The View from Inside

At the risk of seeming to toot my own horn, I'm going to let ya'll know that at 2000 hours EDT tonight, (that's 8:00 PM for you non-military folks), I will have the distinct honor of joining Rurick on Cao's blogtalk radio segment. The link to listen is here.
It has a chat feature available.
(I have it on good authority that several members of the Church Ladies will be listening, and may be calling in, so I'm warning you in advance, that whatever they say about me, is probably true.)

I'm going to forgo adding to my ramblings regarding the IVAW/VVAW Winter Soldier 2 farce, and direct your attention to my good friend Rurick who spent the entire day Friday inside the belly of the beast, so to speak.

I have to warn you that Rurick goes into great detail and as a result, the piece I am directing you to is long; but well worth the read, because he describes the situation inside very well.

The link is here. Here is a sampling from the first part of his report.

Now on to the most widespread of all the alleged crimes, what I call car-icide.
Everybody has a story about shooting cars, either cars sitting by the side of the road, or speeding up and trying to dash through American convoys. Ever since the Hajjis started using cars as a major means of delivering explosives, the troops have been very sensitive about cars that fail to cooperate. Convoys are preceded and followed by vehicles bearing large signs in English and Arabic warning civilian vehicles to maintain a 50 meter distance, or so I have been told by other non-IVAW Iraqi vets. Funny that the IVAWs omitted mentioning that detail. Just as it is funny that they omit mentioning the quaint Islamic couture of suicide belts when mentioning occasions of Iraqi civilians being gunned down by US troops.

Now, between you and me and the internet, 50 meters is only, ONLY, 160 feet, (+/-). The distance from the 50 yard line to the end zone. That's called DAMN CLOSE when you're dealing with a VBIED.
And of course we have the requisite racist mind-set of America. After-all all Americans are racists right?

Of course the template requires that anything involving America must include racism to be complete. Thus we have the first speaker Hart Viges, who is at pains to denounce the term “hajji” as racist. First of all, in Arabic the term “hajji” is a title of honor, attached to the name of anyone who has made the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, though I doubt that the average American knows the significance. Or would care if he did. Fact is, in every war, both sides have some special term they use to designate the enemy. This is a common feature of us, our allies, and our enemies as well. Even as far back as 1776 when we fought the Lobsterbacks. And yes, they have always had negative terms for us as well. Logan Laituri, who seems to be a real prince of self-loathing-by-proxy made a big deal of comparing himself to a KKK member because he was more bothered by the death of a fellow American than by anonymous Iraqis. Do not let your hair down and relax with a man like that. While some of these guys might be plausible drinking companions this one seems like he would be an unbearable PC shithead.

Umm, more bothered by the death of his fellow warriors, than the death of an Iraqi, who may or may not have been a terrorist? Analyze that sentence. He's bothered by his concern for his brothers. I'm sitting here shaking my head, trying to understand that and it's going to give me a headache if I think about it for much longer, so I'm going to stop.
Go read the rest.