Many, if not most of those opposed to the Iraq war may not care one way or the other about the Iraqi people. But they are objectively pro “insurgent” or whatever you want to call those those who are murdering civilians in Iraq.

Many are suffering from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome), a hatred of George W, Bush so powerful that they willing work for the defeat of America just so they can pillory him.

Confederate Yankee found one such on the pages of the Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record. A columnist for that newspaper is suffering with BDS to such an extent that she would willingly commit to falsehoods on the pages of the newspaper just so she can make the claim that “Bush lied and people died.” She is so committed to her Bush hatred that she would undermine American effort in Iraq, even if it means more dead Americans and Iraqi civilians.

Confederate Yankee called her on it and she descended into unintelligible gibberish.

Confederate Yankee: You Ain’t Seen Huffin’ Like the Flighty Quinn

I am so tired of these people. They are so wrapped up in their petty vendetta that they would help our enemies kill our soldiers and murder civilians. I watched this play out during the Vietnam War and I am not going to remain silent this time. These people are acting as an enemy propaganda movement using our own money and assets against us. I don’t give a rip whether they like George Bush or not, but attacking him to undermine our efforts is indistinguishable from working for the enemy. I will treat them accordingly.

If they want to criticize the way the war is being fought, fine. Let’s hear their ideas for winning. But slinking out like we did in Vietnam is not an option.

During WWII the public had “Victory Gardens”, “metal drives” in order to support the war effort. Many of these programs were of marginal value to the troops but gave civilians a way to support the war. There are still many ways to support the war without taking up arms. People such as Beth Quinn are doing their part also, but not for us. Just as little things like care packages and phone cards raise the morale of our troops, columns like Beth Quinn’s, statements like those of Teddy Kennedy and Dick Durbin, and the messages of Moveon.org raise the morale of enemy fighters.

Jim Lindgren looks at the “wall of separation of church and state” and finds the origin is not what most people think.

Gateway Pundit: “Guilty” Verdict in ESL Voter Fraud Trial

Four of the defendants — Jessie Lewis, Sheila Thomas, Yvette Johnson and former city official Kelvin Ellis — were found guilty of conspiracy to commit election fraud and election fraud. All worked for the Democratic Party during the election last November.

Democratic Party boss and former City Councilman Charlie Powell was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit election fraud.

The five were charged with paying voters up to $10 a vote to vote for Democratic candidates during the Nov. 2 general election.

The jury deliberated about five and a half hours before returning the verdicts.

A lot has been made of the influx of “foreign fighters” coming to Iraq from other countries to fight the Americans. But now it is clear that not all those foreign fighters are in Iraq.

Bush Says War Is Worth Sacrifice

The liberal group MoveOn.org, meanwhile, announced that it is spending $500,000 on a television and newspaper advertising campaign featuring remarks critical of Bush’s Iraq policy made by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), quoting him saying, “The White House is completely disconnected from reality. . . . It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along.”

Moveon.org has announced that it will be funding a propaganda campaign against the war. This effectively makes them allied with the Baathist loyalists of the Saddam dictatorship and the al Qaeda forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Remember, the friend of my enemy is my enemy. They are the enemy just as much as if they were making bombs and shooting soldiers.

Arlie Hochschild is a professor at Berkeley and therefore some kind of “expert.” Although here previous subjects were sex workers and immigrant nannies and caregivers, the fact that she is a Berkeley professor is supposed to extend her expertise to al Qaeda and Baathist fighters imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in Iraq. In her New York Times Op-Ed she argues that some of the people imprisoned at Guantanamo or in Iraq are or were underage when they were captured trying to kill American soldiers.

Arrested Development – New York Times

She argues that as “children” they ought to be set free, their activities at their time of capture notwithstanding.

For all her talk of “human rights” and compassion, it all comes down to one thing. If these “children” are released and go back to killing Americans, Iraqis or Afghan civilians, it is very unlikely that it would be anyone that Professor Hochschild knows.

If a bomb explodes in Iraq, killing women and children, it won’t hurt anyone in Berkeley. If a group massacres worshipers in a Mosque in Afghanistan, it will not inconvenience a single person at the University of California not Berkeley or any other campus. If an IED explodes in Iraq injuring American soldiers, it probably won’t be anyone that travels in the same social set as Professor Hochschild.

This makes it easy to pull a chin, take a sip of Chai Tea and pontificate on the senselessness of war and the need to withdraw from the conflict. It worked in Vietnam. A large number of “intellectuals” found that the enemy in Vietnam was the United States and the only way to achieve “peace” was a total and complete withdrawal from the country and a cutoff of all aid. When the country finally fell and people were imprisoned under brutal conditions and sometimes executed, you heard nothing from these people. They were instrumental in the installation of a repressive government that has brutalized its people for thirty years, but that didn’t matter. Because it was nobody they knew.

The got away with it that time, or at least they have so far. But I’m calling bullshit on them this time. During WWII the author George Orwell said that those who were not anti-fascist were objectively pro-fascist. It didn’t matter whether they approved of Hitler or not, their actions helped him.

It is the same with those in America that oppose our actions in Iraq. If you are against our conduct of the war, you are allied with the Baathist loyalists and al Qaeda terrorists.

That includes people like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and the entire Moveon.org crowd. If you are against us, you are terrorist allies and should be addressed as such.

You may have notice that my posting has dropped to almost nothing recently. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I do, but I am getting burned out. It’s getting so blogging is becoming more of a job than a hobby.

So I’m not going to be posting as much, or not. It will depend on how I feel. I might continue at this lesser pace for a while, or I might be back to normal in a few days. Who knows?

Army Recruits Quickly Abused in Training

FORT KNOX, Ky. — The recruits of Echo Company stumbled off the bus for basic training at Fort Knox to the screams of red-faced drill instructors. That much was expected. But it got worse from there.

Echo Company’s top drill instructor seized a recruit by the back of the neck and threw him to the ground. Other soldiers were poked, grabbed or cursed.

Once inside the barracks, Pvt. Jason Steenberger says, he was struck in the chest by the top D.I. and kicked “like a football.” Andrew Soper, who has since left the Army, says he was slapped and punched in the chest by another drill instructor. Pvt. Adam Roster says he was hit in the back and slammed into a wall locker.

I got off the bus at Ft. Lewis, Washington in the early morning hours of Nov 1, 1967. As I remember, I got off very quickly while being screamed at by a large man is a Smokey The Bear hat.

Welcome to the Army.

We stood on footprints that were painted on the pavement while our shortcomings were discussed, we were assured that with recruits such as we, the Army was in terrible trouble and it just might be the end of the military and the free world as we knew it. Then we were told to put our bags, (we were only allowed to bring one small bag) under a lean-to shelter on the side of the building and moved inside to fill out paperwork and take tests. When we finished we went back outside and found our bags sitting next to their contents, or what remained of them, on the ground.

It was explained to us that we were not allowed to have any firearms, knives, explosives, pornography (such as Playboy), newspapers, magazines, radios and a number of other items. We were allowed to sent things home or put them in the trash. Hardly anyone bothered to send anything home.

We were then taken to the Reception Center by a circuitous route so we wouldn’t know that we were only a block from where we started, allowed to eat and put in a barracks to sleep for a couple of hours until reveille.

We were wakened the next morning by someone beating on a trashcan lid and yelling for us to wake up and be outside in five minutes. We stumbled outside into what was one of the only two types of weather available in Washington in November. Cold and damp, or cold and raining.

For the next couple of days we inprocessed, filling out more forms and getting our GI haircuts. It wasn’t too bad, but none of us really knew what to expect, except that we were sure that it was going to get a lot worse.

The final day we were taken to the clothing issue point and issued our uniforms and gear like helmets and web belts, sleeping bag, etc. We were driven around in semitrailers with benches in them which, of course, were called “cattle trucks.” When we finished getting our issue, we were taken to a new barracks where our Basic Training was to start. That’s when things got interesting.

Here we were. Everyone in my platoon was RA. that meant that we had all enlisted voluntarily and received service numbers beginning with RA for Regular Army. Draftees got service numbers starting with US.

Anyway we had heard that RA’s got treated better than the US’s. Not exactly.

We all piled off the cattle truck and tried to stand in a straight line while being shouted at by various large men with the Smokey The Bear hats. After we got settled down the Drill Sergeant’s introduced themselves.

The way they did it set the entire tone for the next eight weeks.

The head Drill Sergeant (never call them Drill Instructors in the Army) told us, “The AArrmy says we can’t call you Motherf**kers Motherf**kers no more.” This kind of let us know where we stood as far as the rules were concerned. There were rules and then there were rules. The rules were what the Drill Sergeant said they were, he was the final authority and there was no appeal. There was no one between you and him, and there was nobody above him that was going to help you even if you got up the nerve to talk to them. At least that was the impression they were trying to make.

They succeeded.

If Christmas falls in the middle of a training cycle, all the trainees are allowed Christmas leave. A few weeks later when we were getting ready for Christmas break, we were marched back to the company area and let into the Day Room. This was a recreation barracks with a TV, pool table and, luxury of luxuries, a candy machine. (We weren’t allowed to have candy either) We were kept there for several hours with no explanation. We had never been allowed in there before except to clean and we wondered why we were this time. No one explained why until much later.

What we didn’t know was that while we were gone, the platoon leaders, all newly commissioned second lieutenants, had got drunk and went through all the barracks tipping over bunk and wall lockers, stuffing all the mattresses in the stairwell between the first and second floor, and spraying shaving cream all over everything. This was the night before were were supposed to leave for Christmas and we really wanted to get back to the barracks and pack.
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The LTs did not know the difference between creating stress for training and simple harassment. The Company Commander had found out what they had done and had us held in the day room until they had completely restored the barracks to normal. We didn’t find this out until later, so we just thought we were the ones being punished for something.

Those officers disappeared and were never seen again. I heard later that they had been Court-Martialed and since they were OCS graduates and not West Point or ROTC, they were reverted to their enlisted rank and reassigned.

So even in the old days it was not all meaningless harassment and abuse. I can only speak for myself, but I never witnessed or even heard about a Drill Sergeant hitting pushing or physically abusing a recruit in my company. The tenor of the time was much like the company in “Full Metal Jacket.” The Drill Sergeants spoke and acted like the Drill Sergeant in that movie, but there was never the abuse portrayed in the movie. I like the movie because it is a reasonably accurate depiction of Basic Training of the period. But they added some things like having weapons in the barracks and the “blanket party” for the story line.

But the entire time I was there I was sure that they could and would if they wanted to. Which is exactly what they wanted me to think.

DrTony: Friday night in the ER

From Grand Rounds

My Congressman, Peter DeFazio is pretty much as flaming a liberal as there is in Washington. If he told me that the sun was out, I would have to look out the window to be sure.

But he can read the newspapers and is savvy enough to know that the Kelo decision is outrageous. But he also had the foresight to attempt to forestall this kind of thing in the case of the Coast Guard Academy.

DeFAZIO: DeFazio Shocked By Supreme Court Ruling Against Private Property Rights (01310)

WASHINGTON, DC— U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) today responded to a split 5-4 Supreme Court decision which gives unusually broad authority to local governments to seize private property for public benefit and economic benefit.

“I am shocked by the ruling today from what I thought was a relatively conservative Supreme Court. It allows a broad intrusion of local government and violates the constitutional rights of Americans. This could also have alarming implications for local elections as corporate developers will most certainly seek out candidates eager to condemn private property for economic development. I plan to find a remedy in Congress, to address this egregious ruling which includes the possibility of a Constitutional amendment,.”

In November 2003, DeFazio offered an amendment to HR 2443, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2003, to prevent the siting of a Coast Guard museum on property taken by eminent domain. The amendment would have blocked the siting of the museum in New London Connecticut, and protected private homes from being seized by the local government. Despite a Republican-controlled House, the amendment failed 199-221.

“I believe that Congress could have done something two years ago to stave off this ruling. I offered an amendment in November 2003 to protect the private property rights of the citizens in this very case. Despite the conservative leanings of a majority of my colleagues, development interests prevailed and my amendment failed by 22 votes.”

Well, yes, he did. Although the people affected were not in his State or district, he submitted an amendment to forestall the use of eminent domain in that case. But it would have affected only the siting of the Museum and would not have had any affect on Kelo. In fact, earlier in the day, DeFazio specifically said that such takings “should be left to the local judicial process” which is just the sort of taking that Kelo supported. So he was right in this individual case, which is in his favor. He also has gone on record as being in support of legislation, including a Constitutional Amendment, if necessary, to correct this. another point in his favor. At this rate he might even get me voting for him, in a few hundred years.

Ashcroft Gone, Justice Statues Disrobe

WASHINGTON — With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years.

Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice’s ceremonial Great Hall.

The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft.

Just for kicks, I did a google search trying to find photos of Janet Reno in front of the statues. I came up with nothing.

Evidently it is only Republicans that are supposed to be photographed in embarrassing settings.

No bias here.