Scheller Wants An Angel

USMC Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Scheller, who is in the brig awaiting court-martail for speaking out after the disastrous Afghanistan pull-out, has some harsh words for former President Trump and his family:



"President Trump. I was told by everyone to kiss the ring because of your following and power. I refuse. While I respect your foreign policy positions, I hate how you divided the country. I don’t need or want your help. You do not have the ability to pull US together. You may even win the next election. But your generation’s time is running out. Tell your son to stop tweeting about me. Your whole family knows nothing about US or our sacrifices. I could never work with you. I’d rather sit in jail and be released with a dishonorable than make compromises in my beliefs."


When that statement got lots of negative commentary, Col. Scheller doubled down:



"I’ve had such a strong reaction to my comments against President Trump I felt a follow up clarification was required. No, President Trump didn’t divide the country. But President Trump, in my humble opinion, is incapable of bringing us back together. Did he expose the corruption in the DOJ, media, and other places… yes. Was he the right person to expose the corruption at that time… maybe. Is he honest, accountable, and full of integrity… no. Would I want to work for a leader like that… no. I want a leader that will bring US together. Someone who has the courage to defend our country when called. My sons deserve that type of leader running the country in the future. That type of person is the only leader who I want in my corner. I respect all opinions. I’m not asking you to agree with me, but to at least consider my perspective. Much love."

In a famous debate between TV talk show host Phil Donahue and economist Milton Friedman, Friedman asked "Tell me, just where will you find these angels who will organize society for you? I don't even trust you to do that." In his second statement, Scheller is obviously looking for just such an angel. The problem is that such angels are in very short supply here on Earth where they are most needed, and so we must muddle along with lesser mortals.

Bergdahl Charged With Misbehavior Before the Enemy

A charge not often seen in modern times, it was common during WWII:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Military prosecutors have reached into a section of military law seldom used since World War II in the politically fraught case against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held prisoner for years by the Taliban after leaving his post in Afghanistan.

Observers wondered for months if Bergdahl would be charged with desertion after the deal brokered by the U.S. to bring him home. He was — but he was also charged with misbehavior before the enemy, a much rarer offense that carries a stiffer potential penalty in this case.

"I've never seen it charged," Walter Huffman, a retired major general who served as the Army's top lawyer, said of the misbehavior charge. "It's not something you find in common everyday practice in the military."

Bergdahl could face a life sentence if convicted of the charge, which accuses him of endangering fellow soldiers when he "left without authority; and wrongfully caused search and recovery operations."

Here's the pertinent article under the UCMJ:

899. ART. 99. MISBEHAVIOR BEFORE THE ENEMY

Any person subject to this chapter who before or in the presence of the enemy--

(1) runs away;

(2) shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is his duty to defend;

(3) through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property;

(4) casts away his arms or ammunition;

(5) is guilty of cowardly conduct; (6) quits his place of duty to plunder or pillage;

(7) causes false alarms in any command, unit, or place under control of the armed forces;

(8) willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or

(9) does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies when engaged in battle;

shall be punished by death or such punishment as a court- martial may direct.

So it's a serious charge, fully as serious as desertion, and a signal that the Army wants to send a signal to other narcissists that aren't serious about their duty.

Headline of the Day

"Obama to announce slower Afghan withdrawal; White House says post-2016 plan intact."

Doesn't want to screw up Hillary's chance of winning the White House by letting ISIS into Afghanistan before the election.

Who's Bowe Bergahl...

...and why did we swap 5 GTMO detainees for him?

Rolling Stone has a fine in-depth article about Bergdahl, his history, and whether he did in fact walk away from his duty post in Afghanistan with intent to desert (I'd say yes, myself).

I'm thinking that his best bet will be to trade all the information he has about his captors for leniency in any court-martial proceeding, maybe plead to a lesser charge of dereliction of duty or unauthorized absence.

Update: Soopermexican has a series of Tweets from a man claiming to be a comrade of Bergdahl's, refuting much of the Rolling Stone article. Take it for what it's worth.

He Brought a Knife To a Gunfight

Fortunately for him, he's a Gurkha.

And when a Gurkha has to draw his kukri, it's Military Cross time:

Acting L/Cpl Gurung, who serves with the Royal Gurkha Rifles, was on duty at Patrol Base Sparta, in Nahr-e Seraj, at 4am on March 22 when he spotted two Afghans running towards his sangar, or watchtower.

When he challenged them to stop, the insurgents opened fire with an AK47 assault rifle.

One of the rounds struck him on the helmet, knocking him to the ground. Groggily getting to his feet, he saw a grenade bounce into the tower.

Fearing it would explode, the married Gurkha picked it up and hurled it away a split-second before it detonated, the force of the blast throwing him to the floor.

But as the dust and debris settled, Acting L/Cpl Gurung came face-to-face with one of the Taliban who was climbing into the 3 metre high sangar.

Lacking room to aim his rifle, the soldier drew his 18inch kukri and tenaciously took on the insurgent in hand-to-hand combat.

> During the fight, the pair plunged to the ground outside the base. In a life-or-death struggle, Acting L/Cpl Gurung continued to lash out with the blade.

He said: ‘He was quite a bit bigger than me. I just hit him in the hand, body, I just started to hit him. ‘I just thought, “I don’t want to die. If I am alive I can save my colleagues”.
‘I thought, “Before he does something I have to do something”. I was like a madman.’

Faced with his ferocity, the Taliban turned and fled. Acting L/Cpl Gurung’s citation said he had displayed the ‘highest levels of gallantry and courage’.

He looks like one squared-away soldier, don't he?

Tintypes In Afghanistan

An old photographic process makes a comeback.

Sample tintype:

Click the link to read the story and see more of the tintypes.

In Defense of the Drone War

Charles Krauthammer, no defender of President Obama usually, brings cogent argument.

And I'll point out that drones are a lot more efficient in the type of war we're currently involved in than all of the men currently stationed in Afghanistan.

"The Shooter"

The story of the man who actually killed Osama bin Laden.

Read the whole thing.

Your Job - - And You Can't Refuse To Accept It - - Is To Put Lipstick On This Pig

"US Hopes New Commander Brings 'Fresh Look' To Afghan War Effort."

Good luck with that one.

Look, It's Wile E. Coyote

Well, it's actually a Taliban jihadi, acting like Wile E. Coyote:



Bet you just said No he didn't! He did.

When he's jumping on that IED he looks like ol' Wile E. after swallowing the Earthquake Pills:



h/t Weasel Zippers.

Time To Leave

The welcome is definitely worn out.

Should have never bothered with nation-building in the first place in Afghanistan. Should have bombed the place thoroughly and warned the survivors not to associate themselves with Al Qaeda ever again.

Snipers At War

A fine USA Today feature story.

QUANTICO, Va. – When Marine Sgt. Jonathan Charles' unit arrived in Afghanistan, the American troops faced an entrenched enemy that picked a fight with the Marines almost every time they stepped off base.

"They couldn't get outside the wire more than 50 meters before it was a barrage of fire," said Charles, a scout sniper.
The Marine battalion quickly dispersed well-camouflaged scout sniper teams throughout the Musa Qala area in southern Afghanistan, the former Taliban heartland. The teams would hide for days, holed up in crevices, among boulders or in mud-walled homes, and wait for unsuspecting militants to walk into a trap.

The result: Dozens of militants were killed by an enemy they never saw. Word of unseen killers began to spread among the "few who got away," Charles said. Within weeks, the tide had begun to turn and by the end of the unit's seven-month deployment in March 2011, the battalion's 33-man sniper platoon had 185 enemy kills.
"They quit altogether," Charles, 26, said of the Taliban. More important, with the enemy largely neutralized, the battalion could focus on building local security and developing Afghan security forces. This approach is the bedrock of counterinsurgency warfare, which is designed to allow the United States to remove most combat troops by the end of 2014.
Snipers have quietly emerged as one of the most effective but least understood weapons in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Advancements in technology and training have made them deadlier than in any previous generation. Their ability to deliver accurate shots minimizes collateral damage — a key factor in counterinsurgency — and they are often more effective than much ballyhooed drones at secretly collecting intelligence.

Click the link to read the rest. The related multimedia presentation and photos are worth visiting, too.

If They Ain't Dead It Don't Count

The US military in Afghanistan is under-reporting attacks by Afghan allies against NATO forces.

The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or foreign solider is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But The Associated Press has learned it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also doesn’t report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.

Which, given the reputation that Afghans have for poor marksmanship, might mean a hell of a lot of attacks are going unreported.

Greater Love Hath No Man...

In Afghanistan, a National Guardsman gave up his life...for an Afghan child who was in danger of being run over by a troop transport.

According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of the convoy, and Weichel and other troops got out to move them out of the way.
Most of the children moved, but one little girl went back to pick up some brass shell casings in the road. Afghan civilians often recycle the casings, and the girl appeared to aim to do that. But a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle was moving toward her, according to Lt. Col. Denis Riel of the Rhode Island National Guard.
MRAPs, as they are known, usually weigh more than 16 tons.
Weichel saw massive truck bearing down on the girl and grabbed her out of the way. But in the process, the armored truck ran him over, Riel said.

Is it likely to cause Afghans (other than the girl's parents) to cease hating Americans? Probably not.

Take up the White man's burden --
Send forth the best ye breed --
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild --
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Say Instead That They Defiantly Embrace It...

...and you'll be closer to the reality:

In the wake of the recent setbacks in Afghanistan, American commanders are working overtime trying to instill sensitivity among U.S. troops toward their Afghan counterparts and their Islamic culture.

But many American servicemembers already wear their feelings on their sleeves -- sometimes literally -- choosing a powerful term to represent the way they believe they’re perceived by the Muslim world: “Infidel.”

There are infidel hats, infidel T-shirts and infidel uniform patches -- an entire genre of morale wear that emerged from the ashes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Clayton Montgomery, owner of a well-known online vendor called Mil-Spec Monkey and designer of some infidel patches, said his most popular item has been his “Pork-Eating Crusader” patch, which includes a translation into Arabic.

“Everybody sort of hates occupying forces anyway, so it’s kind of embracing that,” he told Military.com “If you are going to hate us anyway, we might as well pretend to be the great white devil.”



(pic via Bare Naked Islam.)

Here's how it is: if you're going to fight a war in a half-hearted, uncommitted fashion, and give "support" to your troops in a way that includes onerous "Rules of Engagement" that puts them in danger, and treat the corrupt puppet "President" of that benighted country as if he's the equivalent of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, then don't be surprised if the troops find ways to express their dissatisfaction toward you and your policies, and the ungrateful populace they are supposedly there to protect and defend.

h/t Mausers, Medicine and Motorcycles.

Marines Disarmed Before Meeting With SecDef Panetta

Gee, tell us how you really feel about US troops:

In a sign of the nervousness surrounding Mr. Panetta’s trip, the Marines and other troops who were waiting in a tent for the defense secretary to speak were abruptly asked by their commander to get up, place their weapons — M-16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9-mm pistols — outside the tent and then return unarmed. The commander, Sgt. Maj. Brandon Hall, told reporters he was acting on orders from superiors.

“All I know is, I was told to get the weapons out,” he said. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.”

Normally, American forces in Afghanistan keep their weapons with them when the defense secretary visits and speaks to them. The Afghans in the tent waiting for Mr. Panetta were not armed to begin with, as is typical.

Later, American officials said that the top commander in Helmand, Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, had decided on Tuesday that no one would be armed while Mr. Panetta spoke to them, but the word did not reach those in charge in the tent until shortly before Mr. Panetta was due to arrive.

General Gurganus told reporters later that he wanted a consistent policy for everyone in the tent. “You’ve got one of the most important people in the world in the room,” he said. He insisted that his decision had nothing to do with the shooting on Sunday. “This is not a big deal,” he said.

"We don't let Marines slack because we care about each other," Meyer said.

A Marine NCO was found not guilty of hazing a Marine that committed suicide after being found asleep on duty.

The panel of three officers and five enlisted Marines found Lance Cpl. Carlos Orozco III not guilty at a court-martial at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay.

He was accused of humiliating and demeaning Lance Cpl. Harry Lew by pouring sand on his face and forcing him to do push-ups and leg lifts. Orozco was acquitted of charges involving the assault, cruel treatment and humiliation of Lew, of Santa Clara, Calif. Lew fatally shot himself at their remote Afghanistan patrol base on April 3. He was a nephew of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif.

Orozco was the last of three Marines to be court-martialed for the alleged hazing of Lew. Another lance corporal last month pleaded guilty to assault after admitting he punched and kicked Lew. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a reduction in rank to private first class. A jury in a separate trial later found their squad leader, a sergeant, not guilty of humiliating and demeaning Lew.

Prosecuting attorney Maj. Hanorah Tyer-Witek told the jury in closing arguments that witnesses saw Orozco ordering Lew to do push-ups after Lew had been digging a foxhole for two hours without eating or drinking anything.

Orozco was annoyed and fed up that Lew had fallen asleep on watch for the fourth time since he arrived at Patrol Base Gowragi, she said.

Defense attorney Capt. Aaron Meyer told jurors that government witnesses gave conflicting testimony and Orozco was only trying to keep Lew awake so their base wouldn't be attacked by Taliban fighters.

If Orozco had allowed Lew to fall asleep again, his command would have asked him why he didn't do more to keep him awake, Meyer said.

Tragic Violation of Rules 1, 2, and 4

A UK soldier killed his best friend in Afghanistan while cleaning his rifle:

Ranger Dalzell, of 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, died from a single shot to the chest while erecting a commemorative flag pole for a colleague who had been killed by an improvised explosive device.

The 20-year-old from Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland, and his comrades had returned just 20 minutes earlier from a patrol in the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand and were relaxing at Check Point Ranger when the incident happened at 11.20am on February 4, 2011.

Ranger Sean Barry had stripped and cleaned his SA-80 rifle in an attempt to stop the safety catch and magazine sticking but failed to notice the magazine was still attached as he carried out a functioning test and a shot was fired, killing his friend instantly.

Jeff Cooper's rules for gun safety can be found in my blog sidebar. Rule 1 is A gun is always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are. Rule 2 is Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.) Rule 4 is Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

The soldier who committed this tragic act isn't making excuses for himself:

Ranger Barry, who went through basic training at Catterick and joined The Royal Irish Regiment alongside Ranger Dalzell, had noticed the problem with his rifle following the morning patrol.

To clean the weapon he sat at the end of a bench at the front end of an accommodation tent facing outwards towards where Ranger Dalzell was helping to put up the flag pole.

"When it was issued we were told to clean it and make sure we were happy with it and it was functioning," Ranger Barry said.

"I got out my cleaning kit and laid it on the table... I went through each piece individually, cleaned the whole weapon.

"When it had been stripped it was still hard to move so I used a bit of oil to free it up.

"I put the magazine on and off again making sure the oil was making it easier to come on and off."

Ranger Barry then went on to carry out a functioning test. He told the court this was always done with the magazine - which contained live ammunition - off the weapon.

"I did not realise the magazine was still attached," Ranger Barry said.

Asked if the rifle was pointed in a safe direction, he simply replied: "No."

"I was expecting just a click, but the force when it went off was a big shock to the system," Ranger Barry said.

The shot was fired out of the open accommodation tent and hit Ranger Dalzell, who was not wearing any body armour, in the chest.

Ranger Barry was working since 3am that morning and went out on patrol at 5.30am returning around 11am.

"We were tired for four or five months, so we got used to it, but I'd never use that as an excuse," Ranger Barry said.

"There were days where you were tired, but that was our job.

"It (weapons handling) is trained into you, when you're confident and you've done it a few times it does become second nature to you, but I'm not using that as an excuse."

The punishment?

Ranger Barry pleaded guilty at a court martial to a charge of negligently performing a duty while handling a service rifle causing the unintended discharge of a round.

He was sentenced to six months detention suspended for a year.

That, and a lifetime memory of having killed his best friend.

Robert Ruark, in The Old Man and the Boy, discussed gun safety:

I've seen just about everything happen with a gun. One fellow I know used to stand like Dan'l Boone with his hands crossed on the muzzle of his shotgun, and one day something mysterious happened and the gun went off and now he hasn't got any hands any more, which makes it inconvenient for him.

I've seen drunks messing with "unloaded" guns and the guns go off in the house, sobering everybody up. An automatic went crazy on me in a duck blind one day and fired every shot in its magazine. Habit had the gun pointed away from the other fellow, or I'd of shot his head off with a gun that was leaping like a crazy fire hose. I saw a man shoot his foot nearly off with a rifle he thought he'd ejected all the cartridges out of. I saw another man on a deer hunt fire into a bush a buck went into and make a widow out of his best friend's wife.

The Inspiration For Holmes' Watson?

Surgeon-Major Alexander Francis Preston, an Irishman who served in Afghanistan and was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand, may have been the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes' friend and biographer, Dr. John Watson.

Pic:



Click the link for Preston's story, and speculation as to whether Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories, used him as a model for Dr. Watson.

The Proper Response...

...to the Taliban Tinklers, from Congressman Allen West, (R-FL):

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

It should be pointed out that West was a Lt. Colonel in the US Army and served in Iraq, so his viewpoint is more informed that of most members of Congress.