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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / What Floats? Very Small Rocks! Cider! Baked Gravy!

What Floats? Very Small Rocks! Cider! Baked Gravy!

by John Cole|  June 8, 20148:47 pm| 174 Comments

This post is in: Military

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Wingnutsandtheirvillains

Poor guy has no clue the Graeme Frost/Scott Beauchamp/Sherrod treatment he is about to get:

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told medical officials that his captors locked him in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape, and while military doctors say he now is physically able to travel he is not yet emotionally ready for the pressures of reuniting with his family, according to American officials who have been briefed on his condition.

Sergeant Bergdahl, who was released last Saturday to American commandos in Afghanistan in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, remains in a military hospital in Germany without access to news media — and thus is oblivious to the raging criticism from some in Congress about the prisoner swap and even from members of his former platoon who say he deserted them. He has received a letter from his sister but has not yet responded, and objects when hospital staff address him as sergeant instead of private first class, his rank when he was captured nearly five years ago after walking off a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan, the official said.

***

Officials would not disclose if Sergeant Bergdahl has made any special requests. One thing, however, that does rub him wrong is when hospital staff call him “sergeant,” the result of two automatic promotions while a captive.

“He says, ‘Don’t call me that,’ ” said one American official. “ ‘I didn’t go before the boards. I didn’t earn it.’ ”

But his dad looks like the Taliban. Then there is this:

The platoon was, an American military official would assert years later, “raggedy.”

On their tiny, remote base, in a restive sector of eastern Afghanistan at an increasingly violent time of the war, they were known to wear bandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Their crude observation post was inadequately secured, a military review later found. Their first platoon leader, and then their first platoon sergeant, were replaced relatively early in the deployment because of problems.

Some of the stuff in the last article reads like bullshit written by someone who never spent a day in the military. I understand that Patton had everyone wear neckties and that shit, but cut-off t-shirts in the middle of fucking nowhere is not a sign of a raggedy unit. I spent four days in the middle of the fucking desert on a broke down tank with my loader and gunner after the CO hopped off and jumped on another tank. They threw us a shitload of water and cases of MRE’s and told us the 88 will get you in a couple days. We did nothing but manually rotate the turret and reposition the tarp so we could have some shade, play cards, listen to Sgt. Charles sing (we had no batteries left), and make up lies about past sexual conquests. And hell yeah I spent a little time in my knickers and not in appropriate attire getting some sun. That’s not bad soldiers, that’s people in a position where they clearly are fucked.

There were clearly more troubling issues, such as a clear lack of NCO control, a completely incoherent mission, lax security, they were undermanned, and no one knew why the fuck they were there. It reads like a shit-show fail parade from the top down. They had no business being there, had no idea why they were there or what they were supposed to do, and neither did the fucking people who put them there.

And this fucking motormouth:

Mr. Sutton said he had struggled to square the popular portrayal of Sergeant Bergdahl as brooding and disenchanted with the soldier he knew. “He wanted to take the fight to the enemy and do the mission of the infantry,” he said, adding, “He was a good soldier, and whenever he was told to do something, he would do it.”

Mr. Cornelison made it his job to get to know the men he might someday have to save. He said Sergeant Bergdahl was cagey, never telling anyone his full personal story, sharing a snippet with one soldier, another snippet with someone else.

“He got excited during certain parts of fighting, but for the vast majority of the time, he was disillusioned when we had to be boots-on-the-ground infantrymen,” Mr. Cornelison said. However, he said, Sergeant Bergdahl showed more interest in humanitarian activities, like passing out food or medical supplies to Afghan villagers or helping Afghan soldiers repair their buildings, and seemed disappointed that the Army was not more like “a kind of Peace Corps.”

Sorry, but that medic Cornelison doing the Fox News circuit just strikes me as the biggest blue falcon ever.

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174Comments

  1. 1.

    gian

    June 8, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    couple of good guys with guns murdered by gun in vegas today, them and some poor person shopping at wal mart.

    the bad guys shot themselves after. maybe the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is suicide. like in Santa Barbara, columbine, sandy hook, or running out of ammo…. or a gun jam.

    sorry for the hijack…

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-cops-three-others-killed-las-vegas-shooting-spree-n125766

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 8:53 pm

    a completely incoherent mission,

    Well, yeah, this is always just GREAT for morale and cohesion. It’s not like the Army hasn’t experienced this before, amiright? You bet your ass I am.

    There MIGHT be some inkling of what the mission is at the top, where the brass is heavy, but if they can’t articulate it down to grunt level, then the intelligent soldiers will start to question things…particularly if the NCO chain isn’t very strong. Having to replace both the platoon leader and the platoon sergeant is not a very good sign….particularly the platoon sergeant. If you have a decent PSGT, the platoon leader is more or less irrelevant. A decent platoon leader and a weak platoon sergeant is not as good. Both is just disaster.

  3. 3.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 8:53 pm

    @gian: One of the killers was female.

  4. 4.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 8:54 pm

    Fox News is apparently gearing up to demand the death penalty for Bergdahl:

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/08/fox-host-chris-wallace-asks-if-death-penalty-for-sgt-bowe-bergdahl-should-be-on-the-table/

    Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday wondered if former prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl deserved to be executed for allegedly leaving his outpost in 2009.

    “From what you know so far, is Bergdahl guilty of leaving his base without permission, being absent from his post?” Wallace asked former U.S. Attorney General Michael Michael Mukasey during an interview on Fox News Sunday. “Is he guilty of being a deserter, is he guilty of being a defector? And after five years of captivity — some people initially said, well, that’s enough — should he face the appropriate punishment if he is found guilty?”

    Mukasey pointed out that Bergdahl had not been found guilty yet, and that a decision about punishment should come after that.

    “Desertion is a very serious offense,” the former judge noted. “It carries a penalty — if it’s done in wartime — that includes possibly the death penalty. At the end of World War II, we executed a U.S. soldier, in January of 1945 for desertion. So, it’s a very serious offense.”

    “So, you believe the death penalty should at least be on the table for Bergdahl?” Wallace pressed.

    And Bergdahl’s parents have been getting death threats:

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/08/bowe-bergdahl-parents-death-threats

    US authorities are investigating death threats sent to the parents of Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier released by the Taliban last week after five years in captivity.

    The FBI is examining four threatening emails sent to Bob Bergdahl and his wife Jani.

    One of the emailed threats was sent to Bergdahl’s father on the day a rally in their hometown of Hailey, Idaho, celebrating his release was cancelled abruptly, amid controversy over the circumstances of his handover to US commandos in Afghanistan on 31 May.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    BTW, for you civilian types, an 88 is an armored recovery vehicle, what you need to get a broke dick tank back to the motor hole for repairs.

  6. 6.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: What makes me happy is that the other 7,000 GI’s killed in these cluster-fucks were on really coherent missions.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    @Morzer: I have a better idea. Let’s go after a well known deserter who is living in Texas right now.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @raven: Well, certainly! “Take the oil ministry for the Dark Lord’s awl bidness cronies”. Now that’s a coherent mission.

  9. 9.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: fukin a

  10. 10.

    gian

    June 8, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @raven:

    I presume the “guy” is generic. The quote is from the NRA gun sellers association after sandy hook. should I change the quote for your sensibilities? Or are you saying I didn’t RTFA I linked?

    “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/remarks-from-the-nra-press-conference-on-sandy-hook-school-shooting-delivered-on-dec-21-2012-transcript/2012/12/21/bd1841fe-4b88-11e2-a6a6-aabac85e8036_story.html

  11. 11.

    Chris T.

    June 8, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    Who is the guy on the right of the photo-pair?

    Edit: aha, one of the Duck Dynasty guys. (Die-nasty?)

    Turns out homophobic rants and believing blacks were happy during America’s institutionalized racism era are not the only offensive things “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson has said.

  12. 12.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    @gian: Fuck my sensibilities. A lot of noise has been made here about small dick this and small dick that in regard to gun idiots and I thought it was interesting that this one involved a woman.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    @gian: In Seattle the other day, a good guy without a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun.

    So much for THAT theory.

  14. 14.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    @Chris T.: Duck dude.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 8, 2014 at 9:03 pm

    @Chris T.: One of those “Duck Dynasty” dickweeds.

  16. 16.

    gbear

    June 8, 2014 at 9:03 pm

    @Morzer: “So, you believe the death penalty should at least be on the table for Bergdahl?” Wallace pressed drooled.

    What a fucking asshole.

  17. 17.

    gian

    June 8, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    but will anyone point out the rather obvious lack of facts that wayne used to lubricate his lie? failure to fully clean the gun or have a big enough magazine gives people a chance to run/attack the “bad guy with a gun” and small magazines and dirty parts give wayne a sad,

  18. 18.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    June 8, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    @Chris T.: You mean the one who actually kinda sort looks like he could be hangin with the Taliban? That’s one of the duck call dynastics or what ever the fuck those dudes call their teevee show.

    @raven: I found it indeed interesting; so few spree shooters are women. It’s a detail worth noting.

  19. 19.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    Not too many female serial killers either.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    June 8, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Exactly.

    John
    Nice post about a shitty subject.

    I really have little to say on this subject, other than this is our bed, like it or not. Most of this crap attitude comes from the last administration’s bullshit and wars. Many warned that this would be the result and that it would take years to get past it. I’m not sure we ever will, at least in my lifetime. My only hope is that I am wrong, very very wrong. My fear is that it is/will get worse than anyone predicted.

  21. 21.

    JPL

    June 8, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    @raven: Let’s not judge woman who like big guns and guys with small dicks.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    @Morzer: Yeah, and I’m gearing up to demanding the death penalty for the people sick bastards who are pushing the death penalty for Bergdahl.

    Rat fuckers, all of them. There’s a good chance that we could have been seeing another beheading video, but instead the president, on recommendations from the military, got Bergdahl out. I am so thankful Barack Obama is our president.

  23. 23.

    Marc

    June 8, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    the biggest blue falcon ever

    Just had to google this phrase. Huh.

    I never realized that Dyno-Mutt cartoon worked on so many levels.

  24. 24.

    James E. Powell

    June 8, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    [He} seemed disappointed that the Army was not more like “a kind of Peace Corps.”

    Well, I don’t find this at all surprising since Bergdahl enlisted in 2008. For those who may have forgotten, for several years the corporate press/media coverage made it seem as if the main reason the US invaded and occupied Afghanistan was so that soldiers could paint schools and deliver badly needed supplies.

  25. 25.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    @Marc: Sumthin them FNG’s say!

  26. 26.

    JPL

    June 8, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    @James E. Powell: Laura Bush promoted education and the right to vote for females. You are correct that they painted it as a humanitarian mission.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    @gbear: These people are ghouls. There’s something very wrong with them.

  28. 28.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Of course, if Bergdahl had been beheaded, the right wing would be screaming about impeaching Obama for betraying an American hero.

  29. 29.

    burnspbesq

    June 8, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    Not wanting to be addressed as SGT because he feels like he didn’t earn the promotions? That sounds to me like a guy who has his shit fairly well together.

  30. 30.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    These are people without any belief in anything except their pet hate of the day.

  31. 31.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    @gbear: Ya’ll didn’t really think the people that dreamed this shit up were not going to spend the rest of their lives trying to justify what they did. Every-fucking-body knew what a cluster fuck the Nam was but it took no time for those right wing assholes to climb out from under their rocks when Kerry ran.

  32. 32.

    Cacti

    June 8, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @Morzer:

    And why shouldn’t we demand the death penalty for someone who hasn’t been charged with anything?

    Why do you hate America?

  33. 33.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    @burnspbesq: Fuck man he’s been in a goddamn cage for 5 years. People call me sir now and I tell them “don’t call me that, I’m an enlisted man”. The went in an E-4 and in his head he’s still an E-4.

  34. 34.

    Southern Beale

    June 8, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    Two things:

    I read in the NYT today that Bergdahl was promoted from private to sergeant while in captivity. I just wondered if that’s typical — for the military to promote someone who’s been captured.

    Second thing, I don’t understand why the dad’s beard is a big deal to the RWNJs. I mean, aside for it being a stupid thing to be focused on anyway, but regardless, I’d read that the dad vowed after his son was captured to not shave his beard until Bowe was home. So regardless of your feeling about facial hair, this guy grew his beard for a reason. Seems really dumb to focus on something so easily debunked in such a sympathetic way.

    I hope the RWNJs are hung out to dry on this one. What fucking assholes.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    @Morzer: Which explains, in part, the impotent rage I feel at this whole situation. There is an ugliness in our country that is getting more and more overt and is getting harder and harder to deny.

    I can’t think of one concrete thing I can do about it in the short term. I hope the ugliness of this country flames out, because it’s getting harder and harder to face every day.

  36. 36.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @Southern Beale: Yes, if he was listed as missing he would get normal promotions. We’ve discussed this quite a bit her over the past few days.
    As far as the beard, these motherfuckers are talking to people who already believe the shit before they even say it.

  37. 37.

    sharl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    OT (though kinda sorta not):

    Most folks by now have seen Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to his parents that he wrote shortly after being liberated from a German POW camp. I ran across it again today (via Twitter), and even after having read it several times, it still makes an impression.

    It brought back a recollection of something he wrote later, in Slaughterhouse Five:

    “You were just babies then!”, she said.
    “What?” I said.
    “You were just babies in the war – like the ones upstairs!”
    I nodded that this was true. We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood.
    “But you’re not going to write it that way, are you.” This wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.
    “I-I don’t know”, I said.
    “Well, I know,” she said. “You’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs.”

    So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn’t want her babies or anybody else’s babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.

    So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: “Mary,” I said, “I don’t think this book of mine will ever be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won’t be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.
    “I tell you what,” I said, “I’ll call it ‘The Children’s Crusade.'”
    She was my friend after that.”

    Best wishes to Bowe Bergdahl for as long and as healthy a life as can be had.

  38. 38.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    I don’t understand why the dad’s beard is a big deal to the RWNJs

    Because it lets them link Bob Bergdahl to Muslims, because only Muslims have big, scary beards. Furthermore, as all RWNJs know, all Muslims hate America and are terrorists by proxy if not in person.

    But mostly it’s another way of calling Obama an anti-American Muslim jihadi who is betraying America to his own kind.

  39. 39.

    Southern Beale

    June 8, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    @raven:

    OK thanks, I haven’t been over here this week so I didn’t know that.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    June 8, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    So, basically when you guys are stuck in some hole with nothing to do but keep your head down, you invent a cryptic language that nobody else can comprehend?

    Yeah, okay. I’d probably do the same.

  41. 41.

    Mr. Twister

    June 8, 2014 at 9:21 pm

    @WaterGirl: Aided and abetted by the so-called Liberal media.

  42. 42.

    Southern Beale

    June 8, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    @Morzer:

    You know who else has big scary beards right now? Hockey players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

    Jesus but these people are fucking retarded.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:23 pm

    @raven: I had to walk out of the vietnam war moving where the prisoners were in cages; I couldn’t even watch that. So when I think about what Bergdahl went through and how people are treating him, it makes me unbelievably angry and sad. That this guy survived, even sort of in one piece, is a testament to him and to the family who raised him. And they are all being treated like shit, by these disgusting, hateful creatures.

  44. 44.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:23 pm

    @sharl: Here’s a nice piece from out favorite Green Beret, Pat Lang

    In the world of the realists, it is important to have large numbers of hard, armed, people who will devote themselve to watching over the weak while they sleep lest the wolves come to feast. In pursuit of the goal of having such guardians. it has been necessary to create bodies of soldiers who will accept the task and will give themselves up for the task. Such people are often not ideal candidates for membership in Parent Teacher’s Associations or the League of Women Voters. Women they may be, but if so, not likely to fit in well in today’s effete American society.

    In the case of Bergdahl fils, the president/commander in chief referred to him several time at Brussels as “someone’s kid,” and as a “child.”

    Well, I am here to tell you Mr. President that if you keep that up, you will have no hard people to watch over weak people. pl

  45. 45.

    gogol's wife

    June 8, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    I started to read the NYTimes article John quotes, and I got disgusted and quit. I was thinking, these two guys have never gone near any military service — I just hated the snarky superior tone of it, even though it seems to be trying to get the facts about the story, which the Times has been pretty good on all week.

  46. 46.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    I surely do hope no-one tells those folks about the beards of Robert E Lee and James Longstreet.

    Although, come to think of it, they were kinda anti-American as I recall….

  47. 47.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    @WaterGirl: You mean movie I think? Must have been “The Deer Hunter” which I personally think was the worst Vietnam movie outside of the “Siege of Firbase Gloria” but that’s just me.

    Also, remember that they are comparing him to Kerry, and by extension any of us that opposed the war, as traitors who “turned their back on their fellow soldiers”. Shit is personal for me.

  48. 48.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    @raven:

    The more Pat Lang talks about how hard men are needed to keep the world safe, the more I conclude that his latest shipment of magic blue pills must have been held up by bandits near Laredo.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    @Southern Beale: I completely understand why the dad hasn’t shaved his beard. Bergdahl not be in the war zone anymore, but he certainly isn’t home to his family.

  50. 50.

    gussie

    June 8, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    @raven: Not being someone’s child makes me hard.

  51. 51.

    MikeBoyScout

    June 8, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    Remember when Republican legislators, Fox news & other wingnut pundits got upset with terrorist death threats against Sgt. Bergdahl’s family?

    Me neither.

  52. 52.

    feebog

    June 8, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    I read in the NYT today that Bergdahl was promoted from private to sergeant while in captivity. I just wondered if that’s typical — for the military to promote someone who’s been captured.

    Earlier reports indicated this was SOP for a POW. As a Viet Nam era Vet I am so angry with this I could just spit. And I reserve a special kind of anger towards John McCain, that lying Son of a Bitch who, of all people should know better.

  53. 53.

    some guy

    June 8, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    the best response to these rightwing scumbags demonizing Bergdahl is to say “please proceed” as most normal people find their rants repellant. petard, meet hoist.

    “why do you hate the troops?” is the B-side

  54. 54.

    Southern Beale

    June 8, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Well of course. It’s like criticizing the guy for being too skinny when he’s been on a hunger protest to bring his kid home.

    Conservatives are really horrible people.

  55. 55.

    sharl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:32 pm

    @raven: Good lawd. He was a voice of sanity for me in the months leading up to our Our Great & Glorious Iraq Misadventure, and when he disappeared as a commenter from Jim Lehrer’s Newshour, I knew that both our government and our corporate media had made their decision.

    Damn shame he’s gone around the bend. Probably sitting in a bar with once rational veteran Jason Van Steenwyck complaining about gun-grabbing libtards.

  56. 56.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    @some guy: There was a famous moment when we were in DC for Operation Dewey Canyon III where a group of VVAW guys ran into some DAR ladies standing in a line. One of the ladies said “I don’t think what you are doing is good for the troops”. The reply “Lady, we are the troops”!

  57. 57.

    Suffern ACE

    June 8, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    @gbear: what table? He hasn’t been charged with anything yet.

    Anyway, it was the same with Manning and Snowden-the fact that they aren’t dead yet proves that there’s a weakling in the office of the president.

  58. 58.

    Anya

    June 8, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    Sorry for my ignorance but what’s a blue falcon?

  59. 59.

    some guy

    June 8, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @raven:

    the pushback from veterans who actually served should be sift and brutal. Chris Wallace calling for his execution may be the tipping point. If only the Left had a PR firm to get their stories out, like Chris Grenell’s shop.

    “Should I too be executed for ignoring a stupid command from my platoon sergeant?” that story will eventually come out.

  60. 60.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @sharl: Oh you should read his gun shit. I used to communicate with him via email. After Newtown I wrote and said “As a gun enthusiast do you think there is any way we could come together on this problem”. He went ape shit on me for calling him that. I’ve tried to get him off the blogroll because I think it implies some kind of endorsement but no one cares.

  61. 61.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    @Anya: buddy fucker

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    June 8, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    @Morzer:
    Personally I think he must drink. A lot. The rantings that raven posts every once in a while sound to me like a drunk idiot with a typewriter who has lost the key to the liquor cabinet. The type who believes that with just one more drink he might just become tough enough to face the world. Then the weekly supermarket delivery truck comes with his wonder bread, individual cheese slices, miracle whip and 4 qts of Early Times and the typewriter becomes something to get in the way of his glass.

  63. 63.

    scav

    June 8, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    @raven: So, what does he suggest we do with these hard men that are seemingly incapable of learning to co-exist in larger society? At the end of their term do we incarcerate them or put em down? They apparently don’t have parents to whom it might make a difference either way.

  64. 64.

    Anya

    June 8, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    @raven: P*nis envy?

  65. 65.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    @scav: Not call them children or they will quit.

  66. 66.

    ruemara

    June 8, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    blue falcon? smarten me up, people.

  67. 67.

    Suffern ACE

    June 8, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    @Anya: I don’t know. I always liked the blue falcon as a kid. I even had the comic books.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    @raven: I couldn’t think of the name, but yes, it was The Deer Hunter. Those people must truly hate themselves, to be able to hate other people so much.

    Reading between the lines, it seems like Bowe Bergdahl must be able to speak english again, so he appears to be doing better than he was. I hope to god that finding out that all this hatred exists (and is currently directed toward him) isn’t the thing that finally breaks Bowe.

  69. 69.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    @Anya: Time will tell. The report I read said she walked up behind a cop at the drink machine, shot him in the head and then shot him a few more times when he went down.

  70. 70.

    TerryC

    June 8, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @some guy: I pushed back, and got an entire side of my family hating me this weekend. I mean REALLY hating. Their grandson is in the Army (24) and told me that he, his buddies, and all his base, thought we should not have rescued Bergdahl. I told him that I, as a Vietnam vet, hold in contempt anyone who would leave a POW behind; and to tell his buddies on base. Then I quoted The Soldier’s Creed: “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” Turns out I “attacked” their grandchild.

  71. 71.

    scav

    June 8, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @raven: All i can see is these non-child hard guys taking tough about going after the “bad guys” as though they were in their footed jammies on a sleepover.

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    June 8, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @raven:
    Good grief. We should get a poll of whether the members of the famed Seal Team Six want to disavow their parents.

  73. 73.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    As some White House aides compared attacks on Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s service to the “swift boating” that Secretary of State John Kerry endured in 2004, Rep. Duncan Hunter has started to draw his own comparisons of the two.
    “As John Kerry threw his medals over the White House fence and turned his back on all of his Vietnam brothers and sisters, that’s what Bergdahl did,” Hunter, a California Republican, said in an interview Wednesday with Fox News’ “The Kelly File.” “Bergdahl walked away from his men, and he left them in a bad spot.”

  74. 74.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    @TerryC: Yup.

  75. 75.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    @TerryC:

    Did this talk of attacking their Precious come with a side order of gratuitous patriotism and much talk of their personal right to free speech?

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    June 8, 2014 at 9:45 pm

    @ruemara:
    Means buddy fucker.

    In the military, someone who refuses to play with the team and by team rules. In the military the rules are well known to everyone. Not necessarily well liked by everyone.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    @ruemara: I didn’t know, either.

    The Google said: “buddy fucker,” i.e., one who does not help a fellow Soldier, or who intentionally gets a Soldier in trouble.

  78. 78.

    Anya

    June 8, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    @raven: Thanks, raven for my ongoing education.

    I hope other solders who served with Bergdahl will speak up and tell the truth. It’s sad how some former army guys, aided by the media is destroying this guy and his father. It’s so depressing how these people lack compassion. This guy was under captivity for 5 years and yet he’s not even awarded presumption of innocence and no sympathy for his parents.

  79. 79.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:48 pm

    RICHMOND, Va. – State Sen. Phillip P. Puckett- D-Russell has resigned his seat, leaving Democrats one vote shy of the majority they need to control the chamber.
    Puckett’s stunning resignation throws Democratic budget strategy into chaos and opening the way for Republicans to seize control of the chamber and reorganize its committees with GOP majorities, the Richmond Times Dispatch said in a report issued late Sunday.
    “I am deeply disappointed by this news and the uncertainty it creates at a time when 400,000 Virginians are waiting for access to quality health care, especially those in Southwest Virginia,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.
    “This situation is unacceptable, but the bipartisan majority in the Senate and I will continue to work hard to put Virginians first and find compromise on a budget that closes the coverage gap.”

  80. 80.

    TerryC

    June 8, 2014 at 9:48 pm

    @Morzer: Nope. Are you kidding? They want no communication on this. They might have to change their minds. OTOH, really heartening, a grand nephew (veteran) who was in this chorus told his brother, later, that he hadn’t thought about it in this light and, yes, it was better to bring him home, investigate, and then do something, if we should. This is young man who has hated me for a decade, finally coming around. (I thank his brother for sharing this with me.)

  81. 81.

    raven

    June 8, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    @Anya: Rotsa ruck with that. The Army combat arms, are largely white and largely right wing.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack

    June 8, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Then the weekly supermarket delivery truck comes with his wonder bread, individual cheese slices, miracle whip and 4 qts of Early Times [. . .].

    LOL. Nailed it.

  83. 83.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    @TerryC:

    Well, if you got away without getting a complimentary lecture on their superior patriotism and your liberal attempt to suppress their free speech, I’d say you probably got off lightly.

  84. 84.

    Suffern ACE

    June 8, 2014 at 9:56 pm

    @raven: please tell me Puckette’s wife is dying.

  85. 85.

    TerryC

    June 8, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    @Morzer: Hey, every one of them carries. I really got off easy, maybe because I was staying with their mother and grandmom.

  86. 86.

    Mr. Twister

    June 8, 2014 at 9:59 pm

    @raven: And they say one man can’t make a difference.

  87. 87.

    TerryC

    June 8, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    I’ve placed an open bet of $100 with any of them, that Bergdahl will be completely absolved of all desertion charges. Strangely, no one has jumped on that easy opportunity.

  88. 88.

    Morzer

    June 8, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    I believe he’s quitting in return for rewarding jobs and perks for himself and his daughter. A job with the state Tobacco Commission was the big prize he got, IIRC, while the daughter is now a judge.

  89. 89.

    sharl

    June 8, 2014 at 10:06 pm

    @Morzer: Yeah, the man himself ain’t talking, but those around him back your story:

    Puckett could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Sources familiar with Puckett’s resignation, submitted this weekend, said the longtime Southwest Virginia senator cited family reasons for his sudden departure. At least two sources speculated that one of the family reasons involved Puckett’s daughter, Martha P. Ketron.

    Ketron, who was admitted to the bar in October 2006, was appointed last July to serve as a judge in Juvenile and Domestic relations Court in an interim capacity by judges of the 29th District Circuit Court, which covers Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties in Southwest Virginia.

    But her bid for reappointment to a full, six-year term was put off earlier this year in the General Assembly, in part due to a tradition against awarding bench appointments to family members of sitting legislators…

    Kilgore said he believed the difficulty in Puckett’s daughter, Martha P. Ketron, gaining Senate approval for a judicial appointment given his status as a sitting senator “played a big role” in his decision to resign.

    “Martha is fantastic, and I think he would hate to see her lose that opportunity, becaus she has done such a good job,” said Kilgore.

    At least in this case, it looks like all politics is local family.

  90. 90.

    James E. Powell

    June 8, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    @raven:

    Well, I am here to tell you Mr. President that if you keep that up, you will have no hard people to watch over weak people. – Pat Lang

    In other words, Mr President, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Secretary Clinton? And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don’t want the truth, because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

  91. 91.

    JW

    June 8, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    @Southern Beale: That’s the problem. Those loathsome folk aren’t conservatives at all. What are they conserving? Absolutely nothing.

  92. 92.

    Suffern ACE

    June 8, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    @Morzer: I can only hope that someday he and his daughter finds himself in a horrible bind, kidnapped maybe. Held in a dark cage for years. So we can debate whether it’s worth releasing him. So we can go on TV and wonder if it would be better for him to be dead. Unfortunately, that never happens.

    The best I can hope for is that he gets caught taking a bribe from philip Morris after spending years living in a nice big house. It’s how the system works.

  93. 93.

    Greg

    June 8, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    I don’t know why, but I read The Corner over at NRO. I tell my friends it’s because I want to know what stupid conservatives think. But in the last few months, they have gone from being stupid to being vile, horrible and hateful. Today I made the mistake of reading the comments on Bergdahl. Someone actually wrote that he deserved the firing squad. What is wrong with these people? They were saying that the poor guy is “refusing to speak to his family”. No, as the articles about it make clear, his doctors are very concerned that he can’t handle it right now and they are shielding him from it. He lived in a fucking cage. These people calling him a traitor and his treasonous media whore supposed platoon buddies should be put in a cage for a month and see how well they do. I had to stop reading the comments because it literally turned my stomach that there were people so callous. I usually laugh off conservative stupidity, but this is just too much. And Diane Feinstein is now criticizing Obama’s decision. Well, she has lost this California citizen’s vote for good.

  94. 94.

    g

    June 8, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    Let’s face it, the right wing has demonstrated that they have absolutely no shred of human decency.

  95. 95.

    ruemara

    June 8, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s a bit odd, because I always enjoyed The Blue Falcon. This has been a disgusting week, hasn’t it, regarding the Bergdahl situation.

  96. 96.

    300baud

    June 8, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    BTW, for you civilian types, an 88 is an armored recovery vehicle, what you need to get a broke dick tank back to the motor hole for repairs.

    Well now I know what an 88 is. What’s a dick tank? And what happens when the dick tank goes in the motor hole?

  97. 97.

    SarahT

    June 8, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    Sorry to go OT, but did anyone else watch “Cosmos” ? And if so, did they air the Freedom From Religion Foundation ad w/Ron Reagan, Jr. in your area ? It was pretty amazing to see it on a major network during prine time – curious to know if it was aired nationally or just locally.

  98. 98.

    chopper

    June 8, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    all I know is, when the actual facts about all this come out I expect another right wing twitter purge.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    June 8, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    @ruemara: Yes. Disgusting and depressing. These people have no shame, and apparently no soul. They disgust me.

    When I was in college I got a job at the grocery store. There was a really nice woman who worked there, and she had worked there for a year before I started, and they still had to take her in the back room to teach her about how to count money back to the customer. Having always been around smart people in the past, I had to really revise my opinion of just how smart most people are.

    That’s how I feel this week. I am looking around at all the ugliness regarding Bowe B., and I am having to downwardly revise my opinion of a lot of people in this country. I have to tell you, my opinion of right wing folks was pretty low before, so the need for downward revision is a bit shocking.

  100. 100.

    chopper

    June 8, 2014 at 10:24 pm

    @300baud:

    a ‘dick tank’ is what you empty a bag of dicks into.

  101. 101.

    Kyle

    June 8, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    @Morzer:

    Because it lets them link Bob Bergdahl to Muslims, because only Muslims have big, scary beards.

    So ZZ Top are Taliban sleeper agents? And they’re from TEXAS – what a perfect cover story!

  102. 102.

    Cassidy

    June 8, 2014 at 10:30 pm

    PVT Hatley and his men had the same story. The truth will come out.

  103. 103.

    SectarianSofa

    June 8, 2014 at 10:35 pm

    I feel like mentioning that the little Free Methodist school in Seattle where the shooting and mace-to-shooter’s face incident happened was where my parents went to college, and met, as undergrads.
    I’m not sure if this is adding to me depressed as shit about everything lately, or not.

  104. 104.

    Mike in NC

    June 8, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    @300baud: Just think broke tank, not dick tank. The M-88 ARV retrieves damaged vehicles from a battlefield.

    On a related sexist note, we once were addressed by a female Navy unit CO who noted that a certain piece of equipment in her command center was classified as “OOC” (Out of Commission). She wanted to know if anybody had heard this term before, which resulted in a disparaging chuckle from the mostly male audience.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 10:38 pm

    @300baud: Not “dick tank.” It’s “broke dick tank.” “Broke dick” being a adjective modifying tank. “Broke dick” means what it would seem to mean.

  106. 106.

    SectarianSofa

    June 8, 2014 at 10:41 pm

    @Greg:

    This. This is why I feel our country is slipping into a long darkness, untethered from sanity and reality. If the forces of good and decency are prevailing, we see these mass shootings, shootings of cops, paranoid death threats, and furious hatred. Ted Cruz and the like there to demagogue and take advantage of it.

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    June 8, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    @ruemara:
    It’s not the Blue Falcon. It’s blue falcon. Think the first two letters. B F. In the military you a lot of things spelled out for communications are in the form of alpha, bravo and everyone understands you are speaking in a code. But it’s a code that those inside know and if flummoxes those who don’t recognize it. So blue falcon is buddy fucker.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    @SectarianSofa:

    This is why I feel our country is slipping into a long darkness, untethered from sanity and reality.

    This is what the assholes want you to feel. They want our side to be demoralized and downtrodden. Voter ID laws are being struck down in state after state. Same with bans on gay marriage. The SEC is changing its rules to allow more oversight. Good things are happening. The crazy is simply getting more press. Keep calm and carry on.

  109. 109.

    SectarianSofa

    June 8, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Thanks.

  110. 110.

    Sir Laffs-a-Lot

    June 8, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    The Taliban must love FOX News in times like these; does all their media work for them.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    @SectarianSofa: Further to that point, here is a photo of cops bringing cakes to the same sex marriages in Wisconsin. Cops, ffs; we are winning.

  112. 112.

    sharl

    June 8, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    @Suffern ACE: I doubt that VA state Senator Phil Puckett deserves any benefit of the doubt, but I wonder if the fact that his SW Virginia district (38th Senate District) includes a significant chunk of coal country in the state may have convinced him that he was doomed in the next election, especially in light of President Obama’s recent speech on the environment. If so, his decision may have been based on cold-eyed logic, especially if goopers in the Senate offered him a sweet buy-off of a cushy state job.

    As a rule, stuff going on at national level tends not to have such a big impact in regional or local politics, but Puckett’s a rare Democrat in a very conservative district, and those coal folks – who appear to have been a big part of his victory in 2011 – are madder than hell. It doesn’t matter that it’s the energy marketplace (e.g., via fracking) that is hammering them more than those eeeevil EPA regulators; they’re looking for a readily identifiable Enemy that they can take out their frustrations on. He might have seen himself as being one big piñata in the 2015 (I think?) campaign, so maybe decided to cut his losses now and grab the valuable goodies offered to him, everyone else be damned.

  113. 113.

    SectarianSofa

    June 8, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Ok, that made me smile. Wow.

  114. 114.

    Lyrebird

    June 8, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @sharl: Thanks for the timely Vonnegut quote, and hear, hear:

    Best wishes to Bowe Bergdahl for as long and as healthy a life as can be had.

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    @SectarianSofa: Everyone can have a bad day, week, month, or year, but we can’t let it color our view of the general trend – a trend going our way. OTOH, the assholes still can do a lot of damage and we need to fight them unrelentingly. We also need to remember that the MSM is not an ally, and anything that comes from it should get a jaundiced eye.

  116. 116.

    Lyrebird

    June 8, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Seriously. And whoever came up w/the idea (anyone remember?) of _reducing_ survivor benefits while sending more and more units again and again… “death-penalty them with votes*” does not sound as snazzy as your comments, but I sure wish we could…

    (*see Wonkette for the “with votes” baby-meme)

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack

    June 8, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    It could all be cleared up with the proper use of a hyphen, i.e., “broke-dick tank,” but since punctuation is strictly artisanal/libertarian here at the Juice that just won’t do.

  118. 118.

    Lyrebird

    June 8, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Good grief. We should get a poll of whether the members of the famed Seal Team Six want to disavow their parents.

    Good grief is right.

    I know a parent. A parent who lost her child, her proud dedicated Seal Team Six child, of whom she was proud even though she and he both disagreed with the Iraq invasion. What is it with these morons who cannot believe that soldiers ever have any thoughts/ doubts/ questions of their own? Or who thinks they could go through combat unchanged?

    Seriously, folks, if y’all find a way to either send pizzas to the residents of wherever-it-is Idaho or to help w/Bowe B’s legal fund, post it.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    @Steeplejack: From my time in the army, “broke dick” is spelled/punctuated the was VDE and I have done it. Now, I would be cool with “ate up” being hyphenated. BTW the term means incompetent or messed-up.

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    June 8, 2014 at 11:45 pm

    @Steeplejack:
    Agree with Omnes, it was always broke dick whatever. I think asking 18 yr old military dudes to hyphenate words would get you several lines that you’d need an interpreter for every approximately other word. You would recognize the other ones pretty easily because they would be simple words like fuck, shit, asshole, motherfucker and so on, some of which I will say and type but only in very specific circumstances as their usage is frowned upon in semi polite company, which was rare company to find when I was in the service.

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    June 8, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    I know what the term means, and as a compound adjective it should be hyphenated. It’s not a broke tank and a dick tank, it’s a “broke dick” tank, a tank with the quality of broke-dicked-ness. Broke modifies dick, not tank. Similar to, say, a “one-horse town.”

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    @Ruckus:

    You would recognize the other ones pretty easily because they would be simple words like fuck, shit, asshole, motherfucker and so on, some of which I will say and type but only in very specific circumstances as their usage is frowned upon in semi polite company, which was rare company to find when I was in the service.

    We were in very different militaries. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time as an escort officer to some bigwig or another. Polite language and conversation about skiing in Austria happened to be helpful. OTOH, saying ‘SFC [name omitted], What the fuck is going on?” was a reasonable question in my real job.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    June 8, 2014 at 11:53 pm

    @Ruckus:

    I’m not asking semi-literate 18-year-old military dudes to hyphenate anything. I’m suggesting that a retired military man waxing nostalgic in his middle years might have a little more care for readability and the literary niceties. We all want Memoirs of a Broke-Dick Tanker to be the best that it can be.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 8, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    @Steeplejack: I again do not disagree, but just suggest that this a is a bit too advanced for most of the troops.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    June 8, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    I’m not talking about the troops scrawling notes to one another in the motor pool. I’m talking about Cole writing on a blog 20 years later. Different standards for different situations.

  126. 126.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    June 9, 2014 at 12:08 am

    @Steeplejack: And I am saying he is using the correct idiom of his time. And technically, it was VDE who used the term ‘broke dick,” and he is even more old school than Cole or I – who are near contemporaries.

  127. 127.

    John Revolta

    June 9, 2014 at 12:12 am

    First time I (and, I’ll wager, a lot of other white boys) came across this usage was in Richard Pryor’s seminal* That Nigger’s Crazy, where the phrase “cleaner than a broke-dick dog” first seared my eardrums.

    *And how.

  128. 128.

    Carolinus

    June 9, 2014 at 12:14 am

    If anyone’s curious why the GOP is investing so much effort in smearing Bergdahl, here’s O’Reilly giving the game away when chatting with FNC’s James Rosen:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uictgdy4l84#t=31

    O’Reilly: “How would you define sergeant Bergdahl?”

    Rosen: “Probably, in some respects, as a kind of modern day Lee Harvey Oswald. A confused figure. A kind of inept figure by many accounts, but I stand by my reporting. …”

    …

    Rosen: “… There’s a lot still to be discovered, and presumably, at some point, there will be a full, proper Article 32 investigation.”

    O’Reilly: “OK, but you’re presuming that in an administration, that if it turns out that he’s a real bad guy it’s really going to curtains for President Obama. … Right now the President’s whole legacy is riding on this story. That’s how important it is. His whole administration is riding on it. If it turns out that this guy collaborator, Rosen, you know what’s going to happen. His administration is done. That’s how big this story is.”

    Logically, it makes zero sense that any of that should have the slightest bearing on the President’s POW swap calculus but the Right clearly senses some sort of total political victory if only they can convince the public Bergdahl is an inhuman monster.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    June 9, 2014 at 12:26 am

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Okay, I was thinking Cole used “broke dick,” but he used “broke down.”

    And I don’t think it’s a matter of “the correct idiom of his time.” I’m sure it was used orally 99% of the time, and I’m equally sure no one was yelling either “Get that broke hyphen dick tank out of here!” or “Get that broke no hyphen dick tank out of here!”

    It’s about how you punctuate the idiom, when written down, for clarity and readability on the page.

    Christ, I feel like I’m getting into the Mnemosyne zone (not that there’s anything wrong with that, if she’s reading!), so I’m going to leave it there.

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    June 9, 2014 at 12:28 am

    @Carolinus:

    Based on that quote, O’Reilly has finally gone insane.

  131. 131.

    jl

    June 9, 2014 at 12:28 am

    @raven:

    “I’ve tried to get [Lang] off the blogroll because I think it implies some kind of endorsement but no one cares.”

    I used to read him for some reliable info on Middle East military and spook stuff. But last couple of times I checked, he has just been raving. I don’t see any point in looking at the site anymore. BJ could lose the link and that would be fine with me.

  132. 132.

    Suffern ACE

    June 9, 2014 at 12:30 am

    @Carolinus: it’s good to know that the results of any inquiry, any facts even that point to Bergdahl not being Lee Harvey Oswald, are going to be discounted as a cover up.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    June 9, 2014 at 12:31 am

    @Steeplejack:
    LOL
    Problem is that few of the people I was in with were semi literate. Almost all were at the least HS grads and many were college grads. We were treated like we were semi literate and many, many chaffed at that, because many of us were at least reasonably literate. Many if not most had to be to operate, troubleshoot and repair the equipment we had in the navy.
    And to @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): comment about being in different parts of the service, officers and enlisted were different. They had one or two man rooms with desks, we slept 80 in a 40x40x8 room with an operating theater and a missile magazine and 80 lockers. They had a wardroom, we had the place with the most descriptive name of anything in the service, the mess deck. We had communal showers and toilets, they had their own country. We would sit out on deck at night underway if it was nice out, they wouldn’t walk alone outside no matter what. I understand a lot of this has changed in the current navy. But yes we lived in two separate worlds.

  134. 134.

    John (MCCARTHY) Cole

    June 9, 2014 at 12:42 am

    @raven: I deleted him from the blog roll a couple days ago.

  135. 135.

    J

    June 9, 2014 at 12:46 am

    ‘It takes time to find out what actually happened, which in any case might be complicated and not what we want to believe, and we need to hate Obama now.’

    Though I tell myself not to think the right-wingers can’t get any worse, because I’m always wrong, I keep falling into the same trap. I thought I couldn’t be shocked any more, but this wave of orchestrated hatred has shocked me. We’re not supposed to say it, but the people attacking the Bergdahls have the souls of Nazis. After five years of captivity, is Bowe Bergdahl going to given a chance to live a normal life again or is he going to have to enter the equivalent of a witness protection program because the right wing haters want to sacrifice him on the altar of their hatred for Obama?

  136. 136.

    John (MCCARTHY) Cole

    June 9, 2014 at 12:48 am

    @300baud: Broke dick is just how we fuckers would refer to fucked up shit that didn’t fucking work and was tits up and had to be fucking fixed right fucking now or fucking replaced or there would be a shit storm because the TC would be royally fucking pissed if we don’t get that crap running ASAP and all our asses would be on the line, and you know when that sadistic motherfucker gets mad he can be a real prick right up all our asses…

    Better? Because that was exactly how I remember my military conversations.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    June 9, 2014 at 12:51 am

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
    At one point in time I had to swap movies with an aircraft carrier. Our captain let us take the captain’s gig(small boat) over to the carrier. But we had to land at the enlisted ramp, climb up 5 or 6 decks and walk about 3/4 of the ship(which was over 1000 ft long) carrying about 40 lbs of film each. We of course couldn’t use the officers gangplank which would have cut the trip by about 2/3 because that would get enlisted cooties in officer country.
    I met exactly two officers and maybe four enlisted lifers in the navy that I actually respected. One was a captain of a ship I was stationed on, one was a Dr. while I was in the hospital. The lifers were unusual in that they didn’t care about your respect, they just did their jobs and the respect happened. The rest got nothing or complete contempt, usually for telling me one thing and then fucking me over, thinking that I wouldn’t notice. I think the army and the marines may have been somewhat different, the jobs, the situations it really was different militaries.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    June 9, 2014 at 12:56 am

    @John (MCCARTHY) Cole:
    Now you and I may have been in different branches but the language was the same. OK I remember a bit more swear word embellishment in a rant like that but the gist is spot on.

  139. 139.

    Fort Geek

    June 9, 2014 at 1:01 am

    @feebog: Interesting, brutal writeup on John McAngry, compared to the author’s father’s experiences as a POW in WW2. A long discussion of McAngry’s cooperation/collaboration with his own captors.

  140. 140.

    David Koch

    June 9, 2014 at 1:04 am

    Mike Wallace is rolling over in his grave

  141. 141.

    vheidi

    June 9, 2014 at 1:12 am

    @SarahT: saw it in nyc, also surprised.

  142. 142.

    David Koch

    June 9, 2014 at 1:19 am

    It should be repeated often that Bob Bergdahl IS a lifelong Goldwater Republican, who loved Reagan, and spoke at a Republican fundraiser during the last mid-terms, where Idaho’s Senator equated President Obama with “Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, [and] the Taliban”.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/06/1304998/-Bob-Bergdahl-Is-A-Republican-Surprise

  143. 143.

    pseudonymous in nc

    June 9, 2014 at 1:23 am

    They had no business being there, had no idea why they were there or what they were supposed to do, and neither did the fucking people who put them there.

    This. And this has been the story for every great power that showed up in Afghanistan and had to deal with a bunch of loose, baggy local militias instead of an army.

    @Carolinus:

    the Right clearly senses some sort of total political victory if only they can convince the public Bergdahl is an inhuman monster.

    They really ought to stop masturbating each other in public. It’s icky.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    June 9, 2014 at 1:28 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Christ, I feel like I’m getting into the Mnemosyne zone (not that there’s anything wrong with that, if she’s reading!), so I’m going to leave it there.

    Luckily for you, we just got done watching Galaxy Quest, so I’m in a good mood. ;-)

  145. 145.

    David Koch

    June 9, 2014 at 1:33 am

    Chris Wallace was born on October 12, 1947.

    He graduated college and lost his student deferment status in 1969.

    In 1969 the Viet Nam war was raging with 11,780 GIs killed in action.

    Wallace’s draft lottery number in 1969 was = 72

    Every lottery number from 1 to 195 was drafted.

    Yet somehow little Chris, who loves war and wants to execute GIs, didn’t serve in Viet Nam or in uniform, even though his low lottery number was called.

    What a puke – a warmongering Draft Dodger who wants to execute a US POW

  146. 146.

    SarahT

    June 9, 2014 at 1:35 am

    @vheidi: Yeah, same here. Hoping it aired elsewhere, too.

  147. 147.

    David Koch

    June 9, 2014 at 1:35 am

    It should be repeated often that Bob Bergdahl IS a lifelong Goldwater Republican, who loved Reagan, and spoke at a Republican fundraiser during the last mid-terms, where Idaho’s Senator equated President Obama with “Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, [and] the Taliban”.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/06/1304998/-Bob-Bergdahl-Is-A-Republican-Surprise

    ETA: this is how sick they are, they’ll stop at nothing to smear the President, even if that means swiftboating one of their very own.

  148. 148.

    John Revolta

    June 9, 2014 at 1:48 am

    @David Koch: Hey, lay off, whydontcha? The man obviously had other priorities.

  149. 149.

    Morzer

    June 9, 2014 at 1:48 am

    @David Koch:

    He voted for Ron Paul, IIRC – and thought Obama wasn’t helping to get his son back because he wouldn’t help a Republican family.

    The irony here is so thick you could probably fix roads with it.

  150. 150.

    jl

    June 9, 2014 at 1:51 am

    @David Koch:

    Well, Bergdahl didn’t denounce and spit on Obama, so he obviously is a political traitor, and who cares anyway? Everyone except the bigshots is disposable in the cause. The end justifies the means. They are a bunch of racist and power tripping losers who can sense they are losing the political war for the hearts and minds of the country (even most of the whites, who are quislings), and they are descending into deranged barbarism. A sad dangerous and vile bunch, though not nearly as much as the cynical GOP and corporate teabagger leaders.

  151. 151.

    JenJen

    June 9, 2014 at 2:23 am

    @raven: THIS. Exactly this.

    Good post, Cole. I learned some cool shit and googled 88.

    Thank you!

  152. 152.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 9, 2014 at 2:26 am

    Sorry about all the confusion on the “broke(-)dick” thing.

    What I wound up doing was using military slang in the last half of the sentence which probably inhibited understanding.

    I recall when I was in the DIVARTY S3 shop (Division Artillery Operations, the guys who plan and direct the subordinate units, per the guidance of the Division Artillery commander, who is a full colonel) that the Operations Officer, a LTC, decided that our new year’s resolution was to stop using the Eff word in the office.

    This held up for about three days, when some directive came down from Division HQ that caused a tsunami of the Eff word to issue forth from the Operations Officer’s office. Mind you, this was not in the infantry, but in the artillery, where we’re all supposed to be gentlemen who sip martinis while we pull lanyards to send death downrange…none of this mucking around in the mud nonsense.

  153. 153.

    Joel Hanes

    June 9, 2014 at 2:57 am

    @sharl:

    Damn shame he’s gone around the bend.

    Pat Lang was an ardent HiiaryIs44 partisan, has never much liked Obama.
    It’s been interesting watching this affect his judgement.

  154. 154.

    JenJen

    June 9, 2014 at 3:04 am

    @Southern Beale:

    You know who else has big scary beards right now? Hockey players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

    Right?? Jarret Stoll is totally Al-Qaeda, I mean, just look at him.

    This shit is starting to make me pretty angry.

  155. 155.

    Fred

    June 9, 2014 at 3:10 am

    @sharl: Sharl: Thank you for posting the link to the Vonnegut letter. I love the man. How could anyone not love Kurt Vonnegut?
    And yes, Bergdahl definately is a child crusader. I will never understand why anyone would join the military. I don’t understand how any loving parent can let their child throw away his/her life to the death machine.
    Vonnegut opined that WWII was probably the only necessary war ever fought and has been disgracefully used as an excuse for all the pointless cluster f**ks the bomb makers and the drum beaters have been sending children to their deaths and ruin ever since.
    All I know is my friend Paul told me from his VA hospital bed not to go, do anything to stay out of it. When they tried to draft me I found a medical reason for an exemption and I never regretted it for a minute.
    MAMAS DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE SOLDIERS!

    The other night I heard Chris Mathews ranting about how Bergdahl was a deserter and a disgrace and blah, blah! I listened to him cut off anybody who tried to explain that the guy deserved a fair hearing and is innocent until proven guilty. I shut the thing off and haven’t been able to watch his show since. I don’t know if I will ever watch the arrogant SOB’s show again. At his best he’s annoying and rude anyway so screw him. MSNBC should fire him. They sure are quick to fire good people.

  156. 156.

    Fred

    June 9, 2014 at 3:10 am

    @sharl: Sharl: Thank you for posting the link to the Vonnegut letter. I love the man. How could anyone not love Kurt Vonnegut?
    And yes, Bergdahl definately is a child crusader. I will never understand why anyone would join the military. I don’t understand how any loving parent can let their child throw away his/her life to the death machine.
    Vonnegut opined that WWII was probably the only necessary war ever fought and has been disgracefully used as an excuse for all the pointless cluster f**ks the bomb makers and the drum beaters have been sending children to their deaths and ruin ever since.
    All I know is my friend Paul told me from his VA hospital bed not to go, do anything to stay out of it. When they tried to draft me I found a medical reason for an exemption and I never regretted it for a minute.
    MAMAS DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE SOLDIERS!

    The other night I heard Chris Mathews ranting about how Bergdahl was a deserter and a disgrace and blah, blah! I listened to him cut off anybody who tried to explain that the guy deserved a fair hearing and is innocent until proven guilty. I shut the thing off and haven’t been able to watch his show since. I don’t know if I will ever watch the arrogant SOB’s show again. At his best he’s annoying and rude anyway so screw him. MSNBC should fire him. They sure are quick to fire good people.

  157. 157.

    Chris

    June 9, 2014 at 3:17 am

    @raven:

    It used to be that America honored the citizen-soldier model; people who had normal lives, left home and served their time when there was a war to fight, then were demobilized and went back to their peacetime life.

    The fondness for fetishizing The Troops as a breed apart, a race of Ubermenschen to be contrasted sharply with the weak, cowardly, sniveling masses of civilians who, the subtext strongly suggests, really aren’t worthy of all that awesomeness being deployed on their ungrateful behalf, is one of the uglier things that’s crept into our national discourse in the last few decades.

    (And that’s before you even get into the absurdity of believing that these brave, Chosen Ubermenschen have been “watching over us” for the last sixty or seventy years, when the plain fact is that if they’d been left home instead of being sent off to fight in the vast majority of post-1945 wars, it wouldn’t have made a dime’s worth of difference to the American people).

  158. 158.

    Chris

    June 9, 2014 at 3:22 am

    @TerryC:

    That’s why I love these kinds of conservations (and why I pretty much never have them). They’ll deliver a rousing speech about how people Fox News has told them not to like (at least this week) deserve to just fucking be left to die already! – or other, equally, well, strong language and opinions on any number of topics – but when you dare to disagree, they’ll dissolve into tears and tell you that you’re attacking them.

    You know, if you can’t handle people brutally insulting you by saying “I don’t agree,” maybe you shouldn’t be having the Who Deserves To Die conversation in the first place; it’s kind of a rough topic where strong opinions are going to fly and feelings are going to get bruised.

    There’s nothing more pathetic than a fascist sissy.

  159. 159.

    bago

    June 9, 2014 at 3:27 am

    Looks like t took Rove about 2 days to line up book deals and Fox News contributorships for these guys before he could deploy the swift boats. At least according the tweet-history.

  160. 160.

    raven

    June 9, 2014 at 5:33 am

    @John (MCCARTHY) Cole: Thanks John, you are squared away!

  161. 161.

    Chris

    June 9, 2014 at 5:37 am

    @Greg:

    I don’t know why, but I read The Corner over at NRO. I tell my friends it’s because I want to know what stupid conservatives think. But in the last few months, they have gone from being stupid to being vile, horrible and hateful

    I did the same thing after Obama was elected, although in my case it was PJMedia, but pretty much the same experience. After a year or two, I just burned out on it. Outrage fatigue. Besides, the MSM works so hard to bend over backwards in accomodating right wing memes that there’s really no need to go to the source. Give it a day and you’ll have the sanitized, VSP version.

    It’s a testament to how low my opinion of them is that I haven’t been at all surprised by the whole Bergdahl thing. That doesn’t mean I expected it (who can know just what kind of convoluted bullshit they’ll come up with as the Outrage-Of-The-Week?), but I wasn’t at all shocked that the people running the show stopped that low, or that their entire side of the aisle has now uncritically accepted it as gospel. After those couple years reading PJMedia, I honestly don’t think there’s anything they can do that would have be going “man, I never thought they’d stoop that low.”

  162. 162.

    Chris

    June 9, 2014 at 5:49 am

    @Morzer:

    The irony here is so thick you could probably fix roads with it.

    Ohhhhhh, yes.

  163. 163.

    Chet

    June 9, 2014 at 6:00 am

    @Chris: Yes, yes, yes to all this.

  164. 164.

    Chet

    June 9, 2014 at 6:00 am

    @Chris: Yes, yes, yes to all this.

  165. 165.

    Dave

    June 9, 2014 at 6:06 am

    @Ruckus: I don’t think it’s as strong in the Navy anymore but it’s still there. I worked with Navy during one tour and then under the Navy for part of another and I found they were fine to work with or have working for you but that they were a nightmare of cultural clash to work under. Really took the separation of Officers, Chiefs, and enlisted much more seriously than we did and were nonplussed that we weren’t familiar with and didn’t really care about the weird ass segregation and other cultural habits that they had.

  166. 166.

    Sherparick

    June 9, 2014 at 7:34 am

    Thanks John. Learned a new term “Blue Falcon.” Amazing that I have spent 33 years in or around the military and not heard it before (I head the other term that the acronym BF stands for plenty enough). Of course, I work more in military justice so the term “rat” is something I am more familiar with now.

    It is amazing that in their excitement to go after the President, Faux News and their useful idiots in the VSP media have got a nice little lynch mob going right now. Meanwhile, I will wonder how Faux and the VSPs will spin this as being caused by the President, Muslims, and Occupied Wall Street. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/08/2-police-officers-shot-in-las-vegas/

  167. 167.

    WaterGirl

    June 9, 2014 at 7:45 am

    @Ruckus:

    The rest got nothing or complete contempt, usually for telling me one thing and then fucking me over, thinking that I wouldn’t notice.

    Now that you don’t have to be in the military for.

  168. 168.

    Paul in KY

    June 9, 2014 at 9:17 am

    @TerryC: Good for you for speaking reality to them.

  169. 169.

    Paul in KY

    June 9, 2014 at 9:22 am

    @John (MCCARTHY) Cole: That’s about how I remember a lot of our military conversations. Fucking good job, John!

  170. 170.

    J R in WV

    June 9, 2014 at 10:02 am

    @Fred:

    You help me remember why don’t watch TV news much any more.

    Once upon a time we had Walter Cronkite, who reported on the real horror that was fighting in the Viet Nam jungle and delta, which truthful and explicit coverage helped create the anti-war movement, which helped run Nixon the rest of the way around the bend, which…

    Now Chris Wallace wants to shoot a poor enlisted man who did the best he could in a horrible environment. Draft Dodger Bastard! That may have been my draft number. I bet he got a shrink to tell the military he wasn’t cut out for combat. Rat turds are more valuable – you can compost them into fertilizer.

  171. 171.

    Ruckus

    June 9, 2014 at 10:19 am

    @WaterGirl:
    True. But it was/is(?) much more prevalent and open in the navy.
    @Dave: Sounds like he was in the Marines and he noticed it much more in the navy than there. I know that some of this has been watered down, as I understand it there is now one chow line on board ships, everyone eats the same food in the same place. That was a biggie. We once almost had a mutiny over dinner, it was so bad. And I mean open discussions of breaking into the gun locker and taking over the ship. The officers didn’t have a clue till they were told in no uncertain fashion. Not like having only MREs to eat but then we didn’t join the Army or Marines. We were promised 3 squares and a flop every night. Now of course I have a friend, tank driver in the Army, who loved MREs, but he is a special case.

  172. 172.

    The Pale Scot

    June 9, 2014 at 10:23 am

    @WaterGirl:

    I am having to downwardly revise my opinion of a lot of people in this country

    As someone said, “Think of your average american, and then remember that half of the population is dumber then the guy/gal your thinking of.”

  173. 173.

    AxelFoley

    June 9, 2014 at 10:38 am

    @raven:

    @gian: Fuck my sensibilities. A lot of noise has been made here about small dick this and small dick that in regard to gun idiots and I thought it was interesting that this one involved a woman.

    Considering a clitoris is sorta, kinda a small dick, well…

  174. 174.

    Tom in Dallas

    June 9, 2014 at 1:41 pm

    @sharl: Col. Lang certainly does not need me to stand up for him, but I will anyway, since the snippet of his blogpost that Raven cited does not fairly or fully represent the views of the blogger I’ve read for the last several years.

    Since at least 2002 (Iraq War build-up) Lang has been a courageous voice of sanity, for which apparently, much of his former intelligence community exiled him to the political wilderness. His views on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran/Israel, MENA generally, Syria, Ukraine, valor, honor, integrity and a number of other subjects make for refreshing (sometimes bracing) reading. His now-ten-year-old assessments of Iraq and Afghanistan (and also the intelligence “stove-piping” and other shenanigans that made Iraq possible) still make for useful re-reading. His clear-eyed insights into how large Washington bureaucratic organizations (in politics, the military, and private contracting) work-or do not-have made for educational (and often depressing) reading. Personally, reading his work has often caused me to research a number of subjects more deeply, as I try to reconcile my own views with well-stated views that can be radically different. On any number of topics, our views do not square, and that is OK, too–it is the quality of the argued viewpoints I find useful.

    Lang’s background is largely military and that must in some wise influence how he analyses and interprets events. I have no personal military background, and thus have found his viewpoint one of the most interesting and profound available in the U.S. Often just as useful as the blog posts are the views expressed by his regular domestic US and international commenters, who run the gamut politically and militarily. I would list two or three by name, but reading just a few threads would make clear to you who those folks are. Generally, Lang embraces clash with educated readers. It seems to me that he can at times be sensitive to perceived insults, that is to say that I have sometimes read warnings he has given to commenters that left me wondering exactly what was the objectionable part of the comment. My puzzlement at these rare instances I have written off as my own ignorance of the military ethos, a certain prickliness that may come to those who refuse to suffer fools gladly, and the fact that it is his blog, which he can run as suits him.

    In short (if only!), I think he is well worth reading. I don’t always agree with him, and certainly no one can be right 100% of the time, but time spent reading his blog is seldom time wasted.

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