That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Hitoru » Sat Feb 28, 2009 5:50 am

So Old Blue, what rank are you ?
What are you? Some short sighted trigger puller? - RR3 .
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:09 am

Max, Pelton shoots back plenty. You have mistaken me for someone who really gives a fuck about HTS. It's not so much about them as about a yellow journalist who picks easy targets and tells fantastic stories. He's done this before, but nobody gives any fuck at all about Blackwater. Max, I had to google Pelton; I had no idea who he was. I didn't dislike him because I've got some kind of a grudge, or because he was trampling a program that I love. I dislike his writing because it is full of falsifications and exagerrations. It's tripe. It's not about the program; it's about the messenger.

You want to know about the program? You want to know about Sturgis? Read this:

the woman in question, Dr. Dudley-Flores, was in fact the victim of sexual harrassment, but her story about a death threat and being threatened with violence is an outright lie the other female members of HTAT are considering suing her for libel because she lied about them and about LTC Rotzoll, in an epic profanity-laden 142 page three volume sworn statement to Congress the bit about her having training in small arms and being a commissioned lieutenant is a lie she claims she was commissioned as a 2LT 25 years ago but it got lost in the mail, but by now she would be the equivalent of an LTC so she should have all the "rank privileges" of an LTC she said this to an LTC in the CJTF-101 JOC, and soon after they -- and not some Congresswoman -- cancelled her country clearance and, despite HTS (i.e. Montgomery McFate) trying to send her back in-theater, the 101st is saying they won't tolerate her presence at Bagram anyway, so that's an enormous clusterfuck that can be placed squarely at the feet of Fondacaro and McFate for ignoring repeated staff complaints about both Sturgis and Dudley-Flores (Dudley-Flores, who demands people call her "stryker" because her 28-page resume claims she invented the Stryker Brigade, was originally slated to go to Iraq because everyone in her training cycle refused to deploye with her... management had her wait three weeks then sent her to Afghanistan anyway)


Dude, that's straight of of chat, right now, from Bagram. Now, what have you got that's that fresh? What do you have that's not from a disgruntled torchbearer of some sort. There's the story from somebody on the ground right this minute. I don't have to be their flagbearer to be connected. Can I swear that this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Nope. Not claiming to... but some things start to make sense when you talk to more people than just the woman who is all burned up about the end result. Max, they fired her for a reason. They both should have been fired before that. There's a shock. The program has problems... I don't care.

What set me off about Pelton was the obvious flight of fancy in his writing. He's feeding Americans bullshit... and it was not to do any good, Max.

Now, if Sturgis writes some bullshit article, you just let me know and I'll be happy to deconstruct him, too. In the meantime, you need to quit taking Stanton seriously just because he is saying what you want to hear. Yes, praising Putin is a clue. If that's what you like, then that's just fine for you. I think it's asinine and incomprehensible, but I hate socialism and everything that relates to it. I believe in liberty and that means for you, too.

It's not about the program, Max. I'm not invested in that. I'd like to see the info provided go to good use, and if you have read me recently you do see criticism of my Army from me. It's not about the program; it's about the lies. It's about the conniving. It's about the man who points the "war profiteer" finger at others hypocritically. He still refuses to answer the simple question: what were you selling to ISAF?

If I were him I wouldn't answer either. Written notes from a drunk-dialed phone call are admissable. In your zeal to mess with the program, Max, you are missing the point. Pelton was not carrying any message meant to improve anything. He never addressed organizational problems, he attacked people. That's all . Glad you got a kick out of it. You want insider news from an HTT on that issue you are so concerned about? See the paragraph above.

Wanna ask him a question? I'm on Google chat with him right now. Fire away.

Wait till the Army clears that LT. Wanna see some fireworks? Stick around. Someone didn't read the definition of libel. It wasn't me.


19D20... SFC... 11B48. I take it you're an E-5 Scout?
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:17 am

Here's some more, Max.

me: yeah. he's probaby getting his news straight from the cow's mouth. I mean horse's. Pardon me.
Sent at 1:08 AM on Saturday
XXXXXXX: no, he does that
all of Stanton's other articles are very obviously cut and pasted directly from emails (even the language is unchanged, and has wild swings of tone and voice)
he's so bad at concealing his sources that every time he writes something we know exactly who leaked it
so people have begun getting fired for it... which results in more "sources say" articles from him about how the people are so very persecuted



So now we see how deep the shit starts to get. And there's Stanton, the reliable journalist, all ready to take advantage of it. You want to see someone with an unnatural fascination? What's his deal with the program? Look at how much he's written about it.

That's weird, man.

Here's a question: are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Are you offering any help? Is Stanton? Do either one of you have anything constructive to say other than bitching about neocolonialism? Come on, Max.
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:28 am

Ask Stanton about Lisa Verdon feeding him info from inside HTS for his Pravda articles. Word is his hard-on for HTS stems from her firing.

I'm starting to think that all anthropologists are freaks.
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:34 am

Word is

stunning fact checking....almost as good as 'well, everybody knows'

ru·mor
n.
1. A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth.
2. Unverified information received from another; hearsay.

fact
n.
1. A real occurrence; an event:
2. The aspect of a case at law comprising events determined by evidence
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:39 am

Roger, I'm tracking, Coldharvest.

Stanton's stuff? Fact checked? Doesn't sound like it. I'm getting stuff in real time here that is at odds with his stuff... and this person's got no skin in that game at all. Who would be lying? The fired one with the grudge, or someone who watched from a detached position? Just wondering.

I think that a court will find that an Army conclusion that a Lieutenant was not drinking to be a finding of fact significant enough to determine that someone put forth an assertion that was known to that person not to be true, and I think that the results demonstrate that the individual was damaged as a result of said untruth. Hmmm. Just sayin...
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:43 am

Roger, I'm tracking, Coldharvest.

Thank you Sir.


So Old Blue, what would you do about Afghanistan?
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:48 am

Personally, I'm going back. Working on it, anyway.

If I were Fuhrer, I'd make my Army do real COIN and base success on what the people in each area said about their security at the end of the tour. Poor security? Fired Colonel. It's not about how many you kill or how many missions you do. It's not about how much HA you drop off (Humanitarian Assistance.) That's just trying to buy off the locals. It's about being there for them in the middle of the night, when the night letters come.

That's the little picture. If you want big picture, listen to Kilcullen. The guy knows exactly what he's talking about. This is the cat's shit:

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/0 ... istanpaki/

In the meantime I'm not Fuhrer, so I'm just going to do what I can do. Train Afghans to take care of their own shit so that we can leave eventually.

I dunno. Did I answer your question?
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:06 am

I dunno. Did I answer your question?

Yes Sir, very well.
Good stuff, I wish you Godspeed in your endeavours and I already read smallwarsjournal (don't tell anyone).
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:08 am

Coldharvest wrote:
I wish you Godspeed in your endeavours


Thank you, Sir.

What did you think of the "point/counterpoint" between Nagl and Bacevich? I thought it was apples and oranges. Barely the same subject.
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:17 am

Old Blue wrote:
Coldharvest wrote:
I wish you Godspeed in your endeavours


Thank you, Sir.

What did you think of the "point/counterpoint" between Nagl and Bacevich? I thought it was apples and oranges. Barely the same subject.

Nagl is a 21st century Jomini and 'Eating Soup with a Knife' was one of the best books I've read in years
I agree with Bacevich in his 'blanket responsibility approach' and his warning about the social consequences of unconsidered military action.
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:28 am

I can see that. I happen to agree with Nagl and Kilcullen in that Afghanistan, while not traditionally (old fashioned geopolitics) critical, is key to preventing the ability of extremists to have a "homeland." A country that they can have for themselves, govern themselves, and be the dark place where the cockroaches breed and venture forth from. If we leave it a mess, we will live with insecurity. What happens in little backwater countries can affect us here more than ever before.

The world is getting smaller.

The solution is not purely military, and that has been our glaring mistake throughout this whole "Global War on Terror." We sauntered into Iraq with one hand tied behind our backs, showing off to the world the potency of our conventional might. Completely missed the point. Sort of the same in A'stan. We half-assed it militarily (except for building the ANA; that's a success story) and have not put nearly enough into the civilian/governance side. The Russians kicked our ass in the provision of electrical power, for instance. Our failure as an Army and as a nation to grasp COIN is what leaves us open to both failure and criticism as an occupying force, which we are not there to be.

I think Kilcullen is spot-on about Pakistan. Hope they listen to him.

What would you do about Afghanistan?
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:41 am

What would you do about Afghanistan?

Make the ANA even stronger, encourage the reformation of Baluchistan, check Pakistan, bring in Iran for reconstruction projects, get rid of the Karzai Family heroin machine, establish legal pharmaceutical poppy growing and buy more rugs.
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby Old Blue » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:59 am

I'm hip on all of that except the reformation of Baluchistan. I'd like to hear why you bring that up. Rather uncommon, and I'm interested to hear it.

I've advocated involving the Iranians in establishing / reforming the (Sharia based) MoJ. We have no ability to mentor Islamic judges, and their court system is fucked. We don't like the Iranian court system, but it's more like what the Afghans actually prefer. The Afghans weren't as hung up on the differences between Shia and Sunni except for the extremists, anyway. The courts, especially the corruption in the courts, are a big IO gain for the Taliban. In areas where the Taliban are strong enough, one of the first things that they do is set up courts... and they get business. That's really bad for the government, because one whole leg of the three-legged stool becomes irrelevant. Classic Maoist insurgent tactics, and we are being schooled.

The Iranians could be engaged in a non-military way to take a responsible role in their own back yard and it would probably open a dialogue. There are many who vehemently disagree on this point with me, but that's what I think could be a solution.

What we're doing now isn't working. We're not doing anything to fix the MoJ.


Oh... don't forget the grapes. Afghanistan was the leading exporter of raisins in the '70's. They love their kishmish. Taliban put a stop to that; afraid people would make wine. They probably did. I heard that some very good wines were made in Afghanistan. "Word is..."
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Re: That Wilfred Brimley Moment..

Postby coldharvest » Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:04 am

Rather uncommon, and I'm interested to hear it.

Refocusing of the Taliban/Pashtun and a 'fuck you very much' for the Paks.
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