Tag Archives: Pentagon

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9/11: spirit of national unity

We just commemorated another year since the horrific terror attack of 9/11 and today I took a member of my family to tour the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum which honors an important part of that terrible moment.

I’ve told you already that I am a big-league sap when it comes to certain events. The events usually involve profound tragedy and national responses to it. The 9/11 attacks on the Trade Center, the Pentagon and the thwarting of a fourth jetliner aimed for some DC target all bring tears to my eyes.

It’s been 24 years since the attack occurred and every one of those profound moments of resolve, of courage beyond measure of emergency responders, of a president who suddenly took command of the world’s mightiest war machine and the unity displayed in homes across the land … they all fill me with emotion that is hard to control.

This was my fourth visit to the Bush Library and Museum in Dallas. It was my family member’s first visit. He came away feeling proud of the president, who stood tall on the WTC rubble and told the crowd, “The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

As more time passes, the prouder I become of President Bush and the manner in which he handled the national trauma. Did he make mistakes in the pursuit of the mastermind of the attack? Sure. I never doubted for a moment that he put the country first as well as his commitment to protect us from further catastrophic acts of violence.

In its way, the visit today to the Bush exhbit was timed perfectly to coincide with the commemorations we experienced as we remembered the day that changed this country forever.

Indeed, we must never forget what can happen when we let our guard down.

military news

‘Common defence,’ not war

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution lays out the framework for the nation’s governing document in words that most fifth-graders can understand with absolute clarity.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence … “

I’ll stop there. The “common defence” is the operative phrase for this brief blog post.

The common defense is administered by the most lethal fighting force human history ever has seen. And yet, Donald J. Trump wants to rename our Department of Defense into the Department of War.

What is wrong with (a) that statement and (b) the nimrod who wants to refocus the Pentagon’s fundamental mission?

It was known as the War Department until after World War II, which established the United States as the world’s preeminent military power. Bar fu**ing none! Along comes Donald Trump, who wants to return to the War Department moniker that to my eyes and ears seems absurdly provocative and counterintuitive to the mission of the Department of Defense, which is to defend Americans against foreign adversaries.

None of this should surprise anyone. I’m not surprised that Trump would seek to re-brand the Pentagon, even though when he was of the age when the nation could have summoned him to go to war, he chose instead to rely on some doctor’s view that he was afflicted by those infamous bone spurs.

Those of us who did answer the call of our government should be appalled that this idiot now wants to rattle our sabers with a return to something called the Department of War. What a miserable shame.

military news

Hegseth: a disgrace to the military

Pete Hegseth’s smirking responses to serious questions from members of Congress only serve to remind many millions of us what a horrifying choice Donald Trump made in selecting him as our secretary of defense.

Trump plucked Hegseth from the weekend TV talk show ranks to put him in charge of managing the most lethal military force in human history. Hegseth entered his new job with myriad issues: questions over how he treats women; alleged drug and alcohol abuse on the job; his blatant politicization of every issue that comes across his radar; his lack of experience running an agency of any size, let alone one as massive as the Department of Defense.

Yet there he is. He lectures members of Congress on how they should conduct themselves while questioning his policy decisions. Hegseth actually has smirked and snarked his way through answers from the likes of U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who lost both legs while flying for the U.S. Army in combat in the Middle East.

I get that Hegseth earned his spurs as a weekend co-host on “Fox and Friends,” where he made a handsome living poking fun at politicians’ policies. As I watch him answer questions from House members and senators, I am struck by the perception that he still sees himself in that former role.

The dude needs to take his new gig far more seriously than he does at the moment. He fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of Naval Operations. He has yet to hire a new top sailor. When asked if an appointment is coming, all he can offer is a bland “I’ll make that decision due course.” What the hell … ?

We are in the midst of a potentially deadly crisis in the Middle East and Trump’s version of the “best people” in the Pentagon doesn’t have a clue as to what he must do to keep us all safe.

Trump keeps vowing to surround himself with “the best people.” He wants us to believe Pete Hegseth is the best person he could find to run the Pentagon?

military news

Trump’s parade falls flat

Well, kids, it turns out Donald J. Trump didn’t get nearly the birthday wish he wanted for himself with the military parade through Washington, DC, falling flat on its face.

I intend to explore briefly why that happened.

First of all, it well might be that most Americans finally — finally! — have caught on to Trump’s inauthentic and insincere reverence for the military. He evaded being drafted during the Vietnam War, citing those mysterious bone spurs. Now he’s commander in chief of the world’s mightiest military, so he wanted to stage a parade that coincidentally fell on his 79th birthday.

He said he wanted to salute the Army’s 250th birthday. You and I know the real reason. He wanted to call attention to himself. And that, I suggest, likely didn’t get past the hundreds of thousands of no-show Americans who stayed away from the event.

Trump reportedly lashed out at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the failure of the parade. No problem there. Hegseth can’t find his ass with both hands as he tries to run the Pentagon. The failure of this event goes far beyond Hegseth’s incompetence. It goes straight to the guts of the man at the top.

Trump only recently said he cannot stand the sight of wounded warriors and said he didn’t want them present for presidential photo ops. He called a Vietnam War hero, the late Sen. John McCain, a loser because he got captured — and was tortured — by the enemy. He has denigrated a Gold Star family because they are Muslim and even though the couple’s son died in combat wearing an Army uniform.

The parade was the kind of thing seen in Moscow or Pyongyang. Except that it never materialized in anything approaching the manner that Donald Trump envisioned.

I am going to hope for all my worth that Americans finally are awakening to the charade that the president of the U.S.A. has been leading.

military news

No on parade, Donald!

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Donald Trump is turning 79 years old in June. How is the dipsh** in chief planning to celebrate it? With a slice of birthday cake and a Diet Coke? Hah!

He wants to throw a parade stretching from the Pentagon to the White House. It’ll be a military extravaganza, complete with tanks, artillery p;ieces and soldiers marching.

All to commemorate the birthday of a man who:

  • Has said he doesn’t want to be photographed with wounded warriors.
  • Avoided service during the Vietnam War, citing bone spurs.
  • Has called men captured by enemy forces during war “losers.”
  • Denigrated Gold Star families who lost sons in battle.

This individual wants to spend tens of millions of dollars on a parade ostensibly to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary. In reality, he wants to stand at the center of it all and bask in the reflected glory of the men and women who defend a Constitution that Trump is seeking to shred into a million pieces.

This clown is a disgrace.

military news

Hegseth: wrong for Pentagon

One down, an untold number more to go as Donald Trump continues to spring new announcements on his Cabinet choices while preparing to become the next president of the United States.

Matt Gaetz lasted just a few days as Trump’s pick to become attorney general. Then he backed out and Trump then turned to former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department.

I want to turn my attention briefly to Pete Hegseth, another of Trump’s eyebrow-raising selections for his Cabinet. Hegseth is Trump’s pick to become defense secretary. He is a Fox Propaganda Channel weekend blowhard on “Fox and Friends.”

His nomination might be headed for the Dumpster, too.  A woman has accused him of raping her.; and he paid her money to keep quiet about an incident he says didn’t happen as she describes it. Moreover, he has said some inflammatory things about women, such as they don’t belong in combat.

Sheesh! What a clown!

I have been unable to stop thinking of a woman I know quite well who has served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is my first cousin; my mother and her father were siblings. She is retired these days and lives on the East Coast with her sons. I called her this morning to ask her; What do you think of Pete Hegseth’s comments about women in combat?

She didn’t hold back. He is unfit, she said. He has no experience, she added. Hegseth has no business being considered for a job for which he is wholly unqualified, she said.

My cousin knows a thing or three about combat. She deployed with U.S. Army Special Forces to Afghanistan before retiring from the Army as a master sergeant.

So, when my family member believes that Pete Hegseth has no business leading the world’s most lethal fighting force, well … I’ll stand with her any day of any week.

military news

Defense boss’s privacy need backfires badly

Lloyd Austin seems to have lost sight of an important fact of a grownup’s life … which is that everyone must answer to someone else.

Therefore, for the U.S. defense secretary to keep his whereabouts hidden from those to whom he reports was a serious mistake. There needs to be some action taken to prevent this kind of keep-away from ever recurring.

Austin was hospitalized for four days before the brass at the White House knew about it. He had gone into the hospital for a routine surgical procedure. He didn’t tell the fellow who hired him, President Biden, nor anyone on the president’s staff.

One of his deputies stood in for him while he was “away,” which in itself is no big deal; Cabinet officials have done more of that since the COVID pandemic ravaged the nation.

It is troubling, though, that the individual who runs the Pentagon, the nation’s military establishment, would treat his absence from public view in such a cavalier fashion. The weirdness of this episode is illustrated by the fact that Austin is a retired Army four-star general who no doubt never would tolerate such secrecy from his subordinates in the military.

Politico reports: White House and Pentagon aides insist that Austin’s job is not in jeopardy — at least not yet. But they are sticking to that line despite seeming to lack full information about what’s actually been going on at the Pentagon. The precise nature of Austin’s surgery, medical complications and even his current condition remain unclear or addressed only in vague terms. Senior Defense Department and White House officials still don’t know the details of the procedure.

What the hell? The White House still doesn’t know the “details of the procedure”? Hey, Secretary Austin isn’t some chump mid-level bureaucrat. He is sixth in line to the presidency. He runs an agency that spends about $800 billion a year to keep us safe from our enemies.

The White House needs to know at all times the defense secretary’s status. For that matter, I want — and I deserve — to know what is occurring when it involves the defense boss.

Must he be fired over this? Probably not … but damn, he needs to shed this misbegotten need for privacy.

Immediately!

military news

Tuberville: Sen. Dumbass

Tommy Tuberville has distinguished himself in a most unflattering fashion, by establishing his place as the dumbest member of the United States Senate.

The Alabama Republican has finally — finally! — begun drawing the ire of his GOP colleagues over his insane, foolish and patently stupid campaign to use the military as a forum to express his strong views against abortion.

Because Senate rules allow it, Tuberville has single-handedly blocked the promotions of hundreds of senior military officers. They include the installation of the Marine Corps commandant as well as other general-grade and field-grade officers throughout the military.

Now we are hearing from a handful of GOP senators who say that “enough is enough.”

Tuberville dislikes the military’s willingness to provide abortion counseling for military personnel who might want to terminate a pregnancy. That’s a non-starter for Tuberville, who is so adamantly opposed to abortion that he is willing to compromise our nation’s military preparedness just to make a political point.

Sen. Dumbass must end this foolishness. The Senate needs to revoke the rule that empowers this stupid behavior and imperils the readiness of the greatest military powerhouse in world history.

I accept his opposition to abortion. But to hold the military high command hostage to his opposition is (a) stupid politics, (b) dangerous to our national security and (c) makes zero sense … given all the other political options that Dumbass can exercise if he wants to end abortion.

national news

‘The Mayor’ has fallen farthest

It was striking to me as I watched the nation commemorate the 22nd year since the 9/11 attacks that one man was missing from all the ceremonies we saw.

At Ground Zero. At the Pentagon. At the field in Shanksville, Pa. Dignitaries noted the tragedy that befell the nation. They saluted the first responders. The spoke to the unity that brought Americans of all political stripes together.

Who was missing from all of this? The man we once hailed as “America’s Mayor,” Rudolph Giuliani has become persona non grata.

The more I think about it, the more I am left to conclude that no political figure has fallen farther and more dramatically than Giuliani in the 22 years since he burst on the American political scene simply by being a man of strength and dignity trying to rally New York City from the wreckage brought by the terrorists.

He would become Time’s Person of the Year in 2001 … and with great reason. He stood like a colossus over rubble where the Twin Towers once stood. Americans looked to him to provide strength that would feed the rest of us.

America’s Mayor delivered … in spades.

Now, though, he has become a ridiculous caricature of himself. He stands with a former POTUS who lost the 2020 election and proclaims that he actually won it. Giuliani has been indicted by federal and state grand juries. He is in danger of losing his law license.

Do I pity him? Do I lament his fall from the nation’s grace? Not for a second. The man made his choice willingly and I’ll presume with a clear head.

Given all the chaos that he engenders these days it would be the depth of folly for him to appear publicly to take part in events designed to remember the horrendous event that handed him the opportunity to stand tall.

America’s Mayor has become America’s Joke.

national news

Time doesn’t heal this pain

They say that “time heals” damn near all emotional pain. I’m not sure about that.

We are commemorating the 9/11 attack on our nation today. Twenty-two years ago, Islamic terrorists hijacked jetliners and flew them into the World Trade Center’s towers, into the Pentagon and then — after fighting with the passengers aboard a fourth jetliner — crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa.

All the times I have watched the horrendous video of that day, witnessing all the carnage, the panic and chaos and I still well up when I gaze on what happened that day.

Indeed, it seems to worsen with time, not the reverse.

The event has spurred me to thank firefighters and police officers when I see them going about their usual day. I have done the same to ambulance drivers, EMTs and paramedics. They all represent a segment of our society that rushed toward the danger when it exploded in front of us on 9/11.

We’ll never forget that horrendous day … and may it always bring back the pain we felt in the moment.