DODGERS OFF-TOPIC Thread

rube · Jun 3, 2014

blue, you are also monitored.
And eventually you will be on a list.

SC_Ed · Jun 3, 2014

Btw just checked cnn.com on my phone, not a single story about obama trading a deserter for 5 high level Taliban officials.

Guess that's not news!

Edit... The only mention on the la times is a tiny photo on the very bottom of the homepage. No headline no story.

It's easy to bash fox for having conservative opinion shows but they don't flatly ignore the biggest news story of the year thus far.

irish · Jun 3, 2014

SC_Ed said: ↑

Btw just checked cnn.com on my phone, not a single story about obama trading a deserter for 5 high level Taliban officials.

Guess that's not news!

Edit... The only mention on the la times is a tiny photo on the very bottom of the homepage. No headline no story.

It's easy to bash fox for having conservative opinion shows but they don't flatly ignore the biggest news story of the year thus far.
Click to expand...

meh
fox, msnbc, et al... they're all the same
just on different sides
anyone can spin it to make their side look good and the other bad

SC_Ed · Jun 3, 2014

irish said: ↑

meh
fox, msnbc, et al... they're all the same
just on different sides
anyone can spin it to make their side look good and the other bad
Click to expand...

Exactamundo!

That was kinda my point.

CapnTreee · Jun 3, 2014

from a platoon member close enough to the story to know better...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

We Lost Soldiers in the Hunt for Bergdahl, a Guy Who Walked Off in the Dead of Night

For five years, soldiers have been forced to stay silent about the disappearance and search for Bergdahl. Now we can talk about what really happened.
It was June 30, 2009, and I was in the city of Sharana, the capitol of Paktika province in Afghanistan. As I stepped out of a decrepit office building into a perfect sunny day, a member of my team started talking into his radio. “Say that again,” he said. “There’s an American soldier missing?”
There was. His name was Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, the only prisoner of war in the Afghan theater of operations. His release from Taliban custody on May 31 marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.
And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.
On the night prior to his capture, Bergdahl pulled guard duty at OP Mest, a small outpost about two hours south of the provincial capitol. The base resembled a wagon circle of armored vehicles with some razor wire strung around them. A guard tower sat high up on a nearby hill, but the outpost itself was no fortress. Besides the tower, the only hard structure that I saw in July 2009 was a plywood shed filled with bottled water. Soldiers either slept in poncho tents or inside their vehicles.

The next morning, Bergdahl failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass. His fellow soldiers later mentioned his stated desire to walk from Afghanistan to India.
The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey later wrotethat "[w]hether Bergdahl…just walked away from his base or was lagging behind on a patrol at the time of his capture remains an open and fiercely debated question.” Not to me and the members of my unit. Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not "lag behind on a patrol,” as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon—including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.
Our deployment was hectic and intense in the initial months, but no one could have predicted that a soldier would simply wander off. Looking back on those first 12 weeks, our slice of the war in the vicinity of Sharana resembles a perfectly still snow-globe—a diorama in miniature of all the dust-coated outposts, treeless brown mountains and adobe castles in Paktika province—and between June 25 and June 30, all the forces of nature conspired to turn it over and shake it. On June 25, we suffered our battalion’s first fatality, a platoon leader named First Lieutenant Brian Bradshaw. Five days later, Bergdahl walked away.
His disappearance translated into daily search missions across the entire Afghanistan theater of operations, particularly ours. The combat platoons in our battalion spent the next month on daily helicopter-insertion search missions (called "air assaults”) trying to scour villages for signs of him. Each operations would send multiple platoons and every enabler available in pursuit: radio intercept teams, military working dogs, professional anthropologists used as intelligence gathering teams, Afghan sources in disguise. They would be out for at least 24 hours. I know of some who were on mission for 10 days at a stretch. In July, the temperature was well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit each day.
These cobbled-together units’ task was to search villages one after another. They often took rifle and mortar fire from insurgents, or perhaps just angry locals. They intermittently received resupply from soot-coated Mi-17s piloted by Russian contractors, many of whom were Soviet veterans of Afghanistan. It was hard, dirty and dangerous work. The searches enraged the local civilian population and derailed the counterinsurgency operations taking place at the time. At every juncture I remember the soldiers involved asking why we were burning so much gasoline trying to find a guy who had abandoned his unit in the first place. The war was already absurd and quixotic, but the hunt for Bergdahl was even more infuriating because it was all the result of some kid doing something unnecessary by his own volition.
On July 4, 2009, a human wave of insurgents attacked the joint U.S./Afghan outpost at Zerok. It was in east Paktika province, the domain of our sister infantry battalion (3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry). Two Americans died and many more received wounds. Hundreds of insurgents attacked and were only repelled by teams of Apache helicopters. Zerok was very close to the Pakistan border, which put it into the same category as outposts now infamous—places like COP Keating or Wanat, places where insurgents could mass on the Pakistani side and then try to overwhelm the outnumbered defenders.
One of my close friends was the company executive officer for the unit at Zerok. He is a mild-mannered and generous guy, not the kind of person prone to fits of pique or rage. But, in his opinion, the attack would not have happened had his company received its normal complement of intelligence aircraft: drones, planes, and the like. Instead, every intelligence aircraft available in theater had received new instructions: find Bergdahl. My friend blames Bergdahl for his soldiers’ deaths. I know that he is not alone, and that this was not the only instance of it. His soldiers’ names were Private First Class Aaron Fairbairn and Private First Class Justin Casillas.
Though the 2009 Afghan presidential election slowed the search for Bergdahl, it did not stop it. Our battalion suffered six fatalities in a three-week period. On August 18, an IED killed Private First Class Morris Walker and Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen during a reconnaissance mission. On August 26, while conducting a search for a Taliban shadow sub-governor supposedly affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss was shot in the face and killed. On September 4, during a patrol to a village near the area in which Bergdahl vanished, an insurgent ambush killed Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and gravely wounded Private First Class Matthew Martinek, who died of his wounds a week later. On September 5, while conducting a foot movement toward a village also thought affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey stepped on an improvised land mine. He died the next day.
It is important to name all these names. For the veterans of the units that lost these men, Bergdahl’s capture and the subsequent hunt for him will forever tie to their memories, and to a time in their lives that will define them as people. He has finally returned. Those men will never have the opportunity.
...
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BleedBlue · Jun 3, 2014

Graduating HS today. Even though my school had the worst school spirit (only school in the district with a dress code, no sports, and only a 1100 students), I'm definitely going to miss out. The feeling is really bittersweet. :/

Anyway, UCI, here I come!!!

irish · Jun 3, 2014

BleedBlue said: ↑

Graduating HS today. Even though my school had the worst school spirit (only school in the district with a dress code, no sports, and only a 1100 students), I'm definitely going to miss out. The feeling is really bittersweet. :/

Anyway, UCI, here I come!!!
Click to expand...

CapnTreee · Jun 3, 2014

...
Bergdahl was not the first American soldier in modern history to walk away blindly. As I write this in Seoul, I'm about 40 miles from where an American sergeant defected to North Korea in 1965. Charles Robert Jenkins later admitted that he was terrified of being sent to Vietnam, so he got drunk and wandered off on a patrol. He was finally released in 2004, after almost 40 hellish years of brutal internment. The Army court-martialed him, sentencing him to 30 days' confinement and a dishonorable discharge. He now lives peacefully with his wife in Japan—they met in captivity in North Korea, where they were both forced to teach foreign languages to DPRK agents. His desertion barely warranted a comment, but he was not hailed as a hero. He was met with sympathy and humanity, and he was allowed to live his life, but he had to answer for what he did.

I believe that Bergdahl also deserves sympathy, but he has much to answer for, some of which is far more damning than simply having walked off. Many have suffered because of his actions: his fellow soldiers, their families, his family, the Afghan military, the unaffiliated Afghan civilians in Paktika, and none of this suffering was inevitable. None of it had to happen. Therefore, while I’m pleased that he’s safe, I believe there is an explanation due. Reprimanding him might yield horrible press for the Army, making our longest war even less popular than it is today. Retrieving him at least reminds soldiers that we will never abandon them to their fates, right or wrong. In light of the propaganda value, I do not expect the Department of Defense to punish Bergdahl.

He’s lucky to have survived. I once saw an insurgent cellphone video of an Afghan National Police enlistee. They had young boys hold him down, boys between the ages of 10 and 15, all of whom giggled like they were jumping on a trampoline. The prisoner screamed and pleaded for his life. The captors cut this poor man’s head off. That’s what the Taliban and their allies do to their captives who don’t have the bargaining value of an American soldier. That’s what they do to their fellow Afghans on a regular basis. No human being deserves that treatment, or to face the threat of that treatment every day for nearly five years.

But that certainly doesn’t make Bergdahl a hero, and that doesn’t mean that the soldiers he left behind have an obligation to forgive him. I just hope that, with this news, it marks a turning point for the veterans of that mad rescue attempt. It’s done. Many of the soldiers from our unit have left the Army, as I have. Many have struggled greatly with life on the outside, and the implicit threat of prosecution if they spoke about Bergdahl made it much harder to explain the absurdity of it all. Our families and friends wanted to understand what we had experienced, but the Army denied us that.

I forgave Bergdahl because it was the only way to move on. I wouldn’t wish his fate on anyone. I hope that, in time, my comrades can make peace with him, too. That peace will look different for every person. We may have all come home, but learning to leave the war behind is not a quick or easy thing. Some will struggle with it for the rest of their lives. Some will never have the opportunity.

And Bergdahl, all I can say is this: Welcome back. I’m glad it's over. There was a spot reserved for you on the return flight, but we had to leave without you, man. You’re probably going to have to find your own way home.
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This soldier has cajones and a heart to match... not sure I could say the same thing...

LAdiablo · Jun 3, 2014

jay carney, susan rice and others stating he served "with honor and distinction"

CapnTreee · Jun 3, 2014

^... mostly media whores forever straining for the limelight...

christ if he was black we'd be hearing from media whores Jackson and Sharpton too...

CapnTreee · Jun 3, 2014

The drive to stop Obama from releasing Guantanamo prisoners without Congressional oversight over the next seven months has also lost its key Democratic ally, Senate Dis-Intelligence Committee Chairwoman and pathological liar Dianne Feinstein, who celebrated the Bergdahl-Taliban swap this weekend.
“I support the president’s decision, particularly in light of Sgt. Bergdahl’s declining health. It demonstrates that America leaves no soldier behind,” she said in a statement.
That’s a change of position for consummate liar Feinstein. Back in 2012, when the prisoner swap negotiations were done directly by State Department, Pentagon, and White House officials in secret meetings with the Taliban in Berlin and Doha, Feinstein was talking out of the other side of her rancid lying mouth when she claimed that she vehemently opposed to theidea.
“These are major Taliban figures, they are not minor people. And they will not be in the same kind of custody, maximum-security custody. Forget that it won’t be Guantánamo, just maximum-security custody,” she said at the time. “And in my view, there’s no way of knowing what they may do and what kind of propaganda they may breed.”
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America's leaders... bought and paid for...

“And in my view, there’s no way of knowing what they may do and what kind of propaganda they may breed.”
Click to expand...

said the long time Senator about she and her fellow Congressmen...

LAdiablo · Jun 3, 2014

CapnTreee said: ↑

^... mostly media whores forever straining for the limelight...

christ if he was black we'd be hearing from media whores Jackson and Sharpton too...
Click to expand...

no i disagree w the first part. these are obama administration mouth pieces attempting to spin the truth about a deserter. carney is the press secretary and rice is white house spokes person and they are once again parroting the same spin. soon it will be "what difference does it make" and "that happened a long time ago". already its "5 years is enough punishment" and he "served w honor and distinction".
apparently no man left behind applies here but not in Benghazi. frauds, fakes and liars. how dare they and how dare so many shrug their shoulders at it and call those paying attention racists, bigots and fox news watchers.
this is so over the top i can't believe it but its happening.

LAdiablo · Jun 3, 2014

btw what no one has talked about is perhaps the most egregious aspect of the whole fiasco.
do you think any bad guys may have been paying attention?
how do you think they plan to get their way now that this precedent had been set?
maybe kidnap an american? fcuking idiot.

irish · Jun 3, 2014

LAdiablo said: ↑

btw what no one has talked about is perhaps the most egregious aspect of the whole fiasco.
do you think any bad guys may have been paying attention?
how do you think they plan to get their way now that this precedent had been set?
maybe kidnap an american? fcuking idiot.
Click to expand...

spot on devil
there's a reason you don't negotiate with terrorists

Bluezoo · Jun 3, 2014

Well, at least we'are talking about it...I believe it certainly deserves more that a bottom page mention in one of the biggest newspapers in America.
However anyone feels about this, something's really really wrong here.

And yes Rube, I know I'm being monitored, as are we all.
My point however, I'm not a odds-on candidate to kill another American.

BlueMouse · Jun 3, 2014

BleedBlue said: ↑

Graduating HS today. Even though my school had the worst school spirit (only school in the district with a dress code, no sports, and only a 1100 students), I'm definitely going to miss out. The feeling is really bittersweet. :/

Anyway, UCI, here I come!!!
Click to expand...

Congrats, BB. I see a lot of people who can't wait to get out of HS when it's really a time that should be cherished. Now let's run amok on the UCI campus together, my fellow Anteater.

CapnTreee · Jun 3, 2014

LAdiablo said: ↑

no i disagree w the first part. these are obama administration mouth pieces attempting to spin the truth about a deserter. carney is the press secretary and rice is white house spokes person and they are once again parroting the same spin. soon it will be "what difference does it make" and "that happened a long time ago". already its "5 years is enough punishment" and he "served w honor and distinction".
apparently no man left behind applies here but not in Benghazi. frauds, fakes and liars. how dare they and how dare so many shrug their shoulders at it and call those paying attention racists, bigots and fox news watchers.
this is so over the top i can't believe it but its happening.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right... I'm disgusted with the entire lot of them... each and every one is a media whore...

Fucking all of DC is nothing but media whores these days...
I wrote a complaint letter to the White House years ago
Now I'm rewarded by endless White House spam.
WTF is up with the damned White House sending me unsolicited fucking spam?

Shit is more fucked up than they want us to know...
and some small lot of us do know but we are grossly out manned by both the Big $$ and Big Media spin doctors
and the masses continue to shop at WalMart like theres nothing amiss..

And Rube and BZ are right about the automation of meta tag collection on ALL citizens
but we're not supposed to acknowledge it openly

LASports96 · Jun 3, 2014

If my boy Cam Bishop doesn't get drafted, he's going to be dominating fools at UCI next year, look out fellas

BigDaddyKaine · Jun 3, 2014

I talk my fair share of shit about ESPN but when the cunt ass ratings whores get the fuck out of the way of the talented workers they have there, they can bring it.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:11019010

I swear nothing like this video to make one feel like a piece of shit for ever complaining about anything.

SC_Ed · Jun 4, 2014

As a Marine I say send that guy back to a unit. Fuck the firing squad. Too easy.

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DODGERS OFF-TOPIC Thread

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