Now Without Bullets

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Hat tip to IggyMom

The Rules of Engagement for our troops in Afghanistan are restricting in every sense of the word.  No attacks at night if it might wake up a civilian.  If the enemy shoots at you and then drops their weapons, you cannot shoot at them while they run to get more ammo or another weapon.  And now this order:  You are to keep your weapons at AMBER status.  For those of you who do not know what AMBER status is, it means the weapon has a loaded magazine, but the safety is on and no round is chambered.

Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan.

American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview. The source was unsure where the order originated or how many other units were affected.

When a weapon has a loaded magazine, but the safety is on and no round is chambered, the military refers to this condition as “amber status.” Weapons on “red status” are ready to fire—they have a round in the chamber and the safety is off.

The source stated that he had been stationed at the base for only a month, but the amber weapons order was in place since before he arrived. A NATO spokesman could not confirm the information, stating that levels of force are classified.

“Our overall aim is to defeat the insurgency which means we must gain and then maintain the support of the Afghan population,” said Lieutenant Commander Iain Baxter, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a statement to HUMAN EVENTS/ Guns & Patriots. “This must be the objective of every action taken by ISAF service members, and it calls for responses that de-escalate situations where the use of deadly force may not be necessary. In doing this, leaders at all levels make enormous efforts to ensure that troops balance their own protection with the protection of the Afghan population.”

Finish reading here.

We tried this idea of winning over their hearts and minds in Vietnam.  It didn't work then, it won't work now.  The next step will be to go on patrol without any bullets and to talk to the enemy instead of firing back.

Sheik Obama's regime has repeatedly hampered the hands of our fighting men in Afghanistan for the last 3 years.  While our men are dying, the enemy is laughing at us.  While we are retreating and leaving, the enemy is biding its time to retake that nation.  A failed military policy to go along with Sheik Obama's failed domestic, economic and foreign policies.  January 20, 2013 cannot come fast enough.

Sphere: Related Content

Obama Parties While Our Troops Starve

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Hat Tip to Iggymom

Today President Barack Hussein Obama will be celebrating his 50th birthday with a mega-million dollar bash costing each guest $35,800 each.  Each person will be well fed you can assure.

Today members of the military in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other overseas locations will not be well fed.  They will be short of food, short of water, short of ammo, short of toiletries.  In fact they are being systematically wiped out by their own government.

A Special Message from

Debbie Lee,
Gold Star Mother
In Loving Memory of Marc Alan Lee, US Navy SEAL

Dear friends, I’m writing this to you as an emergency response to an extremely urgent problem developing for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan right now…

This week I received a very concerning letter from a longtime supporter and mother of a deployed soldier. It seems like our current Commander-in-Chief, after snatching up credit for killing Osama bin Laden, has now forgotten the remaining 120,000 soldiers abroad that are serving their country by fighting a deadly war against terrorism. Help us show the troops that Americans have not forgotten about the sacrifices they are constantly making and thank them for their courageous patriotism by sending a much needed care package!

Unfortunately, the media only covers the sensational stories and it looks like the government neglecting our troops in combat deployment is just not that interesting of a story. On Monday I received this letter that just turned my stomach:

I mentioned to you that my son would soon be deploying to Afghanistan for the first time. He is now 21 and has been there for almost three weeks. It has been tense at times but he loves his country and believes in his mission.You asked that I let you know his units address and you would be sure that care packages were sent. We have been sending one a week and have asked Chris (our son) to please share as well as let us know who in his unit hasn’t received anything and we will be sure they are taken care of. Mail is slow so we don’t have those names yet.

I guess since Obama has announced the draw down the PX’s are no longer stocking much so my son has asked for the bare personal hygiene items that one would think they would have. In other words, everything is appreciated.

- MAF Supporter

As you can see by the pictures, the shelves in the makeshift PX are empty. The few items are suppose to be available to a whole base of hundreds, not for a few men and women.

Our troops deserve better.  Much better.  Like it or not liberals, we are fighting a war, not a police action, not a containment, but a war.  Our fighting men and women deserve to be fed properly, given good, clean water, enough ammunition to do the job.  And they need the kid gloves to be removed!  So what if they wake up a village with gunfire?  They are cleaning the area of the enemy and making it a better place for the locals.  Who really cares if they point their weapons at a "civilian"?  If your enemy dresses and hides behind the "civilians" then the "civilians" will be hurt, or have guns pointed at them.

While President Obama stuffs his face with gourmet treats, don't let our men suffer.  It isn't right.  Call your Congressman, your Senator, let them know how angry you are about this.

If you are really generous you can send a care package to our troops.  The Campaign Store has "Care Packages" for all budgets.  From the small individual pack to the battalion pack, each one helps our troops.

This is just a sample of what our troops will receive.  Just a few moments here and you will make a soldier's life a little brighter.  And that is all that really matters.

Thank you and may G-d Bless!

Sphere: Related Content

US Troops To Be Subject To The ICC

by Findalis


Hat tip to Crusader Rabbit

This is just another example of how far President Barack Hussein Obama will go to destroy the United States and turn us into a Third World Nation.

Barack Obama may subject US troops to International Criminal Court

They are feeling good just now at The Hague, as the judges and pen-pushers of the International Criminal Court (ICC) adjourn to smart restaurants to celebrate the latest gesture-politics flexing of their muscles by issuing an arrest warrant for Omar al Bashir, the President of Sudan. They are feeling less good in Darfur, from which 10 international aid agencies were expelled in retaliation within four hours of the ICC initiative, cutting food supplies and closing clinics. One man's ego trip is another man's starvation.

But the people who should be feeling really nervous about this development are the citizens of the United States and more especially their armed forces. The signs are that the grandstanding Barack Obama is preparing to subject the United States to the jurisdiction of the ICC. In May, 2002 President Bush withdrew the United States from the Rome Statute which established the ICC. With America heading into global conflict, he had no wish to see US troops arraigned for alleged war crimes before a kangaroo court.

That was a wise decision and probably required in terms of the US Constitution. Already, however, the Obama administration is sending out very different messages. America helped defeat a proposal that the warrant for Bashir should be suspended for 12 months - which would have been a welcome respite for the soup kitchens of Darfur. This is a policy change of considerable significance.

Nor is it the only straw in the wind. Last month US Ambassador Susan Rice, in a closed meeting of the Security Council, supported the ICC, saying it "looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and Darfur". A week later Ben Chang, spokesman for National Security Advisor General James Jones, took a similar line, telling the Washington Times: "We support the ICC in its pursuit of those who've perpetrated war crimes."

The next logical step is for the United States to sign up to the ICC. That would flatter Obama's ego as the conscience of the world. It would also put US servicemen at the mercy of any American-hating opportunists who might choose to arraign them on trumped-up charges before an alien court whose judges are likely to be ill-disposed towards America too.

In a joint analysis by David Scheffer (who helped set up the ICC) and John Hutson (former US Navy Judge Advocate General), the authors wrote: "If the United States were to join the ICC, one would have to accept at least the theoretical possibility that American citizens (particularly political and military leaders) could be prosecuted before the ICC on charges of committing atrocity crimes."

So, vengeful Democrats could facilitate the indictment of President George W Bush and all his senior commanders in Iraq. American troops on active service have been shown in polls to have little confidence in Barack Obama. His overtures to the ICC will hardly reverse that tendency.

My feeling is that a decision to do this will result in a lower moral amongst members of the US military. Every 2-bit dictator in the world (Chevez and Ahmadinejad come to mind very fast) will be filing suits against the US and its military for every imagined hurt to them. Can one imagine the chaos that will insue when this happens? Will it even be Consitutional? Would that even matter to Obama? Or his Attorney General, Eric Holder? Will the ICC force the US to adopt strict gun control laws? They can. They can do anything including changing the US Constitution to suit their purposes.

This a bad idea from a man who is suppose to be an expert on the US Constitution and its laws. That what Obama claimed to be when he ran for election. A Constitutional Scholar. Yet when pushed on the actual issues in the Constitution, he cannot remember a single thing about that document.

On January 20, 2009 Barack Hussein Obama took the following oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Would giving sovereignty of US courts to the ICC not violate that oath? In Obama's eyes the answer is NO. In the eyes of every member of the US Armed Forces the answer would be YES. And to the Supreme Court of the United States? Who knows. That will depend on whether he can stack the Court in his favor.

This is a bad idea, and if this is brought to the Senate as a treaty, it must never be ratified.

Sphere: Related Content

A Different Christmas Poem

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

'What are you doing?' I asked without fear,
'Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!'
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said 'Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night.'
'It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,'
Then he sighed, 'That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.'
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.'

'So go back inside,' he said, 'harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right.'
'But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
'Give you money,' I asked, 'or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son.'

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
'Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.'

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

To all those who serve in far away lands, Thank You. We will not forget you or the service you give.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

Sphere: Related Content