Bumper Sticker Of The Day…

Simple, Powerful, Direct.

I guess it all depends on how you fulfilled your service.

The Army is not The Military

The Army is Part of The Military.

Listening to the latest “You wanted Cuts? Fine… we’re going to get rid of all the police, firemen and teachers!” rhetoric from The Current Administration I have noticed the Media is intentionally, or unintentionally because they don’t have the education to perform their function, confusing The Army with entirety of The Military.

Chuck Hagel is proposing a reduction in the size of The Army to pre-WWII levels.  Not “The whole Military”.

If you’ve been here before you already know WORDS MEAN THINGS.

But Meaning has no place when the intent is to inflame.

The proposed “Cuts” being threatened for The Army might not be a bad idea. While it could impair my sincere, and long-held, desire to Annex Mexico by rolling Armor from Ft. Bliss, there is no doubt that our MILITARY, which The Army is a part of, wastes a Crap-load of our taxpayer dollars.  I will also take this opportunity to remind anyone who’s bored enough to read this blog that the “Cut’s” in question are composed of a mere 5% cut in THE GROWTH of the budgets… and they are Fungible.  Don’t know what that means?  Look it up.

(As an aside, I can personally attest to the waste… reflected by the explosions heard near Military Bases, Forts etc. in Late September (End of the Government Fiscal Year) because all of the unused ordinance has to be used (destroyed) in order to avoid getting your budget for splody things cut.  There’s nothing wrong with the Ordinance… it just has to be used.  It is a bizarre, if not profoundly stupid, way to manage other people’s money, unless you don’t really care about other people’s money.  And that’s just one small example… there’s an entire $34 Million Dollar Military Base we built in Afghanistan and never occupied… the list goes on.)

But Why the intentional, giving the Media the benefit of the doubt, confusion?

This is nothing more than a specifically crafted message to reach out and freak out a constituency whose primary identity was formed when they were between the ages of 18 to 22… And, that’s how they vote.  (Full disclosure: I have a couple of these friends and I love them.  But single issue voters of all Flavors seem to transcend Reason.)

The Left knows full well that the above described voters, while singularly supporting the automotive decal industry, vote almost always against Socialists… Almost always…  The Left also knows that should they be able to reduce the size of The Military they can claim to have “Reduced the Size of Government!” which was a tactic Bill Clinton used when he was President.  His Administration talking heads would often follow that statement up with “That’s what you Conservatives Want Right?”  No additional comment was ever allowed by the Mainstream Interviewer…

It is an issue designed to disrupt.

This is what is called a “Wedge Issue”.  Why?  Because it is design to drive a Wedge between those of us who recognize our Government, which The Military is a part of, wastes our money and those who tend to vote with us who believe The Military, which The Army is a part of, spends each and every dollar with the focused attention of a Wizened Miser.

In the end this is just an attempt by the Progressives to divide an angry voting base looking forward to nailing Liberals this election cycle while desperately trying to find issues to run on when Obama Care is their greatest success.

The fact that the Mainstream Press is playing along, as usual, with the narrative desired by the Left is no surprise… just Annoying.

Watching certain individuals out there consuming this message without any critical thought is also no surprise… just Depressing.

Having those who I respect lend to the confusion is also, unfortunately, no surprise… just Sobering.

And, I Hate to be Sober.

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Every Man a SEAL?

After reading a comment by Astronaut Mark Kelly speaking on behalf of SEAL Team 6 Alumni stating the arming of schools to be ridiculous, something struck me.  (Yes, it struck me as odd Commander Kelly would speak for SEAL’s instead of “all” the Astronauts… but whatever.)

What struck me is that everyone seems to be either a Marine or a member of SEAL Team 6.

It has reached the level of bizarre.

Let me preface these comments by saying that in my view these men are super-human. They are exceptional in ways almost all of us will never comprehend.

That being said… not everyone is a member of SEAL Team 6. Nor is every member not serving on SEAL Team 6 a Marine. (Not that being a Marine prohibits one’s membership on a Team.  Anyway…)

We have an extraordinary number of specialized troops in all the branches who see combat at the tip of the spear… among other places.

We also have a number of Specialized Marine Units… as we do SEAL Teams 1-5 and 7-?.

While I love that our troops enjoy the positive press I believe they deserve… I’m tired of the marketing push that has the public thinking we have two branches of the Service… the SEAL’s and the Marines.

In fact we have Green Beret’s, PJ’s, Rangers, Force Recon, SEAL’s and many others.  (Forgive me if I left you out… you know who you are.)  In supposition we have a number other individual and cooperative teams.  This doesn’t even begin to address other foreign service departments such as CIA, NSA, DIA etc.

No… I’m not a disgruntled Ranger chowing on sour grapes.

Actually, I’m a Fan of the Rumsfeld Doctrine… which has been a top down revision of how the U.S. views world conflict since WWII and has been embraced by Presidents Bush and Obama alike.  This Doctrine necessarily requires many specialized war fighters with greater flexibility and mobility than the traditional “2 Major War” doctrine allowed.  (Read: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife which this doctrine is based upon.)  This “new approach” has made a large number of Generals whose power and prestige was based on the amount of men and material they controlled very upset.  It’s worth noting that Bush was endlessly hammered regarding Rumsfeld’s approach to the military… yet we hear nothing about Obama’s identical embrace of Rumsfeld… He’s still at the Pentagon…  Are those crickets I hear?

My point is that there are a number of very interesting groups of people out there doing things most of us cannot comprehend.  (When I say you can’t comprehend it… you cannot comprehend it.  Seriously.  We have all done things we consider extreme, but you cannot understand.  There is a reason some of these guys have earned the nick-name Jedi Knights.)  And, we would all be better for sending a little credit their way once in while.

And now the REAL point…

Once we learn a little about our military we can then address why the State Department feels they need their own heavily armed paramilitary force, which it has been building for over 5-years now…

It’s worth asking.  Because it brings us back to Benghazi… and where are the survivors… you didn’t know there were survivors?  Surprise.

Where is the Testimony from those in the State Department who had a finger on any rescue effort.  Why have we adopted a policy that demonstrates to the world that we don’t care if you kill our diplomats?  Not only do we not care, we’ll remove any reasonable protection of them to assist in their demise, because we don’t want to appear “hostile”…. yet build a brand new, unique, army answerable only to the State Dept… only to not be used.

All I’m asking is for all of us to make an effort to know a little more about those we profess to admire… and every once in a while ask “I wonder what SEAL Team 2 is doing?” or “How are the PJ’s holding up?” or “What the hell is the State Department doing and why?”.

Cheers to all of those doing what I cannot, or will not, do on my behalf!

Thank you.

Except the State Dept. at the moment… I’m a little upset with what’s going on over there.  Good thing they don’t write my check.