Tallahassee Veterans Acupuncture Project

Composition IV (Battle),
Wassily Kandinsky

There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
--Spirits in the Material World, The Police

Relax, said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!
--Hotel California, The Eagles
______________

We here at Ranger would like to recognize the Tallahassee Veterans Acupuncture Project (TVAP), a weekly free clinic offered to veterans and their family members to help reduce stress and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome [PTSD].

This clinic focuses on reducing anxiety and irritability and seeks to "alleviate hyper-vigilance, flashbacks and nightmares." Their flier says, "The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) developed a simple five point treatment using acupuncture needles to the ear for drug addiction. It has since been found that this same group of points can be used for PTSD. . ."

Ranger kindly invited me, and the clinicians, Anna Lee and Rachel Kelley, were kind enough to treat me as a fellow traveler. I reckoned I should qualify under duress via fraternization.

Several needles are painlessly placed in each ear, and the client sits back in quietude for 30-40 minutes, focusing on peaceful thoughts.

Lisa counted it a success, as a muscle spasm between her shoulder blades disappeared at some point during the treatment and she came out of it feeling greatly refreshed. For her, it was a wholly satisfying experience.

Ranger, OTOH, did not appear to receive noticeable benefit, but we are told the results of the treatments are cumulative. His acupuncturist told him that she noted he was hostile, and with barely veiled pride he asked how she knew. She said she had read it in the comments at RAW. She also told him that he would probably live a long life, at which he seemed not so much thrilled as at the idea that his anger was recognized.

After yours truly suggested that angry was no way to go through his anticipated long life, Ranger became agitated and the practitioner intervened, saying that it was, indeed, one way to go through life. That seemed sensible to all, and the total undoing of the serenity was avoided.

As an aside: Do not be troubled that Ranger might keel over of hypertension. Despite his anger, he has an amazingly low resting heart rate and blood pressure. Perhaps this is because he so effectively dispels it onto his environment.

If you have such a program in your area, we encourage you to avail yourself of this helpful healing modality. There is no discomfort, and anything that may help one avoid becoming hostage to Big Pharma is worth a try.

As they used to say on the old Hee-Haw, with feeling: Tallahassee Veterans Acupuncture Project: Sa - lute (or in Slovakian, salutovat.)

What's So Special?

A d0-gooder is an enslaver,
for they think they should go and save the world,
or amend situations to which they have no business [amending],
for the situations need to occur in order for
a working or a desire to be fulfilled,
and who are they to say what that is?
--Voyage to the New World, Ramtha

Ignorance is God's prison
--Emptiness, Rumi
________________

In his book Packing Inferno (courtesy friend tw), Marine Tyler Boudreaux illustrates the folly of imposing "hearts and minds" theory at the hands of Infantry battalions. After a brief moment of falling back into a reverie on how Special Forces was and is the prime Counterinsurgency tool in the Army's kit, Ranger must agree with Boudreaux's assessment.

What makes the SF any sharper of a blade than that of the USMC, and how do their missions differ?

Historically, SF missions have been:

• Internal Defense and Development [IDAD], which has morphed into nation building and Provisional Reconstruction Teams [PRT's]

• Unconventional Warfare/Guerrilla Warfare [UW/GW]

• Strategic Intelligence and Reconnaissance

• Direct Action

While all fit into COIN, they have lost their strategic relevance. Even in the heady early days of the U.S. Afghan invasion, SF did not operate in the traditional UW/GW scenario of the Jedburgh mode. SF did not recruit, train or accompany the Northern Alliance when overthrowing the Taliban. They simply tagged along, presenting feel-good photo-ops. The Northern Alliance did not need anything in the form of training -- all they needed was beans and bullets. It is doubtful they even needed U.S. intel on the Taliban.

The Special Operations Forces haven't exactly formed "A" Camps, CIDG forces, Mobile Guerrilla Forces [Mike Forces], regional forces or any special projects of significance (if so, they are kept hidden.) In the days of super high-resolution, real-time photo intelligence, strategic recon seems OBE.

This leaves Direct Action [D.A.], the ground of all military combat elements, but the least effective employment of SF assets. SF is devolving into mini Ranger Battalions. What is being lost is the thing that distinguishes them -- the finesse and nuance, which earned them the well-deserved title, "Sneaky Petes".

D.A. is why God made Rangers and Marines. When SF and SEALS are used as assault infantry, then a fine tool is being misappropriated. Conventional commanders simply don't know how to synergistically employ SF assets as force multipliers [Note: We are not talking SOF assets; we are talking SF and SEAL.]

Rangers, Force Recon Marines and Marines are classic Infantry assault troops of world-class quality. It is doubtful that any foreign military equals their level of expertise. But the point is, D.A. is not a hearts and minds moment. It is closing with and destroying a hostile force, which is not what COIN is all about, as Boudreaux points out. Killing the indig is not nation building.

The book challenges us to consider what actually makes the SF special. It certainly is not the beret, since everyone wears one these days.

Goodnight, and Good Luck

--What'd the general have to say?
--It was a colonel. Two of them
--That makes a general
--Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Last night the wife said,
Oh boy, when you're dead,
You don't take nothing with you but your soul, think!
--The Ballad of John and Yoko

---

The current Army Echoes (May-Aug 2009) drops little hints that your military does not abide by the separation of church and state dictum.

John Radke, Chief of Retirement Services, signs off, "in your thoughts and prayers."

General (R) Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, ends his letter, "Thank you, and God bless our military, our vets and our nation."

If there is a God, why would there be blessings poured forth on an Army or a nation? Is God a flag-waver? How has religion insinuated itself into military subjects?

George Casey fronts the newsletter, signing off, "You echo the call to serve and, in doing so, help our Army remain the Strength of the Nation." If this is true, then surely we are in need of a prayer. God bless us, every one!

If we want to pray, let us pray simply for our own souls, which is all we have in the end.

Shattered Cross

I know a lot of fancy dancers,
People who can glide you on a floor,
They move so smooth but have no answers.
When you ask, "Why'd you come here for?"
"I don't know why."
--Hard Headed Woman, Cat Stevens

Don't bring me your tales of temptation and loss
The rags of your dreams
Your shattered cross
I have heard your confession I know who you blame
If you had it all back you'd just lose it again
--Shattered Cross, Darrel Scott
_______________

A meditation on independence:

The Declaration of Independence is a simple, straightforward document, and illuminating when read not swaddled in the flag.

The words translated into action which created the USA, whose birthday we celebrate this weekend. But looked at another way, our Founding fathers were criminals and traitors as they were rebelling against the legally constituted government of the colonies.

These men whom we revere were guerrillas, insurgents and rebels, quite simply. In addition, the document which they penned was not quite so revolutionary when one takes into consideration that most of the ideas had already been stated in places like the 1689 English Bill of rights (Independence, British-Style). Their innovation was to cobble on Rousseau's concept of natural rights.

Fast-Forward to 2009, and this government has forces deployed to over 80 nations around the world. We now fight and kill guerrillas, insurgents and rebels, calling them an evil. It seems our moral yardstick is not so absolute as it once was, or perhaps it never was.

Our War Department has morphed into a Defense Department, which does not live up to the name. Our far-flung troops are not exactly defending the homeland. Running NATO right up to the Russian borders, fighting in AFPAK and shuttering 130,000 troops in Iraq is not exactly "providing for the common defense."

Yet instead of asking, "Why?" the American people get caught up in the war maker's fancy dancing about their "How". We are offensive, in a defensive sort of way, and even the liberal democratic politicians will not extricate us from these quagmires.

We fight wars to keep the Koreans from invading Korea, and to keep the Vietnamese from fighting the Vietnamese. Ditto Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. has bypassed the Prussian model, as the state exists as an instrument of the defense establishment and related industries. The President is relegated to the position of rubber-stamping Department of Defense policy.

The U.S. was born in violence and illegal revolution, yet we now fight to deny others this same option. Nations have the right to determine their own destiny -- this is the basis of the Declaration of Independence.

Times change, but principles are immutable. We hold these truths to be self-evident.

Kill the Right Ones

We went to Vietnam to stop communism!...
We shell women and children!
--Born on the 4th of July (1989)
_____________

Ranger is a violent man and is filled with hostility which is often not outer-directed. On this 4th of July he does not fear terrorists or any other potential threat to America because violent men are understandable and easily foiled by sidestepping, and applying either logic or superior force.

Ranger controls his violence with isolation and prescription drugs. Since a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals, why doesn't the U.S. check its violent impulses in an appropriate manner?

Consider isolation as a reasonable alternative to aggression and elective wars. America is still a very defensible country. We are protected by natural barriers that neither the Nazis, Japanese nor Soviet Communists could neutralize, and this remains true to this day. Terrorists may strike tactically into the U.S., but they can never achieve strategic success.

When we are told otherwise, we are being sold an artificial product called "unreasonable fear".

In Ranger's Army, violence was called valor and rewarded with neat little pieces of colored ribbon. Ranger regrets the violence in which he participated, and grieves the fact that we often kill the wrong people. It sure would feel good to kill the right people.

In the Vietnam war, the U.S. military killed the Vietcong and North Vietnamese by the bulldozer load, yet now they are our trading buddies. In Korea it was the ChiComs, and today we are economically intertwined. What a difference a day makes.

In another manifestation of violence, for those of us who served in Vietnam it was not the VC or NVA that sprayed us with Agent Orange and Pink which installed a slow-burn death sentence into our bodies, but rather our own grateful nation.

Happy 4th of July. Even if you dipped me in red-white-and -blue paint, this day would just be another in a long road march.

Society of Dysfunctional Veterans

And he writes with elegiac insight
about life’s losers,
the people he calls “Strange Rangers,”
the addicted, insane or destitute
--August Kleinzahler
____________

One perk of writing a blog is meeting some fascinating people along the way. One of our special friends is Ranger Andy, founder of the "International Society of Dysfunctional Veterans".

He founded his society after a eureka moment years after leaving the service: After much effort to the contrary, he realized he was never going to fit back into society precisely the way he had come out, and he was going to embrace his alterity hook, line and sinker. Kind of an it is what it is mentality.

Ranger Andy is a bona fide Ranger, and you can understand why he and RAW Ranger share a special camaraderie.

But Andy has also been kind enough to send several of his unique dysfunctional veteran creations (like the above patch) to me over the years, and I find him to be quite a vehement gentleman.

Happy 4th, Ranger Andy.

Black Hat of the Year

Lowell and Lisa, 9/'08

Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was
I had such friends
--William Butler Yeats

____________

Ranger's last Columbus observation: At a recent breakfast, Ranger's friend Lowell Jergens shared with him that he was honored as the 2008 Black Hat of the Year at the 1-507th annual reunion.

CSM Jergens served in the Republic of Vietnam first with Aco, 2nd Battalion, 327th A.I.R., 101st Airborne Division and then with team 149, 525th M.I. Battalion, MACV.

CSM Jergens was a founding member of the Ft. Benning Sport Parachute Team which became the Silver Wings. He holds a class D parachute license participating in numerous parachute demonstration jumps (from the commemorative brochure.)

Throughout Lowell's exemplary career, his contributions to the Airborne cannot be quantified. He is the yardstick by which the Army measures a soldier.

Lisa has had the pleasure of meeting Lowell twice, and she likes him lots. He wants to do something right for the world, and contributes to several worthy charities. He has a great love of cats, and is actively involved with his area's Trap-Neuter-Release Program (TNR). He will be taking a journaling class in the fall.

This honor is fitting for an airborne soldier of Lowell's distinguished service and experience. It was Ranger's honor to serve with him, and now call him friend.

Cleared for Weird

The eye sees only what the mind
is prepared to comprehend
--Henri Bergson

It is impossible for a man to learn
what he thinks he already knows
--Epictetus
_________________

Our friend Publius of MilBlog recently mentioned his security clearance was still active. This got Ranger thinking about Operational/Security clearances and classified information.

Clearly there is a need for classification of documents, sources, collection activities, etc., for military operations. This same conslusion can be made for national level operations of the federal government, but here is where Ranger loses his way. If the Federal government can hide behind the protective cloak of secrecy and the need for security, then why, too, don't the states operate in a like manner?

How have the national leaders become exempt from the democratic principle of transparency, which is the basis of democratic thought and action? When our highest elected official claim Executive Privilege, how do we the voters ever gain the needed intelligence to make meaningful election booth choices?

The concept of "need to know" is the basis of classified security programs. If the citizens foot the bills, then we have the right to know everything our leaders do in the official execution of their duties.

We the People need to be cleared for weird -- we have a need to know.

The Red Dress

If you can't bedazzle them with brilliance,
then baffle them with bullshit
_______________

There are dribs and drabs in the press about Cheney and court orders concerning his testimony in reference to the Valerie Plame affair. Thus far, Cheney's role in this affair has not been investigated in any meaningful legal manner.

This may possibly be the avenue of approach to ensure he ends up in front of a judge on this mortal plane. (Any judge except Scalia, Roberts, Aliot, et. al.) The offense will be lying in official sworn testimony. It may seem niggling, but it was enough to skewer big dogs like Bill Clinton and Al Capone.

The feds couldn't pin anything major on gangster Capone, but he ended up going down nonetheless on a piddling income tax evasion conviction.

Why not use the same approach with Cheney?

Speed Racer

You and your like are trying to
make a war with the help of people
who just aren’t interested
--The Quiet American, Graham Greene
_______________

On Ranger's recent trip to Columbus, Georgia, he passed the intersection of Ga 29 and US 27, just outside of Cusseta and west of Buena Vista. This intersection always reminds him of SFC Don Tabor, who was a national level rifle shooter.

If memory serves, Don was also a sniper in Vietnam. Tabor was a piece of work, and was best friends with SFC Albert Mundon, high scorer of the Army team which won the 1969 National High power Rifle Team Championship. These guys were so tight they actually traded wives, remaining best of friends after the fall out episode. (Of course, they divorced and remarried again. They were Army Strong before it was faddish.)

Anyway, tabor drove a big hot rod Grand Prix Pontiac, and nobody would ride with him on our frequent TDY rifle matches across the country. Ranger was once foolish enough to team up with him and we had loads of fun, some of which is PG-13.

Eventually, Tabor retired to Buena Vista and drove a "chicken" 18-wheeler delivering broilers to the slaughterhouse. This was the fulfillment of his dream -- his rig was bought and paid for, and new house followed. Finally, the big day of celebration arrived.

We all got drunk and sent Tabor home in that souped up, 400 horsepower Grand Prix. God we were stupid, as Tabor proceeded to roll it at the 29/27 intersection, decapitating himself in the process.

It's not quite Isadora Duncan, but Don Tabor is just as dead.

Offered as a cautionary PSA to any rising James Deans out there.

That'll be the Day

I didn't come here to America
To give up the ghost and die
--Five Points, Black 47
________________

Since Purple Heart Magazine published Ranger's Anti-Warrior stance last month, he is going to push the envelope with a new challenge:

Dear Ed,

It is my contention that the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) should be dedicated to the principal that there should not be any more Purple Hearts (PH's) being awarded in our current meaningless and endless hostilities in Iraq and AFPAK. This means advocating for ending the wars.

In the past, PH's purchased freedom and liberty, eventually leading to victory and success. The last Victory Medal awarded was 1945. Since then, the volume of PH's have not bought the American taxpayer anything except political compromise and open-ended conflicts. The MOPH should not glorify such actions, and should do everything possible to end the misery and suffering caused by combat wounds that benefit naught.

It is clear that DVA policies are broken and will continue to provide marginal care to the returning wounded and disabled. In the face of the inadequacy of the DVA -- with a current backlog of almost a million disability cases -- how can fraternal organization like the MOPH continue to glorify and support the current wars, in which victory is undefinable and therefore unattainable?

Our efforts need to be reassessed and realigned to protect those that need not be needlessly sacrificed to a false concept of freedom or liberty.

What a revolutionary move it would be if the MOPH adopted a posture opposing continued U.S. involvement in the current phony wars on terror. This is the leadership required of old soldiers in the face of degenerate national policy.

These are harsh words to speak to fellow patriots, but as Justice Brandeis said, sunshine is an excellent disinfectant.


Sincerely,


Jim Hruska

Dancin' at the Zombie Zoo

Boys who spent their weekends
making banana nut muffins did not,
as a rule, excel in the art of hand-to-hand combat
— Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim,
David Sedaris
_______________

[Lisa will be an occasional contributor at other blogs, and will note her contributions at Ranger. The piece below can be read in its entirety today at Big Brass Blog.]

I am sorry to hear of Michael Jackson's too-young death. He was a great pop icon, whose music and early power and attitude left an indelible mark on the music industry (Police Focus on Medical Treatment in Jackson Death.)

But more than that, Mr. Jackson elicits a pathetic response when one thinks of the odd reclusive man he became, befriending chimps and children, ensconcing himself in his Neverland Ranch -- replete with amusement park rides and a petting zoo -- as he embarked on a quest of self-abnegation: to become a white woman, or at least, Diana Ross. But aside from the issue of wanting to eradicate his negroid features is the issue of his arrested psyche.

To me, Michael Jackson embodies the puer aeternus archetype, the perpetual child. Examples of this type of boy-man abound, yet there is little discussion of the phenomenon. While Jackson is an extreme and cartoonish example, let's discuss it in general.

Read more here . . .

Rick Astley, Where Are You?

Ebony and ivory live together
in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard,
oh lord why don't we?
--Ebony and Ivory, Paul McCartney
_______________

Any of you who have ever been Rick rolled might find this amusing, a small tidbit to follow Krishnamurti's lofty thinking on the unity of being.

I had a funny real life experience today in line with the clever "Stuff White People Like" (SWPL) site. A group of black guys and a girl joshing around with every cool (you think) thing you do, as a white person, and making it all seem rather . . . uptight

They were singing a reasonable facsimile of James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" -- heartfelt tune, right? except, when one of them jumped in with some scat or a soulful wail. Sweet Baby James didn't seem so soulful after that. Michel Buble? Yeah -- uptight, man.

The guys would punctuate their riffs with "My bad" in a very white boy-cool way, and I just had to laugh.

A great lesson that no matter how down you think you are, you don't know me.

Queer as Folk

Michael Jackson got married.
There are shows like “I Want to Marry a Millionaire.”
How sacred can it be?
--David Sedaris on gay marriage

Hans Moleman: Lesbian?!
This isn't my army reunion
Gay man in army clothes:
You're coming home with me
Hans Moleman: Yes, Colonel
--The Simpsons

[I]f God had thought homosexuality is a sin,
he would not have created gay people
--Howard Dean
_________________

Word, Howard. Too bad your masculine yawp has relegated you to the dustbin of history. There is simply no room for unrepentant male exuberance in politics today, as our president, the King of Cool, has demonstrated.

Ranger has some thoughts on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. Since he entered active duty in 1968, it has been evident to him that bull diker types inhabit the U.S. Army in prodigious numbers and a freely accepted manner. Many of these women compete avidly with the men, and exercise so strenuously that they cease to have menstrual cycles. They are buff, hard and masculine.

These women do not threaten the male command structure and are therefore accepted. In fact, they reinforce the manly nature of the institution in their desire to compete on a man's playing field

At Ft. McClellan in the 1980's there was a Major General called "Mother Mary". She lived openly with a female Lieutenant Colonel an all knew her homosexual orientation, yet she was a Post Commander. Fellow writer FDChief speaks of his service in Panama, which was known as "Clam City" for its rampant lesbian activity among the ranks.

Compare this with the shelving of Air Force gayviator LTC Victor Fehrenbach. A decorated pilot, he will be discharged after 18 years of meritorious service because someone outed him as a gay man. Though Major Margaret Witt is fighting her discharge at the same time, the number of gay men discharged under DADT far exceeds the number of discharged lesbians. Why?

Gay men threaten to disrupt the masculine military ethos of the military. As friend Sheerahkahn wrote today: "thus the issue for the heterosexual men is that they feel like women around homosexual men." Het men feel feminized and thus vulnerable around gay men. Word, Sheerahkahn.

Those who say overturning DADT would disrupt discipline due to proximity in close quarters do not have a strong argument. In peacetime, we no longer have squad bay living; there are no gang showers or toilets.Officers have always lived in private or semi-private quarters.

Of course, neither applies in combat situations, but in Iraq and Afghanistan many troops live in modern billets. The fear of crazed homosexual overtures in the bunkers simply doesn't hold water.

That President Obama will be commemorating the Stonewall Riots Monday at the White House seems the height of hypocrisy to us. (The 1969 Stonewall Riots occurred in New York City when patrons of a city gay bar fought back against police brutality and harassment.) Obama could, with the flourish of a pen, roll back Clinton's DADT.

Whether viewed from a moral, military, legal or financial perspective, DADT makes no sense.

Do We Know What They Want?

All war must be just the killing of strangers
against whom you feel no personal animosity;
strangers whom, in other circumstances,
you would help if you found them in trouble
--Mark Twain
_________________

Sunday homily: Are we helping in Iraq and AFPAK?

"Between a man of peace and a soldier, can there be any relationship of help?

They belong to different levels of thought, to different levels of society; they may meet in the marketplace but they have different friends, a different language. The man of peace may understand the soldier and want to help him, but only to urge him come out of his world of violence.

The soldier will accept such help only when he himself is convinced of the folly of violence; otherwise, he will wish to lock up the man of peace as a danger to society. Similarly, if you want to reform society, you must be sure that that is what it wants. Otherwise, your help and enthusiasm will be used for its own ends. The collective end is not dissimilar to the individual end.

If you want to help me, you must find out what I am seeking. Otherwise, in what way are you helping me? If you and I agree, then we will help and not hinder one another. But if you do not know what I want and still try to help me, either you are acting out of conceit -- which imposes a limit on understanding -- or you are being carried away by your own activity.

To truly help another is impossible if there is the conceit of knowledge, or experience, of authority, of any pretension. Nor is it possible if you are escaping into activity in the form of social service. To help me, you must know yourself. Otherwise, your ignorance will strengthen my ignorance."

--J. Krishnamurti, unpublished interview, ca. 1950, #6

Don't you wish you got this kind of straight dope from the pulpit? That's why you've got Ranger -- your one-stop moral shopping playground. The words are 60 years old, but as fresh and relevant as if spoken today.

Talk amongst yourselves.

FWG, or, Flying While Gay

(h/t to Deep Confusion)

I'm homosexual . . . How and why are idle questions.
It's a little like wanting to know why my eyes are green
--Jean Genet

The homosexual subculture based on brief,
barren assignations is, in part,
a dark mirror of the sex-obsessed majority culture
--George F. Will

Ain't I a woman?
--Harriet Tubman

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades
is that man who hides one thing in his heart
and speaks another
--Homer

_________________

Two recent cases have highlighted the military's hypocritical "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (DADT) regarding the right of homosexuals to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Hypocritical because gays have long served honorably in the military; hypocritical because it presumes serviceman must live a closeted life if they are to be allowed to execute their job.

Hypocritical because 2-10% of the animal kingdom is homosexual, and a civil nation cannot force someone to switch their sexual orientation, any more than they can require they bleach their skin or hew to a state religion. These are not things a democracy forces upon its citizens. DADT gives the lie to the idea of a nation where All Men are Created Equal.

The Army should have one standard for retention, that being performance of duty.

The Supreme Court denied former Army Captain James Pietrangelo II the right to contest his discharge under DADT on June 8. However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is allowing former Air Force Maj. Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse, to pursue her lawsuit over her dismissal.

The 9th Circuit Court got it right when they said the AF must prove that discharging Witt advanced its goals of readiness and unit cohesion.

Also in the news is Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, discharged after a distinguished 18-year career after being outed by an acquaintance.

He is being kicked to the curb just shy of retirement for Flying While Gay (FWG). As with the prejudicial view towards those ensnared DWB (Driving While Black), so it goes with FWG . What possible impact does this officer's sexual orientation have on his ability to fly his aircraft?

"The winner of nine air medals for distinguished service in flight, including one for heroism the night U.S. forces captured Baghdad International Airport in 2003, Fehrenbach is in the process of getting kicked out of the military a year after an acquaintance told his bosses he was gay (Aviator Hopes Gay Ban Will End Soon Enough for Him)."

In the case of both officers there is no indication their dismissal had anything to do with military logic. The military traditionally eliminates/discharges personnel via one of two methods: qualitative or quantitative review. Neither Witt nor Fehrenbach fit either mold, as both are producing qualitatively and there in no Reduction in Force in place requiring quantitative limning down.

It is both cruel and unusual to eliminate people like Witt and Fehrenbach after honorably serving their country and having reached field grade officer status. If heterosexuals can serve and still have sexual liaisons without harassment, the same respect is due homosexuals. Why should one community have to essentially neuter themselves to remain acceptable?

Your boss may be a Yankees fan, but that doesn't mean you can't root for the Mets without fearing your dismissal. Freedom of choice.

That's the American way.

Seven Ways 'Til Sunday

Paresh Nath
The National Herald (India)

Men are apt to be much more influenced
by words than by the actual facts
of the surrounding reality
--Ivan Pavlov

Happy is he who could
perceive the causes of things
--Virgil

But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe
--It Ain't Me, Babe, Bob Dylan
______________

Old Army buddy Rob Valentine used to joke that being a proctologist was the best job in the world -- there was always a light at the end of the tunnel. That joke is not feeling so funny now.

The New York Times fronted last Sunday's edition with the horrific story of a "rogue cancer unit" at Philadelphia's Veterans Administration Hospital, where 92 of 116 prostate procedures were "botched" (At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit). Prostate cancer is a presumptive service-connected condition for Vietnam veterans, so this is of special concern to those exposed to Agent Orange. First we are sprayed, then spayed.

For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off.

Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate.

It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.

He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators said.

The revision may have made Dr. Kao look better, but it did nothing for the patient, who had to undergo a second implant. It failed, too, resulting in an unintended dose to the rectum. Regulators knew nothing of this second mistake because no one reported it.

Two years later, in 2005, Dr. Kao rewrote another surgical plan after putting half the seeds in the wrong organ. Once again, regulators did not object.

Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.

The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.

A clerical error revealed the "substandard implants." The investigating Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that, "over all, the implant program lacked a 'safety culture'." This is sounding a familiar note in the V.A. medical culture.

In addition, "seeds were implanted in the wrong places. As more cases were examined, more mistakes were found." Why was lead surgeon Dr. Kao not charged with criminal negligence?

"The V.A. put too much trust in the contractors, said Darrell G. Wiedeman, a senior health physicist for the nuclear commission. 'They claim they hired experts, the best that money could buy from the local university, so therefore they didn’t require a lot of training and oversight,' Mr. Wiedeman said at a recent meeting of the nuclear commission’s advisory board."

The problems at the V.A. are consistent, systemic and often covered-up, hidden like the too-weak radioactive seeds stuck in inappropriate regions (see Scope Alert). For all the talk of shock and reform, here we are seven years into meaningless wars and the infrastructure to care for those returning human assets remains SUSFU.

Not only are the V.A. Clinics and hospitals -- once the poster boys of health care efficiency for Congress because of their limned down expenses -- endangering patients' lives, many can't even get in through those dangerous doors anyway. Almost a million disability claims sit unprocessed at this reading.

"Citing a fast-growing backlog of unresolved disability claims, veterans groups and members of Congress are calling for an overhaul of Department of Veterans Affairs procedures for handling cases.

"The number of unprocessed disability claims has grown by nearly 100,000 since the beginning of the year and totaled 916,625 as of Saturday, a rise driven in part by increasing numbers of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

" Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.), who last week chaired a House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee meeting titled 'Can VA Manage One Million Claims?,' said the department needs 'a cultural and management sea change'" (Groups Urge VA to Reform Disability Claims Procedure.)

Talk of national health care seems fallow if we can't even get the V.A. system functioning, a sort of "socialized medicine" plan that the U.S. has had decades to tinker with.

The V.A. medical program will not be fixed until the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches are forced to used DVA facilities as their personal medical provider. Then watch the feathers fly.

The problem is not remedied because they got theirs and we got ours. SRDH, and the veterans inhabit the lowlands.

Scope Alert

Afghanistan is Vietnam for Slow Learners
-Gwynne Dyer (via tw)
________________

Ranger Question of the Day:
Why would anyone serve in the military
if VA health care is so poor, and
health care becomes nationalized?
________________

Now this is hitting close to home, as Ranger has had both colon and esophageal endoscopies at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in both Lake City and Gainesville, FL within the last few years. Water under the bridge, but end of July he has another one scheduled at the Lake City DVA.

"House lawmakers blasted Veterans Affairs officials on Tuesday after hearing testimony that the agency still wasn't following procedures for handling endoscopes, months after discovering that the improperly cleaned instruments may have exposed veterans to hepatitis and HIV.

"I'm outraged that any of our nation's heroes were potentially infected or that they even have to worry about the possibility," said Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., who is chairman of the House's Veterans' Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations" (Testimony: VA medical Gear Still Being Mishandled).

As one of the purest examples of giving veterans the Royal Shaft, witness the Maimi VA Clinic, where "tube[s] that was supposed to be cleaned after each colonoscopy [were] instead cleaned at the end of each day, affecting patients between May 2004 and March 2009." A mere five years of shoving fecally-contaminated scopes up vets' asses. What's the big deal?

The VA Health Care System is often cited as an efficient, lean machine. The model for any limned-down National Health Service which may come to pass in this great nation. Before Congress tries to fix or create the nation's health care system, we should see that the one in place can meet even the basic level of the concept, "health care". Ranger has medical care options; many do not.

"Investigators with the inspector general's office at the VA testified Tuesday that fewer than half of the VA facilities using endoscopes had posted proper cleaning guidelines for the equipment as well as documents showing that the staff is trained in such procedures

"That finding was based on surprise inspections of 42 VA facilities in May

"The investigation came after the VA discovered in December 2008 and January of this year that endoscopes at VA facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Miami; and Augusta, Ga., were not maintained properly, possibly exposing veterans to the fluids of other patients."

The news release says the veterans who attended clinics may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV. Then again, maybe they have such thick endothelial linings that the body fluids of others never penetrated their systems.

Not being a Marine, the question is: Whatdya do now, Ranger?

Finding Your Azimuth

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day
--Kodachrome, Paul Simon

It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken
--Sonnet 116, Shakespeare

He goes out at night with his big boots on
None of his friends know right from wrong
--Re-Humanize Yourself, The Police
_______________

While Ranging through South Georgia on the way to Ft. Benning, and old friend popped up out of nowhere -- the Cusseta radio towers. There are two of them now. In 1968 there was only one.

All infantrymen know these towers because they are generally in the SE corner of Ft. Benning. Most of our training was to the west Jamestown Road, a dirt road in those days. The instructors always told us to look for the towers if we got mis-oriented, shoot an azimuth on them, and go to the Jamestown Road where somebody would be there to pick us up.

It was always very simple, and no one got left behind.

In addition to the joys of training, Ranger also enjoyed shooting pictures. They always told the truth, didn't they? This week, we hear Kodachrome is become a relic, banished to the dustbin of photographic history. Will our true colors ever be the same?

Once we left Ft. Benning, things were never that easy again.

Lolita in Tehran

Petar Pismestrovic
Kleine Zeitung

Update: Due to shakeups in the respective Ranger households,
posting schedule at Ranger Against War will change as follows:

Three morning posts a week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday)
+ a weekend edition on Saturday.
If the spirit moves, there will also be the occasional Sunday homily.
Like Ms. Stewart says, it's a good thing.
________________

Watching the rioting in Tehran following disputed Presidential election results, Ranger is struck by one question: Why were there no riots or major street demonstrations in the U.S. following our own disputed 2000 presidential election, when the recount was shuttered by a Supreme Court per curiam decision (Bush v. Gore)?

In both cases the elections were stolen, yet only the Iranians react with a posture of outrage, befitting a culture not yet fascist.

Which country needs to define democracy?

Really Going Dark

We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done
We haven't told you a thing
--Dirty Laundry, Don Henley

Olivia de Havilland: You speak treason!
Errol Flynn: Fluently
--Robin Hood (1938)
________________

O.k. -- I lied. Just a quickie from the WaPo today about the recent Holocaust Museum shooting:

"Which is why one hopes nothing changes at the Holocaust Museum. The defense against terrorism isn't just physical, and it isn't just about violence. It's about the decision not to be terrorized ("The Built-In Response to Terrifying Moments").

This is erroneous commingling of crime with terrorism. The Holocaust Museum shooter was a bigoted whack job who committed a craven crime. A white supremacist who figured he'd go hunting over a baited field, and ended up killing a black security guard. Not the sharpest pencils in the box, those supremacists.

I resent the news media using every instance of "scary crime" as being in the same ballpark as terrorism. The media exploited the recent killing of an abortion doctor in the same way.

Instead of using these discrete examples of criminal behavior as teaching points to highlight the difference between what is homegrown crime versus terrorism, they shamelessly elided the two into one muddy ball of wax. Fear is the product, all the time.

They could have said, "a terrorist aims to reach an audience beyond the actual target. This crazed racist just wanted to kill him some Jewish people." But that would be to put the blame where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the racist and bigoted society and subculture which spawned such a murderer.

It is the intersection in the media of two impulses, neither good: Feeding a no-responsibility culture, and a need to whip up fear and frenzy among the populace, to keep them on the straight and narrow path their government has laid out for them. The press is colluding with the government.

It is lax thinking and reportage.

Ranger Goes Black

Dear Ranger Readers: Due to personal issues, I will be offline for the next several days.

Please check back Wednesday to see what's next,

Thank you for your forbearance,

Lisa

Scotts Valley SWAT

Where wild flowers spring and the wee birdies sing
On the steep steep side of Ben Lomond
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring
Though resigned we may be while we're greetin
--Loch Lomand
________________

This photo fronted May's Scotts Valley Times. Swat Valley it ain't, but Scotts Valley may just be the newest municipality with its very own badass SWAT vehicle, er, "tank".

The SV Times services the lovely hamlets of Ben Lomand (pop.2,364), Boulder Creek (4,015), Felton (976) and the biggie, Scotts Valley itself (11,159), for a grand total of 18, 514 proud citizens off the slightly traveled Highway 9 in Northern California.

The SV nine-person SWAT team previously unceremoniously "rode to high-risk situations in a minivan and unmarked police cruisers." No more: "The . . . armored truck weighs more tha 24,000 lbs. (12 tons), is impervious to bullets, the doors can acts as shields when open and has gun ports on all sides." Not too shabby.

I wonder if the Afghan police in the Swat valley have their own SWAT Swat Team? That would be pretty cool. I can see a starring role for Denzel somewhere in the cast.

I also wonder -- with a population under 12,000, what is the worst that might befall this lovely valley, accessed only via a tortuous road through big redwoods? Perhaps a rogue Mexican leaf blower from outside Carmel (because Carmel is wise enough to have city noise ordinances which prohibit such abominations) comes into the Valley and drinks one too may Dos Eqquis at Alice's Restaurant, challenging some Harley Riders on perfectly polished bikes to a dust up?

Very unlikely some really bad Surenos would make the 1,000 mile trek for a gang bang in Ben Lomand.

Swat has a very nice community library with a computer and a $5 membership fee. Might the SWAT money not have been better spent making their library free, and adding a few computers to the bank?

Should Scotts Valley have the bad black SWAT vehicle? Wants vs. Needs. FAO Schwarz meets every wealthy child's most extravagant toy desires. Hammacher Schlemmer does the same for adults. Do you need a $15,000 Breitling when a $40 Timex will do the same job?

Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption is alive and well, and for those who can afford to chose, every choice up or down makes a statement.

What does Scotts Valley's new armored SWAT vehicle say?

I Been Robbed!

Pondering the GM bailouts, Ranger realized that, with 300 million citizens and a $70 Billion bailout, everybody is paying $233.00 for that clunker (Our Car Company.)

What did GM ever do for me?

I want my money back.

In His Defense

Should former Vice President Cheney ever be brought to task for the crimes committed under his watch, Ranger predicts the following defense:

As the VP is not the Vice Commander in Chief, he has no command authority over the armed forces. He cannot issue an order or directive to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He cannot even give a direct order to a Private First Class.

The VP is not in the chain of command (nor should we want him to be). And thus will go the exoneration of one of the architects of evil, [Vice] Vice President Cheney.