Friday shorts

Well, as long as thebesig is talking about helping veterans with benefits after  less-than-optimal discharges – the folks at the famous four-walls-and-a-spare building are testing a pilot program to help PCSing service members:

The Pentagon is rolling out a new pilot program that provides travel benefits to service members to cover the cost of flying people out to help with child care in the immediate days after arriving at a new duty station.

Woods said there are no major restrictions on who service members can designate for the stipend, except that they need to be older than 18 and not a dependent. Military.com

Yeah, I see absolutely no possibility of abuse here. Probably sour grapes on my part – PCSed 9 times in 9 years and we managed to deal with our kids ourselves, like every other military family. But this was in the days of “if Uncle Sam wanted you to have a spouse/children he would have issued them.”

It is reported that Hamas is disappointed by the lack of support they are seeing from many other Mideastern countries.

In an interview in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where part of the group’s political wing is based, Dr. Basem Naim said Hamas was “disappointed by the reaction of the region, of the countries in the region.” Although some of them had supported the group politically and financially, he said Iran “was maybe the only country regarding supporting the resistance.” NBC News

You just know Israel must have debated at some point whether a few tactical nukes could solve the Hamas issue pretty thoroughly – I know, let’s PISS THEM OFF  and attack them! I suspect in many regional capitals a year ago, more than one person disparaged Hamas’ sensibilities in tweaking a nuclear-armed opponent’s tail with minor things like massacres, rapes, infanticide… I don’t know the Arabic for ‘those crazy bastards deserve whatever they get’ but I suspect it was said – more than once. It mush be hard when a “popular attack” isn’t popular at all.

I see Trump once again showed his respect for the military, describing traumatic brain injuries (TBI) from a missile attack January 13, 2020 as ‘headaches.’

At a news conference after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, the current Republican presidential nominee was asked by a reporter whether he regrets not being tougher on Tehran after Iran struck an air base in Iraq in 2020 and injured about 100 troops.

“What does ‘injured’ mean? Injured means because they had a headache because the bombs never hit the fort,” Trump replied.

“None of those very accurate missiles hit our fort,” Trump added. “They all hit outside. And there was nobody hurt, other than the sound was loud. And some people said that hurt, and I accept that.”

In the weeks following the attack, Pentagon officials said at least 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, and an inspector general report released in November 2021 suggested the number of wounded troops was likely higher since military officials did not properly track the injuries. Military.com II

Three hour attack.  Bet the folks there would describe the attack as a bit more than just noisy? Not sure which is more concerning – that he dismisses combat injuries so cavalierly, or that he thinks Iranian missiles are precise.  “Engage brain before putting mouth into gear” – sure wish that bloviating blowhard would learn that.

And rolling back to Israel – they have taken an unusual step – they PNGed the UN head following Iran’s rocket attacks Tuesday.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said about the decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata.

Iran on Tuesday fired over 180 ballistic missiles at Israel after the death of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and after the Israel Defense Forces began focused incursions into Lebanon to hit the terrorist group. Fox News

I’ve seen diplomats PNGed before, usually for committing espionage or crimes, sometimes just in a tit-for-tat pissing contest between spatting countries. But the UN Secretary General? Can’t verify it, but I think this may be the first time. Anyone more historically savvy happen to know?

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", 2024 Election, Iran, Israel