Soldiers, Sheriff's Deputy Clash in Fla.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Some Army reservists say they were disrespected by a sheriff's deputy who made racially derogatory remarks during a confrontation in a national forest……

……The soldiers, with the 351st Adjutant General Postal Company, said they were sent to Silver Lake Recreational Area to decide on a location for a family day picnic next month. They were in two military vehicles and one private truck…….

….The interaction between the soldiers, the sheriff's deputy and the Forest Service officer began when the soldiers drove by a drop box for a $3 entrance fee to the area…..

….The soldiers said Tuesday they didn't realize there was an entrance fee. But they also say that they were on official military business and were therefore exempt from the fee…..

….The soldiers who got the tickets were the ones driving the vehicles…..

…Russ said the deputy asked him if he could read on a ninth-grade level. Another comment that the soldiers and the two civil rights groups said had racial overtones compared the soldiers' actions to behavior of people "from the projects."….

Ok, you can read the whole story yourself and from a distance it’s impossible to really say what happened here.  But if these individuals ran though an entrance with a fee they are idiots and deserve the tickets.  The excuse that that were checking the site for a Unit party prior to deployment is weak.  First anyone with a brain knows you may be exempt but you would need to coordinate with the forestry service.  Had they simply stopped and talked to the officer at the entrance there probably wouldn’t have been any trouble at all.

I have always liked to travel.  Seeing new places is always a thrill and sometimes and education.  But traveling can be tough.  The jet lag, the food and the constraints and fun of security are not things I look forward to.  On my most recent trip I experienced all of the above and still come away feeling pretty good.

I will say however, the Boeing 747 has to be the most cramped plane I’ve flown on.  There was simply no leg room at all.  Now, I’m not a tall person and at 5’9 I was miserable on the 747.  The 777 was much better.

As to the flight crews and service, well Thai Airways has some of the best I’ve ever seen hands down.  The American Crews I encountered were hit and miss.  The Thai crew was professional, extremely courteous and right there whenever you thought you might desire something.  I was impressed.

Airport security was interesting to say the least.  Since I’m not exactly new to this I usually do pretty well getting through security without too much trouble.  I wish more people would pay attention before they fly on what you can and cannot bring with you.  The security people must get a little irritated with some of the passengers and the silly anger they have when they must remove an un-authorized item.  Of course most of these items should never be un-authorized but they are so we must deal with that.  In this regard Japan’s security was probably the nicest, while San Francisco’s was…less than stellar.  I noticed in some of the smaller countries their security resembles a jobs program.  At one place I went through at least five different security stations.  They all simply re-checked what had already been checked before.  But they were generally nice so what the hell. 

Luckily I stayed at some pretty nice hotels and cannot complain at all about any of the food I had anywhere along this trip.  Even the airline food was ok. 

I’m happy to be home.  While it can be nice to be waited on living out of a suitcase isn’t a long term love with me.  

The Gold Star Mothers have voted to allow non-us citizens to join the organization.  I wrote earlier that I would not support this group if they would not allow the mother of SSG Anthony Lagman to join.  She was a Philippine citizen and legal US Resident.  SSG was a US Citizen.  SSG Lagman died in Afghanistan in 2004.  This was the right thing to do and I’m glad to see the change take place. 

It seems that the Al-Qeda leadership in Iraq isn’t quite as committed as many of it’s members.  Abu Talha a leader in the Iraq terrorist organization was captured.  Like most of these folks he was not nearly as brave as he put on.  The reports also indicates a populace more willing to give information on terrorist in their midst.   This is of course a good sign. 

"Numerous reports indicated he wore a suicide vest 24 hours a day and stated that he would never surrender. Instead, Talha gave up without a fight," Alston said.

Talha surrendered to multinational forces in a quiet neighborhood in Mosul, Alston said, after information from Iraqi civilians contributed to his capture.

The following is from an email I was handed today.  While I don't completely agree with it, I do like the way it sounds. 

If someone puts a gun to your head and pulls the trigger, you are going to die.  Laws, public opinion, ethics, ideals, treaties, or personal preferences will not prevent your death. 

As a Buddhist sage observed, “If you understand, the world is the way it is; if you do not understand, the world is the way it is. 

The way of the world is force. You may not like that. You may choose not to believe it.  But it is true.  The world is ruled by force.   

Public opinion is worthless.  It will not stop any weapon.  Law is nothing but rules you apply after you have subdued people by force.  Laws, without being backed up by more force, are not worth the ink they’re written with. 

What keeps you alive and free are weapons and trained warriors ready to use them.  It is not economics, philosophy, ethics, negotiations, treaties or laws.  Power and the will to use it are the only things standing between us and the grave. 

People infected with peaceitis are a threat to the physical safety of themselves and their fellow countrymen.  They trying to prevent the proper arming and upkeep of our military power not only is unnecessary but is evil in itself.   

You cut a throat, the rightness or wrongness of it doesn’t matter to the dead man. He is still dead.  Whether the death is a good death or a bad death depends on whether you like or dislike the dead person.  Whether the man dies or lives depends solely on whether the knife thrust can be deflected and the knife wielder killed or disabled. 

You can’t depend on force, victims of peaceitis proclaim.  Actually, you can’t depend on anything but force.  Diplomacy works only if it’s backed by force.  Diplomacy itself is about force; the threat of force, the use of force, the direction of it.  Peace is nothing but the after math of war or the interlude between wars.  War or the threat of war is what makes a peace; or else there is no peace.  

Whether people like or hate us is irrelevant.  Our choice is to be feared.  There is no other choice. 

Back in the mid 90’s I was lucky enough to travel to a Mediterranean country for a little training exercise.  This was considered a treat since the weather would be warm and I was on a MAROPS (Maritime Operations) team and we would be doing our infiltration VIA Ch-53’s and Zodiacs.  Now I will only talk about a small incident during this exercise although there were plenty to laugh about. 

We had been in the mountains after a long hike from the beach landing site to our base camp a couple of days.  We had done our recon of our target and were about to leave for the mission.  It was a raid on a communication station located on the top of this remote mountainside.  Our foreign troops were leading this raid and we basically were just tagging along.  

I was pulling up the rear with our Warrant Officer in front of me.  We were moving down a road.  This is generally not the preferred method but the terrain was too steep for much else and by this time we had grown tired of suggesting actual tactics to your host captain.  So we said what the hell lets get this over with and get home. 

We moved out to the road and began our stroll.  After about five minutes we stopped.  Being in the rear I had no idea why.  But with these guys we seemed to stop a lot.  So I waited covering the teams’ rear area.  Finally we began moving again.  It was slow but at least this goat rope would be over soon. 

After a few more minutes my Chief (CW3) comes back to me quietly laughing, as quietly as he could anyway.  “You have to see this’, he says to me handing me his NVGs (Vight Vision goggles) “Look at the head of our line”.  I put the NVGs on and looked forward.  There in the front of our guys (both US and foreign) was their leader with a cut down tree holding it in front of him as he walked.  I couldn’t believe it.  Did he think that was good camouflage?  I guess he didn’t think a tree walking down a road with twenty guys behind would arouse suspicion.   

Chief and I pretty much quit being tactical from there on out and just enjoyed the ride. 

Aha, sorry for being gone so long folks.  I have no excuses this time.  I’ve just been busy and tired.  But for a little while I’ll get back on the horse and ride a bit. 

So let me talk a bit about sensitivity.  A lot has been spoken regarding sensitivity in the last 20 years or so.  We have been told that we must be sensitive to others.  The Army has their “Consideration Of Others” (COO) program which as far as I can tell is about spending money to put up signs of the month.  Signs like “caring”.  What that does for us I have no idea.  Everyone in politics certainly understands the need for sensitivity.  Why we must be sensitive of religion (as long as it’s not Christians or Jews) and of cultures.  But like most things do gooders have taken what should be more correctly called courtesy and turned it into propaganda misleading rhetoric. 

Take religion.  We can’t have the Ten Commandments hanging in public view or some group will protest.  They’ll claim hanging ten pretty decent rules violates religious liberty.  Somehow we are upholding religious liberty by removing Christian religious symbols.  If someone says a Christian prayer in a school or on public ground you’d think they called Satan himself to defile our families.  Yet, these same groups refuse to question the religion of Islam or its followers.  If one was to say, touch a Koran with out gloves on its major media event.  Yet we can hang a defiled cross in an art gallery and it’s free speech.  Why isn’t this hate speech?  You know I thought religious liberty meant the ability for all to practice their religion.  Humm.  I guess not. 

We must also be sensitive of the third world.  We cannot point out that most of the problems of the third world countries come directly from their own peoples, cultures and historically corrupt rulers.  No, it must be the west and particularly the United States that’s keeping them down.  Of this is while they beg for more money to sustain their corrupt or backward ways.  

Of course we know we must be sensitive to the whining little turds that can’t get over losing an election and continue to fight against freedom and democracy around the world.  Because of course they are the only ones that truly know what’s good for us all.  They are willing to tear down their brothers and sisters to win.  But don’t point out their flawed logic or you’ll be called a “Nazi”, a “neo – fill in the blank”, or a fascist.  No they have no idea what a fascist really is. 

Yes we must be sensitive and the Waco’s and the socialist. The hypocritical fundamentalist must never be challenged.  Put panties on a terrorist head and you’re a monster; cut off a civilian’s head and you’re a freedom fighter today.  Orwell would be proud. 

Sorry I’m not now nor will I become sensitive.