Bookworm Room

I’m not surprised that there is a fair amount of rape in today’s military.  The facts on the ground readily explain, although they never excuse, it. To begin within, our troops have grown up and lived in a hypersexualized culture.  Up until a few decades ago, in movies and on TV screens, even married couples [...]

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One of my father’s favorite stories concerned his niece, who lived on a farm in Israel.  Daddy was visiting there one day when he saw his niece, who was then about 5, playing with a wee little baby goat.   At this point in his narrative, Daddy would always stop and explain to the city-bred people [...]

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Obama has consistently handed out cash to the unions and his cronies, but he’s planning on stripping the military to its bare bones.  This is not the same as trimming the fat and increasing efficiency.  Instead, he envisions the American military in say, circa 1917 or 1941.  Yes, we won both those wars, but at [...]

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I’ve been thinking today about unmatched combatants and a combatant’s willingness to take hits in order to win a fight.  I think about the former often because, when I do jujitsu, I am an unmatched combatant.  I’m usually the only woman in the adult classes, which means that the people (i.e., men) with whom I’m [...]

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I’ve often found myself advising clients to settle a suit that they ought to win, but that they nevertheless might not win.  A $10,000 payout is worth the risk of an adverse civil verdict amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.  Most clients settle because, after all, it’s only money. But what if it’s not [...]

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Ever since Obama became president, the war dead have vanished.  During the Bush presidency, enemy deaths filled that papers as we were accused of mass slaughter; during the Obama presidency, I think our troops are just out there having nice cups of tea with the bad guys, because none of the latter seem to be [...]

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My post caption is not a joke:  According to USA Today, the newest NATO tactic in Afghanistan is, in essence, to pretend there is no enemy: Military commanders in Afghanistan have stopped making public the number of allied troops killed by Afghan soldiers and police, a measure of the trustworthiness of a force that is [...]

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You know me — I’ve always had a soft spot for the Marines.  (No offense to the Navy League, of course, especially because the Marines are an integral part of the Navy League.)  Since I can’t imagine anyone not sharing my feelings about the Marines, I thought you’d like the following remarks from Col. Mike [...]

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Boys are born equipped with this neat little toy.  Amongst its many enjoyable attributes, you can write your name in the snow with it.  There are lots of other things you can do with it.  Long hikes without pit stops?  No problem.  Use a tree or, if you’re adventurous, see if you can fill the [...]

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I mentioned before that the last of the Haditha defendants, Frank Wuterich, is finally having his day in court (martial).  If this is a subject that interests you, Bruce Kesler gives the perfect primer to help understand the legal standards that will control this case.  I’m optimistic that Wuterich will be acquitted, and I hope [...]

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One of my favorite books ever is Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory. (Just as a “by the way,” another wonderful Fussell book is Thank God for the Atom Bomb.)  In The Great War and Modern Memory, Fussell examines how the literary British upper-class men who participated in the British war wrote about [...]

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One of the many blessings of our American military is that it’s a Constitutional military that has as its Commander in Chief a civilian elected by the American public.  (Although history has shown, fairly recently in fact, that the American public sometimes elects bad CinCs.)  Because the elected CinC is frequently someone without military experience, [...]

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Astute readers have probably figured out over the years that I’m a huge fan of our American military.  I think it’s the last institution in America that trains young people to be competent adults; that gives people, young and old, meaning and purpose in a world that’s often defined by mindless materialism; that truly serves [...]

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I have been brooding about an article I read the other day, one that describes the brave new world of job interviews.  According to the Wall Street Journal, many companies, having recognized that traditional interview techniques aren’t necessarily a good way to determine whether someone is right for the job, have moved on to brain [...]

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You know what the number one song in Britain is this Christmas?  “Wherever You Are” a beautiful choral song, with lyrics based upon a poem drawn from letters between British service men and their wives, sung by those wives: By the way, if you buy the song, not only will you have beautiful music to [...]

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I don’t know where he found it, but The Mellow Jihadi has the most wonderful photograph, from 1950, showing a sailor politely admiring two WAVES aboard his ship. Aside from the photo’s naturally elegant composition, it has the feel, not just of another time, but of another universe altogether. Just contrast it with today’s Navy.

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You remember Ilario Pantano, don’t you?  Well, maybe not.   It’s been a long time now since the media savaged his reputation, selling him to Americans as a cold-blooded killer, a story that ran endlessly on newspaper front pages and in TV headlines.  Interestingly, the media was pretty quiet when the report came out clearing Pantano [...]

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A new enlistee thought quickly and helped arrest a couple of brazen criminals (emphasis mine): A quick-thinking cashier ran out of a Mill Valley store Sunday morning and photographed two women who had shoplifted Taser stun guns and pepper spray — resulting in arrests a few minutes later. At about 9:15 a.m. Mill Valley police [...]

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I came of age in the post-Vietnam era.  Let me amend that:  I came of age in San Francisco in the post-Vietnam era.  Although Fleet Week, which started in the City about 20+ years ago has done a lot to turn things around, San Francisco has not been a military friendly city, and most definitely [...]

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Last night, I went to the Annual Pearl Harbor Memorial Dinner hosted by the San Francisco Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States.  It was, as I knew it would be, a significantly smaller event than the annual Midway Commemoration dinner.  That’s reasonable, because the latter celebrates a stunning victory, while the former [...]

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Was the chasm between the people in the field and the people in the Pentagon always so great?  Or has the air in Foggy Bottom become even more toxic? It’s hard to imagine the military 40 or more years ago making such a concerted effort to cover-up an investigation and promote a dubious person, just [...]

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I’ve got an old joke for you, one that my Dad heard during WWII in North Africa: A soldier has been serving in the desert for a long time, and has become increasingly antsy as his body craves sexual release.  He notices that his fellow soldiers seem much more relaxed than he is.  Finally, he [...]

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Suek posted this is an open thread, but I thought it was too good to keep hidden: Marines are taught: 1) Keep your priorities in order and 2) Know when to act without hesitation. A MARINE was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses [...]

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Great poster, that’s all I can say. And here is the perfect companion piece (after which you’ll want to take a shower).

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Dan Abrams, who’s some sort of ABC talking head, has weighed in about Mike McQueary.  Because I’ve already flogged the topic to death in other posts, I won’t explain here why I strongly disagree with his argument that McQueary really didn’t do anything that wrong. What intrigued me in the article was a point I’ve [...]

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