I should probably change the picture category this week to Pumpman's Secret Cats. Don't believe him when he says he hates cats. Here's another one.
Barbara, once again, found me this one.
There are times when I sit down to do a post and don't have the slightest idea what I'm gonna write. This is one of those times. But I never let it stop me. It reminds me when I was in high school or college and I was given a writing assignment. I always waited until the last minute. In high school I would even start working on term papers (research and everything) the Friday before they were due, which was usually the following Monday. My sister can attest to me typing all Sunday night (at my plodding 20 words a minute) on our old manual typewriter. I sure wish we would have had PC's back then. Whooops! We were poor. We couldn't have afforded one.
I flunked out of college when I first attended right out of high school. I went back to college after I got out of the Navy and I still waited until the last minute to do writing assignments for English Comp 101 and 102, but for term papers this time I started on 'em the week before they were due.
So what to write about? I usually just grab sumpin' and after writing, decide on a title. This is one of those times.
There was a bullshit op-ed in Monday's Urinal and Constipation by some leftest comparing Iraq to Viet Nam. Yawn! There's no link since the AJC doesn't post the looniest stuff they print unless it's written by one of their columnists. I Googled the Author, James L. Larocca and came up with a link for a similar piece written by him.
The concept was simple enough: instead of surprising people with conventional gunfire during raids, the boats would first set the houses and buildings on fire with bows and arrows. The brass called this early version of "shock and awe" Operation Flaming Arrow.
Of course, the flimsy huts burned like matchbooks, leaving the families homeless and destitute. The next day, civil action teams of GIs would arrive bearing sheets of corrugated tin for new roofs and bags of rice to help the villagers get started again. There would also be bars of Dial soap and clothing from church groups in the states.
I was in the Navy from 1965 to 1969. From late 1996 to late 1969, I spent a lot of time in Viet Nam. Granted, a lot of it was in a ship off the coast. That was when I served on an LSD (Long Slow and Dismal), the USS Comstock, LSD-19 home ported out of San Diego.
In late 1967, I was transferred to an LST (Long Slow Target), USS Iredell County, LST-839, home ported out of Guam (Give Us American Money or Give Up And Masturbate). We spent most of our time transporting supplies up and down the coast of Viet Nam. We pulled right up on the beach to load and unload. On our last tour, right before I got off the ship, we transported supplies up the Bassac River to ships on station that supported PBR's (River Patrol Boats - or in Official Naval Language - Patrol Boat, River. Likewise an LSD is Landing Ship, Dock and an LST is Landing Ship, Tank - LST's were built in WWII, as was the Iredell County, to transport tanks. Hence, the name. Who says you only have to go to Den Beste's site to learn interesting bullshit?)
In all my time in Viet Nam (and I talked to a lot of Cong Killers when I was there) I never heard about shooting flaming arrows into villages. None of the veterans I met after the war ever told me about this stuff. I never heard about it on the news when I got back and wouldn't you think with the anti-war hysteria that sumpin' like this would be common knowledge?
This op-ed, 35 years after the fact is the first I have ever hear of Operation Flaming Arrow. That's not to say it didn't happen. I just never heard of it.
The author goes on:
But mostly I remember the men, who, if they hadn't slipped away when the mess began, would be taken by the American troops for interrogation.
Usually, several young soldiers would throw the man down while yelling the few Vietnamese phrases they knew. At least one would hold a rifle to his head. Another might stand on his neck. His hands would be bound behind his back. He would be wrenched up into a kneeling position. Many times he would be blindfolded.
War is hell! The author is speaking as if this were a normal event that happened on a daily basis. I'm sure that some of this stuff happened, especially to suspected Viet Cong, but none of my old buddies were involved in this.
Eventually a "pacification" team member would come along and question the man in Vietnamese. He would be asked to show his papers - documents which, more often than not, had been lost in the fire. He would be yelled at, cursed at, and sometimes spit on. Many times he would be kicked and punched.
I suspect that the 'pacification team' were Vietnamese. They would torture willingly.
Then you would see it. In the eyes. The clean, white fury of men who have been reduced to abject humiliation and powerlessness in front of their families. The hatred in their eyes would be as pure as any you would ever see. It would last forever. You would never forget it.
So now we come to Iraq.
I saw those eyes again the other day on the evening news. A group of young American soldiers, sent by their government to go house to house in a sweltering Baghdad suburb, had kicked in a door and rousted a family. The children were terrified, crying. The mother was furious, screaming.
Well, yeah. Duh! We see a lot of Arab women screaming. They do it real well.
The eyes of the GIs were filled with confusion and shame at what they were being made to do by their government.
WTF? These men are professional soldiers. They're looking for terrorists and enemies and they're confused and ashamed? And you could see that in thier eyes? On TV? In your dreams Prof!
In case you're wondering about the Prof, he was a Naval Officer in Viet Nam during 1967 and 1968 and is now currently a college professor. Guess whom he is rooting for in the war?
And the father, down on the ground in front of his house with a kid from Arkansas or Detroit or California standing on his neck, showed in his eyes the kind of white-hot hatred that will take a thousand years to extinguish.
If he's one of Saddam's henchmen he probably already hates us. Most Arabs seem to hate us anyway. It's because we're friends with the Jeeeews.
OK Prof, let's just pack up and leave. Let's say we made a big mistake and leave Iraq and put Saddam back in power. Would that make you happy?
This is a war and we're looking for the enemy. Yeah it sucks that we have to kick in doors looking for the bad guys but where do you think the bad guys are hiding? Just like the Viet Cong, they are hiding among the civilians. If you can come up with a better idea let us know, but all we seem to hear from you guys is we should not be there. Well, we are there. Deal with it and come up with some constructive ideas.
It's gonna take time, but the majority of the population will be better off when we leave, and we will leave. Ask the Kurds if they're glad we overthrew Saddam. The Shi'ites in the south are also better off. The majority of what the Prof is talking about is in Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. Of course, the Prof wants us to think that this is happening everywhere, but he is obviously a member of the Hate America First crowd. Asshole!
So this is whatcha get when I don't really know what to write about. I was gonna write some more about TCIDNN and The Audit but this what came out tonight.
See ya tomorrow.