Recent news about Al Lorentz, the true patriot

This is a follow up to A true patriot that needs support. That post discussed an editorial by a man named Al Lorentz entitled “Why We Can’t Win.” At the risk of being repetitive, here again is the opening paragraph of that editorial:

Before I begin, let me state that I am a soldier currently deployed in Iraq, I am not an armchair quarterback. Nor am I some politically idealistic and naïve young soldier, I am an old and seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer with nearly 20 years under my belt. Additionally, I am not just a soldier with a muds-eye view of the war, I am in Civil Affairs and as such, it is my job to be aware of all the events occurring in this country and specifically in my region.

“Big Al” went on to explain the mistakes that he feels have been made in Iraq. I said the following about his editorial:

Lorentz, by speaking out, is not being disloyal to anyone. He is trying to protect his fellow soldiers by getting our "leaders" to wake up, face reality, and act accordingly. He is trying to get Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc. to stop looking after their own political interests and focus on the interests of the men and women Bush ordered to fight a war for our country.

The Army initially took a different view. As explained in A true patriot that needs support, Lorentz’s chain of command was considering charging him with a violation of 18 USC 2388, which in pertinent part says that

Whoever, when the United States is at war, willfully causes or attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or willfully obstructs the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or the United States, or attempts to do so-- Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

So, for speaking out and trying to save American lives, Lorentz was facing the possibility of 20 years in prison...or at least he was as of October 14, 2004.

I recently received news regarding Big Al's situation. It turns out that the Army conducted an investigation and then decided to drop all charges against Lorentz. The investigators were attempting to show that Lorentz was a malcontent who was fomenting discontent and disloyalty, undermining the mission in the barracks, and encouraging soldiers not to fight. Instead, they found just the opposite, and also discovered that Lorentz would be a very credible witness. That’s when Army officials informed Lorentz they would be magnanimous and dismiss the charges. But they were not done, as they tried to pressure him into not publicly discussing his editorial. No apology for falsely accusing him–just pressure to shut up.

In spite of the lack of an apology, the fact that the charges were dropped is great news for Big Al and the rest of us. For once, justice has prevailed. Now if only someone in authority would pay attention to what Lorentz said and act on it...

Some explanation about this blog...and a "thank you."

This post is part preview, part explanation, and part selfish complaining.

In some ways, calling this blog a blog is inaccurate. I don't post every day. Compared to most blogs, my posts are excruciatingly long. I don't always post about what is going on at the moment. No, this is not really a blog. It is a place for me express my views in my way--and that means in depth, in detail, and with citation of sources. This "way" typically cannot be done quickly, at least not by me. I will work on a specific post for days and even multiple weeks. As a result, often when I get an idea for a post and start working on it, something else will come along and grab my attention, and that means either that 1) I put aside my current work, or 2) wait until I take up the new topic, or 3) work on both subjects simultaneously. Regardless of my choice, posts do not come from me a regular basis.

Here are some examples...I dropped the Wolfowitless-Shinseki analysis so I could cover Bush and funerals before the election. After the election, I wanted to get back to Wolfowitless, and then Fallujah came along. That subject also relates to why Wolfowitz was so full of shit when he derided Shinseki and gave reasons why we would not need large numbers of troops, and I started to work on that, and then came the "News from Spain" info. Shortly after that, Batasuna, the alleged political party of ETA, announced it was interested in negotiations and possibly ending its campaign of violence in Spain, and I started working on that topic as a follow-up to "News from Spain," and then came a good amount of news concerning the religious Christian right and the separation of church and state, and there's two subjects I really get revved up about, so I started working on that, and then comes the "DeLay Rule" in the House, and that jumped to the front burner. And so on and so on. There is just too much going on to keep up with it all, and I am not even going to try.

I could post more regularly by not focusing so much on depth, detail, and sources, but that would defeat my objectives for this blog. I want people to use my posts as a resource. I want to provide a package that compiles and analyzes information in a way that is useful not just for now, but in the future. Does that mean I think I'm better than other bloggers? Absolutely not. Bloggers provide me with a great deal of information that helps me, and I am grateful to other bloggers for that. I'm just trying to offer something in addition to what is already out here.

So, don't expect frequent and regular posts from me. However, you can generally expect my posts to be detailed and documented. And you can expect posts on all the subjects mentioned two paragraphs above. Just don't expect them tomorrow or even in a week.

For those who have spent time reading this blog, thank you.

News from Spain

Here are some excerpts from a Reuters article from yesterday:

World leaders have been flooding President Bush with congratulatory calls since his reelection victory, but at least one --Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero--appears to be having trouble getting through.

Socialist Prime Minister Zapatero, who angered Bush by pulling Spain's troops out of Iraq earlier this year, "has tried to reach out" to the U.S. president since last week's election, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Wednesday.

But Bush has yet to return the call. "Calls are scheduled at times that are mutually convenient. Some calls are able to be scheduled quicker than others," McClellan explained.

A senior Bush administration official denied any snub over the Spanish withdrawal, which Bush warned had emboldened the terrorists.


The official said Bush had received "numerous congratulatory calls from world leaders (and) is in the process of returning those calls."

Other world leaders have also tried to reach Bush since the election but have yet to get through.

Bush was a close ally of Spain's conservative prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, before Zapatero swept to power.

While Bush has yet to take Zapatero's call, the White House said he had a "private meeting" with Aznar at the White House on Tuesday.

(emphasis added). The denials of a snub are dubious at best, especially given that Bush had a private meeting with Aznar instead of calling Zapatero, but that is not what I want to examine. Instead, look at the other emphasized excerpts. Bush was highly critical of Zapatero for withdrawing Spanish troops, and Bush did say that such a move would embolden the terrorists. My sister received this email reaction to this article from one of her best friends in Spain:

The American people should know that since Mr. Zapatero has become president, we have not had one single terrorist attack. The Zapatero government is capturing and imprisoning more Islamic terrorists and ETA terrorists than happened in all 8 years of Aznar’s government.

Gee whiz...a president of a foreign country who is critical of Bush has done a better job of fighting terrorism than his predecessor, who has always been a Bush lackey. Damn that Zapatero! Damn him! (That is extreme sarcasm, folks.)

A few post-election thoughts

While this blog has been--and will continue to be--highly critical of Bush, it has said almost nothing positive about Kerry. When I punched out the number by Kerry's name on my ballot, I was voting against Bush, not for Kerry. See, John Kerry was far from my first choice as the Democratic nominee, for reasons I will partially explain later.

In another, more widely read portion of the blogosphere, I posted a series of arguments regarding Kerry's campaign. Here are the highlights...

Kerry had to get some Republican votes to win. There were plenty of Republicans who were upset with Bush, but in order to get them to cross party lines, Kerry had to give them some reason to vote for him. Instead, Kerry's basic strategy was that Bush would screw things up so badly that Kerry would have to do nothing because people would be so disgusted with Bush that they would vote for Kerry.

Gee, that didn't work out so well, now did it?

Kerry was never in a position to really attack Bush where he was most vulnerable--Iraq and terrorism. Kerry voted for the Iraq War Resolution and NEVER fully explained his vote. He blamed the intelligence and the CIA, which was Bush's position, which meant that 1) he did nothing to differentiate himself from Bush, and 2) essentially gave Bush a free pass on why we went to war (especially when combined with his vote on the IWR). Hell, in late July he even said that given everything that was known then (which is pretty much everything that was known before the war, by the way), he still would have voted for the IWR! And then he picks a running mate that was unapologetically in favor of the war. Other than the possible exception of Joe(mentum) Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards were the worst possible candidates to take on Bush on the issue of Iraq. Even so, Kerry still had plenty of options for attacking Bush on Iraq, and I kept arguing that the window was closing. I also argued that since the GOP said all along that its campaign was going to be based entirely on Iraq and terrorism, Kerry needed to go after Bush on these issues--take out the foundation, and the rest of the structure will fall.

Kerry did get aggressive on the Iraq issue in the final weeks of the campaign, but it was too little too late. People campaigning for Kerry (like Wes Clark, for example) were saying that the war was wrong, that Bush screwed up by going to war, that it was a mistake, etc., but they were not on the ballot. Kerry was the one on the ballot, and he never said any of these things.

And I was not alone on these matters. I started making these arguments in February and pretty much gave up in August.

Those are just some of the reasons I never really cared for candidate Kerry. There are more.

For one thing, he had a penchant for ripping off the ideas and statements of other candidates and passing them off as his own. At this time, I will provide only one example. Remember hearing Kerry say "The other party wants to talk about family values, but we value families"? Wes Clark started saying that early in his campaign.

In basketball, there is a creature known as "the big white stiff." This is a white guy whose only apparent talent is being tall. He lacks the agility and athletic ability of others (of all races, by the way, for some big white guys are not stiffs). In a political context, Kerry was a hugewhite stiff. Think Herman Munster without the endearing personality. Jon Stewart's Kerry impersonation was unflattering, yet it was dead on. What is so maddening is that Kerry had the ability to be something else. There were two times I was actually enthused about Kerry. The first time was after his speech at the Democratic Convention. He was loose yet forceful. He had personality. He was witty. He was outstanding. I thought "now if he will only keep doing that for the rest of the campaign." Instead, he mostly reverted back to being a stiff. The second time I was enthused was after the first debate. Kerry was brilliant, but I kept asking myself why in the world he had not been like that during the entire campaign. He was better for the rest of the campaign, but still did not stay away from stiffness, and, once again, it was too little too late. By being the big white stiff for most of the campaign, Kerry played right into the hands of the GOP's efforts to brand him as arrogant and elitist.

That's enough for now. I might post more on this topic if I feel a need to further vent, and that is definitely within the realm of possibility.

I will say one last thing. Terry McAuliffe and the rest of the DNC can pucker up and kiss my ass. Those self-absorbed boneheads are a big reason why Bush won this election. McAuliffe thankfully will no longer be chairman, but everyone on the DNC deserves to be sacked. Idiots.

Election wishes from Down Under

My oldest sister, who lived in Spain for five years, has always told me that she learned that people all over the world view America as a last source of hope because of our freedom and our democracy. Conversely, they would say to her that if such freedom and democracy were compromised, hope would be lost. The world is watching, and much of the world is feeling anxious, hoping that hope will continue to manifest through our nation. One of my fellow Clark bloggers is a good Aussie Sheila named Phoebe. She wrote this powerful poem:

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show us you know what it means.
Show the whole world
That all voices are heard
Without violence or tense legal scenes.

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show us how free people know
That choosing a leader
Means more than 'Survivor'
So that when the booths open you'll go.

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show us the people can choose
On the facts they can see
If they look through the spin
That they're fed by the fat corporate news.

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show people power is wise.
Show church and big business
Cannot dictate choices
In places where true freedom lies.

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show it produces the best
Coz if voters reward
Those who bully and lie
Then this system we share is a mess.

Show us democracy works,
America.
Show us you think when you choose.
Please know that the world
Has good reason to feel
That if Bush wins,

Then all of us lose.