Global Toad News

Sadly I don’t think most Americans realize just how close it seems we are to having military action in Iran.

Libya was the test case for going into Iran.   As Ron Paul says, Iran doesn’t have an effective air force, no real navy and lacks refined fuel, but somehow Ron was crazy for saying that we shouldn’t be so worried about Iran, rather lets get America back on track.  For that he was all but laughed at by the whole debate panel and almost called crazy to his face.

Now this is after the world has been turned upside down for U.S. troops with the stupid announcement that Seal Team 6 was taken out by an RPG,  I can only think that some people are sending a very loud and clear message.

Here is what seems to be an authentic sounding account by a Taliban fighter who said he shot one of the two RPG rockets that hit the helicopter.  The fighter telling the story said that while he was thinking, his partner shot the other round into the door, and then the storyteller fired into the nose.

Up until now, it seemed that many people thought the helicopters could not be taken down.   The worst part is that he said there were two attack helicopters that occupied the downed copter, but they did nothing.

Think about that.   Two guys down a helicopter with elite special forces and the protective detachment does nothing, and in fact did not even flag a threat otherwise the helicopter would have been nowhere near the ground.

Do you know just how good the night vision and infra-red sensors are on the standard attack copters?  And these are the top of the line troops going into to assist a trapped elite Ranger unit?  And when they are downed, it’s announced to the entire world with detailed accounts from both sides?

The obvious point of this is to escalate the intensity of the ongoing conflicts so that military spending will not be cut (there may be other points such as to tell anyone to keep their mouths shut about some of the bigger lies we have been told), but the only person who is running for president that is speaking against INCREASING the wars is considered crazy for saying so.

Major media had falsely claimed that Rick Perry (story has been now changed) was the only veteran running for president, ignoring the fact that Ron Paul was a captain in the United States Air Force, and that Ron Paul was endorsed by Ronald Reagan for his stance on national defense at one point, and Ron has been consistent throughout the years.

People in the military are sick of being constantly thrown into the meat grinder and sold out.  Is it any wonder that Sgt. Jaret Hageman facing his 9th combat deployment took his life?  The sad truth is that more soldiers took their lives over the period we’ve been in Afghanistan than have been killed in combat there.

Here’s what I believe is the problem (and no this doesn’t come from anything anyone in the military has told me, but rather my research from public sources, anyhow if there was a problem I am sure the national security monitors can just review all my communications that they want):

Facing manning issues, some commanders try to force people who don’t want to be somewhere to run around with fully automatic heavy weapons.  If that isn’t completely insane I don’t know what is.

No active military officer would ever let those words out their mouths, even if they are thinking it.  Between the upcoming escalation in attacks (and who can blame the local people for standing their ground against guys who are going back to their air conditioning, flat screen tvs and beer?  Why should they just roll over?) and the media beating the drums for war with Iran, it’s all but certain that at some point in the next 16 months there will be a military taken against Iran by the United States or a close ally.

It’s not like the United States is doing such a good job of protecting people.  In Libya apparently some of the U.S. backed elements have liberated the children of orphanages to help spread the revolution.  Along with the bombing of water supplies (because terrorists drink water) some people think the point is bomb Libya back into the stone age and then use the billions sued to make it pay to get it fixed, just like Iraq.  And just like Iraq, the corrupt insiders will make all the profit, the taxpayers and military pay all the costs and take all the risks, and the people of Libya will become as serfs once more, just like Iran in 1953.

Beyond all this, the constant beating of drums of war with Iran, and Ron Paul is crazy for saying in simple terms we cannot afford to fight endless wars.  Even Obama is pushing the notion of attacking Iran, only Ron Paul stands against that, and for that the left, the supposedly anti-war left, has found a common enemy with the militaristic right, so the media, left and right bands together to ridicule and marginalize Ron Paul at every turn.

If that is the new definition of sanity, I will take the insanity of wanting peace.

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If you wonder why we are killing the people of Libya to free them it’s really quite simple.

It’s about the money and resources of Libya. After encouraging Gahdafi into transferring assets into U.S. banks, the assets of Libya started to just disappear.  Goldman Sachs led the raiding party with making 1 Billion dollars disappear.  As the legal battle between Libya and Goldman was moving forward, the U.S. government led NATO into “defending” the people of Libya by killing the people of Libya.

Now after giving the “rebel” (which in the U.S. would be called terrorists) almost a billion dollars, the U.S. government wants to give them some of  the $30 Billion dollars that the U.S. is still “holding” that is the money of the Libyan government, of course the rebels aren’t going to get all the money, but they will get some which will allow the insiders to raid the funds for their own purposes.

Of course, you could believe the fiction that we are really destroying the country to save it, but it does seem to be a little extreme, I think the simple answer is it’s about money and resources.

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First, I have to say, like most Americans for vague reasons I don’t like Gadhaffi, but that doesn’t mean that every crime committed to try and stop him is justified.

The U.S. supported rebels have just announced tough new rules for journalists, right after video has surfaced of the rebels forcing that (according to anti-terrorism expert Susan Lindauer):

shows gruesome footage of a Libyan rebel cutting up the rotted flesh of a dead soldier and forcing it into the hands of Libyan Prisoners of War, who are lined up in a row so they must eat it.

There are other videos of rapes, and other crimes, but all those will be ignored by the United States in it’s insane quest for total domination.

Of course the media doesn’t want to report on this horrific news, because the rebels are getting the support of the Prince of Peace, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Obama and far be the media to question his wisdom as he plays 11 dimensional chess.

What’s amazing to me is all the people that were out with pictures and protesting when Bush was president are now at best silent.

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Whether this is true or not, I found several sites that had reported that John Parsons Wheeler 3rd (the son of Col. John Parsons Wheeler Jr. (desc.) who also was working for a defense contractor) has been found in a dumpster dead.  It’s been reported that the John Parsons Wheeler 3rd had been a lawyer, an officer in the U.S. military (which anyone should be able to get his DD-214 now since he is dead, God rest his soul), had served in 3 presidential administrations (that is more than anyone but George H. Bush), built the Vietnam Vet Wall, and was last the assistant Secretary of the Air Force would gather some type of news coverage.  After all her was an arguably decorated U.S. Military officer who had been in 3 presidential administrations, and yet there are no real leads.

Unless you put credence in what former Forbes business reporter Benjamin Fulford says in his video interview and discussion with David Rockefeller if you did believe what Mr. Fulford says, things like this are going to happen more and more.  Watch the video, unlike normal television, you don’t have to pay to watch it, and you can watch it relatively unedited (I would say that there was some addition footage added, but I can’t say want might have been deleted).  If you want to see what is really going on, you might as well see what Mr. Rockefeller has to say.

You also find about George Soros while you are at it.  I don’t claim to know anything more than what these two people have to say directly from their mouths, not what someone else says they say.  But if you give credence to Mr. Fulford, who was able to sit down with a camera crew and interview David Rockefeller with Mr. Rockefeller’s full knowledge and consent, lots of people are going to die quickly if things don’t change.

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Of course many people might say that the Army is dysfunctional by design, after all it takes the “well adjusted” young people and turns them into people who kill on command.  But I find it interesting that the same Army that could remove an active officer in three days for saying things are screwed up, but apparently can’t stop a bunch of soldiers who are out killing people when told about it.  The army also appeared to be unable to reign in soldiers who “prank” civilians with planting live explosives on them and then accusing them of being terrorists. Recently there were news reports (1, 2) of hundreds of child porn cases the at the Department of Defense that were just swept under the rug.   And of course, Ltc Lakin’s request for Obama’s records in the court martial trial of Ltc Lakin was denied by Army Col. Denise Lind, because such records will embarrass the president!

Now I am not really surpised that the courts act to protect the rich and powerful.   What is unusual is that they are now coming out and saying that is what they do. I mean it’s good that we are at least hearing about some of these things.  The problem isn’t really  the Army, because they are just the puppets of whoever is pulling the strings.  The people pulling the strings are usually corrupt and often have “blackmail” type info that would let them destroy anyone they choose (but that same information is useless for a normal person to get justice).  A recent exampleof how this works is shown by the recent firing of a man from his job because he had credible evidence of being pressured to engage in bizarre sexual activities by the husband of a judge in Canada.

The Army does what is really supposed to do, provide a funnel for money to be transfered from the public purse to the people who really matter, if you think that there is accountability, justice, or some other high ideals, you just haven’t been read into the real agenda.

Or at least that’s my opinion.

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Colonel Lawerence Sellin recently wrote an article ripping into the International Security Assistance Force command that he is attached to in Afghanistan (also known as the IJC).  He starts out with:

Throughout my career I have been known to walk that fine line between good taste and unemployment. I see no reason to change that now.

From there he goes on to say how while they don’t do anything that he feels is useful, they do a lot of it.  From numerous PowerPoint presentations to other inane briefings, where people send out large emails with lots of pictures, hoping to just bore their way into a promotion (or at least a good OER).  Basically it sounds like if he was a lazy officer, it would be a great gig, unfortunately for him, he actually thinks that he is supposed to be doing something productive, and quite frankly he isn’t.

Now the sad thing about this is that there are other commands in the military that are mostly just excuses for officers to get combat pay without actually being in the middle of combat.  It allows the officers who haven’t done anything up to then, to continue doing nothing, but get awards for being in the middle of a combat area.  In fact one of the things that Gen. McChrystal had tried to do was make the IJC more like a military post than a place to kick back, apparently now that he is gone, things are slipping back again.

What will happen is that Col. Sellin will get sent away from the IJC, and things will continue to go from stupid to insane there.  Because there are too many REMF’s in the Army who know how to play the political game and generate useless paperwork that makes them look good to people who know nothing.

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I am not a big fan of YouTube videos (mostly because people tell me that they can’t view them at some locations).  In the video below a retired U.S. Army Colonel goes on television to warn that there is a real risk that Israel might attack Iran this month.

This comes on Israel detaining the former Health and Human Services Secratary, Donna Shala, who had gone to Israel to attempt to STOP a boycott of Israel, even though she was part of an official delegation.  With friends like this…..

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Apparently even though Congress has not declared war, all “military” people in the United States seem to be restricted in what they say online.  So only approved internet posting by government sources is allowed.   Specifically this article shows that the U.S. Army has claimed to right to control personal emails.  According to Wired Magazine:

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Now given this, it might be the McChrystal did what he was told, and that the Rolling Stones reporter had been sent from above as I am sure that media access has to be approved on a limited basis, or this is all an even worse joke than I thought it was.  And I don’t mean that in a good way.

Basically I think all military units should treat reporters as SPIES, I don’t mean shoot them, but don’t ever let them near anything that you don’t want to have an in depth explanation of why you did something.  However if your boss tells you have to let him have the same level of access that your senior staff has, and that you have no say in the matter, you have to suck it up.

This is why people in the military are political dunces when they are in the military, they cannot express an opinion, even in private emails, about politics, because private emails are subject to review by the entire chain of command.  That’s just the Army way, if you want to write, I think you might be able to write a book, but a some beliefs by a traditionalist catholic Navy Officer, got him into trouble, so you have to have your mind in the right groove to serve in the military.  In other words, you keep a low key political profile, support your chain of command, if you have problems you have to keep them to yourself, or go to the Chaplin.  That’s the way that the military is.

McChrystal knew this, but if he is blowing off, it’s because there might be a lot more pressure than that.

Now, that said, as far a soldiering goes is it better for the Special Operations units to go in and do surgical strikes, and the rest of the military have to go in and police the area with much stricter rules of engagement and less support or the other way around?  In other words, with limited resources what should be done?  Should the soldiers hide in their bunkers or police the area?  Or should we just leave these other countries?

I think we should leave the other countries.  After all, don’t we have real problems here at home, problems that so concern Obama that he had to almost cut short his Memorial Day golf outing to think about the spill for a second, actually there is no evidence to suggest that the Oil Spill has become something Obama is truly concerned about.  He seems to be preoccupied with something that might be even bigger, and so might be holding back on resources because of a some other problem.

Now the question is, is that problem a personal problem?  Has he done something that force him out of office?  If so what could it be?

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Apparently Obama has a new loyalty policy.  If you ever think bad about Obama it’s insubordination.  Obama has fired Gen. McChrystal for not being drunk on the Obama messiah insanity, stating “I won’t tolerate division.”  It’s not that McChrystal was challenging the president (he wasn’t) or following the orders from the Obama temple (he was) rather it’s that he wasn’t glowing enough when he talked about the anointed one.

Obama’s beginning to make Nixon look good.

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Now, some may say it’s strange that I would like Gen. Stanley McChrystal, after all he works for the government and studies ways of killing people.

In fact, he regularly has killed people if the special forces do any killing of people, since he’s gone on a lot of missions.

It seems that world that Gen. McCrystal is in is similar to the structure outlined in the fictional  series by John Twelve Hawks.

The question becomes who can you really trust.  It does seem that McChrystal is a honest straight talking person.  I guess that is what passes for evil in Washington D.C..

That’s why I like McChrystal, right or wrong, assuming that this reporter wrote as shocking an article as he could, he seems like a straight talker, sure he’s killed more men than I’ve probably shaken hands with, but he obviously tries to follow what the orders are when the chips are down.  This might be fine for a soldier.  In fact many officers (Washington, Eisenhower) who went into politics changed their views over time, but at least they had plans and strategic vision, Obama lacks the details and the strategy.   McChrystal will have a plan faster than anyone.  Give him the gulf oil spill, no one wants it because it’s too political.

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Gen. McChrystal is a good special operations guy, I’ve decided that he is a good adviser, but he shouldn’t be president.  Apparently he is accused (in the Rolling Stone article) of being involved in cover ups and the CFR.  In other words, it doesn’t really matter what he says, because he is used to being in politics.

I don’t really know enough about him to fully endorse him, but he would do a great job in cleaning up the gulf oil spill.

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I just read an article that had Obama being upset about the article in Rolling Stone magazine called the Runaway General, though I am not really sure why.  If Obama is that petty, we are doomed.

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First, I think we should stop fighting undeclared wars.  That said, somehow Afhanhistan is a NATO operation.  In fact NATO lists McChrystal as “Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), General Stanley McChrystal ”.  I have to think that it’s up to NATO how to deal with the U.S. soldier on LOAN to them from the United States.

Of course that is if NATO is really in charge of anything other than spending money.   Note the difference in how McChrystal is being treated than Raum Emmauel.  There is definetely a double standard when the White House stands behind a man who went up and threatened congressmen in the showers.  McChrystal is the kind of person who tries to do their best and maintain the highest standards, and will of course, resign if asked (or even hinted).

Why wouldn’t he?  He is instantly going to be one of the most respected people in the world, regardless of the morality or legality of the Afghanistan situation, as he was doing the job asked, however relunctantly, but as good as it could be done.  He wasn’t golfing, going to concerts or even spending time with his family.

In other words, he was doing what we always say about the military.  Protecting the country as our elected officials were directing him to do so, even though it meant that he put in more working hours in a month than Obama has done his entire time as president.

But, somehow he isn’t politically correct enough, a man who voted for Obama.  Right now I think McChrystal should be president, not for his political savvy or for his economics, but just because he’s the hardest working civil servant I’ve ever seen, and I think he does it because he wants what is best for America. And that might not mean endless wars overseas.

I hope Obama encourages him to resign, I think hope that he meets with Ron Paul and frankly explains his foreign and economic policies with Congress Paul, becase I trust Ron Paul to at least ask some decent questions.  At the least McChrystal should be put in charge of the gulf oil spill because he does work non stop until someone yanks on his chain.

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I was just reading the famous Rolling Stone article called The Runaway General.  Title is bull, and the FIRST page of the article seems to come across as a veiled attack on the White House (this while McChrystal was in Paris, hoping to spend some time with his wife (who he only seem an average of 30 days a year for the last 3 years) for their 33rd anniversary, a man who only sleeps 4 hours a day, and runs 7 miles a day, a man who has the best minds in the world for war fighting working with him at pace that means they will accomplish whatever military objective is possible.

The problem is that there isn’t a clear policy objective from the office of the commander in chief, not from the commander in Washington (who does not have operational command because it’s a NATO operation) or from the NATO command.  As far as I remember SHAPE is the command structure for NATO operations.  I don’t see what SHAPE doesn’t just retain him to protect the NATO troops and let the chips fall.

That would be awesome.  General McChrystal seems like a great leader.

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[Ed Note:  The following was sent to me, the author wishes to remain anonymous for now]

By The Widow’s Son

Recently, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Lakin, an 18 year army veteran and medical doctor, refused to deploy for his seventh tour outside the United States (MSNBC).   He was officially counseled by his boss, Colonel Gordon Roberts  , a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for his heroic and gallant actions in the Thua Thien Province, Republic of Vietnam on 11 July 1969, regarding his choice to not deploy on a Presidential order to Afghanistan and the possible repercussions of his actions.  The question that is raised by many is by what right does he think it is the right thing to do, questioning orders and refusing to obey those orders?

Army Field Manual 6-22, Army Leadership, paragraph 3-9, states (fm6_22 pdf):

 An enlisted leader swears an oath of obedience to lawful orders, while the commissioned officer promises to, “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office.”  This distinction establishes a different expectation of discretionary initiative.  Officers should be driven to maintain the momentum of operations, possess courage to deviate from standing orders within the commander’s intent when required, and be willing to accept the responsibility and accountability for doing so.

Paragraphs 4-15 through 4-17 further discuss the term “Duty,” which is one of the seven Army values.  The pertinent point is encapsulated in paragraph 4-17.  “In rare cases, a leader’s sense of duty also has to detect and prevent an illegal order.  Duty requires refusal to obey – leaders have no choice but to do what is ethically and legally right.” 

As the United States of America is supposed to be a Nation of Laws, where everyone is treated the same regardless of title or position, it is of the utmost importance that all leaders, whether military or political, follow the Rule of Law and obey the United States Constitution.  Since all elected and appointed officials swear an oath (or affirm – which should hold the same weight in a reasonable person’s mind and spirit) to support and defend the Constitution, there should be no question as to following those rules, except as amended as required by the Constitution.  Paragraph 4-71 further states:

Army leaders have a responsibility and the duty to research relevant orders, rules, and regulations and to demand clarification of orders that could lead to criminal misinterpretation or abuse.  Ultimately, Army leaders must accept the consequences of their actions.

Lieutenant Colonel Lakin has continuously attempted over the last year to obtain a few simple clarifying documents that would lay to rest the question of President Obama’s Constitutional eligibility for the Office of President of the United States.  Since all appointed and elected Officers and Officials have SWORN (or affirmed, at the very least) to support and defend the Constitution, why has this matter progressed to this point?  Obviously, the requirement that the President be a “natural born citizen” and be able to prove that fact should be easy to either verify or refute.  There has been no Constitutional amendment to change the requirement, so we must deal with what is, not what we would like it to be.  It appears to the casual observer that since President Obama was indeed fathered by a citizen of the (at the time) British Crown Colony of Kenya, by definition he is not a “natural born citizen” and he had, at varies points in his adult life, passports that identified him as a citizen of the United States, Kenya, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. 

Every Officer in the Armed Forces of the United States (not some, not most, but ALL) is required to have a security clearance.  Every Officer has to RENOUNCE all of their foreign citizenships, if they have any.  Their background is investigated thoroughly to ensure that they serve NO other masters. 

LTC Lakin has chosen to take a stand on what many consider to be a fool’s errand; that he was goaded into this stand by misguided and even malignant people that are upset because their party lost the election, or because of the President’s race, or even just to destabilized the United States.  If the President can, as he should have been required to, produce the documents that show his mother and his father were United States Citizens at the time of his birth, and he was born within a state, territory, or other accepted sovereign soil of the United States then all of this is a mote point.  If he cannot, because it just is not so, then he is prohibited from holding the Office of the President of the United States.  It is not how we would like things to be, but how things are that we must deal with them.  If something is against the law, and clearly defined, then there is no gray area.  The facts can, and should, stand by themselves in the full light of day.

Should we expect less of the President of the United States?  Should we expect less of an elected official because they are not held to the same standard?  Or should we expect something more?  If the President refuses to follow the Rule of Law, why should anyone?

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It seems that another U.S. Army officer hasn’t gotten the memo that the constitution is just a piece of paper.  Apparently Lt. Col Terry Lakin has decided to destroy his career of 18 years by asking questions.  He will now be investigated by a Lt. Col or higher grade officer, and then sent to court martial (the Army has no choice really).   I don’t see how the Obama birth argument will be able to be kept out of court with this.

I hope that Lt. Col Lakin fares better than Cmdr. Ward Dean did with his constitutional quest.  The sad fact is that people in the military believe they are fighting for the principles in the constitution and then find out that, like Major General Smedley Butler, they were just, as Nobel Laurete  Sir Henry Kissinger puts it, “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”

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The U.S. military is in a tough spot, on the one hand they want to keep and retain the best people, but on the other hand the military is encouraged to promote “minorities” above anything else.

While most people are familiar with the Army’s major Hasan, and some are aware of the Fort Jackson food poisoning attempt, few are aware of the reality of the anti white male atmosphere that really exists in the military today. 

Case in point is the recent article in Time about the “Female Captain Bligh” (from Mutiny on the Bounty fame).  According to the article Captain Holly Graf, would publicly berate the crew, throw coffee cups at them, and was unresponsive to any needs of the crew members.

Of course, this had been going on for years, as a male officer who had served under reports (who retired after 20 years at a lower pay grade than Captain Graf) “When I think of Holly Graf, even 12 years later, I shake”.  That officer knew that there wasn’t anything he could do, because if he said anything it would held against him more than the untouchable Graf.

But Graf was an equal opportunity fascist, and even some women who feel that “ the Navy pushed women into command too quickly” complained about Graf’s “sadistic cruelty”.  Hopefully people will wake up that treating people equally means that, not giving the people who whine the most special privileges because they know that the system can be taken advantage of if you know the key words and tricky phrases.

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By way of DeviceLine, a Wall Street Journal article about how U.S. military drones are able to be hacked due to the use of unencrypted communications has come to my attention.

I guess using encrypted communications wasn’t something they thought of.  The military was aware that this might be a problem, but apparently it was too costly to fix.

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After reading a report by NPR, that’s what I came to believe. Since 2003 (!) Hasan had been considered a “substandard” soldier, and had been consuled for incidents such as telling patients that “Islam can save your soul”.  But the higher ups cared not for these “anti-muslim” evaluations, instead promoting Hasan, and keeping him in the Army and increasing his Active Duty Commitment by sending him to more schools!

Contrast to the way the Navy discharged a CHAPLIN for praying “in Jesus’s name”.  If you think that all religions are treated similarly by the military, you are wrong.  Or how Lt Cmdr Sharpe was vilified for his own beliefs which were only linked to his professional career by reporters, and there were no indications that it affected his performance as an officer.

The message has long been clear to the people in the military, if you have christian beliefs, keep them to yourself, and as Lt. Cmdr Sharpe’s case shows, don’t ever make public your beliefs, even if you are doing so with no explicit connection to your position in the military.  Apparently there is a different standard for Islam.

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Obama during Veteran's Day 11 Nov 2009

Found here.

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