Holy Smokes!

I admit, I pretty much completely forgot this blog existed. But, when you rediscover your own blog by clicking on a link in someone else's...
In case you're curious, I found it on gottagetdrunkfirst. Good read, they don't do political correctness over there.

Well, my time as the crusty old sergeant of the UAS platoon is almost up. I've all but been handed my papers, and I honestly can't say that I much mind. The military is being thoroughly neutered into this toothless, pansy-assed organization that confuses itself for anything but what it is. That, of course, is the military defenders of American freedom. We kill people and break things for freedom. I think it might depress you to realize how few troops realize that, and how many actively argue against that statement. I know it's got me scratching my head. You see, my commander-in-chief is looking at engaging us in yet another war - despite cutting troop strength and funding and basically rooting out and hunting down combat troops to give us the boot.

Now, don't get me wrong. Chemical weapons are a bad thing. There's just too many questions around this for me to agree with the deployment of US troops and materiel against ol' Assad. For starters, there's some noise that the nerve gas might have actually come from the rebels themselves. One of their own mis-handling the gas. As Leonidas of Fighting in the Shade goes into in greater depth and detail than I care to on his blog, it simply does not make sense for Assad to be gassing his enemies when he's already winning the war. If, however, you take the approach that the US government's desire is to support the Al Qaeda-backed Muslim Brotherhood, then suddenly it makes perfect sense to manufacture a reason for us to attack the Syrian regime in support of the rebels.

After all, the Syrian rebellion is the Muslim Brotherhood... much like in Egypt. This Arab Spring thing isn't turning out so hot, is it? We've got our enemies killing our enemies in Syria, and the only thing we can think to do is to start bombing everyone? As if that will somehow not make them both realize that they hate us more than they hate each other?

Like I said. Too many questions, and unlike with Iraq and Afghanistan there's neither a clear-cut goal of liberation nor a defined enemy with a present and plausible threat to America, her citizens, and her allies. I simply don't trust the Administration that gave us Fast and Furious, Benghazi, Obamacare, the IRS targeting conservatives, and so many other scandals and bald-faced lies. If lawfully ordered, I will go... but personally, this whole deal stinks worse than the porta-johns after a week in the Iraqi heat.

Assange, Manning, and why some secrets need to be kept

I saw the quoted text in the comments on another blog. My response ran long, so I'm posting it here.

"BTW, I wonder how many patriots who are currently clamoring for Wikileak's demise, would act if their actions hurt a traditional US enemy?"

To be blunt? If Assange had taken action against the MME, the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Russians, pretty much anyone we really don't get along with and will probably find ourselves in conflict against? I'd think he was a sleezeball, but at least he's our sleezeball. I find the 'crusading for truth' journalists obnoxious at best. Some things simply are best kept quiet until they can do little harm. Some things need to be out in the open. Characters like Assange rarely know the difference.
You can't draw a moral equivalency between our enemies and us (certain presidential administrations and... hell, pretty much everything in DC notwithstanding).

But then, I'm an active duty soldier. Journalists are pretty much my natural enemy, even moreso than the ones who shoot at me.

Assange, I don't harbor so much ill will against. Charge him with espionage and put him in prison. Let him write a book, make a ton of money off of it. If we can prove someone's been killed because of what he did, then by all means get him with manslaughter or second-degree murder. I don't expect him to be able to see the consequences of his actions, being that he's not military. I hold him in contempt, as he's a trussed-up little puke who thinks he's something special. I do *not* want him assassinated. We are *not* a nation of vigilantes, we are a nation of laws. He should face trial for his actions, not be declared a terrorist and gunned down. If we do that, we prove him right.

So yes, I disagree with those internet commandos lusting for Assange's blood. We were once a principled nation. Doing the right thing, the just thing, with this person will be a sign that there's something of that left.

Bradley Manning, on the other hand, is guilty of treason. The firing squad for that one. I fail to see how my coldblooded desire to see him executed for crimes not against the government, but against his fellow soldiers, separates me from 'true patriots'. The man decided that he would betray us after we entrusted him with access to a great many 'national secrets'. While they didn't show the "True face of the evil American Empire" like some have crowed (rather, they tend to affirm that we - the military, that is - are who we say we are), it's the principal of the thing. I, like Manning, am a young soldier in military intelligence with a Secret clearance. I'm a drone operator, and have seen things and will see things that the public need never know about. Like Manning, I disagree with a number of the government's policies and actions. I do not find myself overwhelmingly compelled to release a flood of classified Secret documents that do little to harm the Federal government and pose a potential risk to our allies both on the state and personal levels. Assange claims he is going through the documents to make sure that nobody's put at risk - I don't trust him, and with some of the docs I've seen rightfully so. He is not a friend of liberty, and he's no friend of justice. Neither of them. If I am able to refrain from producing such a flood of classified information, then so should Manning.

The only thing Manning accomplished with this leak was giving the government an excuse to generate more layers of secrecy and to hide things more. The government cannot be trusted with the ability to hide its actions from the people even more. It's simply human nature to abuse such power. Sometimes the government does things that need to see the light of day. People like Assange and Manning need to exercise discretion, to release those things to the public without airing out all the sundry little details of day-to-day life in the diplomatic corps, or giving out sensitive information about our TTPs and interactions with the locals. If they don't... well, the results speak for themselves, don't they?