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Lawmakers Demand Army Apologize for Anti-Christian Briefing

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Photo Credit: RedState

At least a dozen members of Congress have signed a letter demanding the Secretary of the Army rescind and apologize for a briefing that labeled Evangelical Christians and Catholics as religious extremist groups, sources on Capitol Hill tell me.

“This is astonishing and offensive,” read a draft of the letter written by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO). “We call on you to rescind this briefing and apologize for its content and set the record straight on the Army’s view on these faith groups by providing a balanced briefing on religious extremism.”

Lamborn is referring to an Army training session conducted last year that featured a presentation listing Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of extremism – alongside Al Qaeda and Hamas.

Army spokesman George Wright later said it was an isolated incident not condoned by the Dept. of the Army. And the slide, he said, was not produced by the Army nor did it reflect their policy or doctrine.

“To say that Evangelicals or Catholics are somehow in the same league with Al Qaeda or the KKK is outrageous,” Lamborn told me.

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US Military: 'Catholics, Evangelical Christians' are Extremists

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The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.

The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects.

The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization.

“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”

While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.

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DHS Buying Armored Vehicles

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteySecurity: In addition to stockpiling over a billion bullets and thousands of semiautomatic weapons the feds would deny U.S. citizens, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is appearing on U.S. streets.

The sequestration question du jour is why the Department of Homeland Security, busy releasing hundreds, if not thousands, of deportable and detained illegal aliens due to budget constraints, is buying several thousand Mine Resistant Armored Protection (MRAP) vehicles?

And just who are they intended to be used against? This acquisition comes on top of the recent news of the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a ‘b’) bullets of various calibers, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq War, and the ordering of some 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO “personal defense weapons” (PDW) — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians.

Additionally, DHS is asking for 30 round magazines that “have a capacity to hold thirty (30) 5.56x45mm NATO rounds.”
The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these MRAP vehicles for service on the streets of the U.S. They were formerly used for counterinsurgency in Iraq.

These vehicles are specifically designed to resist mines and ambush attacks. They use bulletproof windows and are designed to withstand small-arms fire, including smaller-caliber rifles such as a .223 Remington. Does DHS expect a counterinsurgency here?

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Bizarre Sex Games In Today’s Army Training

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Photo Credit: WND(Warning: The following report contains details of a sexually graphic nature that may offend some readers.)

It’s a case of soldiers gone wild: An eyewitness tells WND a U.S. Army installation in Hawaii held a Valentine’s Day official “training” event in which male and female soldiers were offered prizes in a race to put condoms on sex toys.

WND confirmed a presentation on sexually transmitted diseases had taken place at the Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii, on Feb. 14. The source, who asked to remain nameless due to the nature of the source’s job – told WND the training event began with a presentation on substance abuse and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Once the slideshow was complete, the instructors asked for four volunteers,” the source said. ”From those who raised their hands, they selected two male and two female soldiers. The instructors split them into two groups with a male and female in each and had them walk up on stage.

“Two small tables covered with blankets had been on the stage throughout the presentation. The soldiers were told to remove the blankets from the tables. They did, exposing erect male penis devices lit-up and sitting on each table.”

The source said many of the hundreds of soldiers and Defense Department civilians and contractors present “immediately appeared uneasy by what was transpiring.” According to the eyewitness, the age group of the audience ranged from late teens to early 70s, with a median age of around 30. Half of the attendees were reportedly women.

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Military Warns Cuts Would Create ‘Hollow Force’ Akin To 1970s

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The U.S. armed services, widely recognized as the world’s most ready and mobile military, is painting a picture of itself as a stagnant force trapped at home under automatic spending cuts just three weeks away.

Army brigades won’t be ready to fight. Navy aircraft carriers won’t deployed. The Air Force won’t be able to operate radar surveillance 24 hours a day.

The dire scenarios are contained in a series of memos sent to Congress and obtained by The Washington Times. They stir memories of the late 1970s, when the Army declared itself a “hollow force” because depleted combat units could not perform in a war.

In the current instance, an Army memo uses the physiological term “atrophy” to underscore a warning that it will not be able to command brigade combat teams that can respond to hot spots outside of Afghanistan and South Korea.

“The strategic impact is a rapid atrophy of unit combat skills with a failure to meet demands of the National Military Strategy by the end of this year,” the Army wrote in a recent memo to Capitol Hill.

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U.S. Trains For Mass Migration In Caribbean Security Drill

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Photo Credit: JTF GuantanamoA simulated wave of Caribbean migrants sailed to the Guantanamo naval base this week for a training drill designed to prepare U.S. troops and security agencies who might someday have to handle the real thing.

The exercise is held every two years to prepare for a potential mass migration brought on by political upheaval or natural disaster in the region.

More than 500 U.S. troops and government workers flew to the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in eastern Cuba for the drill, which started on Saturday and runs through Friday.

“It’s not related to any real-world event,” said Colonel Jane Crichton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army South unit based in San Antonio, Texas, which is participating in the drill.

The drill is taking place on the sparsely populated Leeward side of the base, which is bisected by Guantanamo Bay. Most of the base facilities are on the Windward side, including the detention center that holds 166 prisoners captured in anti-terrorism operations.

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Army Vet Paints “Obama F.U.K. Off” on His Truck, Interrogated by Cops

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An Army veteran who painted “Obama F.U.K. Off” in large letters on his truck was questioned by Wisconsin cops after police dispatchers received a complaint that the profane message was inappropriate “for kids in the area.”

Dennis Hamm contends that he did not misspell the word “f**k” on his truck’s tailgate. Instead, “F.U.K.,” he notes, is actually an acronym for “Fundamentally Useless Kenyan.”

Photo credit: The Smoking Gun

The sheriff’s report is being forwarded for review by the village attorney in Union Grove, where Hamm’s truck was observed outside his home on Main Street.

According to his Facebook page, Hamm, seen at [upper left], served in the Army from 1973-1976. Hamm–who uses the nickname “Wild Boar”–describes himself as “Still fighting for the freedoms I served to protect. Carry a weapon as a means to convince those who have a distorted view of ‘Free Enterprise’ that things must be earned, not taken.”

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US Military Ends Four Army Officers’ Careers for Accidentally Sending Korans to Burn Pits

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Photo credit: Roel Wijnants

Army officials said that four Army officers and two enlisted soldiers received letters of reprimand for sending boxes of Korans from a prison library to a burn pit at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Although an Army investigation that was made public on Monday found that the soldiers did not act out of “malicious intent” to disrespect the Koran or defame Islam, investigators concluded that they did not follow proper procedures, were ignorant of the importance of the Koran to Afghans and got no clear guidance from their leaders in a chain of mistakes.

The Marine Corps said three non-commissioned officers involved in a video that shows four Marines urinating on the body of a dead Taliban fighter received “nonjudicial punishments,” which could include letters of reprimand, a reduction in rank, forfeit of some pay, physical restriction to a military base, extra duties or some combination of those measures.

The Marine Corps did not release the results of its investigation into the episode because, officials said, there were continuing inquiries about higher-ranking officers in the unit involved, which was part of the Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Military officials said the punishments were not as light as they might seem to the public — letters of reprimand effectively end most military careers — but it was unclear how they would be viewed in Afghanistan, where the Koran burning touched off days of riots across the country and compelled Mr. Karzai to call for a public trial.

American military officials said they were hopeful that Afghans would take the news calmly. “We have conveyed our condolences to the government and the Afghan people,” said Col. Thomas W. Collins, a spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan. “These were both terrible mistakes.”

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Army morale hits rock bottom due to Obama-loving generals, loss of discipline

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Photo credit: US Army

Only a quarter of the Army’s officers and enlisted soldiers believe the nation’s largest military branch is headed in the right direction — a survey response that is the lowest on record and reflects what some in the service call a crisis in confidence. The detailed annual survey by a team of independent researchers found that the most common reasons cited for the bleak outlook were “ineffective leaders at senior levels,” a fear of losing the best and the brightest after a decade of war, and the perception, especially among senior enlisted soldiers, that “the Army is too soft” and lacks sufficient discipline.

The study, ordered by the Center for Army Leadership at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, also found that one in four troops serving in Afghanistan rated morale either “low” or “very low,” part of a steady downward trend over the last five years. But the most striking finding is widespread disagreement with the statement that “the Army is headed in the right direction to prepare for the challenges of the next 10 years.” “In 2011, [active duty] agreement to this statement hit an all-time low,” according to the survey results, a copy of which were provided to The Boston Globe. “Belief that the Army is headed in the right direction is positively related to morale.” In 2010, about 33 percent of those surveyed didn’t agree with the statement; the number was 38 percent in 2006.

The apparent lack of confidence poses a new set of challenges to the Army as it undergoes budget cuts and shrinks its ranks. The Army’s top officer, General Raymond T. Odierno, says he is taking the findings to heart. “It is very important for us to be introspective, and we are committed to continual self-assessment,” Odierno told the Army Times newspaper in a statement. A major concern that the survey identified was whether the Army would be able to keep top-notch leaders as it cuts its ranks, as well as fears it would be stretched too thin to meet unforeseen demands. Junior officers were particularly concerned about retaining good leaders.

The active-duty Army, which is currently about 570,000 strong, is preparing to reduce its ranks by about 90,000 soldiers in the coming years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down and the Pentagon budget is subject to a government-wide belt-tightening. “Comments on downsizing the force reflected concerns by leaders that troop reductions would significantly impact the Army’s ability to respond to future conflicts,” the study’s authors wrote.

The Army has historically surveyed attitudes within the ranks to improve professional education and training. But since 2005 it has undertaken the empirically based Army Leader Development Survey each year in an effort to identify trends and leading indicators for leadership problems and signs of dissatisfaction.

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Girl almost ‘kicked out of school’ because she wouldn’t take home military pics of her MP brother

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A school binder decorated with pictures of a 13-year-old’s older brother and her softball team nearly led the girl being kicked out of school, her mother claims.

Seen in his military uniform, a photograph of Brianna Gentry’s older brother Derrick who is stationed in Montana as a military policeman is one of several pictures on her school binder.

‘My brother is very important to me. I haven’t seen him in a while,’ Brianna told KTLA on her reasoning behind the photo’s placement. Around him are also pictures of her softball team.

Both pictures, however, as Brianna recently learned, do not comply with her school’s rules with the eighth grader’s membership of their AVID programme for top or advanced students.

‘The counsellor took me out of class twice telling me that the pictures aren’t AVID material,’ Brianna said. ‘But they haven’t pulled out any other students with pictures out from their class. Just me.’

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