Record Number of US Military and Veteran Suicides | Veterans Today

by Stephen Lendman

 

Headlines like this should shock: Suicides Outpace War Deaths. Surge in Military Suicides. Nearly Two Dozen Veterans Commit Suicide Daily.

 

These reports and similar ones reveal imperialism’s dark side. War takes its toll. Civilians suffer most. So do many combatants and veterans after returning home.

 

mussobama (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

 

 

Most people don’t know. Little gets reported. Why do active duty personnel and vets take their own lives?

 

Unbearable emotional pain consumes them. Daily trauma builds. So does intolerable stress. Relief is desperately sought. Suicide is chosen. It’s a last option. Others were exhausted.

 

Why A Marine Corps… (ReBlog Via GyG)

Why A Marine Corps

Email from MiliNet (an intel source for retired and prior service Marines and others) | 22 Aug 2010 | Col G. I. Wilson, USMC (Ret.) and H. Thomas Hayden

Posted on Monday, August 23, 2010 1:31:52 AM by dcwusmc

MILINET: WHY A MARINE CORPS

GyGRet (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

By: Col. G.I. Wilson, USMC (Ret.) & H. Thomas Hayden

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently said that he had ordered a review of the future role of the Marine Corps amid “anxiety” that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had turned the service into a “second land army.”

In remarks for a speech at Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco Gates said that the review would seek to define a 21st century combat mission for the Marines that is distinct from the Army’s, because the Marines “do not want to be, nor does America need” another ground combat force.

I Was Fooled by the War-Makers by (Ex-NeoCon) Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

 

RPREVOLU (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

GyGRet (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

 

Twenty years ago, as I was completing my freshman year in college, I was a full-blown neoconservative. Except I didn’t know it. Having concluded that I was not a leftist, I simply decided by process of elimination that I must be a Rush Limbaughian.

 

gophum (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like most people, I was unaware that any alternative to those two choices existed, or that in some ways they were two sides of a common statist coin. In particular, I embraced a neoconservative foreign policy with gusto. The way to show you weren’t a commie was by supporting the U.S. military as it doled out summary justice to bad guys all over the world. And frankly, it was exciting to watch it all unfold on TV.

 

Prison Planet.com » Delusional reality: Everything peddled by politicians, media, banks and television is a fiction

 

The “War on Terror” is a complete fabrication.

 

obamadash (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

There is no terrorism other than what the government creates in order to sell its agenda of a police state takeover. Click here to read Paul Craig Roberts’ article that lays this out in brilliant detail.

 

The CDC’s war on West Nile virus is also a complete fabrication. There is no real West Nile virus threat. (Read article here.) The odds of being killed by West Nileare, much like with “terrorism,” even lower than the odds of being killed by a bee sting.

 

RPREVOLU (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

The Silence of the Fallen – A Tribute to Gulf War Vets | Veterans Today

 

EXCERPT…..

 

RPREVOLU (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

 

The booming silence made as warriors fall,

 

One by lonely one,

 

Felled not by shrapnel, nor by bullets from a gun.

 

Silent sounds that echo loudly, sadly heard by very few,

 

Warriors felled by chemical agents, experimental vaccines, and D. U.

 

Exotic potions and fancy tools of war, made right there close to you,

 

In labs securely hidden away from the nuisance of scrutiny’s view,

 

And the outrage that would surely come, if the public only knew.

 

Government Does Very Few Things Well

By Doug Patton Tuesday, June 12, 2012

It is almost axiomatic that if something can be done efficiently by the private sector, local government will try to restrict it, tax it, regulate it or take it over. If local government somehow manages to do something well, state officials will do their best to make sure responsibility for that thing is transferred to them. And if, by some miracle, state government is in charge of a thing that is functioning properly and economically, you can rest assured the feds will conclude that, against all logic and historical evidence, they are the entity that can best serve the public in that area.

Barack Obama signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“MANNISH” FEMALE COLONEL FIRED FOR “SEXUAL HARASSMENT” OF A “SENIOR MALE OFFICER” -

“MANNISH” FEMALE COLONEL FIRED FOR “SEXUAL HARASSMENT” OF A “SENIOR MALE OFFICER” – TERRI ERDAG DUMPED AS C.O. OF USMC COMBAT SERVICE SUPPORT SCHOOL AT CAMP JOHNSON, N.C. – “I ALWAYS THOUGHT SHE WAS A DYKE – GLAD TO SEE I WAS WRONG” SAYS MARINE WHO SERVED UNDER HER

© 2012 MilitaryCorruption.com

We don’t care if Col. Terri Erdag, the very mannish-looking female Marine officer, is a lesbian or not. And anyway, Obama did away with DADT finally (it’s an election year, don’t you know?). So what’s the big deal?

Well, it’s kind of like “man bites dog” when you read a Marine Corps press release stating the colonel has been fired from her job as commanding officer of Combat Service Support Schools in part, because she may have “sexually-harassed” what is described as a “senior male officer.”

You mean we are to believe the never-married, very “butch” colonel “came on to” perhaps a colonel or general “guy” who felt so threatened by the experience that he filed a formal complaint?

From what some of our readers say, all bets would be, if Erdag got her ass in a sling over sex charges, it wouldn’t involve a (gasp!) “man.”

TOUGH FEMALE COLONEL CAME “UP FROM THE RANKS”

C. R. of Illinois wrote in to the Military TIMES discussion board as follows: “I always thought she was a dyke. Glad to see I was wrong.” The Marine veteran said he had served under Erdag at Camp Smith.

It’s got to be an embarrassment when you’re even more masculine-looking than “Horrible Holly Graf.” But all indications we have, are that Erdag’s a good Marine. In fact, she rose through the ranks. At one time, the tough “fifty-something” gal was a USMC buck sergeant and aviation mechanic. Erdag was commissioned a 2LT back in the 1980′s.

She not only served in the first Gulf War, but has been deployed in recent years to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

While we wait for more juicy details of the allegations, all we have now is the Corps saying the colonel’s firing was due “to a loss of confidence in her leadership and ability to maintain a positive command climate.” Those are the words of Brig. Gen. Niel Nelson, boss of the USMC Training Command.

Barack Obama’s Mideast Madness (Oliver North)

 

Cropped version of File:Official portrait of Barack Obama.jpg. The image was cropped at a 3:4 portrait ratio, it was slightly sharpened and the contrast and colors were auto-adjusted in photoshop. This crop, in contrast to the original image, centers the image on Obama's face and also removes the flag that takes away the focus from the portrait subject. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON — Nine years ago this week, President George W. Bush ordered more than 250,000 troops in a U.S.-led coalition to cross the “berm” on the border of Kuwait and head into Iraq. Weeks later, Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime was finished, and the despot was in hiding. It was a stunning victory for the force of American arms and leadership. Though it took until Dec. 13 to find the former dictator hiding in a “spider hole” near his hometown of Tikrit, Saddam eventually was tried by his own people, convicted, inter alia , of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging Dec. 30, 2006. But Saddam’s demise and the installation of a democratically elected government didn’t quell the vicious insurgency that began shortly after the liberation of Baghdad.

In November 2008, American voters hired a previously obscure U.S. senator as commander in chief. During his campaign, Barack Obama pledged to “get us out of Iraq,” and he made good on his promise. On Oct. 21, 2011, he precipitously ordered all remaining U.S. troops to leave Mesopotamia. The ill-advised decision had three profoundly important unintended consequences:

—Unlike the victors of the Gulf War in 1991, none of the 2.2 million American soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines who fought and won every battle in Operation Iraqi Freedom — including nearly 4,500 U.S. personnel killed in combat and more than 32,000 wounded in action — received a “welcome home” parade. Though administration and Pentagon officials won’t admit it, the deleterious effect of the hasty pullout and lack of public acclaim has adversely affected military morale and contributed to a spate of damaging incidents involving American personnel in Afghanistan.

—The hurried U.S. withdrawal from Iraq emboldened radical Islamists throughout the Middle East, who now claim their jihad succeeded in “driving the American invaders (or crusaders) out of Iraq.” This oft-repeated theme is now part of radical Islamist rhetoric in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon and is disseminated in propaganda organs supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, the Taliban and even al-Shabab.

—The rush to get out of Iraq and now Afghanistan, coupled with major cuts in the U.S. defense budget, has discouraged America’s allies and emboldened our adversaries. The most pernicious consequence of our retrenchment is evident in Syria, where Bashar Assad‘s brutal regime is perpetrating a bloodbath.

U.S. influence in the region is now so diminished that our government has been reduced to the role of bystander in a yearlong atrocity that has claimed at least 9,000 lives. The Obama administration refuses to offer anything but rhetorical encouragement for the Syrian opposition. But Iran — supposedly smarting under “severe” U.N. economic and diplomatic sanctions — continues to provide a full range of economic, military and intelligence support to buttress Assad’s grip on power.

Prison Planet.com » Why Neo-Cons Hate Ron Paul’s Honest Foreign Policy

This article, originally titled “Ron Paul: Propagandist Or Prophet?”, was written by Jeremy R. Hammond and published at Foreign Policy Journal

Ron Paul is “the best-known American propagandist for our enemies”, writes Dorothy Rabinowitz in a recent Wall Street Journal hit piece. To support the charge, she writes that Dr. Paul “assures audiences” that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 “took place only because of U.S. aggression and military actions”. It’s “True,” she writes, that “we’ve heard the assertions before”, but only “rarely have we heard in any American political figure such exclusive concern for, and appreciation of, the motives of those who attacked us”—and, she adds, he doesn’t care about the victims of the attacks.

Image via Wikipedia

The vindictive rhetoric aside, what is it, exactly, that Ron Paul is guilty of here? It is completely uncontroversial that the 9/11 attacks were a consequence of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

The 9/11 Commission Report, for instance, points out that Osama bin Laden “stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world. He inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites. He spoke of the suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of sanctions imposed after the Gulf War, and he protested U.S. support of Israel.”

Notice that Rabinowitz doesn’t actually deny that the 9/11 attacks were motivated by such U.S. policies as these. Rather, Ron Paul’s sin is that he actually acknowledges this truth. The fact that other political figures choose to ignore or deny this fact hardly reflects poorly on Dr. Paul. Refusing to bury one’s head deeply up one’s arse, as Rabinowitz is so obviously willing to do, is hardly a character trait to be faulted.

Causes of Gulf War Illness are complex and vary by deployment area — Baylor University study

Causes of Gulf War Illness are complex and vary by deployment area — Baylor University study

Causes of Gulf War Illness are complex and vary by deployment area — Baylor University study:

Gulf War Illness (GWI)—the chronic health condition that affects about one in four military veterans of the 1991 Gulf War—appears to be the result of several factors, which differed in importance depending upon the locations where veterans served during the war, according to a Baylor University study…………………..

MORE….

via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ NOW!: Causes of Gulf War Illness are complex and vary by deployment area — Baylor University study.

“America’s generals have been checked by a form of war that they did not prepare for and do not understand” ~ A Failure In Generalship « ~ The GUNNY “G” BLOG & E-MAIL ~

Mortal Danger

This article began with Frederick the Great’s admonition to his officers to focus their energies on the larger aspects of war. The Prussian monarch’s innovations had made his army the terror of Europe, but he knew that his adversaries were learning and adapting. Frederick feared that his generals would master his system of war without thinking deeply about the ever-changing nature of war, and in doing so would place Prussia’s security at risk. These fears would prove prophetic. At the Battle of Valmy in 1792, Frederick’s successors were checked by France’s ragtag citizen army. In the fourteen years that followed, Prussia’s generals assumed without much reflection that the wars of the future would look much like those of the past. In 1806, the Prussian Army marched lockstep into defeat and disaster at the hands of Napoleon at Jena. Frederick’s prophecy had come to pass; Prussia became a French vassal.

Iraq is America’s Valmy. America’s generals have been checked by a form of war that they did not prepare for and do not understand. They spent the years following the 1991 Gulf War mastering a system of war without thinking deeply about the ever changing nature of war. They marched into Iraq having assumed without much reflection that the wars of the future would look much like the wars of the past. Those few who saw clearly our vulnerability to insurgent tactics said and did little to prepare for these dangers. As at Valmy, this one debacle, however humiliating, will not in itself signal national disaster. The hour is late, but not too late to prepare for the challenges of the Long War. We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policymakers on the preparations needed for our security. The power and the responsibility to identify such generals lie with the U.S. Congress. If Congress does not act, our Jena awaits us.

via A Failure In Generalship « ~ The GUNNY “G” BLOG & E-MAIL ~.

The World – American Style by Michael S. Rozeff

The U.S. government has a known and explicit policy, discussed below, concerning Persian Gulf oil. The visible foreign results of this policy, so far, include the Gulf War of 1990, the subsequent sanctions on Iraq, the U.S. actions during the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. attack and war on Iraq (2003-present), the U.S. sanctions against Iran, and now the U.S. war in Libya. This is not to say that these actions have been well thought out or have succeeded in their aims with respect to the government’s prime objective. In fact, blunders dominate the list.

The domestic results of this policy, so far, include such items as the Patriot Act, curtailment of various freedoms and rights, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, travel restrictions, financial restrictions, militarization of police forces, and vast invasions of privacy. Other results include the encouragement of terrorism, the war on terror, use of torture, abductions, and holding prisoners incommunicado for indefinite terms.

What then is this policy? A RAND document reviews the U.S. oil policy in the mid-East and associated regions. It points out (p. 60) that President Carter enunciated this policy on January 23, 1980 in his State of the Union Address:

“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Even before this, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in September of 1978 issued a strategy assessment in which it wrote of “continuous access to petroleum resources” as priority #1 in the region, along with seeing that Israel survived. In 1979, the military put together a “Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), which soon gained full, unified command status as the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM).”

Every President since Carter has supported this doctrine, added to it, strengthened it, expanded it, or implemented it by policy actions including making war.

Hence, there is no question that the U.S. considers the uninterrupted oil flow from this region as a vital interest. The U.S. has made war over Kuwait in 1990, in Iraq in this century, and now in Libya. It has gone into related areas such as Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. It has confronted Iran for decades. It has armed and aided all sorts of dictatorial regimes in the region.

via The World – American Style by Michael S. Rozeff.

The World – American Style by Michael S. Rozeff ~ “Is the US Ruled by a Military Junta?”

The U.S. government has a known and explicit policy, discussed below, concerning Persian Gulf oil. The visible foreign results of this policy, so far, include the Gulf War of 1990, the subsequent sanctions on Iraq, the U.S. actions during the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. attack and war on Iraq (2003-present), the U.S. sanctions against Iran, and now the U.S. war in Libya. This is not to say that these actions have been well thought out or have succeeded in their aims with respect to the government’s prime objective. In fact, blunders dominate the list.

The domestic results of this policy, so far, include such items as the Patriot Act, curtailment of various freedoms and rights, the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, travel restrictions, financial restrictions, militarization of police forces, and vast invasions of privacy. Other results include the encouragement of terrorism, the war on terror, use of torture, abductions, and holding prisoners incommunicado for indefinite terms.

What then is this policy? A RAND document reviews the U.S. oil policy in the mid-East and associated regions. It points out (p. 60) that President Carter enunciated this policy on January 23, 1980 in his State of the Union Address:

“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Even before this, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in September of 1978 issued a strategy assessment in which it wrote of “continuous access to petroleum resources” as priority #1 in the region, along with seeing that Israel survived. In 1979, the military put together a “Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), which soon gained full, unified command status as the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM).”

Every President since Carter has supported this doctrine, added to it, strengthened it, expanded it, or implemented it by policy actions including making war.

Hence, there is no question that the U.S. considers the uninterrupted oil flow from this region as a vital interest. The U.S. has made war over Kuwait in 1990, in Iraq in this century, and now in Libya. It has gone into related areas such as Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. It has confronted Iran for decades. It has armed and aided all sorts of dictatorial regimes in the region………………

via The World – American Style by Michael S. Rozeff.

Jonathan Emord — Emperor Obama

The leap into Libya is flawed not only because it proceeds in violation of the Constitution but also because it is strategically ill-conceived. In the build-up to intervention in the second Gulf War, President George W. Bush endeavored mightily to paint Saddam Hussein as a global threat. The never found weapons of mass destruction were convenient grounds because they could transform a regional menace into a global one, justifying worldwide involvement to wrench him from power. Those never found weapons could also justify a defensive reaction, one that arguably did not require a declaration of war under the Constitution. Unlike the first Gulf War, the second had no clearly defined objectives and no clear exit strategy. George W. adopted a grandiose, and historically contradicted, vision of a Jeffersonian democracy for Iraq.

He hoped to impose that Western style democracy on a nation that had always known either theocratic or secular dictatorships. The regime that remains, propped up by heavy United States’ financing, is one that no group within the country finds satisfactory. Sooner or later it will likely collapse or be transformed, a civil war will follow, and a return to dictatorship will likely be Iraq’s fate. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on that fiasco, in no small measure because the second Gulf War, unlike the first, had no clearly defined objective or exit strategy.

via Jonathan Emord — Emperor Obama.

IT’S THE PEOPLE vs. THE GOVERNMENT By: Devvy

IT’S THE PEOPLE vs. THE GOVERNMENT

By: Devvy
July 5, 2007

© 2007 – NewsWithViews.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd284.htm

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” –Marcus Tullius Cicero 42B.C.

The title of this column is a caption from a recent CNN poll news item which contained some extraordinary comments from poltroons like Jon Kyl of Arizona, a counterfeit U.S. Senator who sold out the people of Arizona and these united states of America with his solid support of lawlessness and the recently defeated amnesty bill. Kyl is quoted in the aforementioned: “It is a sad commentary in America today that many Americans have lost faith in their government,” Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, said. He added, “Americans don’t believe that their government is representing them, is acting on their behalf. The polls show it.”

Why I quit… Desert Storm vet explains decision to leave Air Force after 22 years …

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Why I quit… Desert Storm vet explains decision to leave Air Force after 22 years
Daily Inter Lake ^ | November 7, 2010 | By MIKE BANZET

Posted on Sunday, November 07, 2010 7:56:07 PM by US Navy Vet

I never expected to write this letter, but my Mom e-mailed me to get information about my career for a writeup on Veterans Day, and as this is the first such holiday in 22 years when I will not be on active duty, I felt compelled to let you know why I decided to quit.

Quit is a strong word, I know. Everyone I’ve talked to has repeated that I’ve had a marvelous career and that I’ve retired with honor. Maybe that’s true on paper; I guess that it’s reflected by the record. But that’s not how I feel. I feel like I’ve quit. And because I’m not a quitter, I feel I have to explain why — not that anyone is asking, but because perhaps they don’t know to ask.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailyinterlake.com …

Kelleigh Nelson — American Citizens as Guinea Pigs, Part 5

Experiments on our MilitaryThe brave men and now women of our military deserve the very best in equipment, training, protection, leadership, healthcare, housing and pay.

Undoubtedly, they have been lacking in these areas and many more over the years. The active military and the veterans all deserve the very best we can give them as well as our daily prayers for all of them. Sadly, they have often been used as subjects for experiments conducted by the same groups I mentioned in Part 3 of this article, the Atomic Energy Commission AEC, the Department of Defense DOD, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, HEW, the Public Health Service, now the CDC, the National Institutes of Health NIH, the Veterans Administration VA, the CIA, and NASA.Undoubtedly, all of us have heard of Gulf War illness and depleted uranium DU sickness our veterans have come home with from the Iraq war. Several Persian Gulf War vets reported that they were ordered to take experimental vaccines during Operation Desert Shield or face prison.

Most researchers cite radioactive poisoning from depleted uranium shells as the deadliest element in the Gulf War Illness “cocktail.” In the 1991 war the Pentagon fired more than 340 tons of DU projectiles at targets in Iraq and Kuwait. More than a half million Gulf era veterans are on medical disability. It was in 1993 that a group of twenty four affected soldiers went to a leading expert on radiation and found they had many times the “safe” level of toxic depleted uranium in their bodies.The military of course continues to deny the connection of depleted uranium to the returning vet’s illnesses, but so many were sick that in 2007, President Bush signed legislation for a newly mandated study. I have my doubts of the outcome simply because the government rarely takes responsibility for their crimes against the citizens and military personnel. However, in 1996, the DOD admitted that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.

Hundreds of thousands of military personnel during the last seventy years have been involved in human experimentation and other intentional exposures conducted by the DOD, often without a service member’s knowledge or consent. In some cases, soldiers who consented to serve as human subjects found themselves participating in experiments quite different from those described at the time they volunteered.

excerpt…

Tea Party Turning Into A Tidal Wave

Politics: The defeat of Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski by a little-known conservative lawyer is the latest evidence of a tidal wave building that may sweep aside an out-of-touch establishment.

“We the people” won’t be ignored.Shays’ Rebellion, an uprising of 1,200 farmers led by one Daniel Shays, angry over conditions in Massachusetts in 1786, prompted Thomas Jefferson to write to James Madison that “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing” for America.

A more peaceful rebellion is now occurring across the country, and we believe it’s a good thing for America. Considering the excesses of this administration and Congress and their abuse of power to the point of ignoring the Constitution itself, it’s also a very necessary thing, an idea whose time has come.

With her concession, Sen. Murkowski became the third incumbent to bite the political dust this season, joining Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and Pennsylvania party switcher Arlen Specter. The old argument about seniority and influence no longer flies among voters who increasingly believe, as Jefferson did, that government is best which governs least.Joe Miller, a 43-year-old Yale-educated lawyer, West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, was a little-known Fairbanks attorney before he was endorsed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express.

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, who knows a little about shaking up the establishment, has become a political power, riding and leading a wave of political discontent with the country’s current direction that manifested itself last Saturday at Glenn Beck‘s “Restore Honor” rally on the National Mall. Palin is woman, hear her roar.

Excerpt

Warlord for Congress

Ilario Pantano is a Warlord. That was the name of his U.S. Marines unit when he served during the Iraqi War. It was his second tour of duty after serving previously in the Gulf War. He had returned to civilian life during the 1990s and was working on Wall Street when the attacks of September 11th rocked his office in lower Manhattan.

The first thing he did after the attacks was to go to his barber to get a military-style haircut. He knew right away that he was going back to war.Some of you may remember Ilario Pantano from his appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart. He was promoting his book Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy. I will never forget the interview because I have never seen John Stewart behave in such a respectful and professional manner while interviewing someone so diametrically opposed to him politically.And there was plenty of potential for fireworks in the interview. Pantano had been accused of murder after killing two insurgents during intense fighting near Bagdad. But Ilario Pantano was cleared of all charges in an Article 32 Hearing, which is the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing. No trial was ever convened.Ilario Pantano also acquitted himself well in the court of public opinion. Even when dealing with tough adversaries like John Stewart he overwhelmed them with a sharp mind and an articulate tongue.

When I saw his interview with Stewart I knew Ilario Pantano was congressional material.And now the Warlord is running for Congress against Mike McIntyre – a Democrat who voted against the surge in Iraq.It is fitting that Ilario Pantano gunned down two Iraqi insurgents on April 15th – the day we are all reminded by the IRS that our freedoms in America are in grave jeopardy. The Warlord favors either the Fair Tax or a flat tax over the present income tax system. He promises a very different kind of change than what we have seen under the current administration.

Excerpt…

Want to Cut Spending? Abolish the Marines! Barf Alert

Want to Cut Spending? Abolish the Marines!

Barf AlertBlog Critics Magazine ^ | July 14, 2010 | Alan KurtzPosted on Saturday, August 21, 2010 2:54:40 AM by 2ndDivisionVet

U.S. government spending is out of control, and much of it swirls down the military’s bottomless sinkhole. The FY 2010 federal budget is $3.55 trillion, of which $663.7 billion 18.74% is earmarked for the Department of Defense.

The U.S. spends 4.3% of its GDP on defense, more than double that of our nearest competitor, China 2.0%. With 4.5% of the planet’s population, we account for over 40% of world military expenditures. As a country, we are $14 trillion in debt.Many defenders of our global military posture and permanent War on Terror insist that every penny spent on defense is not merely justified, it’s sacrosanct.

This is madness. By trimming the fat, we could cut defense outlay significantly without adversely impacting national security.It is therefore in the name of fiscal responsibility that I call for abolishing the United States Marine Corps USMC, which is operationally obsolete.This will be anathema to those who cherish the USMC’s unquestionably heroic history from 1775 through the Pacific campaign of World War II, from Korea to Vietnam to Beirut, and in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Kuwait/Iraq during the early 1990s.

But the primary purpose of marines is to serve as an amphibious assault force. And when was the last time U.S. Marines got their feet wet? Since November 2001, we’ve been waging a never-ending War on Terror in Afghanistan, which is landlocked, and since 2003 another in Iraq, which has a coastline measuring all of 36 nonstrategic miles. For comparison, the main part of San Francisco Bay is 60 miles north-to-south.

The Marines are valiant warriors, but given our current geopolitical doctrine, their mission is irrelevant. The costly concept of a separate, redundant marine branch has outlived its usefulness.

CONTINUES…