The de-Bateman continues
The discussion that Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lake Bateman started the other day, when he said that he wanted to take our guns from our cold, dead hands in Esquire Magazine continues. There are some pictures and articles about another Col. Robert J. Bateman floating around the internet, but that’s not this guy. So be careful out there.
Folks who know Bateman have been telling us that Robert L. Bateman hasn’t commanded infantry troops since he was a Second Lieutenant. They tell me that his company command was a Headquarters Company – not there’s anything wrong with that – but he should have told us that to him “managing violence” means having a layout inspection in the motorpool. Or signing statements of charges for the equipment he can’t account for in the unit.
In other places on the internet, he makes a big deal about being a Ranger – which is a big deal – but he also admits that he doesn’t have a Combat Infantryman Badge. Which means that he’s never heard a shot fired in anger, except maybe on Victory Drive when he was running loose during Infantry Officers’ Basic Course. I can’t for the life of me think of an excuse big enough for an infantry LTC to not have a CIB after more than a decade of war. Even I tried to get back in the Army during the surge in Iraq. It was one thing during my time for an officer to miss out on Grenada, Panama or Desert Storm, quite another to miss the Global War on Terror, you know, what with it being global and everything.
Our buddy, and frequent commenter on TAH, Michael Z. Williamson, writes this morning about how even Mr. Williamson’s daughter thinks Bateman is a huge pansy.
In response to comments and outrage, he called a documented SF soldier a “faker,” a former AF Security Policeman who’s now a federal agent a “peacetime veteran,” and a gay, black 2nd Amendment supporter a “fake persona,” because no gay black man could POSSIBLY support gun ownership. (That person’s an acquaintance of mine. Gay, black, gun owning, conservative, union train engineer. How awesome is THAT combination?)
In short, he’s the textbook example of the small-dicked little limpwrist who joined the military to prove he’s not, and hates guns because he does have something to compensate for. Likely why he’s been cuckolded twice and divorced. He doesn’t measure up, literally and emotionally. Google “psychological projection.”
Bateman uses his rank and military experience, or rather the lack thereof as proof of his authority on the subject, then when people criticize the fact that he comes up short in the credentials thing, he says we’re “dick measuring”, well, he shouldn’t have brought that pathetic little thing out in the first place.
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists, Shitbags
Hey, I’m all for freedom of choice; if you don’t want a gun, don’t buy one, but don’t tell me I can’t have one because you don’t like them. It’s not up to you and you’re not that important.
It seems to me that Bateman is angling for some sort of “Talking Head” position, or perhaps a job with some leftist “victimhood” group, like the Brady bunch, et al.
You’ll note, too, the almost complete lack of MSM reporting on his detractors and/or counterpoints to his fascist proposals. The MSM, and this administration, have finally found another “John F Kerry” to report for duty and carry their water as they seek to gut our constitution and enforce compliance through their Diversity Zampolits.
In case anyone’s wondering: yes, this seems to be the same Robert Bateman who did the book about No Gun Ri in 2002 that refuted many of AP’s “hit piece” claims about the incident.
Just goes to show that some people who are indeed knowledgeable in one area turn into blithering idiots when they get outside of their area of expertise.
I’ve seen conflicting reports. Does anyone know definitively whether or not this tool is still serving or is now retired?
@4, Judging from his comments on the article he is still serving. He told a person that he thought was active duty that they were violating article 88 for disagreeing with him.
AKO says he’s still on active duty and stationed in the UK. But there’s another Robert J. Bateman, a retired full bird who is not this Robert L. Bateman.
So, maybe he is crazy like a fox and he is due to testify before Congress for his bird and he hopes this will help him get it? Or maybe he has given up hope of getting his bird and just decided to cut loose?
Memo to LTC Bateman: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. You really shouldn’t have been so surprised you’d be called out on your fucktardery. Hole, digging, stop. Sound familiar?
Oh, this just sounds like so much fun. Can I play, too? I could make up all sorts of smarmy remarks about his control freak nature, and his friend Little Richard.
Three Words:
Buy Gun Stocks! Nah that does not work here.
Invest in Guns! Much better.
Goons like some of our senior leaders and this tool have done more for the weapons industry than Henry, Smith, Wesson or the wee little China man who invented gun powder.
Five More Words:
Buy Guns and Ammo Regularly!
I sure am glad that people like LTC Barney Bad-Ass here are around to protect me from myself….I might step on my dick constantly….
Guns and Ammo? The magazine, or the hardware, Master Chief?
Considering that Bateman wrote his article for Esquire, it has the same validity as that ridiculous ‘oh pity me’ monologue last summer over the phony vet who moved into the back yard of Sharon Stone’s ex-husband, whatshisname.
Esquire is a pretentious, self-serving girlie rag with a pseudo-intellectual bent that doesn’t approach the level that Playboy used to achieve. (Yes, I looked at the pictures, too and felt — well, inadequate. So shut up.) Playboy did unfettered interviews with people, whether your liked those interviewed or not.
Esquire is a slick, shiny copycat without the street cred that Playboy acquired over several decades. With the lower cost of the internet as a distribution point, it’s now a focal point for semi-smart jackasses with emotional issues and lame excuses for their questionable citations on their CVs. If you want to blame anyone, blame Sharon Stone’s ex whatshisname.
Bateman’s piece of rambling drivel is a pretentious attempt to get attention, and not much more. Well, he is indeed getting it, and it isn’t what he wants. If you disagree with him, you’re a horrible person.
My mischievous nature says she would enjoy playing the Delilah to this phony-baloney Samson. A hair cut would do him good.
Bateman was notorious in Armor Magazine in the late 90’s/early 2000’s for writing snarky, condescending articles as a supposed infantry expert. One such piece appeared in Jan-Feb 2001 issue, written when he was a West Point history prof, no doubt impressed with himself as he flexed his muscles for his captive audience of cadets. That one, called “An Infantryman’s Thoughts on Armor” was a direct eye-poke (although he speciously claimed it was not) at the mounted force, and is right in line with his latest…the guy is just an asshole who doesn’t seem capable of making a cogent point without presenting a know-it-all air of superiority. He seems to revel in his inflated ego.
I knew his name sounded familiar and it finally hit me when I dug up the old Armor back issue with his wipe-worthy thoughts, as true now as they were then, covered in many of the same erroneous assumptions, analysis and flawed thinking…underscored with the bluster of someone who sabotages his own arguments with sophomoric devices.
You all know the type- a self-important, know-it-all blowhard who thinks he’s so much more intelligent than everyone else. Whatever.
Ptolemy, are you telling us that Bateman is – dare I say it? — related to psulie-boi?
Is it possible? Two clones from the same test tube? Oh, noes!
My head is going to explode over this!
Ptolemy
You just reminded me of that bullshit piece…..I didn’t put 2 and 2 together that this was the same douche. I remember clearing routes through mine fields while the infantry covered OUR asses. Funny he has no use for armor now….
Bobby’s gonna flap his yap around the wrong warrior one day, and he’s going to get his *ss handed to him — in pieces. I just hope there’s someone around with a camera when it happens. I want to see it posted on YouTube.
Old Tanker…same douche indeed. Little about his writing style has changed since then. Only he now presumes to speak for the Army as he launches into his self-serving tirade about weapons and their owners.
Loser.
Let’s take away all the spin and just call him what he is; a pussy.
He’s got some retarded MOS now, FA59. Apparently he has been that ever since the infantry found out he wears panties.
Ex-PH2, I think either they were cloned from a test tube of DNA labeled “DEFECTIVE, DO NOT USE!” or from [allegedly] human DNA extracted from shark poop after a man-eating specimen was caught!
I know Bob Bateman. Frequent contributor to Dr. Eric Alterman when he had his column on MSNBC’s website, and rolls with Charlie Pierce quite a bit. He’s an affable fellow, and a great military historian, but I think at times he’s overplayed his infantryman hand, and he gets a leg up over other guys because his academic credentials tickle folks in that crowd.
He wrote a great article over the summer about a little known cavalry engagement in the run-up to Gettysburg, absolutely loved it.
But he’s not a warfighter, never has been, and never should speak as if he was one, or try to leverage it with respect to gun control. I will say, out of everyone, I would believe he’d have the most cogent reasons for espousing his mindset, and I also believe he’d respect the other side a lot more than many of his peers.
Nevermind, I read this article:
“My entire adult life has been dedicated to the deliberate management of violence.”
“I orchestrate violence.”
“Guns are tools. I use these tools in my job.”
Oh, for crying out loud, no. Not as a LTC sitting in the UK, you really don’t. We have some enlisted infantry in late-stage OIFs who never fired their weapons in anger, and if they didn’t, an LTC without a combat deployment, even more no.
It’s a pretty prose, but Bateman’s brush with infantry life is at best training and most likely academic. It’s not anything to be ashamed of, but the preamble to the article is.
Thumbs up, Proud!
When I was looking at OCS, a recruiter basically told me that if I ended up doing anything infantry-ish ever as an officer, they’d probably put me through Airborne school AT MINIMUM. Ranger school more than likely.
He told me they were trying to get double and treble-tabbed officers.
I just question how, as a RANGER, he missed out on pretty much every goddamn fight. Afghanistan, Iraq, Desert Storm? I know people who’ve been to Iraq or Afghanistan 3 or 4 times.
This guy sounds like he purposely dodged combat. And so, for said candy-ass desk jockey to presume to speak for soldiers, whom, in my experience, are OVERWHELMINGLY pro-second amendment, is ridiculous.
What a chode.
Oh, and the only good reporting Esquire ever did on a serious topic was on Scientology.
If he’s an FA59 then he stopped doing infantry things in the middle of his tenure as a Captain. Functional Area officers still wear the insignia and sign their names with their original branch, but he hasn’t truly been an infantryman for most of the war.
His closest brush with combat was, by his own accounts, with Blackwater in the green zone. I can’t think of any infantry unit that has a major doing anything but S3/TOC work. But orchestrating violence is something he’s good at.
Le sigh. I never minded when he started pieces with “as an infantry officer”, because his was the only voice from the military folks like Charlie Pierce are ever apt to hear (i.e. says things they want to hear). This was too far for me. Honestly, I could bear the article if he touted his military historian credentials, but he’s tortured his infantry experience long enough in pursuit of his published career and now he’s going to run into a wall of CIB-bearing infantry officers who say “woah, Nellie.” Some of them may have been captains of companies besides HHC with Gerry Owen, no less…
I took umbrage years ago when he opined as guest columnist for Alterman, after Haditha, that without the guidance of infantry officers such as himself, PFCs would violate the law of war, based off an anecdote from 1995, when only a few guys shot dogs in Desert Storm and Mogadishu vets were few and far between. I found it despicable, and wondered if there’s a reason why he hasn’t had real command experience since then.
Ugh, I’m aggravated, and I don’t get aggravated by this nonsense.
It’s not correct to call anything this douche-bagel writes as a debate. The way he writes he leaves no opening for discussion. His last piece was written like an op-order “We will” do this and “I will” do that…..
@BK; We had to shoot quite a few dogs while I was in Iraq, but we never did it for “sport”. I remember having to shoot one vicous SOB that I swear was raised by Michael Vick. I thought the damn thing was going to rip my leg off.
Jonn, my last comment is in moderation. I forgot about your rule change.
Twist: I noticed that and approved it (one of the “bennies” of being a contributor). Jonn can chew my azz if I screwed up. (smile)
Regardless of Bateman’s functional area, he’s an 11A, and if he’s been assigned at brigade or below in a combat zone, he’s authorized a CIB. If at division or above, he gets the CAB. Does Bateman have a badge and combat patch?
Bateman’s article is one opinion in the debate and in and of itself is a mouse turd. What seems to be shocking folks is the realization that the Officer Corps of every branch is not monolithic in terms of its politics. For every patriot, we have a Shalikashvili and a Dempsey. Recall that the service academies are filled primarily on political appointments – patronage by even the most liberal, anti-military politicians. Even Lilyea voted for Manchin, who’s proven that he’ll gut the 2d Amendment when it suits his aim (to replace Harry Reid).
It’s not the Batemans one has to worry about. It’s the low level Civil Servants with guns, and their own courts and jails who will follow orders, like the Park Police and the IRS, that are the danger to Americans and our inalienable and civil rights.
Um, DaveO – according to AR 600-8-22, mere presence in a combat zone doesn’t make one eligible for the CIB, CAB, or CMB. A bit more is required for each – like actually getting shot at and/or shooting at the enemy. Personally.
Yeah, some units abuse the hell out of these badges, and do “blanket” awards. But the DA criteria says otherwise.
You know his credibility is pretty much shit if a squid like me has more time near the bad guys than he does–and has the hardware to prove it.
DaveO, He has to have been in a direct fire action, in a vehicle that hits an IED, or withing a certain distance of indirect. It isn’t automatic for being in an Infantry Brigade in theater. Heck, my last deployment to Iraq 08-09 I had Soldiers at the Fire Team level not earn CIBs.
Every time I have someone spout off to me about Ranger!, I look for the scroll. If it ain’t there, I stop listening…
Regarding Bateman: reportedly he’s a USMA grad. Anyone know what year?
Hondo, he got his commission from University of Delaware. He actually had some colorful things to say about West Point a couple years ago.
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/29/west_point_time_to_bring_its_military_training_up_to_the_standards_of_rotc
TMB: interesting – I thought I’d read somewhere that he was a USMA grad.
Any idea when he graduated from UD?
#35 & 37: I’m aware of criteria. Saw the award abused very badly. But, that distracts from the quesion. BK, in comment 28, mentions Bateman said he was in the Green Zone, with a mercenary outfit. So the question is where was Batemen assigned? To Brigade and below and saw action, or didn’t see action; or assigned to division and higher and saw action, or didn’t see action? If Bateman was legally not entitled to a CIB and he’s not wearing one, then disparaging him for the lack of it isn’t kosher.
Going back to the criteria: how many GO and CSM are wearing CAB and never met the standard set forth by the regulation?
@Hondo, I can’t tell from my work computer, but here is his Linkdin profile
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-bateman/79/860/971
@42 The reason we’re taking shots at him is he’s using the “I’m infantry therefore a badass killer” argument in lieu of actual experience in combat. He claims orchestrating violence and killing is his profession like he’s running a war on his own. He’s a strategist. He’s currently in a NATO HQ assignment in England. Before that he taught History at West Point. He lists the senior commands in Kabul and Baghdad under “previous jobs” which means as a strategist he more than likely never left the HQ building. As a Functional Area officer, he stopped getting his boots dirty in the infantry sometime as a captain but talks like he just took on the Taliban himself recently. Those traits combined with his disdain for the Constitution and the Supreme Court in a national level magazine as a serving officer means he’s wide open for critique.
TMB: if he was assigned to a unit in the IZ (AKA “Green Zone”) in Baghdad, he may well have been assigned to Embassy support and/or other elements assisting the Iraqi govt directly (I want to say MNSTC-I or its successor did that, but I wasn’t assigned to them and it’s been over 5 years now since I was there). If so, other than periodic incoming IDF I’d guess he probably didn’t see much in the way of combat.
Periodic IDF can indeed be deadly. But it ain’t exactly kicking in doors or hunting down insurgents on foot.
TMB: thanks for the link. Per his LinkedIn bio, Bateman’s assignment in Iraq was indeed in the IZ with MNSTC-I, 2005-2006.
Also per his LinkedIn bio, he looks to be a 1989 Delaware grad. Given that he was their ROTC Cadet Cdr, that almost certainly means he entered active duty in YG 1989 – which in turn means that barring a break in service he would have 24+ years commissioned service today. I didn’t see a break in service listed on his bio.
That seems a bit longish TIS-wise for an O5 – I was thinking normal pin-on for O6 was usually a couple of years prior to 24 years TIS. But I could be wrong about the last.
“Periodic IDF can indeed be deadly. But it ain’t exactly kicking in doors or hunting down insurgents on foot.”
And it sure as hell doesn’t give one the authority to ridicule the Consitution or Supreme Court. If he wanted to use his academic credentials to make his argument he might have had a case (though his historical context was a mess). Instead, he began his argument with “I orchestrate violence for a living.” Only on a chalkboard.
Hondo, that would be a fair assessment if he was still a full infantry officer. Functional Area officers have odd careers due to their small populations and specialized roles. They don’t command and just serve on higher and higher staffs. Most LTCs see battalion command just prior to or right at 20 years. I have no idea what his career progression is supposed to look like, but I can do some digging tonight. Right now several hundred LTCs and COLs are being considered for forced retirement for being passed over a few too many times.
TMB: could be. I last tracked that kind of stuff several years ago. Then, my recollection is that the Functional Area types had different career patterns but generally had about the same pin-on expectations (give or take a bit) if selected for promotion as the “normal” branches. But it’s been a number of years now, and things might well have changed since then.
Its simple bateman good! Nra bad! Now these gun nuts want plastic undectable guns! Also to say the afvn was responable for the napalming of the little vietnamese girl is like saying the korean comfort girls were responible for the bataan death march or the ukrainian or latvian guards were responcible for babi yar or other mass killings!
If Bateman is an alumnus of the University of Delaware, then he was a Fightin’ Blue Hen. That sounds about right.