tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137830622024-03-07T23:48:03.990-05:00Ripe ScribeRipescribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08772187911815434854noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13783062.post-1155351850591935572006-08-11T22:04:00.000-05:002006-08-11T22:04:10.656-05:00Did Hugh Thompson receive the same treatmentArticles like this make me wonder if all of the Professional Military Education instructors fed us a hypocritical pant load of while teaching us the "Law of Armed Conflict" classes. Question is, would they do the right thing like this guy and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson,_Jr.">CWO Thompson</a>, or be good Germans like the good people of Cumberland and his fellow GIs. <br />Before we go on, let me point out a few historical facts:<br />The war crimes tribunals held through out the Pacific after WW2, Japanese camp guards were executed for treating their prisoners in the exact same fashion<br />Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11<br />Iraq was no threat to us or anyone else<br />Cheney lied when he connected Iraq to Al Qada<br />He lied when he denied it<br />Bush lied (or more likely, blindly parroted what others told him) about everything<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060810/D8JDN2BG0.html">Excite News - GI Who Exposed Abu Ghraib Feared Revenge</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- SiteSearch Google -->
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</div>Ripescribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08772187911815434854noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13783062.post-1123294373217295662005-08-05T21:06:00.000-05:002005-08-05T21:12:53.223-05:00R2D2 Gets His Wings<span style="font-family:arial;">Have you ever wondered why R2D2 doesn’t fly the X-wing fighter? Every time I watch one of the Star Wars movies, I ask myself the same question. Here is a galaxy of technologically advanced civilizations with robots (droids) like C3P0 and the soldier droids like the ones that fights the Trade Federation’s battles, why not have unmanned fighters?. Think that is over the top? Check this out from "<a href="http://mae.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Archives&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=86890">Military & Aerospace Electronics</a>."</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- SiteSearch Google -->
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</div>Ripescribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08772187911815434854noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13783062.post-1121299777542679792005-07-13T22:06:00.000-05:002005-07-13T19:09:37.546-05:00digression on first post<span style="font-family:arial;">My first post reminded me of when I was deployed during the first Gulf War. I spent most of the war at a C-130 transport base well out of SCUD range. Although we were nowhere near a city and our mess hall was a series of tents that looked like something out of a MASH rerun. All of the cooks were fellow GIs we E-4 and below types helped out with KP. Although breakfast included the infamous powdered eggs, which introduced me to British cold cereals. Dinner was dinner with steaks every Friday. Lunch on the other hand, was different. In addition to the usual fare, they had a deli that would put Subway to shame. How they found and bought fresh lettuce, tomato, and other veggies out in the middle of nowhere, is still a mystery to me. A few months after the cease fire, my base closed down and most of us started going home. A couple of folks and I moved to another base that had nicer facilities and air conditioned barracks that were not tents. The food did not match the creature comforts. While I'm sure the underpaid and overworked Filipinos and Pakistani guys that worked for whoever had the contract did the best they could with what they had to work with, their bosses ensured that the menus were predictable. Grease burger and fries for lunch Saturday through Thursday. Grease burger and fries for dinner Saturday through Thursday. On Fridays we were treated to a beginners attempt at pizza reconstituted year old Pizza Hut. Either way, I started enjoying MREs until I came home.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- SiteSearch Google -->
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</div>Ripescribehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08772187911815434854noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13783062.post-1120093596101448182005-06-29T23:04:00.000-05:002005-06-29T20:08:28.646-05:00<span style="font-family:arial;color:#000000;">I really did not want my first post to be about Iraq, but this was too compelling. Regardless if you think we were liberating a country from an evil dictator or if we were there just for the oil (which I think both are true) both sides will be appalled at Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root’s (KBR) war profiteering, which President Truman equated with treason, or the media for thinking that the runaway bride and other banal nonsense are more newsworthy than the American taxpayer and military getting the shaft.<br />On 27 June 2005, the Democratic Policy Committee in the House of Representatives held a hearing on Halliburton’s over charging and other crimes. The information covered in the 142 minute meeting was disturbing enough, until about 50 minutes in to the meeting, Rory Mayberry, a former food production manager at a U.S. military base for KBR from February-April 2004 testified on how well KBR "supported the troops." His allegations included:<br />KBR managers ordering workers to ignore military sanitation regulations<br />Troops being fed rancid and year old food.<br />The good food that does show up, went to thrice weekly KBR managers BBQ<br />Workers being ordered to dig bullets out of the food to be fed to the food, bullets to be turned over to KBR managers for souvenirs.<br />The Army being charged $45 per case of soda.<br />The Army being billed for meals never served.<br />If you have broadband, go to c-span.org and watch it with Real Player</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- SiteSearch Google -->
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