Category Archives: War

For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned

America, BAB's A List, Ethics, Fascism, Military, Nationhood, War

Robert Glisson rides with the ““Patriot Guard Riders.” I do not identify with the military mission, but who can fault the humanity of the effort?

For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned
BY ROBERT GLISSON

The late October morning sky over northern Oklahoma is overcast as you follow the bikes in staggered formation, onto the Air Guard base. They make a circle and line up on each side of the exit concourse behind the guard shack that splits the exit from the entrance. The rumble of Harleys in neutral is heard, as the heavy bikes are backed to the curb, nose pointed toward the exit at a forty-five degree angle. Silence returns as one by one the kickstands drop and the riders unhorse.

Ride Captains in maroon caps begin passing US Flags on eight foot PVC shafts to the riders quietly. Two lines of scruffy men and women dressed in black leather or dark waterproof raingear line themselves ten feet apart smoothly, quietly on each side of the street, forming a corridor of red-white-and blue a hundred and twenty feet long. Hardly a word is spoken, as the flags begin gently waving in the cool damp fall breeze.

Two Senior Ride Captains begin an inspection walk inside the corridor of proud, straight figures. Many of the men and women have lost the battle with gravity and the razor; but, the grip on the staff is steady, the eyes focused on a point a thousand yards away. Satisfied that the formation is ready, the SRCs walk back slowly to the line’s tail, stopping at each flag to personally thank the rider holding the flag for his or her time.

The backs of vests and jackets of the riders carry multiple Colors, insignia and rockers; American Veterans MC; American Legion; The Priesthood; Christian Motorcycle Association; Faith Riders; Mongols Vandals; Outlaws; Forgotten Few. Some are loners- no colors, no rockers, nothing to show any association or organization or location; but, all are part of the Patriot Guard Riders at this time. Patriot Guard Riders in Oklahoma do not wear colors and have no identification insignia. PGR in other states do wear colors; for states membership is free; 264 K members at this time, not all attend missions.

It begins to rain lightly, fingers get colder and stiffer, but the line holds steady. An Air Force lieutenant exits the Administration building, speaks briefly to the captains and returns to his warm office. “The Angel Flight (Plane carrying the soldier’s body) was delayed in its take-off from Dover AFB. They will be at least fifteen minutes late.” The line of men and women holds. Twenty minutes later, “The flight is delayed due to the heavy cloud cover over the country. It will be another fifteen minutes.”

The line holds quietly, no one complains.

The PGR line remains still and quiet in the drizzle as the Airmen jostle into position to form another honor line. A sergeant with the Air Guard News appears with his camera. The PGR has stood for approximately an hour so far. “The plane is now on the runway, the Military Honor Guard is transferring the coffin to the coach. They should be here in fifteen-twenty minutes. Ten minutes later the rain slacks off and riders can now hold their head fully upright without having to blink away the rain.

The procession stops just pass the line and before the exit unto the city street. Young Airmen quickly come, take the flags from the riders. Bikers now freed, hasten to the waiting wet bikes, brush off the seats and mount up, denim against wet leather. The air is filled with the sound of motorcycles forced into a hasty warm-up by their owners. The V-Twins respond eagerly. Within moments the line of flag-carrying motorcycles is moving up past the coach into lead position. The law enforcement vehicles will take a position at least five hundred feet ahead to protect, but stay apart from the procession. Without a word, the bikes roll out onto the wet pavement, wet flags attached to the rear, trying to wave in the dismal, damp air as they begin a forty mile highway escort, taking a fallen warrior home.

Another day, servicemen and women exit an aircraft and walk through a double line of flag-bearing PGR to welcome them home or, if leaving, walk through the same line to board a plane to their duty station. Older PGR Captains, assume the position of fathers to reassure the serviceman’s wife that the separation is only temporary and that their husband will return, just as they did long ago.

This is the Patriot Guard Riders, a volunteer group of citizens, mostly ex-military and motorcyclist but not necessarily either one. The PGR is formed to support veterans. Originally formed to shield the family of soldiers killed in action from protestors at funerals, it has grown to honor and respect all veterans and servicemen. Non-political, it contains men and women of all political, religious, and opinion stripes. Ex-service salute, civilians place their hands over their hearts, all show respect.

It is said that the US is the only country to have barn raisings. I can’t say that for sure. But I can say that the volunteer spirit in the United States is second to none. Most of this country was built by individuals working with other individuals long before governments were formed. Some feared that without the draft, there would be no military. They missed the spirit of the people who love their country and countrymen. The Patriot Guard Riders is only one organization among many. Habitat for Humanity is a ‘barn raising’ group of volunteers that now covers the world. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the Southern Baptist Disaster Crews: These are but a few organizations that reflect the ‘Spirit of America. There Civil War Enactors, Single Action Pistol associations, the clubs, Masons, Rotary, Lions, Moose, Eagles, Knights of Columbus, etc. It is that American spirit that says “Get up, make a difference.”

It is the true spirit of this country.

*********
Robert Glisson is a retired Oklahoma Probation and Parole Officer, fiction writer, vineyard worker (you don’t own it, it owns you), amateur wine maker (you have to drink your mistakes, whoopee), and biker by choice. He is also a longtime reader of Barely A Blog. Robert served in the US Navy between 1960-1964, inactive reserve 65-66- 66-68.

To Be Or Not To Be In Benghazi: That’s The Question

Democracy, Democrats, Government, libertarianism, Media, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, Republicans, Terrorism, The State, War, Welfare

“To Be Or Not To Be In Benghazi; That’s The Question,” and that’s the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

The gist of a cable received by the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on August 16 this year, summarized an emergency meeting convened a day before at the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The post could not be defended in the case of a coordinated attack. Such an attack was in the air, as Benghazi was home to “approximately ten Islamist militias” raring to go. The compound was small and understaffed. It lacked “the manpower, security measures, and weapons capabilities” to repel an all-out assault.

The cable laid out before Mrs. Clinton’s Emergency Action Committee what Fox News’ Catherine Herridge described, on Oct. 31, as “specific warnings” and “detailed intelligence.”

Fox News has been covering the Benghazi story wall-to-wall; the other cable news stations not at all. However, one specific snippet buried in the telegram was too fraught for the folks at Fox to probe.

In “liberated” Libya, the American outpost was also up against limited “host nation support.”

This was a coordinated attack on a despised presence, timed for the 9/11 anniversary. Living under de facto American occupation had enraged the occupied. Anathema to “free” Americans, this generic creature had evinced similar rage when he lived under Genghis Bush, in Iraq.

At first, the eminence grise of American opinion makers—left and right, Republican and Democrat—got behind the central conceit floated by the Obama Administration. The Arab world had once again erupted because of those of us who dared to insult Mohammad, Jihad’s muse. As the other set of despots used to intimate during its tenure in D.C., the perennial Muslim rioter resented the freedoms of our pole dancers, potty-mouthed entertainers, and loud, loutish politicians.

From the stuff that makes us “free,” these proxies for American power always exclude the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), authorized to hound us till end of the world, the alphabet soup of regulation agencies that prosecutes and regiments our best and brightest to the gills, the War on Drugs that assumes dominion over the most precious piece of real estate we own—our bodies—a welfare state that has been likened “not [to] a principality, but [to] a vast empire bigger than the entire budgets of almost every other country in the world,” and a warfare complex that gobbles up so much wealth and so many men, ours and others around the world.

As soon as it was discovered that these things—the accoutrements of a “wonderfully” messy democracy—could not be blamed for the attack on the Benghazi Mission, most media fell silent. …

The complete column is“To Be Or Not To Be In Benghazi; That’s The Question.” Read it on WND now.

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UPDATED: Benghazigate And The Media (Who Are Seasonal Defenders Of D.C. )

Democrats, Foreign Policy, Journalism, libertarianism, Media, Middle East, Propaganda, Pseudo-history, Republicans, War

“Barack Obama is a despicable man.” These are the words of the always outspoken and interesting Michael Scheuer (a staunch, pro-military Old Rightist, whose patriotism often leads him to conspiratorial anti-Israelism).

Scheuer was on Fox Business discussing Benghazigate.

Fox News is covering the Benghazi story wall-to-wall; the other cable news stations not at all.

This reportorial bifurcation is pretty typical of mainstream media, which includes Fox, of course. In the ramp-up to a Republican president’s unjust war on Iraq, Fox gave the Shrub and his administration a complete pass, while The Other Cable TV stations exposed the corrupt Republicans quite well.

“Reporters who slept with their sources,” “PRESSTITUTES,“ bobble-heads who were “TUNED-OUT, TURNED-ON, AND HOT FOR WAR”: These were some of the terms I used in 2003 and onward for Fox News:

“… to watch these women doing the Countdown to Obliterating Iraq segments was like watching bitches on heat. One anchorwoman’s memorable Freudian slip was to express disappointment that there was as yet no “evidence that’ll give us an excuse [her words] to attack Iraq.” On and on. (Collated in Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With a Corrupt Culture.)

Most of my information about Iraqi civilian casualties came from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. American mainstream media was generally missing in action on that front.

“ON PIMPS AND ‘PRESSTITUTES’” encapsulates the US media’s reporting during the invasion of Iraq, RIP:

…The monolithic quality of the reporting/cheerleading coming from the networks was and still is proof of the slutty sell-out. Practically all network embeds focused exclusively on the pentagon’s version of who did what, when, and how. Logistics usurped real issues; spectacle replaced substance, as the viewer was subjected to a perspective as monochromatic as the green of the night vision optics. …
…Reporting hearsay as truth and failing to verify stories has also been part of the networks’ war effort. A Geiger counter that went off in the inexpert hands of a marine was broadcast as possible evidence of weapons-grade plutonium. Every bottle of Cipro tablets became a likely precursor to an anthrax factory. Anchormen and women somberly seconded these “finds,” seldom bothering to issue retractions for misinforming the viewing public.

Then the guard changed. To American pundits (libertarians excepted), the changing of the guard in D.C. simply means a change of positions. Whereas MSNBC and CNN were more likely to expose the Bush Administration, they quickly assumed the position previously occupied by the Fox News network during the Bush years: defenders of D.C.

The pundits you follow, libertarains excepted, are all seasonal defenders of D.C.

To sum, Benghazi is a scandal. Fox News has been reporting (diligently, since their guy is NOT in D.C.) that: “…an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command — who also told the CIA operators twice to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to “stand down.”

Try to remember: The White House Situation Room, the State Department, CIA and Pentagon were just as good at forsaking Americans during the other bastard’s reign of terror.

For example, “Under ‘W,’ ordinary Americans were regularly beheaded in the theaters of war Genghis Bush launched. None of their representatives stateside bargained for their lives or staged showy Congressional hearings to probe their forsaken security.”

My hope is that the same readers who tried to have me dismissed from WND, during the Republican occupation of America, will elevate themselves above their current political preference and see the thing for what it is.

UPDATE (Oct. 27): If not for RT, we’d be as deaf and dumb (as ex-Facebook Friend, HJ) about the humanitarian disaster unfolding, a la Iraq, in Lebanon. Another Syria. Or rather, another Iraq. Read about the “Siege of Bani Walid.” Watch the visuals of the maimed and dead. Babies too.

To Be Or Not To Be In Benghazi; That’s The Question

Barack Obama, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Terrorism, War

Benghazigate is a minor issue in the grand scheme of American politics. The Dems and Republicans are arguing not over principles but over procedural mishaps. In other words: What happened? How did it happen? Who covered it up? How do we go back to doing what we did before IT happened. (“IT” being the Sept. 11 attack on the American embassy that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.)

Viewed through the two-party prism, America wants to know how it can get diplomatic immunity from the dangers of occupation and interventionism. That’s all.

Likewise, the megalomaniacal media is not for peace; it’s for Barack Obama. They’ve depicted this war president as your good kind of killer; a thoughtful, great leader who agonizes over his kill lists with excruciating care.

Tomorrow’s final presidential debate at Boca Raton, Fla., will revolve around foreign policy. Unless Mitt Romney flip-flops to articulate a patriotic, non-interventionist policy; one that is antithetical to BHO’s—he’ll be playing second fiddle to Obama, as far as the American people are concerned (mainstream media already hates him).

It’s inevitable.

The other, more realistic strategy that might see Mitt Romney tied for the trophy is to go for the president’s jugular on Benghazigate. This might work for him.