I hate the fucking internet. This opinion has been brewing inside my dome for years but recent events have finally forced it to the surface. Way back in the old time days of 1995 I first became aware of this internet thing. At the time I was still in the 82nd ABN Div and living in the barracks on Ardennes. No one had a connection to the net. I only became aware of it once I got out. I had driven one of my HS friends to Chico State and he took me to the computer lab and showed me how to use Yahoo to look things up. Now, growing up I had a Commodore 64 which I used to play really crappy games on. There was one computer in my grammar school which we used to draw pictures on with LOGO, in between playing that educational game Oregon Trail. There ends my computer education until the Chico State computer lab. In that lab I, and at a loss of just what to look up, I typed in Robotech ( yes, I am a geek). Hundreds of Robotech related sites popped up, mecha specs, character info, and pictures. I was amazed. Wow! nearly anything I was interested in was on the net for my enjoyment. A whole new world opened for me.

Now the net is  everywhere and you can find anything on it. Including video and pictures from the war. It seems the one modern technology that Haji has mastered is the internet. You can watch video of American Soldiers getting blown up by IEDs, killed by snipers, civilians getting their heads cut off all in the comfort of your home. I try to avoid that kind of stuff, it saddens me and makes me very, very angry. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of looking up sniper videos from Iraq. I had consumed a few to many adult beverages and… Well, lets just say it was a mistake. Since returning from Iraq I have been aware that there was video of my friend Arnold Duplantier II being shot by the sniper motherfucker that killed him. My buddy Doc had seen it and told me that I shouldn’t watch it and for over a year I resisted, until that night. And I found it. I watched my friend die on my laptop followed immediately by the footage of my squad leader being shot in the neck by the very same sniper. In the video is the HUMMVEE that I was on, I was gunning that day. You can watch Doc interacting with SSG Cooper then step away, out of picture, before Cooper is hit.

I vomited that night, it brought back all the feelings of that day, punched me right in the face with all those repressed emotions. I called Doc after and told him that I was glad he was alive.

Then, today, driving home from work I hear that the Iranians have video of them taking the British crew that they now hold hostage. And you can see it on the fucking net. Just like you can watch my friend die, along with other American Soldiers and Marines, just like you can watch Nick Berg, Daniel Pearl, and that poor Korean dude get their heads cut off by those sub-human bastards we are fighting.

Enough.

I don’t want to see this shit anymore. It hurts to much. Now, I can hear you saying,”Well, R2A, if you don’t like it, don’t look it up and don’t watch it. Stupid.” And your right. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have gone looking for it and I sure has hell shouldn’t have watched. But I did. You can’t control the internet and, you know, I really don’t want to control the net. Once you do that we are no better than North Korea or Iran. But it doesn’t stop me from hating it and hating the content that is available on it and from knowing that some sick bastard is getting off on watching people die on it.

I need a drink…

25 Comments
General

I can understand that certain parts of our government want us to leave Iraq. I know the votes and attempts to withdraw us out by next year are on alot of people’s minds but where does it all come to a halt? What I mean is when does it matter most? The message is clear and there is no doubt in my military mind that the majority of the government wants to just turn the cheek and move on. I wonder what they think of if they succeed. Do they think they will save our lives? What happens if the Middle East really goes to shit after we leave? Will they just sit back and let it unfold? I mean if they want us all out then it would take an act of war to send us back.

Or would it?

The politics runs many layers deep in this scenerio. They are so far removed from the scope of things that they truly do not know what is really going in Iraq. What they rely on is schematics, reports, power point presentations and other types of media. I only wonder what it will take. This withdrawal is and will be a let down. I’ve seen the power that we have on those streets and what it really means for us to be there. The long war is exactly that. Most of us don’t like war but we are part of the service and we fight them. We have given so much to keep the enemy at bay. Soon that will change.

If certain people are successful at withdrawing us then I hope they can live with the fact that there will be another war. We will have to go again. However, this soldier will not. They will only cut and run when it gets rough again.

I will leave the service when I’m fixed and I will not be returning. A long vacation is in store for this soldier. One of the biggest reasons for leaving will be the people who will take resources from my fellow brothers in the war. There will be deaths due to lack of re-enforced armor, ammo, weapons, weapon attachments, etc, etc, etc. Soldiers will die and it will be on their watch. Their decisions will take those valuable items away from my brothers and therefore, I cannot support that. I have done my part. I have fought and have nearly died for mine and your rights. I cannot wear the uniform and pretend defend some people who will only want to hurt me or my fellow warrior. Maybe in due time I will change my mind but for now. This is my individual protest against a government who wants to hurt me.

22 Comments
General

I called in to the My Point Radio radio show on March 17th. You can find the segment here and here. We discussed Walter Reed, some political topics and some personal thoughts on the media, war and life. Enjoy!

I recommend you listen to the whole show. I joined in around minute 50.

I will be doing another show in the near future and will post the date/time here.

11 Comments
General

Growing up, my mother and father watched ‘60 Minutes’ every week. The end of each show was a commentary by a grand fatherly looking man named Andy Rooney. He would question things in everyday life, like why there was a toothbrush holder next to the sink, why certain auto makers made one product and another did not. The kinds of things you would wonder about when you were older and wiser. He was funny and insightful. Not anymore.

Now he calles the new Soldiers to join the Army ” the bottom of the barrel”.

In an attempt to get the soldiers they need, recruiters have reduced the standards for getting into the Army or Navy. They have reduced the educational standards, for example, so that they’re getting more soldiers who didn’t go to high school, let alone graduate from high school.

I did graduate from high school but I know more than one excellent Soldier that only had a GED, hell, my 1stSGT in the 82nd, a former Ranger School Instructer, only had an 8th Grade education. He may have know all the words in the Oxford English Language Dictunary abut he was a fine Soldier and great Jump Master. Other Soldiers I have know, both good and bad, have only had a G.E.D. The military is nothing more than a mirco-cosum of the society it protects. You are going to find every type of person serving in uniform. Some of the most intelligent, insightful people I have very met have been in the Army with me, in the Infantry, which is derided in the military it’self as the home of the strong backs and weak minds. Hardly.

Recruiters are granting thousands of what they call “moral waivers”. A “moral waiver” it turns out means they’ll take someone who has committed a crime or even someone who has been in prison. Last year, a total of 8,129 “moral waivers” were given to men who volunteered for the Army.

I doubt recruiters are letting hard core gang members or the Zodiac killer into the military. The truth is there have always been people with checkerd pasts in uniform. And even if a recrute has been arrested for something, drunk driving, shop lifting, not paying a speeding ticket ect. who is to say the he or she does not deserve a chance to improve their lives by serving? I don’t know what these “moral wavers’ cover but I’m sure that they do not cover violent crimes. Relax, Andy, I don’t think are Armed Forces are suddenly overflowing with Ted Bundys and Hell’s Angles.

Here’s where it gets really good.

In August of 1941, I had just finished my junior year in college when I was drafted into the Army. Hundreds of my classmates were drafted at the same time. I hated everything about Army life. I hated the Field Artillery regiment I was assigned to. Most of the guys in it were high school dropouts and the Army wasn’t using the term “moral waiver,” yet but a lot of them would have needed it.They had joined before the draft so they had already been promoted to being corporals or sergeants and they were in charge of the rest of us.In 1942 we were at war with Germany and it wasn’t long before drafted college students and high school graduates dominated our military. It changed the United States Army for the better and in two years made it the best fighting force there has ever been. The Army and Navy were no longer made up of losers.

So, let me get this right? If you have a high school, or better yet, a college degree, then that makes you better than the rest of the Soldiers you serve with? Because you were able to complete assignments and turn in homework on time, in the end simply reguritate what the teacher has told you, you have transformed into a superior being then some lowly pathetic creature with a GED? And if the military does not have these people in it’s ranks then it is nothing but a group of losers. Huh? Kind of like the group of losers you served with, Andy? Like my two uncles that helped defeat Hitler but lacked your high standards in education? I would imagine that the vast majority of the men that served in World War II, and saved the world from evil, did not have a college degree. Damn… What a bunch of losers.

**Edit by AS - AS needed a moral waiver when he entered the Army, go figure!**

32 Comments
General

I’m just confused here and no one is really answering. I will admit that @WR can write very well but there is something strange about the whole situation. There is a @WR on Chucks site. That @WR doesn’t know who this @WR is and the site he has created. The @WR doesn’t know of Chucks (TC Override) site or how all those posts were put up to direct people to his site. There were a few Milblog sites that got hacked and they happened to direct it to his (@WR) site without the author (@WR) knowing about it.

Anyone care to explain?

I mean if this person is legit then fine but if he is lying and leading people by their emotions I’m going to be pissed. I am not sure because this person can write as if he is there but there is this looming question.

@WR - Email me and we can talk.

**Update - All is good in the Milblog land. @WR is not going to eat your children so visit the site. **

13 Comments
General