Michael's Dispatches

Marine Statement on Bastion Attack

Details: Published: Tuesday, 01 October 2013 11:10

01 October 2013

Commandant Announces Decision in Afghanistan Attack Investigation

HEADQUARTERS MARINE CORPS, Washington, D.C. - The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen James F. Amos, has concluded that two high-ranking Marine commanders must be held accountable for the consequences of last year's insurgent attack on Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

After reviewing the findings of a four-month investigation conducted by U.S. Central Command at the Commandant's request, Gen Amos agreed that MajGen Charles M. Gurganus and MajGen Gregg A. Sturdevant "did not take adequate force protection measures within the range of responses proportionate to the threat."

Army Times: Fort Hood soldiers can face UCMJ if they won't show ID to cops

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Details: Published: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 11:59

24 September 2013

According to the Army Times and many other publications, soldiers from Fort Hood are turning many Texans against them. The base commander has finally put his boot down as a direct result of one Master Sergeant CJ Grisham who has been staging armed confrontations with police.

Please recall that this same person also staged confrontations with me -- I never met him -- and a school board in Alabama in 2009, whose members he so frightened that they nearly got a restraining order. In 2013, he was arrested and promptly raised more than $50,000 for a legal defense for a weapons related charge. He does not need the $50,000 because he is being represented free of charge. His first lawyer mysteriously quit without a word just before the trial, which remains pending.

Syria: Outrage is Not a Strategy

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Details: Published: Monday, 02 September 2013 13:00

02 September 2013

Never Go to War without the Support of Your People

In 2006, the talking points from London and Washington insisted we had won the war in Afghanistan, and Iraq was not in civil war. To say otherwise was apostasy.

In 2006, British Defense Secretary John Reid was famously quoted on Afghanistan:

"We are in the south to help and protect the Afghan people construct their own democracy.

"We would be perfectly happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot because our job is to protect the reconstruction."

Adversaries made Mr. Reid’s comment more infamous by misquoting him that British forces would leave "without a single shot being fired."

By 2008, the British alone had fired 4 million shots. They were just getting warmed up. Nor was this the first British intervention in Afghanistan. Coalition Casualties from 2009-2012 eclipsed those from the first eight years by more than two-fold. Today the casualties continue. For what?

Afghanistan to Syria

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Details: Published: Friday, 30 August 2013 14:11

30 August 2013

Before reading my Monday dispatch on Syria, please read this previous dispatch from Afghanistan. British Member of Parliament Adam Holloway is a prominent figure in both.

There be Dragons.

Monkey Business: Our Broken Army

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Details: Published: Tuesday, 20 August 2013 14:50

20 August 2013

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The senior sergeant at the Army’s Warrior Adventure Quest (WAQ) at Fort Hood has been fired after allegedly endangering the lives of Boy Scouts.

The accusation comes from a staff member at WAQ who claims that the Army Master Sergeant abused his position while using Army kayaks, without lights or permission, on a lake with Boy Scouts on the night of 13 August.

Lights are important safety measures to prevent collisions with speedboats.

According to Texas law, “All vessels including motorboats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, punts, rowboats, rubber rafts, or other vessels when not at dock must have and exhibit at least one bright light, lantern or flashlight visible all around the horizon from sunset to sunrise in all weather and during restricted visibility.” http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/boat/safety/vessel_requirements/

Fatalities involving unlighted boats are common. At another Texas lake in 2011, a boat crashed into three unlighted kayaks killing a man. Unlighted boating accidents are so frequent that some attorneys specialize in those and related cases.

Utah beauty queen accused of throwing bombs resigns title

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Details: Published: Thursday, 15 August 2013 12:39

15 August 2013

Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:25am EDT

(Reuters) - A Utah beauty queen accused along with three friends of throwing homemade bombs in a Salt Lake City suburb resigned her Miss Riverton title...

...Miss Riverton Pageant that Kendra Gill, 18, had resigned her position effective that day.....Gill, crowned Miss Riverton in June, and three other 18-year-olds were arrested earlier this month following a bomb-throwing spree...

The bombs were constructed from household chemicals, aluminum foil and plastic water bottles...

When questioned by police, one of the teens said he had spent the evening "‘pranking' with fireworks with friends,"...

They were charged on Friday with four counts each of felony bomb possession....

Please see:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-bomb-boys-book-project?c=activity

Lavabit

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Details: Published: Friday, 09 August 2013 12:24

09 August 2013

lavabit

www.lavabit.com

Jalalabad Urination: Facebook Censorship

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Details: Published: Tuesday, 06 August 2013 13:05

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06 August 2013

On Saturday a suicide attack unfolded near the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. A dozen people were reported killed with another twenty wounded. Eight of the killed were reported to be children.

The next day, 04 August, another bomb exploded in Jalalabad, wounding another sixteen people for a two-day total of about forty-five killed and wounded.

An Afghan friend forwarded the image above, saying this was a suicide bomber who was shot before he exploded and that his vest had been removed. The man who forwarded the image said that even the kids hate these people. Needless to say, this image, bad as it is, marks an important “atmospheric” in the war and is newsworthy.

For people unfortunate enough to experience a few suicide attacks, the image of the child urinating is not shocking. The thunder of the bombs, the inevitable automatic weapons fire from security forces, follow on attacks, the frequent secondary explosions, the shrieks, the stunned children and adults stumbling in the smoke, the fully electrified high tension wires dangling waiting to fry people, the ambulance that arrives filled with explosives, the clothes and body parts up in the trees along with thick smells of petroleum and flesh all create a screaming chorus.

Forgotten Combat Video from Afghanistan

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Details: Published: Tuesday, 30 July 2013 14:11

30 July 2013

Last week the Kopp-Etchells series experienced another revival. For four years the work has been translated into dozens of languages and seen ‘round the world in hundreds if not thousands of outlets ranging from Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, to the Smithsonian. A Google search of "Kopp Etchells Effect" returns about 60,000 hits.

Last week Kyle Hill performed an analysis of the Effect (not caused by static) on the Nautilus blog, which was picked up by the Scientific American blog, which was picked up by the Daily Mail (UK), which was picked up by the Examiner (UK), and picked up by Fox at least twice, which inspired this excellent video.

Fox and Friends at 0820 EST Sunday

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Details: Published: Saturday, 27 July 2013 20:36

27 July 2013

Jill Stephenson and I will be guests on Fox and Friends tomorrow morning.

Jill is the courageous and inspirational mother of Benjamin Kopp, the hero who literally was killed but did not die. Army Rangers are hard to stop.

Please read this before watching the show: The Kopp-Etchells Effect

Note for Non-Americans on Race relations in the USA

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Details: Published: Monday, 22 July 2013 13:04

22 July 2013

Having spent about twenty years in dozens of countries, I have some idea about how we are viewed abroad. When it comes to race, many people look at America as black and white. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are a bunch of mixed breeds.

One of my siblings recently got a genetic test. We are all over the map, including a trace from Sub-Saharan Africa. Apparently I have black grandmother or grandfather in my tree. Mostly it turns out we apparently are Northern European, but still we are mutts. My incredible wife is darker than many so called African Americans.

Insofar as "white" culture in America, there is no definite white culture that most whites belong to. Many whites are with some form or another of black, Asian, or Hispanic culture, and the inverse is true. Keeping in mind there is no "Asian" culture any more than there is a "white" or "black" or "Hispanic" or "European" or "Thai." We truly are mixed up with each other, which is one of our primary strengths.

Do you know how many cultures there are in Thailand? There are so many that I do not even have an idea. There must be a hundred, and even more if we count fusions. Just as Europeans -- I spent about six years in Europe -- often think America is black and white, we project the same onto other countries.

Race Baiting and Lies in America

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Details: Published: Sunday, 21 July 2013 14:14

21 July 2013

image001-1000 George Bush Senior -- Naval Aviator at 18, then off to war.

(Many Americans will be familiar with much of what is in this dispatch, yet many international readers never stepped foot inside the United States. This case is getting international ink, and so here we go.)

Trayvon Martin was 17 when he was shot. Many people say he was just a “child.”

Let's look at the evidence. 17 year-olds can, and do, join the US military.

At 17, I joined the military and reported for duty when 18. Before graduating from high school, I could bench press 300 pounds and hoist 225 pounds from the floor to over my head with arms locked, weighing less than 148 pounds.

At 17, my high school friend Scott Helvenston became a Navy SEAL. The youngest ever. Some people say this is not possible. To save embarrassment, naysayers might take a minute to Google “Youngest Navy SEAL.”

My Zimmerman-Martin Moment: On a vastly smaller media scale

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Details: Published: Thursday, 18 July 2013 13:18

18 July 2013

I am hypersensitive to legal/media cases like this because I was involved in one.

At 19, I was attacked, unprovoked, by a 23 year-old troublemaker who had three other run-ins that day. He also had been fired from his restaurant job after wrecking the kitchen.

He said he would kill me. I did everything possible to avoid the fight. I even bought him a drink. (Mistake -- this rewarded his bullying.)

There were many witnesses. He attacked me and I punched back and he died. I believe the entire fight lasted about two seconds. A witness said four. I did not kick or hit him after he crumpled. I left. I was charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Assault with Intent to Murder and went to jail. My attorney said the only reason I faced charges was media pressure because I was a "Green Beret."

West Point Leadership- Profiles of Courage

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Details: Published: Tuesday, 16 July 2013 12:55

16 July 2013

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Yesterday a tremendous book arrived via courier. I normally do not review books but this one includes some of my writing and photographs and so this was mandatory. I spent hours flipping through the pages. The quality is amazing.

My initial impression is that the authors have created an important historical compilation of incredible careers and accomplishments. Profiles of Courage can be used as a biographical and historical reference yet also contains gripping stories from many wars.

Profiles of Courage is not the sort of book that I will read in one push, but will keep on my desk to take piece by piece. I personally know some of the folks whose careers are described, and so naturally went to their biographies and enjoyed every word and picture, some of which I made. It is a great honor to have work included in these historical pages. This is high quality work.

Decline of Dustoff: A Symptom

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Details: Published: Thursday, 27 June 2013 13:00

27 June 2013

http://vimeo.com/31609732

More people are waking up to smell the bitter tea. Our Army helicopter medical evacuation system, called “Dustoff,” is broken. People are dying because of it. I have written about this many times.

And now retired Dustoff pilot Brigadier General Patrick Brady has weighed in with his article “Decline of Dustoff: Medal of Honor Huey pilot bemoans today’s medical air-evacuation process.”

Among other Dustoff policy failures, the idea that Dustoff should remain unarmed while flying with red crosses is ridiculous. During the last sizable wars we have fought -- Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq again, Afghanistan -- we have always enjoyed air superiority and we had hospitals close to the action.

Sunset Over Denver

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Details: Published: Saturday, 22 June 2013 14:32

22 June 2013

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Ginger Robinson made this image and sent it to me, saying: “You would think Krakatoa was erupting: Sunset over Denver last night. Smoke from Lime Gulch Fire.”

Quick Notes and Updates

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Details: Published: Wednesday, 19 June 2013 14:20

19 June 2013

Due to time constraints, I must write this as an unedited stream of consciousness. My apologies for the roughness.

Michael Hastings was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles. The single car accident happened at about 0425. He crashed into a tree and was burned beyond recognition. He was 33.

Mr. Hastings was the war correspondent whose Rolling Stone article led to the firing of General Stanley McChrystal, who at the time was the top General in Afghanistan.

Although Hastings was widely read, no serious war correspondents took him seriously, or at least not the ones I know. He did, however, accurately portray my words and context in his book “The Operators.” Hastings was like an undisciplined hitman with a pen and license to kill. One of his gonzo articles damaged the career and reputation of Lieutenant General Bill Caldwell, for no cause. My sense was that he picked fights with key people mostly to draw attention. Though Hastings was not respected among war correspondents, it is sad to see a man die so young so horribly. Just why he crashed into a tree at 0425 remains unknown. No doubt the conspiracies will begin to fly.

Important 60 Minutes Piece for TBI patients

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Details: Published: Monday, 06 May 2013 15:32

06 May 2013

Veterans and their families need to watch this.

Thank you to the numerous vets who sent the link.

I just sent a thanks to David Martin at 60 Minutes.

Mr. Arnold Fisher deserves a standing ovation and eternal gratitude for his efforts and inspiration.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50146231n

Fraud Surrounding MIA Green Beret John Hartley Robertson

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Details: Published: Monday, 06 May 2013 12:47

06 May 2013

Many people contacted me in regard to a documentary movie about an American Green Beret, missing some 44 years. They wanted to know if this story is true.

Unfortunately, this is another fraud, shamelessly pulling on the heartstrings of the many good people who want it to be true.

Conspiracy theorists of course will blame this on the government. Our government deserves blame for many things, but frankly, it strains even my imagination that any recent US administration would attempt to cover up this case. President Clinton would have had every reason to run it up the flag pole, as would have Bush and now Obama.