Category Archives: military news

International news, military news

Biden gives speech of his life?

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Jim Boyd once wrote editorials for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

He is a friend of mine; I have known Boyd for more than 30 years. He and I have one other thing in common — besides being former editorialists. We served in Vietnam; both of us were in the Army. Boyd worked in “the bush”; I did not.

My friend today endorsed President Biden’s speech to the nation about the tragedy in Afghanistan. Boyd takes a different view than what I have expressed. I want to share it here. It’s a brief Facebook post, so bear with me.

Biden just gave the best foreign policy speech of my lifetime. He learned the lessons of Vietnam and Iraq — needlessly spending the lives of Americans and residents of those countries in pursuit of mistaken policies — and then he applied it in mission-creeped Afghanistan. It was the clearest, truest statement on refusing to waste American lives I have ever heard. And I have been listening since I went in the Army in 1968. Bravo, bravo, President Biden.

The president’s decision to pull our forces out of Afghanistan was a sound call. I would argue only that the logistics of the withdrawal has been, shall we say, clumsy.

The criticism of the president’s policy pronouncement has centered on the lack of planning for the protection of the thousands of allies we employed while fighting the Taliban. They served as interpreters, deep-cover operatives, staff personnel. They want out of Afghanistan. President Biden did not produce an evacuation plan prior to making his decision to pull out. Should he have done so in advance? Of course!

However, what I heard today from the president was a clear and unambiguous statement of ownership of a critical decision, just as President Kennedy took the heat for the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961. President Biden stood strongly behind his decision to end a war that had become something that one of his predecessors, George W. Bush, didn’t foresee … at least not publicly.

Indeed, President Bush pulled his own eyes off the target when he ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 on the double-barreled phony mantra that (a) Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and (b) he had something to do with the 9/11 attacks.

So, our nation’s war effort in Afghanistan has ended. There will be no more American lives lost on this particular far-away field of battle.

I join my friend in saying, “Bravo, President Biden.” 

military news

No ‘They died in vain’ rhetoric

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Forgive me if I am getting ahead of myself, but I want to lay down an important marker while the world watches the Taliban take control of Afghanistan provincial capital by provincial capital.

If the worst comes true and the Taliban seize control of the Afghan government, I am going to predict we’re going to hear critics of President Biden’s decision to pull our forces off the battlefield say something akin to this:

“Our young men and women we lost in that war will have died in vain.” 

Can you hear it, too? Of course you can.

I want to say that no matter how this tragedy ends that none of our gallant and brave warriors died “in vain” on the Afghan fields of battle. They died while fighting terrorist monsters who used Afghanistan as a safe haven while they plotted attacks against us. Those attacks culminated in what occurred on 9/11.

Indeed, the “died in vain” mantra we likely will hear from right-wing critics of President Biden’s decision denigrates the service of the thousands of young Americans who perished in defense of our nation and in defense of the Afghan people.

We heard after the Vietnam War that the 58,000 young Americans who died in that conflict did so “in vain.” It enraged me when I heard it then. I lost colleagues in that war. Their deaths, while tragic, occurred as they were upholding the oath they took when they joined the military. That oath compelled them to follow lawful orders and to defend the nation against our enemies.

That is in no way “dying in vain!”

Nor did the Americans who died in Afghanistan die “in vain.” They died heroically and with honor. That is how they must be remembered.

International news, military news

Confused and frightened

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The pending withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan has me confused and frightened.

The frightening aspect comes with the advance of Taliban forces that are taking city after city in their march toward reasserting control over a country we thought we had “liberated” when we invaded it shortly after 9/11 … which was nearly 20 years ago.

The Taliban are set to take control of Kabul, the capital city of the embattled nation perhaps in the next few weeks.

The Taliban is about as evil and vile as any group on Earth. Thus, it frightens me in the extreme to see what might happen to Afghanistan if the Taliban retake control of the country.

My confusion stems from the fact that we went through three presidential administrations overseeing our combat role in Afghanistan. From George W. Bush, to Barack H. Obama and then to Donald J. Trump our forces were thought to be helping prepare the Afghan forces to defend their country against the Taliban. Joe Biden took office in January and declared our intention to pull out before the 20th year commemorating the 9/11 attacks that precipitated our involvement in our longest war.

Did we waste all that time, money, effort and blood by failing to train and equip the Afghan forces adequately?

To be brutally candid, I am wondering if the Biden administration truly understood the gravity of the Taliban’s military capability when it decided to end our involvement in this drawn-out fight.

I want our troops to come home. I also had hoped we could leave Afghanistan in a position to defend itself. My first wish is about to come true. The second wish makes me wonder about the wisdom of what we were doing there in the first place.

medical news, military news

Military to order vaccines

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Imagine you’re serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Your commanding officer or the non-commissioned officer in charge of your unit notices your boots aren’t shined properly. He or she orders you to shine ’em up, make ’em look pretty, shine them so you can see your face reflected back at you.

You do what you’re told, right? It’s a lawful order … which is why they call them “orders.” You are required to follow all lawful orders.

So it is that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has declared that every member of the U.S. armed forces — all 1.4 million men and women — will be required to be vaccinated against the COVD-19 virus and the assorted variants that are making Americans sick. That, too, is a lawful order.

I applaud the defense secretary — a retired four-star Army general — for issuing this order. He knows of which he speaks.

Is this going to mean that every soldier, sailor, Marine, Coast Guardsman, airman or space guardian will follow those orders without challenging them? Oh, probably not. We do live in a weird world that politicizes everything.

If they refuse, then their senior officers and NCOs need to take matters into their own hands and force them to be vaccinated.

Then they should toss the proverbial book at them.

International news, military news, national news

Biden keeps key promise

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

One of the few policy notions from the 45th president of the U.S. with which I agreed dealt with pulling out of “endless wars.”

He made the pledge while running for the presidency in 2016. He kept saying he would do so while serving in the office. He didn’t quite deliver on the pledge.

Today, his successor — President Joe Biden — announced that our involvement in the Afghan War ends on Aug. 31. Period. Full stop.

There will be no more U.S. troop presence on the battlefields there, President Biden told us.

And so, our nation’s longest war — which commenced our war against international terrorism — is coming to an end. There will be no victory declaration. Nor will there be, as Biden told us, any helicopters lifting off from rooftops as there was in Vietnam in April 1975.

Biden has pledged to help provide shelter for the Afghans who helped our military effort during the two decades we fought there, although the plan for providing that aid hasn’t yet been fully developed.

I endorse the pullout. The time has come for the Afghans to defend themselves. We have trained an army, provided an air force and are leaving them with resources to fight the Taliban terrorists who do present an existential threat to the government in Kabul.

Our longest war is about to end. It fills me with relief.

military news

Shut up … Mr. Ex-POTUS!

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The moron who once served as commander in chief is known already to be off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

Now he needs to shut his pie hole and leave policy and personnel decisions to those who succeeded him and his gang of thieves.

POTUS 45 now says Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley should resign because he has spoken out against those who question whether he is sufficiently patriotic. “Gen. Milley ought to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag,” Trump wrote in a statement sent out by his Save America PAC about the four-star general, who he appointed to the nation’s top military post in 2019 over the objections of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Oh, my.

Trump calls on Milley to resign after report of a shouting match between the two (msn.com)

The ex-president is unhinged, unshackled and unashamed of his own conduct. If given a chance to choose between the one-time Carnival Barker in Chief and a man who has served with distinction and honor in the U.S. Army … well, I’ll go with the general.

military news

Stand tall, Gen. Milley

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The very idea of leading right wing pundits — none of whom has a moment of military service in their background — criticizing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he tells the truth about racism in this country is reprehensible on its face.

Army Gen. Mark Milley testified this week before a House committee about “critical race theory” and whether it should be taught at West Point and other institutions of higher learning. He said, without hesitation, that “yes,” it should be taught.

Then he went after congressional critics who allege that the military, which Milley has served with honor and distinction for more than 30 years, has become a victim of the “woke” theory of progressive thought. He said he takes “offense” at such notions.

That hasn’t stopped the likes of Fox News’s Tucker Carlson who calls Milley “a pig” who also is “stupid.” Fox’s Laura Ingraham also weighed in with her brand of right-wing idiocy. Let’s not forget that Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — who faces potential charges of sex trafficking — chastised Milley’s comments on specious, dubious and spurious grounds as well.

I want to point something out about Gen. Milley.

If you look at the right sleeve of his dress greens, you see multiple hash marks, each one of which represents six months of service in a war zone. By my count, I figure Milley has thrust himself in harm’s way a total of four years. Also, take a gander at the “fruit salad” collection of medals over his left breast pocket. They include a Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Oh, and on his left sleeve you’ll see a Rangers and a Special Forces patch.

I understand fully that those do not inoculate any service member from criticism … when it is warranted. Gen. Mark Milley is a soldier’s soldier who speaks truth to power.

As for his critics, they need to look inward and ask themselves: Do I really need to go there?

military news

Watch and listen to this video

By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

The link I am attaching to this very brief post is an interview with President Barack Obama and Navy Admiral William McRaven.

They are looking back 10 years since the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. It is heartfelt. It tells us how the two men felt as they were about to make decisions that could have gone badly but instead ended with the death of the 9/11 mastermind.

10 Years Later: President Obama and Admiral Bill McRaven reflect on the bin Laden Raid – YouTube

It’s about 14 minutes long. It is worth your time to watch.

military news

Happy 100th birthday

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The sailor in this picture would be turning 100 years old today.

He is my Dad. It is a strange juxtaposition that he would be celebrating this landmark birthday on Memorial Day weekend.

To be sure, Dad did not die while fighting the tyrants who sought to destroy the world during World War II. So, the Memorial Day holiday doesn’t honor his service during that time of mortal peril. Nevertheless, I do want to call attention to the service he performed while fighting for the country he loved with a passion.

Dad didn’t make it to 60. He died more than 40 years ago in a freak boating accident.

However, he was my favorite veteran, but you know that already about him. What I have shared already, too, is that he volunteered for service to his country on the very day that Japan attacked our fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Dad was 20 years of age on Dec. 7, 1941. He was attending the University of Portland (Ore.) when he decided that his college education could wait; he had another, more pressing “education” awaiting him in Africa, Europe and then the Philippines.

I wish I could offer birthday greetings to Dad directly today. I cannot. I can honor his time on Earth by recalling the service he performed heroically during our nation’s darkest time.

So that is what I will do. I also will offer a birthday greeting to a man I miss every day.

military news

Bin Laden raid, plus 10

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My goodness, has it really been 10 years since our special operations guys killed the world’s most wanted man and most despicable terrorist?

Yep. Time does fly.

Oh, how I remember where I was when the world heard the news about the death of Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind and al-Qaeda leader.

We were in our Amarillo, Texas, living room that night watching a bit of prime-time TV. Then we got word of a pending announcement from the White House. Hmm. I thought, “Hey, this is Sunday. What in the world are they going to announce on a Sunday night?” Then it dawned on me. I turned to my wife and I said, “I think they got bin Laden!”

It had been nearly a decade since the 9/11 attack. Three jetliners flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth airplane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought with the terrorists. That day is seared in our national memory. I can barely watch to this day the footage of the WTC towers burning and then collapsing.

As for bin Laden’s death and the skill of the Navy SEALs, the CIA commandos and the Army Delta Force pilots that night remain equally seared in my memory.

I recall vividly the sight of President Obama striding to the podium that evening to deliver the news and to assure the world that the fight against those who followed bin Laden’s perversion will continue. The president told us later in a “60 Minutes” interview that the first person he called once he knew our forces had cleared Pakistani airspace was President Bush, on whose watch the 9/11 attack occurred. Obama gave appropriate credit to the diligence of our anti-terror network that had worked since the attack and eventually found bin Laden.

Although bin Laden is dead, the network he led is still alive, although it has been significantly downgraded in the years since our special forces killed bin Laden. The fight has gone on since that raid, beyond the Obama administration. Indeed, the Trump administration also had a hand in wiping out the terrorists’ high command when it sent forces in to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State.

The fight must go on, even as the Biden administration prepares to remove the last of our troops from Afghanistan, where they were dispatched immediately after the 9/11 attacks to take down the Taliban government that gave bin Laden’s goons the safe harbor from which they plotted their attack against us.

I want to mark this date, though, as one that demonstrates the enormous skill of our military and intelligence forces who — when given the order to do the seemingly impossible — answered the call.