mugging the guy and didn't take his money) and then the same judge who convicted the black kid let a white guy who was the son of an influential preacher walk after being caught with a shitload of cocaine while on probation for murdering his gay lover by shooting him in the ass.

I seriously want to just shoot myself to the moon and far away from this society sometimes. I guess it's all about the likelihood of re-offending. The gay cokehead isn't very likely to murder someone again where as the black kid may smoke another joint and society has to be protected from that...

His whole apology just comes off as something terrible. I couldn't have pictured it any less sincere than if he said it like this:

You know what? My bad, dudes. My bad.

This fucker isn't sorry. Hell, I love how the article puts quotes on "Sorry". Way to take away any and all meaning the words had in them by doing that shit. I can't decide if this whole action is better or worse than him not giving an apology. I suppose I'd say that this is roughly equivalent to no apology at all. They're always sorry for "What happened", never for what they did .

"I am sorry that some people felt offended when they heard the word 'nigger' coming out of my mouth"

"I deeply regret that Mr King's actions caused his head to repeatedly come into contact with my baton"

"lives were lost"

"mistakes were made"

"lessons were learned"

The passive voice is, morally speaking, the most despicable abuse of the English language in modern times. Well, at least right up there with the constant use of LOL and all the other internet catch phrases I wish to punch people through the monitor screen for.

Or perhaps there's some slim chance that this could be of some good. Maybe it will make American soldiers think twice about genociding some peeps after reading this piece. Ha.. yeah, sorry, that was me wishful thinking again. I'll try not to do that anymore. If anything I can already hear the armed forces mentality:

"Hey sarge, let's murder those sand niggers!"
"I dunno, lieutenant, there could be consequences..."
"Yeah, you're right...three years of chilling at home posting on stormfront and playing X-box, just like that mai tai dude!"
"Fuck yeah, Let's Roll! (tm)"


I suppose I shouldn't be expecting that apology from the Iraqi vets anytime soon. Maybe at least another 40 years before we see any sort of apology for Iraq. I'm sure our kids and our grandkids will love us for the choices we're making today. They can look back at history and see how the US gave medals to the people like the crew of the ship that shot down an Irani airliner and killed everyone on board. Yup, that's protecting ARE freedom, alright..

Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Well, it's memorial day weekend. I didn't even realize it till it was waaaay too late to plan for it. Then again, do you really need to plan for relaxation and the whole BBQ fun? Meh, I'm too lazy to even write an update. So don't act all surprise, your ass is probably reading this a week after Memorial day anyways.


Something's wrong here....

So this may sound unamerican but what's the difference between memorial day and veterans day? All I get from others is that one honors the living and the other honors both the living and those who died in war defending our country. I dunno. I mean, that's two holidays for one group of people. I wont even get on the subject on if they were wars that were defending our country or freedom cause that's a big can of worms in itself. But it seems that the whole thought of honoring those who fought in war took a back seat for a simple three day weekend.

Add in that I doubt many even give a crap about those soldiers anyway. An extra day to get drunk, AM I RITE? It has gotten to a point that even with a war going on, it's overlooked in favor for a grill and some slabs of meat. I'm not saying that in a bad tone. I mean, grilling is something I love doing. That's whay articles like the following from The L.A. Times appeal to me. I mean, how else do you maximize your memorial day fun but with a belt that you can carry beer in? Who needs to walk the 10 feet to the cooler to get a beer when you can grab one from your belt.



But let's not fool ourselves, do we need any sort of tool to make drinking anymore easier on this festive three day holiday? Just the other night I saw someone plow into a pole near where I was staying. Destroyed the shit out of it and caused glass to break and create a hassle for my Saturday. Way to go, drunky.

So excuse me if I'm not going to jump on the BBQ wagon, I already did that quota for the memorial day weekend. I cooked bacon wrapped hot dogs and drank beer I brewed myself, as well as some that others brewed. What can I say, gotta have a memory for those drinks already drunk. Most of all, Memorial day is the unofficial start to summer.

But why is unofficial? We have national holidays for just about everything. You mean to tell me that we can have a day set aside for daylight savings time but we don't have one for when Summer officially begins? Well, if they're not going to give it anything more than an unofficial start, we might as well get the ball rolling right.



Let's get this summer off to a good start already. And with that, I'll be done with the blog for the day. No need to push it. Besides, I have a lot of drinking and bbqing to get done today! Just don't forget to quickly remember those who need to be 'membered.

Making A Game Out Of War

Making A Game Out Of War

I used to work a start up computer cafe. It was a sort of project between high school friends and well, it failed terribly. What I came out of that with was getting bored with video games that leaves me not addicted to playing much of anything. It's like catching your son smoking and then making him smoke the whole pack at a time. That sort of too much to ever care about it. Day in and day out I would play video games.

Most of these games were war simulators. Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942. Both were just online multiplayer games that gave you guns and told you to shoot the enemy before you see the whites of their pixels. Much the same, the US army went ahead and did their own service/video game called America's Army. It was nothing more than army propaganda and recruitment tools.

So the question we should be asking is how soon is too soon? I'll be the first one to admit that after 9/11, I was all for not giving a shit if it was "too soon" to try to make a joke in order to deal with the pain.


But as Gilbert Gottfried pointed out, we need to move on with it. So the question with this is why I'm not entirely on the fence here with this move to make a video game out of a modern combat theater piece that is only a few years old.

With that all said and done, it looks like War isn't hell anymore, It seems like War is simply a game

There have been books, movies, poetry and even rap songs coming out of the war in Iraq. Now, there's going to be a video game, one based on the November 2004 battle in the Iraqi town of Fallouja that left dead 38 U.S. troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. On one hand doe we need to play a war campaign for a war that we have troops currently stuck in? Isn't this sort of giving the enemy an insight on what our troops are geared with or what their formation is during a battle?

Hell, the Vets of that battle are more than likely still doing a tour or two there. It seems really odd to be able to play a battle they risked their ass in before they get home and play it themselves on their xbox. Also demeans the risk they took when you're just running and gunning when they actually risked their ass and shit their pants because of the battle.

It also takes war flash backs to a new meaning when you not only see/relive a battle in your mind, let alone all your draft dodging buddies decide to play a multiplayer campaign of it on their PS3....



We shouldn't be desensitizing war like this. Part of that hippie in me just thinks that the easier you make killing someone, the worse our society will be. I know I stopped giving a shit about grand theft after GTA: Vice City. I also busted out my 80's music... But even they waited a good 20 years before touching on the 80's. Any time before that would have been way too soon to remember the 80's again.

I'm just as wrong for playing a lot of WWII shooter games but this seems like poor taste, or at the very least it seems like something that is way too soon considering this battle just happened a few years ago. How would we feel if them terrorist decided to create a "Fly plane into building" flight sim and released it in this sort of high profile situation a couple of weeks after 9/11? We'll never be forgetting that, thems for sure.