Military1Retired

In the days following the Shirley Sherrod race scandal much has been debated about racism, reverse racism and playing the race card. The conservative blogger who placed a snippet of the video from her NAACP speech intentionally omitted her speech in its entirety. This has stirred much debate and consternation on the issue that most Americans prefer to avoid-race!

The Obama administration’s reaction to this was quick and decisive. So quick; as a matter of fact, that they didn’t do any fact checking to validate the video post by the conservative blogger. Irreparable harm has been done to Ms. Sherrod due to the administration’s action or should I say reaction to the video that was played over and over in the media news cycle. It’s understandable that president Obama wanted to quell any potential controversies over being soft on reverse racism. However, in the administrations rush to judgment a good woman’s reputation has been damaged.

All of this of course was generated by the feud between the tea party and the NAACP. The NAACP rightly accusing the tea party fringe elements of overt racist rhetoric started a feud. The conservative blogger honestly was looking for revenge to put the NAACP on notice by posting the video of Ms. Sherrod’s speech. The firestorm of controversy has yet to abate an unlikely will anytime soon. The one positive that has come out of this controversy is that it has forced Americans to address the issue of race-the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

The media has proclaimed that the United States is in a racial stalemate. I couldn’t agree more! Everyone seems to get queasy at the mere mention of race unless you’re with your own particular group and then openly discuss it. Before America can heal we must confront it openly, even if it hurts. Our nation after 300 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow and legal segregation has yet to reconcile this ugly stain on our country’s history.

What’s compounding this racial quagmire is the fact that we are in a down economy essentially rescued from a depression at the end of 2008. As our history has shown us during recessions and poor economies people of color and immigrants are often the scapegoat as the root cause of our economic woes. We are exactly in that type of economic cycle right now. We see this on the nightly news in all its forms; the controversy surrounding illegal immigration which for all intent and purposes is targeting Latino immigrants in general and Mexicans in particular.

Ms. Sherrod as of this point has declined the offer to return to the USDA, she has accepted the administration’s apology for their rush to judgment. I can’t say I blame her. This woman in her speech was basically sharing her story about redemption and how people can change. Her father was brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and the murderer was never prosecuted. She was forced to live in brutal segregated conditions of the deep South. It’s no wonder she even talks to white people after an experience like that. Not excusing racism but one can see how our lives are shaped by our life experiences. We are the sum total of our life experiences.

The white farmer that she allegedly did not offer the” full weight of what she could do” to help him has come out in support of her. In an interview on NBC news he had stated that she saved his farm and that she’s a good person and that she has his full support.

With all the hyperbole surrounding this race scandal it has become evident to this writer that reverse racism is not the issue, karma is the issue! There are elements in the right wing fringe of this country that fear a black nation. What I mean by that is that as more blacks climb to power i.e. the Presidency, Attorney General etc. there seems to be a fear that with blacks taking control they will exact revenge on whites for centuries of slavery, racism and oppression.

Nothing could be further from the truth in spite of all of the terrible experiences that generations of blacks have suffered we have always been forgiving. Willing to reconcile, willing to forgive and turn the other cheek. Sure there are fringe elements in the black community as well; however most blacks by and large are God-fearing Christians who abhor violence, racism or any other abhorrent behavior that is not deemed to be Christian.

In conclusion, this has been a teachable moment for all of us; given the viral nature of the Internet instant access and 24-hour loop style news cycles. We should revisit good old-fashioned journalism via fact checking. Had this been done at the onset of this scandal it would not have blown up in epic proportions stirring controversy and smoke screening the real issues we need to worry about as Americans.

West Point gathering examines endings of US wars

By CHRIS CAROLA (AP) –

WEST POINT, N.Y. — American wars usually begin with a bang, yet it’s the endings that usually have long-lasting influences, a gathering of prominent military historians told West Point instructors who are training the next generation of Army officers.

“Wars don’t end simply, where someone declares victory,” said Brian Linn, a professor at Texas A&M University, one of 14 academics, authors and other military history experts who took part in Monday’s “War Termination Conference” at the United States Military Academy.

Peter Maslow ski of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s history department said, “The endings of wars are messy, messy.”

The daylong conference examined the ways American wars have ended and how those endings have influenced subsequent military actions and history.

After the four-year Spanish and American War ended in 1902, America was a global power with a military presence in the Philippines that some in the U.S. envisioned as the start of a “colonial army,” Linn said. Instead, American troops fought Filipino insurgents for several years before hostilities ended, and the “old Army” of the 19th century began its transformation into a modernized force, he said.

“The Army that goes into the Philippines isn’t the same one that comes out,” Linn said.

Organizers of the West Point conference brought in some of the nation’s top military historians to discuss war endings before an audience that included about 20 other academics and about a dozen officers from the academy’s history department. Because cadets are on summer break, West Point instructors will use essays written by conference participants and videotape of the gathering for their classroom lectures, said Col. Mat Moten, deputy head of the academy’s history department.

Moten said the conference is a follow-up project to one the Army conducted in the 1980s to examine the first battles of every American war.

“What we found out was that the Army is typically unprepared when it goes to war,” Moten said. “Preparedness is not really the problem the Army has right now. The problem we have now is we’re seven to eight years deep into two wars.”

West Point hosted the conference under the direction of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, known as TRADOC.

Based at Fort Monroe, Va., TRADOC operates 32 centers and schools on 16 installations nationwide, from basic training centers such as Fort Knox in Kentucky to specialized warfare training at the Airborne and Ranger schools at Fort Benning, Ga. TRADOC handles duties ranging from recruiting to conducting educational programs such as the West Point history conference.

Lt. Col. Gian Gentile said the conference was part of the Army’s continuing effort to educate its officer corps in military history so they have the necessary background to help civilian leaders carry out policy decisions both on and off the battlefield.

The history lessons can’t be geared to just the American experience in war, one scholar said.

Roger Spiller, who taught at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College in Kansas for nearly 30 years, said deploying U.S. officers without knowing their enemy’s history is “as bad as not having a rifle with you.”

The wars discussed at the conference ranged from the American Revolution to the first Gulf War. Although the Iraq and Afghanistan wars weren’t on the agenda Monday, the conflicts are never far from anyone’s mind, especially at a place that has lost dozens of graduates in the fighting.

“It sort of hangs like an umbrella over what we’re doing,” Spiller said. “As scholars, we’re not hermetically sealed from everything that’s going on in the real world.”

Maslow ski found correlation between the 300 years of warfare between Native Americans and Europeans and challenges American forces face amid the tribal nature of the Afghan war.

“Can you find more tribes that are willing to work with you because you’re fighting their traditional enemies?” he said.

___

Online:

US Military Academy: http://www.usma.edu

US Army Training and Doctrine Command: http://www.tradoc.army.mil

(This version CORRECTS Replaces 5th paragraph to clarify that hostilities in the Philippines ended several years after the end of the Spanish-American War; Mat in 7th paragraph and Gian in 12th paragraph are correct.)

Here are ten reasons to end the wars now:

1. American military and contractor casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Iraqi and Afghanistan civilian and military casualties.

3. These wars are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money in a time of extreme deficits, high unemployment and a falling stock market.

4. Invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq feeds terrorism.

5. Osama Bin Laden and his co-conspirators who attacked the World Trade Center were Saudi Arabian.

6. As Congressman Ron Paul recently said: “In Afghanistan, we are fighting the Taliban, those dangerous people with guns defending their homeland. Once they were called the Mujahidin, our old allies, along with bin Laden, in the fight to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s.”

7. Most Republicans in Congress now admit Iraq was a mistake.

8. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s comments show that even the hawkish Republican Party can’t support this war with a straight face.

9. As James Madison said, “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” (Witness the PATRIOT Act.)

10. The U.S. military has been in Iraq over seven years, and in Afghanistan almost nine years. It’s time to give peace a chance.

(Note, the LP doesn’t necessarily endorse the organizations linked above. We encourage you to research these issues for yourself.)

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict

 We are Nation Building in Both

The ax has fallen on the fate of Gen. Stanley McChrystal; His insubordination has cost him his job. This is not the first time a general has been called on the carpet by the president. History is full of examples where presidents and generals have clashed.

The most notable examples of history are the famous clashes between Pres. Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan. General McClellan frustrated Pres. Lincoln more and longer than any other general during the Civil War. He was eventually replaced by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. We all know how the story ends.

During world war II President Harry Truman and Gen. MacArthur clashed to the point that he was removed from the Pacific for insubordination. However something appears to be different with this current clash. In the previous examples neither General questioned the legitimacy of the president.

The case involving general McChrystal not only involves him, but also numerous staff under his charge. This situation is particularly egregious which shows total disrespect for the office of the president. In previous clashes between presidents and generals there was a rift because of difference of opinion on military tactics, not politics or personal attacks.

The journalist from Rolling Stone magazine who had traveled with general McChrystal and his staff was appalled at the lack of decorum. In an interview with NPR radio the journalist was asked if general McChrystal was aware that he was on the record and was being taped, the journalists said unequivocally; yes!

As the interview continued with the journalist from Rolling Stone he make constant reference to the lack of respect for the office of president and the candor at which he discussed the Obama administration and key staff members.

General McChrystal’s rogue attitude is nothing new. He has been called on the carpet on at least on two occasions by this president. Going back to his days at West Point he was always pushing the envelope as far as he could. He’s an expert at pushing the envelope up to the point where he could compromise himself. It won’t work this time.

Chris Matthews on hardball is saying pretty much what a lot of people are thinking. This situation is almost surreal in that the total lack of respect and decorum for this president is appalling. It’s unprecedented. Unfortunately, there is a large section of the American population who does not recognize the fact that president Obama is the president. These are the people that will not accept his presidency as legitimate. It appears that Gen. McChrystal maybe one of these people.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower did not tolerate insubordination, insolence or disrespect from their generals; history is on their side as having made the right call. President Obama is no different in the final analysis history will be on his side for making the right call.