11 posts tagged “warrior”

This Iraqi boy knows who he can trust for protection against insurgents

May 9, 2008
29 comments

I originally posted this in Sept 2007. I just updated the date

so we could see and appreciate this truth again.

This boy knows who will not kill him

and who will save him

Look at the US Soldier standing upright and

alert while everyone else runs!

Picture2 iraq boy

A picture of the scene after a bombing in

Baghdad yesterday adding to the choas of the

bombing which killed at least 21 people

and injured at least 66, was a shooter,

maybe targeting people in the crowd.

Admid all the Iraqi's who are running from the

gunfire was a U.S. Soldier standing tall perhaps

looking in the direction of the gunshots,

not apparently looking for cover.

Picture1 Iraq boy

3 comments

An Iraqi boy seeks shelter behind the Soldier,

a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The first picture shows it all. The kids face

shows he is scared to death, and he's running

to the safest spot he can find:

This Soldier who stands between him and danger.

It would be difficult to stage a picture

that provides a more potent metaphor for the

role played by the United states

in this wretched world.

This Kid Just Did a Perfect Essay on

"What America Means

To Me"

SURE DIDN'T SEE THIS

ON CNN,

NBC, ABC or CBS...

NOW DID YOU?

Wounded Warrior Program Provides Enduring Support to Families

Dec 13, 2007
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Wounded Warrior Program Provides Enduring Support to Families

By Kristen Noel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2007 – There’s no set limit on how long the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior program will provide one-on-one service to severely wounded soldiers and their families, a U.S. Army official said yesterday.

“We assist and advocate for severely wounded soldiers and their families for as long as they need us, wherever they are located,” Army Col. James Rice, the Wounded Warrior program’s director, said in a conference call with online journalists and “bloggers.”

The Wounded Warrior program is for soldiers who are considered 30 percent or more disabled, as found by the Army disability system, to ensure their families receive all the benefits and support they are entitled to, Rice explained.

The 30-percent threshold is based on the level of disability rating above which soldiers and their families can maintain the Tricare retirement benefit, he said.

Almost 2,400 injured soldiers are enrolled in the program. Each is assigned a soldier-family management specialist – the equivalent of a case manager – “who gives them personalized recovery assistance in navigating government and nonprofit organizations on their behalf to ensure they get the help and support their families need,” Rice said.

“We make the connection as soon as that soldier arrives at a treatment facility, and our soldier-family management specialist – our care manager – establishes a relationship with that solider and family that continues as long as it takes,” he explained.

Support continues even after the soldier leaves the hospital and either continues on active duty or departs the service. “We’re still with them to help them through vocational rehabilitation, through the education process and ensuring that they are fully employed to the greatest extent possible so that they’re integral members of their community,” he said.

The program’s staff of about 100 includes soldier-family management specialists who are dispersed throughout the United States to accommodate soldiers and families in person. “Wherever there is a significant population of wounded warriors, we have a soldier-family management specialist on the ground,” Rice said.

This decentralization of the Wounded Warrior program is its most significant change in recent years, according to Rice.

The program has existed since 2004, initially under the name “Disabled Soldiers Support System,” and historically only provided support from its headquarters in Alexandria, Va., Rice explained.

He added that the Wounded Warrior program is part of a larger Army initiative focused on providing more comprehensive medical services to soldiers and their families.

“We are in the forefront of an important transformation that is building the health care model for the future for the military’s wounded warriors,” he said.

Related Sites:
Defense Department Bloggers Roundtable

Green Berets Exonerated (Reported on Bill O'Reilly 10-1-07)

Oct 1, 2007
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DtDMarSoc4

Does anyone have full details?

If so please share with all of us.

Two US Soldiers tortured and killed in the most inhumane abuse of human beings...

Oct 1, 2007
4 comments

This article is located at: http://euphoricreality.com/journal/2006/06/22/2506/

Who Will Stand?

June 22nd, 2006 · 16 Comments

We have no sense of outrage anymore.

I’ve written about this topic before, but let’s face it: Some Americans obviously aren’t getting the message. Woody explains it very clearly.

Two US Soldiers were captured in Iraq. They were tortured and killed in the most inhumane abuse of human beings that I can recall in recent history. These men were beaten, their arms contorted, their testicles cut off, their penises cut off and stuffed in their mouths, their eyes gouged out, their hearts cut out and were beheaded. If reading that shocks or disgust you let me take this opportunity to say that I’m glad to offend.

America needs to get pissed off. America needs to know that it’s media would rather lull it back to sleep than wake it up with the truth. America needs to tell it’s leaders to get serious about the war on terror before it’s too late. America needs to rise up and wipe Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth. America needs to tell anyone who would gripe and complain as we do this to fuck off. America needs to tell anyone who would obstruct us in doing this that they are next. This is what needs to happen if we are to live in peace and freedom in the twenty first century.

Damn right I’m outraged. Why aren’t you?

Sneakeasy agrees:

There is a window of opportunity here to educate ( There apparently WERE WMD’S in Iraq ) the American public about the nature of this fight we are in, the threat Militant Islam poses to us all, and the need to go all out in that battle until the final victory is won.

Get MAD America!

Appeasement, Politiical Correctness, and all that other Make Nice with the ( Radical ) Muslims, Anti-American, Anti-Western Civilization, crap, needs to be called the Bullshit that it is.

Tell the rest of the world to GO FUCK ITSELF!

He’s right, you know. When we have animals torturing our boys overseas, the time is long gone for caring whether France likes us or thinks we’re meanies. Who cares if some pussified EUroweenie country screams that “Americans are arrogant”?

This is not a damn popularity contest. This isn’t a tea party. This is about our country, our defense, our way of life, and our God-given right to be free and safe. Hell, at this point it’s about our right to be alive. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Sneakeasy has a good point. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to educate our countrymen, to call for the taking up of arms and defending what is ours. All through our history, we have had to stand and fight for what we believe in. Why are we not doing it now? Why are we so complacent? Why is the brutal torturing of two American servicemen no more than another news item, buried beneath the latest follies of Angelina Jolie? Why are we not screaming angry?

Stand up, America! Put your latte down and remember who you are. Remember where you came from, and the men whose courage paved your way. Remember the blood that bought you this dream and the continuing sacrifices that sustain your freedom here. Remember the truths that we hold to as Americans, the knowledge that without freedom, life is nothing. Remember the words of Jefferson, who said that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with blood: the blood of tyrants and patriots. We are those patriots. We are the ones who hold our future and our children’s future. We are the only ones who can stand up against this evil and vanquish it from the world.

Islam is a cancer; a diabolical, murderous, depraved ideology that will bear any burden, traverse any land, and bear any burden only for the express purpose of seeing you dead. Will you lay down and let it roll over you? Will you sit idly by and watch for fear of offending someone? I’ll be honest with you: I don’t give a damn about any other country above my own. America FIRST.

The time is long past for spectating. We MUST stand and defend our nation, or it. will. fall. We MUST rise up and do as our forefathers did. We MUST. If we as a nation do not stand in the face of this evil, then we are cowards and deserve the horrifying fate that will absolutely and certainly befall us.

Each of us must make our own choice. As for me, I refuse to lay down. I refuse to fall victim to a bunch of primitive animals who offer nothing to the earth but bloodshed and depravity. If I can, I will wear a uniform again. If I can’t, then I will find some other way to serve. But no matter what happens, I will stand - as a free citizen - as an American.

Who will stand with me?

More Good News Coming Out of Iraq

Oct 1, 2007
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This article at website: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47641

Airstrike Kills 20-Plus Terrorists; Iraqis Nab 34 Suspects

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2007 – A coalition airstrike killed more than 20 militants, and Iraqi security forces accompanied by coalition advisors captured 34 suspected terrorists during operations across Iraq Sept. 29, officials reported.

-- A coalition aircraft fired on and killed more than 20 al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents during a battle northwest of Baghdad. The aircraft’s crew defended themselves after insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the aircraft. Four enemy vehicles were destroyed during the firefight.

-- Iraqi special operations troops detained a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq leader and two alleged cell members in Yusafiyah.

-- Two more suspects were detained in the Baghdad area. One of the criminals, who is believed to be a member of an explosively formed penetrator cell, is suspected of conducting roadside bomb attacks.

-- Iraqi soldiers detained a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader and 10 other suspects in the Samarra area. The senior leader is believed to be responsible for facilitating the movement of foreign terrorists between Iraq and terrorist training camps in Syria. He also is suspected of supporting criminal activity in the Tash and Dahwa regions of Ramadi.

-- Iraqi forces accompanied by coalition advisors detained 18 suspected terrorists linked to al Qaeda in Iraq during a series of raids in the Mandali area of Diyala province. The raids targeted a regional al Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for kidnappings and murders of Iraqis in the Mandali area, improvised-explosive-device attacks and weapons smuggling on the Iranian border. Two of the detainees are suspected high-level al Qaeda in Iraq leaders. In addition, two weapons caches, three vehicles and four motorcycles were destroyed.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq

Afghan and Coalition Forces Disrupting Militants Plans

Sep 30, 2007
1 comment

To go to this site: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47631

Afghanistan Operations Disrupt Extremist Plans

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces detained two suspected militants in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, and Afghan National Police detained an improvised explosive device maker in Nangarhar province today.

In the first operation, the combined force working from intelligence approached compounds in the Yahya Khail district, where the suspected militants were believed to be hiding.

“We will continue to aggressively pursue extremist forces, denying them sanctuary and time to coordinate their efforts,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. “Stopping them is vital to the long-term security and stability of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”

The detained militants will be questioned as to their involvement in extremist activities.

The Khogyani Afghan National Police, with coalition advisors, detained an IED cell member named Nurullah and one other in an operation designed to disrupt insurgent IED activities in the Nangarhar province.

The police arrested Nurullah near Omarkheyl in the Khogyani district. The terrorist is known to be extensively involved in the making and placing of insurgent IEDs in Nangarhar province. He is suspected of directing and participating in the IED attack that killed three coalition servicemembers and an interpreter and wounded another coalition servicemember near Bar Kalakney on Aug. 12.

The police discovered a substantial amount of IED-making material and a 50-pound bag of opium. Afghan police destroyed the IED material and opium on site.

No shots were fired, and no police, coalition or non-combatants were injured or killed during the operation, officials said.

(Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 82 news releases.)

Related Sites:
Combined Joint Task Force 82

Welcome to the Hotel of Camp Fallujah

Sep 30, 2007
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Hotel Camp Fallujah by Iraqi Translator USMC

Another Hollywood Anti-American Movie - Fiction that will get more troops killed

Sep 30, 2007
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By Jules Crittenden

Despite Hollywood’s best efforts, it just can’t get war right. Filmdom’s fiery-eyed zealots have never quite managed to fake the 1,000-yard stare.

The point has been underscored this week by “The War,” a documentary that for all its shortcomings has performed a great service, bringing to light previously unseen combat footage. That footage demonstrates what combat veterans and combat photographers know, but many filmmakers and ordinary Americans, innocent of that variety of carnal knowledge, do not appear to fully grasp. The most extraordinary things can be quite ordinary, the most unbelievable events playing out in matter-of-fact fashion. Without drama. Without irony. War, the stuff of the world’s greatest drama, is in fact very hard to film, as any combat cameraman can tell you. To do it effectively is to put yourself in a position where you very likely will be killed. To capture any of the drama you expect war to have, you have to capture the faces. And if you are successful, what you see then is often a void. An evocative, soul-chilling nothingness.

Hollywood’s longstanding failure to capture the reality of war is in part anchored in Hollywood’s tiresome, anti-American, multicultural agenda, but goes beyond that.

Hollywood came closest when it dispensed with moral lessons and just tried to be faithful to reality with docudrama “Band of Brothers,” safe territory deep in the heart of the Good War. A brief faithfulness to recorded reality that allowed Hollywood to explore the practical, ground-level execution and experience of war. Another rare departure from Hollywood’s typical moralism was “We Were Soldiers,” on the horrific battles of the Ia Drang in 1965, that attempts to understand the fighting spirit of professional soldiers. (Actual survivors of near massacres there consider themselves victors, tragically, deeply wounded though they were by their experience. They held their ground, giving better than they got. Despite their pain, the stuff of Hollywood epics, they understand the fundamentals of the execution of war.)

Hollywood’s moralistic monkey has climbed back up on its shoulder with “Flags of Our Fathers,” an attempt to tell the story of Iwo Jima without telling the story of Iwo Jima, paradoxically attempting to underscore the heroism of Iwo by pointing out how it was used for propaganda purposes, in effect diminishing the heroism and sacrifice of the Marines at Iwo by reducing it to a propaganda exercise. That was followed quickly by an odd exercise in political correctness, “Letters from Iwo Jima,” which through the eyes of that rarest of Japanese soldiers on Iwo … one that wanted to live … spins a tale of meaningless, futile sacrifice in war that, with its ennobling of the Japanese commander, paradoxically seeks meaning and exalts sacrifice in the futile effort to make futile sacrifice meaningful.

Now, Hollywood swan dives into the moralism tank with “In the Valley of Elah,” a movie that reportedly condemns the Iraq war by cherrypicking and embellishing a tragic tale without addressing any of the war’s fundamental issues, to convey the age-old message, “war is bad,” with its modern addendum, “and never worth it.” Disclosure: I haven’t seen this movie, and don’t intend to spend my money on it. The rave reviews told me all I needed to know. Forget self-defense, national security and the complexities of geopolitics in a dangerous world wherein dwell people that wish us ill. It is praised as a “Coming Home” for our time: War makes you crazy and kills people. These are the messages they choose to send in wartime, when our nation has soldiers in the field. Good luck. It’ll make you crazy. It’s never worth it. Your fanatical, suicidal enemy is human, too.

Meanwhile, the simple values, determination and sacrifice of soldiers who give their lives selflessly in defense of their nation … as well as the way in which the bloodlust that is a fundamental human trait can be channeled for noble purposes … gets bizarre, distorted comic book treatment in “300.”

Hollywood is in the fiction business, and has a bad irony addiction. Hollywood is, of course, the original drama queen. Hollywood remains on a quixotic crusade to belabor the obvious: war is bad, and any government that fails to use its words to resolve problems, evil. Hollywood fails to understand that war remains a necessary, ugly business and will be for the foreseeable future.

It may be that it is impossible for zealots with a drama jones to grasp the banality of extreme events, when they require them to be fraught with meaning, particularly when the filmmakers are today, almost without exception, uninitiated. It may also be impossible for actors to feign the subtle expression of faces of men in combat, intent on their business, or in the extreme, utterly expressionless, evocative of the void. You can’t fake those eyes.

As a technical matter, the combat footage of “The War” shows the emptiness of Hollywood’s best efforts, and directors should be forgiven if they give up on reality and honestly devote themselves to cartoons. It’s art, and where they succeed is when they fool people into thinking they have actually represented a reality. The reality can only ever be suggested, and fiction should never be mistaken for anything but a funhouse reflection. But filmmakers will try, doggedly and maybe sometimes admirably.

But here’s some advice to Hollywood. I know It’s too much to ask that you simply honor the sacrifices and the accomplishments without throwing in disparaging moral lessons, and anything that portrays what is happening now in a favorable light is out of the question. So perhaps you can attempt to tell the real stories of Iraq, World War II and Thermopylae, Vietnam and Korea honestly. You might look to the soldiers’ blogs and memoirs already emerging for your guide. Books by combat veterans and embeds, Nate Fick’s “One Bullet Away,” David Danelo’s “Blood Stripes,” and David Zucchhino’s “Thunder Run” can give you an unvarnished picture. “Generation Kill” is already taken, and we’ll see how they do. Blogs like Acute Politics, BadgersForward, Desert Flier and ADayinIraq will tell you what you need to know. You’ll find stories that will spare you the contrived “Private Ryan” or “Elah” plot devices.

Forget the drama and the labored, moral-shoving plot lines that actually have nothing to do with combat and everything to do with your politics. Focus on depicting something that approaches the reality, and its utter disregard for your moralism.

Read more from Jules Crittenden at Forward Movement

United States Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard

Sep 28, 2007
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace hugs U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinard at the Pentagon Sept. 27, 2007, following his final press conference as chairman. Pace, who will be retiring Sept. 30, 2007, after more than 40 years of service, will be turning over his position as chairman to U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen Oct. 1, 2007. Kinard, who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in Iraq, now works at the Pentagon. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

Photo by: STAFF SGT D. MYLES CULLEN, OCJCS
Record ID No. (VIRIN): 070927-F-0193C-006