Military

Open Thread: Trading SPACE FARCE! for Paid Parental Leave

by Anne Laurie| December 7, 20197:20 pm| 84 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Space, Trumpery

on the bright side, the aviation geek in me is excited for all the cool shit Trump will declassify when people make fun of him for not having any spaceships for the space force, tweeting out all the stuff from groom lake on his iphone
— Botswana Starfish Totally Not Blackmailing POTUS (@IRHotTakes) December 7, 2019

But seriously… I doubt it will happen, because the Repubs don’t want a bunch of ‘low-level bureaucrats’ (federal employees) to get ‘freebies paid from our taxes’, especially right before Christmas (because they can’t enjoy their holiday unless they know other people are suffering). But I would happily trade an expansion of paid family leave in return for, let’s be honest, years of scheduling Very Serious Hearings about a sixth branch of the military. The Washington Post is a good guide here, IMO, because they’re reporting on what they consider a local pocketbook issue:

… The deal is part of a defense authorization bill that is slated to pass this month. If consummated, the agreement could mark one of the biggest deals President Trump has cut with Congress. It would secure a massive expansion of benefits for federal workers, something Democrats have long sought, in exchange for a realignment of the U.S. military that Trump has sought to secure as part of his legacy…
One Democratic congressional aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the parties are “nearing agreement on a final deal.” The package could be voted on as early as next week, the aide said.
If it is approved, the extension of paid family leave to federal workers would represent a major benefit to more than 2 million federal civilian workers, who are only eligible for unpaid leave under federal law.
It would mark a reversal of sorts for the White House, which has sought to strip pay and benefits from federal workers since Trump took office in 2017. Instead, it would mark one of the biggest extensions of a new work benefit for the federal workforce in recent history…
Trump has become increasingly fixated on Space Force as his administration faces the House impeachment inquiry, according to one senior administration official. But it has not been clear if House Democrats would approve of his request.
The Pentagon has already reestablished a Space Command that will be headed by a four-star general. But the Space Force, if approved, would stand up an organization to train and equip specialized forces whose mission would be to accelerate the country’s response to the militarization of space…
A senior defense official with knowledge of Space Force discussions said Thursday that the Air Force convened a planning task force months ago and is weighing “myriad” issues, including how service members would be transferred from the Air Force to the Space Force, what Space Force uniforms would look like, and what rank structure would be used…
Still, there are a variety of more complicated issues that will take the Pentagon time to hammer out, the official said. They include logistical issues, such as where Space Force headquarters will be housed in the Pentagon, and practical ones, such as whether the Space Force will have its own security forces on the ground or rely on other branches of service.
For federal employees, the deal represents not just a rare new benefit, but a victory in a three-year war with the Trump administration that from the start was suspicious of the career bureaucracy of 2.1 million employees.
The White House has gone to war with unions that represent federal workers and won. In recent months it has gotten reprieves from the courts over a union challenge to a series of White House executive orders designed to weaken labor’s hand in collective bargaining.
The administration has slashed long-established benefits such as telework in many agencies and taken steps to more aggressively fire workers it deems poor performers. And while Trump has proposed a raise for the workforce for next year, he did not want an increase this year until Congress intervened, demanding it under the terms of a budget agreement that ended the partial government shutdown…

Open Thread: Trading SPACE FARCE! for Paid Parental LeavePost + Comments (84)

Some Context on the Naval Air Station Pensacola Shooting

by Adam L Silverman| December 6, 20192:08 pm| 86 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Education, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Military, Politics, Saudi Arabia, Silverman on Security

NBC/MSNBC is now reporting that the shooter at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola is a Saudi national. Which will, of course, turn a tragedy into an absolute shitshow.

I wanted to just take a moment and provide some context here for our readers and commenters who don’t have a lot of exposure to the US military education system. The US military education system, referred to as Professional Military Education (PME), governs how we prepare the force across all three cohorts (officer, enlisted, and warrant) and across the scope of one’s career in the military. At the Joint level – encompassing all four services – the controlling instructions can be found in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI) 1800.01E, better known as the OPMEP (Officers Professional Military Education Policy and CJCSI 1805.0B, the Enlisted Professional Military Education Policy referred to as the EPMEP. Each Service has their own Service specific guidelines and policies, which are further broken down by branch, military occupation specialty, and/or functional area and are supposed to be nested within the Joint policies. US military personnel spend significant parts of their careers, no matter how long or short, in the schoolhouse or training center. A significant part of generating the force is educating them, training them, and running them through exercises as experiential learning. We’re also supposed to be encouraging them to do individual self development, but that usually gets lip service rather than incentivized. Overall, PME is something the military really does well – it invests in educating and training and then continuing to educate and train the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines throughout the course of their career arcs. This is largely a function of scale as the force, across all the Services, is large enough to have significant portions in the schoolhouse or in training without compromising readiness or operational capability.

Part of US PME includes multinational training. There are several reasons for this. One is that the US military is intended to operate within a JIIM – Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational – environment. So we want our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines exposed to our allies and partners through PME, as well as operationally. But we also want our allies and partners military personnel to be exposed to how we prepare our forces and how we operate. And this means that large numbers of foreign nation military personnel are in the US attending PME programs alongside our own forces. Another reason for doing this, especially at the higher education levels (Senior Leader Colleges/War College, strategist schools, Command & General Staff Schools, and, in some cases even at the Service academies), is to try to socialize these foreign military personnel to US Civil-Military (CIV-MIL) norms. It is also to have personnel from opposing sides of conflicts have to learn and socialize together across their careers. The goals here are aspirational. That these foreign officers, especially from states without strong, or even any, liberal democratic systems will internalize some of our CIV-MIL norms, take them home, and when they’re senior enough actually put them into effect if the opportunity presents itself. It is also to create and foster relationships and friendships that survive the course of study, so that if a conflict looks like it will break out, potential adversaries might call their former classmates and try to deescalate. Like I said, very aspirational. Also, somewhat quintessentially American.

Almost all of these foreign military personnel attending US military PME are covered under the International Military Engagement and Training (IMET) Program. The who, what, and why of IMET are:

Purpose:
The goals of IMET are to:
Train future leaders
Create a better understanding of the United States
Establish a rapport between the U.S. military and the country’s military to build alliances for the future
Enhance interoperability and capabilities for joint operation
Focus on professional military education
Allow countries to use their national funds to receive a reduced cost for other DoD education and training
Provide English Language Training assistance
Who:
Secretary of State determines which countries will have programs. Secretary of Defense executes the program.
Funding:
Annual appropriation

The now identified shooter at NAS-Pensacola as a Saudi national was most likely in training there under the IMET program as a pilot. And that’s how a Saudi national would most likely be assigned to Naval Air Station Pensacola. The foreign nationals in the IMET program are usually selected by their own countries and there are usually no significant problems as they’re vetted by both their own governments and by the US military. But like everything else involving humans, you do get the occasional issue, though usually nothing like what happened this morning. Sometimes a coup or other change of government will happen and we’ll have foreign military personnel as students that can’t really go home because they were sent by the previous regime and they and their families’ lives are at risk. Sometimes you just get a knucklehead. My second year at USAWC, one of the foreign officers in the resident course got himself into a serious gambling problem, went AWOL trying to run for the Canadian border, got picked up by law enforcement, and ultimately wound up escorted back to his own country by two senior law enforcement officials sent by his government to babysit him. The point here is that these aren’t really problems with the IMET program itself, they’re individual problems that arise because the people in the program are humans. And humans do all sorts of stupid things.

I expect that regardless of the actual motivations of the shooter in Pensacola this morning, this will provide further fodder for the neo-nationalists and neo-fascists that have been able to capture the US’s immigration system under the current administration. What is most likely a tragedy in human terms will be capitalized on by a bunch of xenophobic, racist, white supremacists to push their agenda of whitening America as quickly as possible. And, like everything else that gets in the way of achieving their goals, the IMET program is likely to be in for a rough time as a result of this morning’s shooting. Which is a shame, because it is an excellent program that, while aspirational in a lot of its goals, provides real value for the US, its allies, and its partners.

Two final notes:

Firearms are not authorized on Naval Air Station-Pensacola, or any other base, with a couple of exceptions. Military Police, Shore Patrol, and DOD and Service Police are armed as part of their duty assignments. All other Service issued arms are secured in an arms room/armory and can only be checked out for a legitimate training reason and under the supervision of an Armory Officer/Armorer. Those personnel residing on post are allowed to register their personal arms with the Provost Marshal on post. Those arms are also secured in an arms room/armory and can only be checked out under the supervision of an Armory Officer/Armorer. They must be unloaded and secured in locked containers when this is done. We don’t know how the shooter got his firearm on to post this morning, so beware of speculation about how this happened. I have some thoughts, but I’m not going to speculate at this time.
There is always a spike in homicides, especially domestic/familial/intimate partner and workplace homicides, as well as suicides during the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Years. This happens every year. There is a robust criminological, sociological, and psychological literature trying to understand and explain it. But it is a very real effect. So expect to see increased incidences of violence between now and the first week of January 2020.

Open thread!

Full disclosure: During my four years assigned as the Cultural Advisor at USAWC I directly supervised as the faculty advisor (frontline supervisor) five foreign officers. I also directly supervised as the research advisor (equivalent to a thesis advisor) ten foreign officers. And I served as the faculty sponsor of two foreign officers. These officers ranged in rank from lieutenant colonel to major general.

Some Context on the Naval Air Station Pensacola ShootingPost + Comments (86)

Meanwhile in Ukraine

by Adam L Silverman| December 3, 20199:41 pm| 68 Comments

This post is in: America, Election 2016, Election Year, Foreign Affairs, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security, War

While everyone is focused on all the President’s, his political appointees’, his personal attorney’s, and the variety of post-Soviet state oligarchs’/post-Soviet state mobsters’, and various other riffraffs’ ongoing attempts to screw around with and screw over Ukraine until President Zelensky announces an investigation into the Bidens, which he’s not going to do, and Guiliani and the various post-Soviet state oligarchs/post-Soviet state mobsters he’s working with to shake down the Ukrainian natural gas industry, life actually goes on in Ukraine. And that life is one where part of Ukraine has been scarfed up by Vladimir Putin and another part has been invaded by Putin. And, as a result, Ukraine is at war with Russia in order to preserve its territorial integrity.

As a result of all of this, President Zelensky has learned some hard lessons in his short time in office. His views below are just one of those lessons.

I don’t trust anyone at all. I’ll tell you honestly. Politics is not an exact science. That’s why in school I loved mathematics. Everything in mathematics was clear to me. You can solve an equation with a variable, with one variable. But here it’s only variables, including the politicians in our country. I don’t know these people. I can’t understand what dough they’re made of. That’s why I think nobody can have any trust. Everybody just has their interests.

He also knows that at least for right now, he’s largely on his own despite the US’s international agreement obligation to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us,” he said. “I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo.”

Ukraine has just reached an unfortunate milestone, for lack of a better term.

Since the beginning of the fighting in the Donbass, human casualties from explosive objects amount to more than a thousand people. Mine killed 300 civilians, including 27 children. About it reports ArmyInform with reference to management of ecological safety and mine action of the Ministry of Defense.
According to preliminary estimates, the area of areas contaminated with mines and explosive objects is about 7 thousand square meters. km controlled areas and approximately 9 thousand square meters. km of occupied territories.
Infrastructures are in a critical condition because sometimes they cannot be accessed through shells and improvised explosives.

This is a humanitarian nightmare and is going to take decades to fix even if a ceasefire was put in place immediately and was quickly followed by the withdrawal of Russian and Russian proxy forces and the reestablishment of Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories in Donbass.

This is the actual effects on the Ukrainian citizenry not only of the occupation and the war, but the mine fields:

Baba Masha’s neighbors say that because of the danger of entering the village of Opytne at night (it sits on Ukraine’s front line and is accessible only by a dirt road through a mined field) fire trucks were unable to respond. Her house is still smoldering as I type this.
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) December 1, 2019

Here’s more from Christopher Miller at Buzzfeed (emphasis mine):

When he’s not engaged in gun battles with Russian-led forces on Ukraine’s eastern front line, Stas, a scruffy 26-year-old soldier, likes to cozy up in his bunker and brush up on his English skills by watching Stephen Colbert and Saturday Night Live. He cracks up at Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of President Donald Trump.
Watching political satire on American TV — when he’s able to get a strong enough signal on the battlefield to access YouTube — is also how Stas learned that Trump had frozen $391 million in US security aid meant for the Ukrainian armed forces over the summer. The news made him angry. The fighting was hot at the time, and he and his fellow soldiers were stuck with mostly crappy, old gear.
“Look at this. It’s old and falling apart,” he complained of his Ukrainian government–issued bulletproof vest in accented English. It was barely stitched together and slouching on one side. “It’s a piece of shit.”
There’s one thing Stas and the soldiers in Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade positioned in the village of Novooleksandrivka do have, which they say has helped them spot enemy soldiers who creep within grenade-throwing range of their trenches at night: a pair of US-made night vision sights.
The only problem? They don’t fit on the Ukrainian rifles.
He explained that “they would definitely be more effective if we had them on our rifles,” which is impossible without a special adapter. He demonstrated how he has to hold the sight in one hand, pick a target, lower the device from his eye, and try to remember where he was looking as he aims and fires his weapon. Despite all this, an extra pair or two would be good, he said.
He wondered: Would his brigade have gotten at least another sight if the security aid hadn’t been held up? If only Americans knew how much the equipment would help…
“Nobody in your country knows what’s happening here,” Stas continued, waving his arms in frustration. “They don’t know how we are fighting for our lives with almost nothing.”
Fought for more than five years in trenches cut through some of Europe’s most fertile farmland, Russia’s war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas has killed around 14,000 people and brought under its control a chunk of a territory larger than the state of New Jersey. Yet — despite it being fought with $1.6 billion of US help in the form of military aid and training since 2014 — the war had largely been forgotten before it was catapulted into the headlines amid the House impeachment inquiry against Trump.
“While they were playing with our aid, I wonder, did they know we were dying out here?” asked Oleksandr, a sergeant in the 14th Mechanized Brigade who goes by the call sign “kuvyrok,” or “somersault.” As we crept through trenches outside the village of Krymske, 40 miles northwest of Stas’s position, careful to keep our heads down and out of Russian snipers’ sights, Oleksandr said at least two soldiers were killed at the position over the summer.
According to statistics from the Ukrainian military, at least 46 soldiers have been killed since July 18, when word spread throughout the Trump administration that the president had secretly frozen aid for Ukraine. Around 19 of those deaths came during the window of time in which the aid was delayed. While there’s no way of tying those deaths directly to the lack of new US aid at the front line, more than two dozen Ukrainian soldiers — located at four fighting positions, a tank base, and a military hospital — told me they were disappointed by the news. Their morale suffered, and they felt vulnerable and abandoned by their biggest supporter.
The soldiers, whom I met over the course of a week this month while traveling along the snaking 250-mile front line in eastern Ukraine, painted a clear picture of just how important US military assistance is for Ukraine in its war against Russia. The soldiers spoke on the condition that their surnames not be used for security reasons. In what many described as a David-and-Goliath-like fight, they shared several stories about how the US aid has helped level the battlefield and stop the larger and more powerful Russia from grabbing more of their land.
They also said that any aid freeze — even a temporary one — jeopardizes not only themselves but perhaps the very future of Ukraine.

There is much more at the link.

14,000 Ukrainians – Soldier and civilian alike – have been killed in Ukraine’s attempt to resist Russia’s incursion into Donbass. And to establish enough of a position of strength so that Ukrainian officials can negotiate a ceasefire and peace agreement that maintains Ukraine’s territorial integrity and gets Crimea back as well. That isn’t going to happen without the US backing it up. Which means it isn’t going to happen until, at least, January 2021 and despite the US’s international obligations to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity. What the US would need to do today is much harder than it would have been in 2014 and in 2021 any response will be that much harder than it would be today. And throughout it all Ukrainians are dying – Soldiers and civilians – because Putin has decided that he gets to draw the borders of eastern Europe wherever he likes. And that cannot be allowed to stand. However, because Ukraine has now been turned into another partisan issue, just as trade, Israel, healthcare, education, climate change, and so many other issues, as long as there is a Republican president and/or at least one chamber of Congress in Republican hands, stepping up and doing the right thing for Ukraine, as well as for the rest of our European and NATO partners is going to be a very heavy lift. Because it is going to be a partisan lift.

When you see the domestic news reporting on Ukraine, where Ukraine is simply a sort of funny sounding part of the horserace coverage of domestic American politics, keep in mind that the real focus here should be Ukraine; should be on the fact that Ukraine has been invaded and been occupied for going on five years; should be on the fact that the US has an actual international obligation to safeguard Ukraine’s territorial integrity; and that it isn’t just another partisan football so the talking heads on the news shows have something to stroke their chins about.

Open thread!

Meanwhile in UkrainePost + Comments (68)

Daydream Believers Open Thread: One Step Forward

by Anne Laurie| November 29, 20199:41 am| 45 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Military, Proud to Be A Democrat

Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill to revoke Medals of Honor from U.S. soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of Native American women and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. Several Native tribes and descendants of the victims support the bill.https://t.co/YPoei0lYcU
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 27, 2019

This didn't start with EW. It started in the House, last spring, and the conversation started decades before. Then in 2001 the Congress of American Indians asked for this to happen. https://t.co/1lG3805kpf
— paulaptb (@paulaptlb) November 28, 2019

We can’t change history, but we can (sometimes) stop lying about it. Per the Washington Post:

… On Wednesday, two Senate Democrats unveiled legislation to strip the Medals of Honor from the American soldiers who participated in the Wounded Knee massacre. The bill, known as the Remove the Stain Act, was announced Wednesday by Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and serves as the Senate equivalent of a House bill introduced this year.
In a statement, Warren said the bill was “a step toward righting wrongs against Native peoples.”…
The Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers at Wounded Knee have long been criticized as unjustified decorations for a lopsided massacre where little fighting occurred, and where evidence has pointed to many U.S. soldiers wounded by their own men rather than by Lakota Indians…
As the Medal of Honor gradually evolved to become the nation’s most rare and distinguished military award, Native Americans have fought to have them rescinded for participants in the massacre. In 2001, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe passed a resolution requesting the U.S. government revoke the medals. The National Congress of American Indians has issued resolutions dating back to 1997 that make the same request.
Later, in 2019, the NCAI issued another resolution that supported the House bill introduced by Reps. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Denny Heck (D-Wash.) and Paul Cook (R-Calif.)…
Upon unveiling the new House legislation in June, Haaland said she hoped that it “shows the continued work and strength of the Native American people who have fought for over a century for the United States to acknowledge the genocide of our people that has taken place on this soil,” Stars and Stripes reported.
“We have a responsibility to tell the true story of the horrific Wounded Knee Massacre,” Merkley said in a statement on Wednesday. “We cannot whitewash or minimize the dark chapters of our history, but instead must remember, reflect on, and work to rectify them. The massacre of innocents could not be farther from heroism, and I hope this bill helps set the record straight.”

The great grandchildren of the victims are very much alive, and very much aware of this. So for the federal government to be willing to tell the truth would be huge.
— paulaptb (@paulaptlb) November 27, 2019

Wounded Knee was a massacre of hundreds of defenseless Native men, women, and children at the hands of U.S. soldiers. We must take steps to address this horrific injustice. Today, I am proud to join my colleagues on a bill to revoke Medals of Honor awarded for Wounded Knee.
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) November 28, 2019

Daydream Believers Open Thread: One Step ForwardPost + Comments (45)

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Florida (Thanksgiving) Man

by Anne Laurie| November 29, 201912:27 am| 67 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Military, Open Threads, Trumpery, All Too Normal, Assholes, DC Press Corpse, Decline and Fall

“A thing called space. You know about that right? Space. We’re going to have space covered very well. We’re covering it now but we have to cover it to a much greater extent” pic.twitter.com/FYq1JQ36C7
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 28, 2019

Cranky grandpa, like others of his ilk, gets hauled away from his comfort zone for the big media-friendly “family” holiday. (Hey, it’s not like anyone in his biological family was gonna miss him.) Kudos to his handlers, who seem to have succeeded in readjusting his meds to the point where he can, however briefly, perform well enough to excite the Media Village Idiots. Such as Politico, back to d/b/a Mr. Pierce’s Tiger Beat on the Potomac:

… It was a journey shrouded in more secrecy than usual even for a presidential trip into a war zone. And it merged the made-for-TV drama Trump savors with a military display he loves: the U.S. commander-in-chief on Thanksgiving, less than a year from the next election, surrounded by cheering troops in Afghanistan.
For a president who at times seems to be at war with his own military leaders, it was a celebration of America’s troops that a small circle of White House aides planned carefully for weeks to prevent leaks that could scuttle the trip…
This time, 12 of the 13 journalists who traveled with Trump — representing news wires, print and broadcast outlets — were picked up on the roof of a public parking garage near Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington and not even told where they were traveling until just before they arrived in Afghanistan. Cell phones, hotspots and any other devices emitting a signal were confiscated from everyone traveling on Air Force One — yes, even the president himself…
The president moved through the sprawling base in a 15-vehicle motorcade that included tan Toyotas with soldiers standing in the truck beds holding combat rifles. Trump was followed into each location by teams of heavily armed combat troops in fatigues, helmets and night-vision goggles.
[Just like a Tom Clancy movie, if Tom Clancy’s hero was a fat old man who can barely strut from his motorcade to his golf cart.]

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Journalists were barred from reporting on the trip until just before their departure from Afghanistan, after briefly getting internet access on the base to file. For three hours, they watched the president — in a blue suit with a red striped tie — serve turkey in a cafeteria, pose for photos and deliver remarks in a hangar to 1,500 military personnel.
[And if The Reality-Show Star had completely lost it — stripped down & proclaimed himself Emperor of Everywhere, started babbling about his Deep State enemies poisoning his Diet Cokes — no evidence except those untrustworthy flacks’ unsupported testimony. Prep work is vital!]
For once, Trump made no mention of the troubles he’s facing at home. He didn’t discuss House Democrats pushing to impeach him in the coming weeks for pressuring Ukraine to opening politically advantageous investigations against a potential 2020 opponent. He also didn’t mention his rift with military leaders, including a new one just days before this trip.
[Space Farce, though. Space Farce, we’re doing more and more… ]
He entered to the song that greets Trump at every rally — “God Bless the USA” — and was greeted with loud cheers and chants of, “USA! USA!” About 50 troops in fatigues stood behind him on a makeshift stage with a helicopter parked stage left.
Trump heaped praise on the troops and bragged about his accomplishments, specifically praising the work to destroy the Islamic State and al-Qaeda…
After a 13-hour journey, and a brief period on the ground, Trump also wistfully told the troops that his Thanksgiving meal had been cut short. “I sat down, I had a gorgeous piece of turkey and I was all set to go. And I had some mashed potatoes and I had a bite of mashed potatoes, and I never got to the turkey, because Gen. [Mark] Milley said come on over, sir, let’s take some pictures. I never got to my turkey. It’s the first time at Thanksgiving that I’ve never had anything called turkey.“
Soon after, Trump hopped back onto his plane for another long flight back to Mar-a-Lago…

Expect more of these resume-padding reach-arounds, where the horse-race media touts lavish praise on the dedicated worker bees gentling Trump between MAGA rallies and no-detail-left-to-chance media ops… right up to the point in the impeachment inquiry when ‘I had NO IDEA such horrors were being unleashed!’ becomes a more opportune defense than ‘How can we swap leaders NOW, when everybody LOVES the big guy so?’

The funny part is there is a long-standing left critique of the thanksgiving mythology but Trump didn’t bring that one up and state tv has to go with what dear leader says.
— Adam Serwer?? (@AdamSerwer) November 27, 2019

On this Thanksgiving morning, I’d like to remind everyone that Trump tried to compete with two Native American casinos which are now among the most profitable in the world while his went bankrupt.
Happy Thanksgiving!
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) November 28, 2019

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Florida (Thanksgiving) ManPost + Comments (67)

Late Night Open Thread: Clowns for the Clown Car God

by Anne Laurie| November 25, 20192:45 am| 12 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Trumpery, Assholes, Clown car, Decline and Fall, I'm Too Big To Cry/Hurts Too Much To Laugh

Incredibly cursed and also substantially less unrealistic than you would hope https://t.co/1teA7YAPxI
— The Mall Krampus (@cakotz) November 25, 2019

I mean, Priebus is out there too while we’re at it pic.twitter.com/F0DBlMxwLK
— Cargoshortasaurus (@leptopterygius) November 24, 2019

I *think* we can still joke about this, because Spicer doesn’t “look great on TV”, and Priebus hasn’t shown sufficient doglike loyalty to the Oval Office Occupant. As long as Pete Hegseth doesn’t want to give up his Fox News duties…

Late Night Open Thread: Clowns for the Clown <del>Car</del> GodPost + Comments (12)

DisOrder & UnDiscipline: An Out of Control E7, an Out of Control Fox & Friends Weekend Loud Mouth, and an Out of Order Chain of Command

by Adam L Silverman| November 24, 20198:29 pm| 154 Comments

This post is in: America, Crimes against humanity, Domestic Politics, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security, War, War on Terror

The Secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, has accepted being terminated (no one told me you could ignore that sort of thing, but what do I know…). His resignation letter is below.

At this point it is unclear what actually has transpired with Secretary Spencer’s termination. The initial reporting was that he’d made an end run around Secretary of Defense Esper, which led Secretary Esper to ask the President to fire him. In this recounting of events, Secretary Spencer is accused of going to the President and ensuring him that if the President let the Naval Special Warfare review board convened by Rear Admiral (RADM) Green, commanding admiral of Naval Special Warfare, play out, then Secretary Spencer would ensure that Eddie Gallagher would retire shortly at the rank of E7, as a member of the SEAL community/with his trident, and with his full benefits.

All of this occurred after several days of reporting that Secretary Spencer and RADM Green had made it clear that if the review process regarding Gallagher remaining a SEAL, as well as three officers in his chain of command at the time of the crimes he’s alleged to have committed, was not allowed to play out, then they’d both resign. This was quickly followed by Secretary Spencer stating he’d never made this ultimatum. So if you’re confused, that isn’t surprising. Until the all too predictable leaks occur over the next several days to fill out the narrative, we won’t really know how this all went down.

We do, however, know that a major problem here is that the President is, as usual, not listening to the people he actually hires and/or promotes into the positions to advise him on issues and manage those issues for him. This leaves the President susceptible to influence by those with their own agendas. In this case Gallagher himself, as well as weekend Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth. Hegseth hosted Gallagher this morning on the Sunday weekend edition of A Blonde with Two Boobs on a Sofa, D/B/A Fox & Friends Weekend. Hegseth honorably served in the US Army National Guard for 11 years, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earned the rank of major (O4), and has basically been influencing the President’s views on the US military and the VA from both his weekend perch at Fox, in private meetings, and on calls with the President on the President’s unsecured cell phone (Estonia, if you’re listening, and we know you are…) since the President began his campaign. During his appearance with Hegseth this morning, Gallagher publicly went after his chain of command, especially RADM Green, accusing him of being derelict in his duty by trying to suborn the clear orders and guidance of the President, as Commander in Chief of the US military, regarding Gallagher’s case.

I cannot express not only how irregular what I’ve just recounted is, but how BATSHIT FUCKING INSANE it is as well! Serving US military personnel, and to a lesser extent DOD and the Service civilians (civil servants) do not speak to and/or engage with the news media unless it has been approved by the Public Affairs Officer at their command. And they certainly don’t go on a cable news talk show program and publicly accuse their commanding officers of being derelict in their duty and insubordinate. If you were wondering if Gallagher was a disciplinary problem waiting to happen and a real impediment to good order and discipline, wonder no more. What he did this morning should dispel any doubt. And if you were Gallagher and trying to show the review board and the commanding admiral that you weren’t either or both of these things, going on Fox & Friends Weekend and making these statements is a really stupid way to demonstrate that you’re not a problem child and a shitbird.

Even before Gallagher made himself the poster boy for an out of control culture within the SEAL and Naval Special Warfare community, Rear Admiral Green had already begun a commander’s strategic initiative to try to understand the problems that have developed within the Naval Special Warfare community’s culture and develop specific ways and means to address and correct them. His initiative is inline with those of GEN Clarke, the Commanding General of US Special Operations Command, who has instituted a similar strategic review. GEN Clarke, as well as RADM Green and GEN Clarke’s other subordinates at the Army, Air Force, and Marine special operations commands are rightly concerned that the corrosive nature of war, especially a war in it’s 18th year, that is poorly defined at the strategic level, and that is overly reliant on Special Operations at the tactical and operational levels, has done major harm to America’s Special Operations Forces. And the effects of the corrosion that this ongoing war has caused on US Special Operations culture and those within that culture needs to be assessed, analyzed, and understood so that corrective measures can be developed and put in place.

What we’ve seen with the way Gallagher behaves, obviously empowered because he feels that his advocates like Hegseth have the President’s ear and, therefore, the President has his back, is a very public example of the cultural corrosion that GEN Clarke, RADM Green, and their peers in the Special Operations community are concerned with. Just for his actions today, Gallagher should be facing an Article 15 hearing, popularly known as a captain’s or admiral’s mast, first thing tomorrow to answer for his public insubordination. What he did today on Fox & Friends should make whether he keeps his trident the least of his worries.

At this point, however, I have no idea what is going to happen. RADM Green, GEN Clarke, ADM Gilday the Chief of Naval Operations, GEN Milley the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary Esper, and RADM (ret) Braithwaite, the announced nominee to be the next Secretary of the Navy all know by now they have both a good order and discipline problem and that the public face of that problem’s name is Gallagher, who thinks he’s untouchable. The President’s undue command interference in Gallagher’s trial and the post conviction handling of him as a personnel matter, as well as several other military prosecutions and disciplinary matters all involving accusations of or convictions for war crimes, has created a good order and discipline problem within the ranks. Leadership knows that if they don’t make an example of Gallagher, then any Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine who gets in trouble and can get to Hegseth or anyone else who has the President’s ear, has the ability to short circuit the military justice system. And unless that notion is quickly disabused, then good order and discipline is going to become nothing more than a hollow slogan. And this problem is as dangerous as the message the President’s interference in military justice for Gallagher and others sends both our allies and adversaries about the behavior that will be tolerated by the US military because it will be tolerated by the President of the United States. That makes our allies uncomfortable and provides aid and comfort to our adversaries by giving them seeming approval to conduct war however they like, regardless of the Law of Armed Conflict, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Rules of Engagement for any specific operation.

Open thread!

Full disclosure: I served as a Senior Special Operations Fellow at SOCOM’s Joint Special Operations University from May through August 2015.

DisOrder & UnDiscipline: An Out of Control E7, an Out of Control Fox & Friends Weekend Loud Mouth, and an Out of Order Chain of CommandPost + Comments (154)

In Non-Impeachment News, the President Has, Apparently, Shifted the Republic of Korea Into an Alliance With the People’s Republic of China

by Adam L Silverman| November 19, 20191:06 pm| 175 Comments

This post is in: America, Foreign Affairs, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Silverman on Security, The Trump Doctrine

Faced with the President’s demand that the Republic of Korea (ROK) increase their cost sharing of the basing and sustainment of US military and civilian personnel in the Republic of Korea to $5 billion, the ROK’s leadership was not amused and very concerned. Especially, as this would mean not just a four to five time increase, but that the ROK would be covering the entire cost, rather than sharing it. Earlier today, things took a turn for the worst.

In a rare public display of disagreement in the alliance, US negotiators abruptly walked out of today's talks with South Korea after the 66-year ally balked at President Trump's price tag for funding 28,500 American troops in the country.https://t.co/utKjCvauvU
— Min Joo Kim (@Min_Joo_Kim_) November 19, 2019

The United States broke off talks with South Korea on Tuesday over how to share the cost of the two nations’ military alliance, injecting fresh tension into the relationship over Washington’s demands that Seoul pay sharply more.
President Trump has demanded South Korea raise fivefold its contribution to cover the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in the country, asking for nearly $5 billion, officials on both sides said. But that demand has triggered anger from Korean lawmakers and sparked concerns that Trump may decide to reduce the U.S. troop presence in the Korean Peninsula if talks break down.
The top U.S. negotiator, James DeHart, said the U.S. side decided to cut short the negotiations on Tuesday morning, the second of two days of planned talks. In a rare public show of disunity between the allies, he blamed South Korea for making proposals that “were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing.”
“As a result we cut short our participation in the talks today in order to give the Korea side time to reconsider,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to resuming our negotiations when the Korean side is ready to work on the basis of partnership, on the basis of mutual trust.”
This year, South Korea agreed to pay about $890 million toward the cost of stationing U.S. troops in the country, a little more than 40 percent of the day-to-day expenses. It also provides land for bases rent-free, paid more than 90 percent of the $10.7 billion cost of moving the main U.S. base out of Seoul, and buys significant amounts of U.S. military equipment.
But Trump insists that South Korea, as a “very wealthy nation,” needs to pay more. His demand for up to $5 billion would imply South Korea was effectively not only being asked to cover local costs but also the entire wage bill for the U.S. troops.

This genius move of walking out on a negotiation, which is not taught as part of how to conduct a negotiation to any career US government officials, such as Mr. DeHart who is a career foreign service officer, is a hallmark of the President’s understanding of how to conduct negotiations. Specifically, make an outrageous demand, posture and preen, throw a fit at the negotiations and walk out, then wait for the other party to come back and grovel for a deal. The Republic of Korea is not going to play the President’s game.

Here’s the text from Yahoo News:

The defense ministers of South Korea and China have agreed to develop their security ties to ensure stability in northeast Asia, the latest indication that Washington’s longstanding alliances in the region are fraying.

Mission accomplished!

Open thread!

In Non-Impeachment News, the President Has, Apparently, Shifted the Republic of Korea Into an Alliance With the People’s Republic of ChinaPost + Comments (175)

Now He’s Pardoning War Criminals for Shits and Giggles

by John Cole| November 15, 20199:45 pm| 111 Comments

This post is in: Military

I loathe this fucker:

President Trump intervened in three military justice cases involving war-crimes accusations Friday, issuing at least two full pardons that will prevent the Pentagon from pursuing future charges against the individuals involved, according to two of their lawyers and a U.S. official.
The service members involved were notified by Trump over the phone late Friday afternoon, said the lawyers, who represent Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL. Golsteyn faced a murder trial scheduled for next year, while Gallagher recently was acquitted of murder and convicted of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq.
The third service member involved, former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, was expected to be released from the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as soon as Friday night. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013, and sentenced to 19 years in prison for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan.
It was not immediately clear whether Lorance will receive a full pardon or have his sentence shortened through commutation.

He’s not going to be happy until he destroys every single institution in this country. It goes without saying the Pentagon and military leaders opposed this.

Now He’s Pardoning War Criminals for Shits and GigglesPost + Comments (111)

Veterans Day 2019: Veterans in Exile

by Adam L Silverman| November 11, 201910:47 pm| 71 Comments

This post is in: America, An Unexamined Scandal, Domestic Politics, Immigration, Military, Politics, Silverman on Security, War

Senator Duckworth is a national treasure.

I refuse to let them believe that everyone in government has forsaken them.
So I crossed the border to Tijuana to spend #VeteransDay with them, recognizing the sacrifices they made for the country they love. pic.twitter.com/JUyZNl9OBw
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019

These are daughters and sons who are struggling with wounds both visible and otherwise, yet are unable to get the VA medical care they need because they’ve been deemed less important than partisan politics. pic.twitter.com/JZB3sEDL0I
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019

We should be ashamed, heartbroken & furious by the treatment of these Veterans. I certainly am. But we should channel those feelings and use them as motivation to do better.
To be better.
These Veterans fought for us for so long.
It’s past time we start fighting for them too. pic.twitter.com/vc9DKpGbnx
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) November 12, 2019

And the President, the Vice President, Stephen Miller, DHS Secretary Kelly, DHS Secretary Nielsen, Acting DHS Secretary McAleneen, Acting USCIS Secretary Cucinelli, Acting Director of ICE Homan, Steve Bannon, and every single American that supports these officials and their actions is a national disgrace. And the next president, provided she or he is a Democrat, damn well better bring these veterans home and hold all of the above to account. I don’t care if some of these veterans have criminal records, I don’t care if some of them have serious PTSD or other issues from their service that led to those criminal records or otherwise somehow violating their immigration status. I don’t care if some of them are undocumented. They raised their hands, they took the oath, and they served the US, many if not most in harm’s way, which is something no one in the Trump family has ever done across five generations in the United States. These people disgust me!

Open thread!

Veterans Day 2019: Veterans in ExilePost + Comments (71)

Monday Evening Open Thread: I {Heart} NYC

by Anne Laurie| November 11, 20194:05 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Trumpery, All Too Normal, Decline and Fall, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

Incredibly loud protests outside the Trump speech along Fifth Avenue, with whistles, chants of "Lock him up!"
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 11, 2019

President Trump in New York, pays tribute to city’s role in nation’s history “of daring and defiance.” pic.twitter.com/oKlzzLEgtR
— Alex Leary (@learyreports) November 11, 2019

From the pool report re: Trump's Veterans Day speech in NYC: "In the windows of one of the glass office towers looming above the park, large letters are taped in the windows spelling out, one one floor, 'IMPEACH,’ and, several floors above, 'CONVICT.'"
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 11, 2019

As @POTUS began to speak," a din arose from the west side of the park on 5th Avenue. As Trump’s voice boomed from loudspeakers, chants of 'Lock him up' could be heard coming from the crowd," reports print pooler @EliStokols. pic.twitter.com/JlCoN3j1PA
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) November 11, 2019

Overlooking POTUS speech was this sign. A few floors up were letters spelling “convict.” pic.twitter.com/CumF48jRG4
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 11, 2019

Monday Evening Open Thread: I {Heart} NYCPost + Comments (227)

Veterans Day Read: “The Endless Recovery From the Endless War”

by Anne Laurie| November 11, 201911:11 am| 71 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Military, All Too Normal

Former White House speechwriter @TSzuplat reconnected with a brain-injured soldier that he wrote about during the Obama years. He found that Cory Remsburg's story didn't end so neatly. Photographs by @PeteSouza https://t.co/u4yiWB0Nzr
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) November 10, 2019

He was, for a time, the most well-known veteran in America.
On the evening of January 28, 2014, Cory Remsburg, an elite Army Ranger grievously wounded in Afghanistan, sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama in the balcony of the House chamber as President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address. As one of the president’s speechwriters, I watched from the floor below, crowded among congressional and White House staff.
Nearing the end of his speech, Obama described how, on Cory’s tenth deployment, a bomb blast had thrown him into a canal, where his fellow soldiers found him facedown, underwater, unconscious, with a punctured skull. Across the country, television screens cut to Cory, with a lean build, close-cropped brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and striking in his dress blue uniform — a bow tie and a chestful of colorful ribbons and commendations…
This October 1 marked a decade since the explosion. Cory has now spent more years working to recover from his injuries than he did serving on active duty in the war zones — one of the approximately 5,000 veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq with penetrating head wounds who have returned home to live with their catastrophic injuries for decades to come. In advance of this milestone, I asked Cory and his parents for permission to follow him for the year.
I wanted to see the unvarnished reality of his life after the applause…
Over the past year, I spoke with Cory and his parents about two dozen times, in person and by telephone, often for an hour or more. I visited him at military and veterans’ hospitals and at his home in Arizona, where he granted me and photographer Pete Souza unprecedented access to his daily life. I spoke with more than 30 of Cory’s family, friends, fellow Rangers, doctors, and therapists.
I soon learned, as his brother had warned me, how dark the journey could get…

Remsburg was a 26-year-old at the height of his powers; now he’s a 35-year old whose parents are his full-time caregivers. Someone learning, over and over every day, how much he’ll never again do for himself… from driving to putting on deodorant.

Veterans Day Read: “The Endless Recovery From the Endless War”Post + Comments (71)

US Marine Corps 244th Birthday

by Adam L Silverman| November 10, 20196:41 pm| 101 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Silverman on Security

The US Marine Corps is 244 years old today. And yes, there will be cake!

For those who have never participated in a USMC birthday, there is a very interesting tradition and ritual involved. The cake is escorted by Marines, including the most senior (oldest) and the most junior (youngest) Marines in attendance. The cake is then cut with a Mameluke sword, which is the style/type of sword worn by Marines as part of their dress uniforms. The first slice is then presented to the guest of honor in attendance. The second piece is then presented to the oldest Marine present out of respect. He or she then passes that slice of cake to the most junior Marine present to signify the passing of experience knowledge from the oldest to the newest members of Corps. Here’s B-roll from the cake cutting ceremony at Camp Pendelton this year.

Here are US Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. David H Berger’s and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy E Black’s birthday message to the Corps.

And since it’s a long holiday weekend:

Open thread!

US Marine Corps 244th BirthdayPost + Comments (101)

“Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”: Early Reviews, Not Promising

by Anne Laurie| October 27, 20194:22 pm| 90 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Hail to the Hairpiece, Military, Open Threads, Republican Venality, War on Terror, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Clap Louder!, Decline and Fall

Huh. Is Trump going to announce that the ISIS fighters he set free now plan to lead quiet lives as accountants, the Turks will un-kill the Kurds, the Russians will go home, and Assad will turn himself in to the Hague? I ask because, if not, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) October 27, 2019

Curious how this 2012 sentiment will match up with tomorrow morning’s statement https://t.co/bLMUZzPTng
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 27, 2019

Publicity-grab sequels seldom match the success of the originals. Title of this post from a Christopher Dickey article in the Daily Beast, “Trump Turns Baghdadi’s Killing Into a Reality Show”:

PARIS—President Donald J. Trump wants you to see his new movie: “Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
At a special Sunday morning press conference in Washington D.C., Trump described the way U.S. Special Operations Forces attacked Baghdadi’s compound and killed him in such graphic and explicit detail that some intelligence professionals worried he may have revealed, again, too much about sources and methods.
But Trump knows great television when he sees it, and he was enthusiastic about the images he was watching from the White House situation room Saturday night. “It was absolutely perfect, as though you were watching a movie,” he said…
The reasons such a video of the 2011 Osama operation was not released are the same ones that the intelligence community will use to argue against dissemination of the Baghdadi death: because such images could compromise so much about the operation.
But quite apart from Trump’s worthy desire to undermine the messaging of the still virulent ISIS organization, there is also his unworthy inclination to gloat. Remember when Trump tweeted a highly classified high-resolution image of a failed Iranian missile launch earlier this year for little more reason, it would seem, that smug self-satisfaction?
Trump hates it when the fast-turning news cycle that he uses effectively to obscure his failings also works to push his accomplishments into oblivion…

He’ll be tweeting obscenities — not dirty words, but actual graphic images & descriptions — no later than tomorrow morning. And that’s only if the Fox News prime-time lineup lathers sufficient Kim-Jong-un – style propaganda all this evening.

Trump was away from the White House for a round of golf until 4:18 pm yesterday. It appears this photo was staged. https://t.co/1K5TA6xwDQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2019

Turkey gave up the leader of a group Trump swore he had already defeated as repayment for paving the way for genocide. https://t.co/VOoXD1Vg6P
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 27, 2019

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“Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”: Early Reviews, Not PromisingPost + Comments (90)

This Is Kind of Crazy

by John Cole| October 21, 20196:55 pm| 239 Comments

This post is in: Military

This is more Adam’s turf, but one thing you need to know about the Pentagon is that the wargame everything and have so many people there it would be unsurprising if they have a plan for everything. Every now and then you see an alarming headline that says “Pentagon has a plan to attack Russia,” and a lot of people freak out and think that means there is an impending attack on Russia. Really, you should say to yourself, “Well, that kind of is their job” and realize they probably have about 200 different plans to attack Russia and in varying circumstances. Having said all that, this is still unsettling:

The Pentagon recently began drawing up plans for an abrupt withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in case President Donald Trump surprises military leaders by ordering an immediate drawdown as he did in Syria, three current and former defense officials said.
The contingency planning is ongoing, the officials said, and includes the possibility that Trump orders all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan within weeks. Officials cautioned, however, that the planning is a precaution and there is currently no directive from the White House to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.
One of the officials called it “prudent planning.”

The Pentagon is doing contingency planning not because an enemy like Kim Jong whatever is nuts, but because OUR President is an unstable nutjob.

This Is Kind of CrazyPost + Comments (239)