http://www.buzzfeed.com/keenan/anti-oba ... -cover-sto

This is a real problem, imo. Marine Times talking about how it is ok to be anti-Obama... and the reaction to it from Marines? Sick.

The cover is despicable.

Reading the comments there, however, I'm not certain how many of the anti-Obama comments are Marines or service members at all, or at least active members.

There are many comments who do sound like Marines/service members, active or retired I don't know, that tell the anti-Obama commenters that they are not fit to be Marines, to obey the orders of their CiC and STFU or get out and you can do/say whatever you wish.

From what I see, there were two sets of comments.

Quoted ones from Marines.

And then people at the bottom responding to the comments and the cover.

The video that accompanies the story over at the moonie-times (which is where the BuzzFeed links went to) shows a terrible view of the military, if it's accurate. I think that Obama's record regarding the military is better than any recent President. I don't understand how the soldiers can feel what is expressed in that video, unless it's made up of racist, bigoted, uneducated buffoons. I know that's not the case, so I wonder why it's only that minority of service members who get the publicity.

BTW, they had a little bit of that facebook page in that video. That guy should not be in the service. He should get his ass booted right out of there. It's one thing to be critical of policy, it's another to refer to the President as 'the enemy' and 'Jackass #1'. If he wrote such things about the CEO of any corporation, he wouldn't be working there for one minute longer. If he wrote such things about President Bush, or Dick Cheney, he would have been booted out long ago. The Obama Administration gives their critics so much more freedom than any prior POTUS, and gets hated even more for their trouble.

Go see the video here:
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer. ... nes/438681

They are a disgrace to their uniform and country! I would love to see them lose all their vet benefits for this vile behavior. Dubya sent these kids on a bloody goosechase for oil. This is how highly he, Cheney and Rumsfield valued their lives. Obama brings them home and they act like kindergarten assholes! So are they saying they love killing civilians?

The quoted ones came from the blog page at Marine Corps Times that had a preview of the article itself. The comments on that blog page are atrocious, but totally atypical from what's typically seen at the various Military Times publications. There's no way to tell if the people who left the quoted comments are actually marines, and I suspect that the page has had a birther/bagger invasion.

During the Lakin trial, the Army Times comment threads typically were 95%+ anti-Lakin. In this case, I suspect that Stein has more support than Lakin did, but other comment threads on the Marine Corps Times do not have nearly as many total posts and the posts that are there are not as vile as the ones on that one blog page.

Here's one example:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/20 ... nt-032112/

Agree with the first part but not the second. They risked too much to be judged finally by this one stupid thing.

This Stein feller, he worked at the recruiting station in San Diego so he had contact with all kinds of people. I bet he wasn't as professional about it as he should have been. Think his ODS was part of his spiel? Me, too.

The comments on the "preview" article are truly vile and disgusting.

Our all volunteer military is, at least in some instances, turning into the locals in Deliverance.

On the bright side, they have Dental.

Dave!

Tonight WNPR (Connecticut Public Radio) had a panel discussion with several soldiers who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. I did not get the introduction, so I don't know how these soldiers were selected.

The discussion was largely about re-integration into civilian life, including into one's own family. Several mentioned the "sensitivities" that they had had to develop in the battlefield and how they cause problems now at home. One used the word "demons" to describe his fears.

Another speaker was a Reservist who had been training drill sergeants in the U.S. He was ordered, at age 48, into Iraq as a lieutenant colonel. Within five weeks he found himself kicking down doors. Once he was caught in a battle between Sunni and Shia militants, with the objective of keeping them from killing each other. His cell phone rang. It was his daughter's 5th grade science teacher, who wanted to discuss the girl's science fair project. She inquired a couple of times about what all that noise was (machine gun fire), but he never told her. He just had a conversation about the science project.

PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury were central topics for discussion. Apparently, TBI was little understood as late as 2004. It is unlike most other injuries that can be seen and addressed, for which there is definitive evidence of some sort. One of the men who had been diagnosed with TBI said, laughingly, that he is now the easiest person in the world to entertain: you can tell him the same joke every day, and each time he thinks it is new.

Part of what we may be seeing are the consequences in civilian life for soldiers who experienced such trauma. We usually think of PTSD as involving substance abuse, nightmares, outbursts of violent behavior, and the like. It might be that PTSD can also produce hatred and bigotry.

Some above have used the word "sick" to describe the posts by people who may or may not be present or former Marines. That word might be too accurate.

I cannot imagine what this war must be like.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/poli ... e-15934180


Seems like an epidemic.

His mother's body was discovered today and it appears she was shot.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1NOSHC.DTL

The "California farming town" is Gilroy, famous for being one of the world largest garlic-growing regions, home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival and only 30 miles south of San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley.

How many missing Iraqis did these guys leave behind?

Another question is whether the armed forces left these guys behind by ignoring their PTSD, TBI, or prescribed use of highly psychoactive medications such as Lariam. Look at the record of just one base, Fort Bragg. From Jeffrey MacDonald in 1970 to John Diamond on March 9, 2001, eight Fort Bragg soldiers committed murders, many of them of women and some of them multiple homicides. None were suicides.

There may well be suicides that are not reported in this chart, which focuses on murders. Note that five of the eight murders followed the first Gulf war. Arguably, I should have included those five in the next paragraph.

Beginning on June 11, 2002, thirteen murders or murder/suicides were committed by Fort Bragg soldiers. I have followed this for a while, and to my mind, the military has not yet explained this outbreak sufficiently.

There is an epidemic of violence directed against others or against oneself by veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan. An epidemic is not defined by high numbers; it is defined by being widespread within a population:

There is no excuse for murder, but there may be reasons. These killers might have been suffering from untreated psychiatric illnesses associated with their military service.

As we draw down our military presence in Iraq and (eventually) Afghanistan, many returning veterans will be choosing to return to college or to enroll in college (for some of them, after completing their GED). Our classes are enriched by them. However, they are not just a slightly older cohort of students. Many of them have special needs; some are physically disabled. Others need to be with other veterans to talk things out. Some need counseling. All need and deserve appreciation, not condemnation.

So some universities and colleges have opened a Veteran's Oasis, New Private Lounge in Student Union a Haven for Veterans. This kind of attention is needed elsewhere. I hope it is not restricted to just eleven Connecticut institutions.

I saw a program on the BBC some years ago talking about the falklands war. First it talked about the different training people recieve now in western countries. Essentially people are trained to kill by reflex. Its a little known fact that most people in ww2 simply could not bring themselves to actually kill the enemy. The y shot in their general direction but to actually see a man and gun him down.. most people simple could not do it.

So training these days is to effectivly bypass the brain and have men killing by reflex. To have literally the first reaction to anything is to be pointing the gun and shooting before you can even think about it And it works. In the falklands the level of killing ratio between the brits and the Argentinians (who were trained the ww2 way) is stark.

But the problem is that barrier in the brain is there for a reason. To this day there are private websites for men that literally cannot sleep because of the images they have from the Falklands. One man described it as literally a movie playing in his eyes constantly. The reporter asked him what the image was an he said it was of an argentinian with his brains in his helment. Another man said he was in front of this argentinian kid in uniform who was litterally begging for his life and he shot him anyway. If you count the number of suicides since the war into the war casualties then the brits lost a lot more men than the Argies did.

And of course the killing by reflex is counterproductive in a counter insurgency sense. How many times did the US soldiers hear a bang and immediatly begin shooting in all directions? In one of the worst atricaties of Northern Ireland, the British paratroopsers heard a bang and they imediatly began shooting at a civil rights parade, thinking they were bieng shot at. (No-one will convince me that the IRA didn't set off a few firecrackers to make the Paras think they were hearing gunfire by the way.)

I am convinced that the amount of suicides from vets fromt he wars is bieng closely guarded for a reason. I fully expect the number is huge. Its a huge human tragedy.

Toll, I saw this on scribd, but I didn't read it (or download it).

Casting Troops Aside: Whitepaper
The United States Military’s Illegal Personality Disorder Discharge Problem
http://www.scribd.com/doc/86621855/Cast ... Whitepaper

I do condemn that Marine's bad mouthing the CIC and spreading ill will and poor morale among his unit. It shames the uniform and his unit. That behavior has to be dealt with swiftly and harshly by his NCOs and CO, regardless of whom is in the White House.

PTSD from trauma is not the only problem more and more troops face. They deal with the same challenges and financial hardships of civilians while also serving in uniform, being Separated from normal surroundings, and from their family. And they experience chemical changes due to powerful drugs. This use of this prescription drug is particularly frightening:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/25/robert-bales-malaria-drug_n_1378671.html?ref=mostpopular
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2011-11-19/military-malaria-drug/51311040/1

The USMC is going to give Stein a "less than honorable discharge". His superiors gave him ample warnings and he refused to relent - in fact he was recruiting other soldiers to join his Armed Forced Teaparty birther clan and commit themselves to NOT follow orders from this CIC.
That's one Jarhead who is too stupid to be in our military. And a couple (R) members of Congress are supporting this idiot's hate-Obama antics....

Gary Stein Case: Military Board Recommends Dismissal For Marine Who Criticized President Obama On Facebook

By JULIE WATSON 04/ 6/12 04:26 AM ET AP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/gary-stein-case-criticized-obama-facebook_n_1407719.html

Thank you for this reminder.

About a week ago I was seated at one of my favorite cafes in town. Across from me on a couch was a Native American man who seemed a bit off, mentally. He was trying to converse with a cute girl sitting close to him. After a few minutes, she found an excuse to leave. He then came over to my couch. I genuinely was about to leave for an appointment, unfortunately. But I heard him out for as long as I could.

He was a veteran who served two tours in Iraq, and he wanted to talk about how messed up he was, basically. I nodded my head a lot, and expressed sympathy when I could interject. When it came time for me to leave, I thanked him for his service and shook his hand. I hope he didn't think I was trying to avoid him the same way the cute girl had. I'm not sure much of whatever little I said really registered with him.

It's heart-breaking to see what our wars have done to these men and women.

Taking the time to talk with a person is a gift that everybody can bestow. The off-the-cuff "thank you for your service" is taken not to be serious. What you did was seriously pay attention to another human being.

Homeless people on the streets of our cities very often speak of the fact that nobody notices that they are there. Tossing a coin into a basket is not an acknowledgement that they are there.