Kerry’s Iraq Comments
By now I’m sure everyone heard John Kerry’s comments:
Kerry told students, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.†But, he added, “If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.â€
There has been some very interesting commentary around the blogsphere about his original comments including Stupid is, Stuck in Iraq (Drill Sgt. Bleu U.S. Army ret.), Yoor Soldjurs Kneed Halp, John Kerry, Not Presidential Material, reason #456,987,321, and more…Â Personally I wasn’t overly upset since I’m stuck in Afghanistan not Iraq.
Just Kiddin’
I had assumed that John Kerry was trying to take a cheap shot at George W. Bush but failed miserably. What I never expected was his stupid reaction when challenged on it. Either way he has now apologized.
R&R Leave
Well I made it back to Madison yesterday around noon. I’m home for 15 days of R&R Leave from Afghanistan and then I go back to finish up my deployment. The trip was fairly pleasant minus the incident with TSA in Atlanta, and Delta in Atlanta tagging my checked bag with the wrong baggage tag. I’ll write more about those two things in the next few days if I remember.
Everyone keeps asking me if I have any exciting plans for the time back, but I really don’t. I am going to go up to camp for a weekend, spend some time in the Dells, and might visit a friend in Minnesota. Basically I just want to relax, enjoy a few things I can’t get in Afghanistan, and hit up State Street on Halloween.
Coined by the NGB CSM
Today I was coined by Command Sergeant Major Hudson, the Command Sergeant Major of the National Guard Bureau. We had a short conversation about the importance of NCOES (the Non-Commissioned Officer Education System), and on the way out he coined me and the other Specialist who was in on the conversation. I tend not to make a big deal about getting coined but it was pretty cool today, probably because CSM Hudson seemed like a pretty down to earth type guy.
Inteview with a GITMO Psychiatric Nurse
Patterico just finished posting five installments of an interview he conducted with “Stashiu”, a Psychiatric Nurse who worked at Guantanamo Bay. I’m not a fan of how it was hyped as an interview with someone who has talked with terrorists, it just seemed kind of cheesy, but it does provide a good insight to GITMO. I can’t verify the validity of it but I believe it is on the up and up from my familiarity with the Military Intelligence Community, Detainee Operations, Conversations with a Human Intelligence Collector that was stationed at GITMO, and the way Parrerico cited traditional media reports.
Here is how Patterico has split up the interview, I’d suggest starting at Part One…
Part One: Introduction. Stashiu tells us about a terrorist who threatened to have Zarqawi (who was then still alive) cut off the heads of Stashiu’s family while he watched — and then cut off Stashiu’s head.
Part Two: Stashiu arrives at GTMO, and tells us what the terrorists are like.
Part Three: Hunger strikes, suicides and suicide attempts, and mental illness. Stashiu opines that the suicides were a political act.
Part Four: Treatment of the detainees, and the detainees’ treatment of guards. Also, desecration of the Koran — but by whom?
Part Five: Stashiu reacts to Big Media pieces about GTMO.