Seymour Hersh; incurable dumbass
Seymour Hersh sees conspiracies around every corner. His latest is that the command staff in Afghanistan is riddled with Christian zealots at war with Islam according to Fox News;
Hersh criticized the policies of the current and last administrations and accused the military leadership of being religious crusaders and members of the controversial Opus Dei and other groups. He specifically singled out those heading Joint Special Operations Command, a military organization ex-Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal once led.
“That’s the attitude,” Hersh said, according to Foreign Policy. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals.”
He said the military leaders carry “crusader coins” around with them. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war,” he said.
In the Stars & Stripes this morning, retired General Stan McCrystal denies those charges, but Hersh says he has proof…but you have to buy his book to see it;
Hersh told Stars and Stripes he has proof to back up his claims but he declined to provide any because he is writing a book that will touch on the subject and revealing his evidence before the book is published would be “unethical.”
Yeah, unprofitable, too.
The most hilarious charge that Hersh makes;
…that it is impossible to be around special operations troops and not notice just how religious they are.
Yes, shrines have been built to honor the saints of Special Forces all along Bragg Boulevard in Fayetteville. The Rusty Nail, The Flaming Mug, The Backdoor.
Thanks to Jeff for the link.
Category: Media
So what if the command staff sees themselves on a crusade? As long as they give no orders to promote the faith, and make no actions to deride Islam, whats the harm? It can be romanticized a bit, and if you aspire to the romantic version of Knights defending Christianity, then why is it a BAD thing?
Dumbass or moonbat? Although you can make the case they’re the same thing…
More anti-Christian bigotry…
A Muslim psychiatrist can give a powerpoint slide about killing infidels and no one will say a thing, but if a Christian carries around a “crusader coin”, we’re all in trouble.
Hersh is a fraud; if it wasn’t for his stable of officers feeding him bullshit for political purposes and his adoring hippie hanger-ons he’d have gone away a long time ago. I think he’s still smarting from the embarrassment of “Cheney’s assassination force” which turned out to be, drum roll…JSOC. I can’t even imagine the look on his face when his “shadow organization outside the government” was explained to him. The man knows nothing about the military and now it seems he fishing for something nasty to say about JSOC after getting shutdown last time.
Seymour Hersh. Sigh…You can’t fix stupid.
$5 says he has a picture of the joke “pork eating crusader” patch.
As a Catholic, I’d assumed that I was familiar with the vast majority of the Saints. That said, I’ve never heard of “Saint Rusty”.
Of what is he the patron?
“The War After Armageddon” book may, unfortunately, be part of this attack of teh crazies. I have only read an excerpt of this novel, but it appears to use Catholic popular devotion as it’s basis for one side of the conflict to follow Armageddon (book’s plot).
“Of what is he the patron?”
The patron saint of The Rusty Nail
Dan Brown does that shit all the time, PN. It’s horseshit.
And Saint Rusty, Patron of the Noble Order of Those who are Frequently Nailed would be the correct answer, Anon.
We never shoulda picked him up in that black Blackhawk that night. Sey ain’t been right in the head since…
Well, ROS, when you’re lookin’ for blue-bottles, a pile of horsehit is always a good place to start…
…or even a pile of horseShit! Little buttons, fat fingers…
Well, I’m aware of all the religious crap in some parts of the military. Glad my contributions to the MRFF will be put to good use. Go Sy! Go Mikey!
I don’t know about FT Bragg, never been.
But up the road from FT Knox , in Louisville we had the Shrine of the TOY TIGER ( possibly Bhuddist :D)
Where we all went to worship and donate our money, one dollar bill at a time.
“I’m aware of all the religious crap in some parts of the military.”
You running a prayer circle we haven’t heard about, Joe? Do tell.
He didn’t mention the Illumnati, or the Templars, or even the Knights of Columbus.
Jonn, I didn’t know Iron Mike was a Saint.
“Well, I’m aware of all the religious crap in some parts of the military. Sorry, Joey, but the ref has thrown the bullshit flag at you, once again. You’re not aware of anything in “some parts of the military” except what your masters at DU and Kos tell you. You’ve never been there, done that, and wouldn’t know ACU from Marpat from Woodland.
#8: I Read that book and it scared the shit out of me. Not because it was anti religion, or even that it was derisive of Christians, OR Muslims. There are characters on both sides that one might be able to find admirable. It is about the masses giving into their fear, and trading our principles for the same fanaticism our enemies use. Muslim extremists pushed the West to the point the COULDN’T coexist (they eventually get wiped out in the end). I think it was more about the Soldier (and Marine) holding the line against fanaticism (on both sides), and sticking to their principles to the bitter end. #14: Joe, again I hate to say, but you are Woefully misinformed. Its not just “Some parts of the military” whole sections of it. And really I’d dare you to roll up and down MSR Tampa, Rte Irish, OR Predators, and NOT make some kind of a prayer. You may not get this, but Prayer, and Faith is an important part of our society, and more importantly the Services that protect it. Sorry to ramble friends. On the subject of Faith, I have always felt that Faith is softer than Silk but stronger than Steel. It is a soft whisper in your ear and a gentle breeze in times of plenty, guiding you to lead a better life. In times of hardship it is a steadfast rock, in the storm a sheltering harbor from the tempest. In all these words true faith should rightly be ineffable. There are so many words that could be used, and yet each would fall short of relaying, the utter peace given from knowing that there is a God. I would have been an utter basket case watching people I cared about being killed, literally ripped apart if it were not for my faith. What’s it matter if Generals, and Admirals are deeply religious? Does it change the missions they are given? No, because we don not choose our mission. Tell me, if you say a man’s sexuality makes no difference, and he should be able… Read more »
Doc Bailey,
Impressed by your description of “Faith”, almost wish I could have felt that at some point in my life. It would have been comforting. Unfortunately I suffer from unrelenting rationality. It’s too bad that about 30 years ago the religious right decided to get into politics and tried to shove religion “down our throats”, to borrow a recently popular right-wing phrase. That’s when a bunch of us dug in our heels. It’s too bad religionists didn’t lead by example, instead of overplaying their hand. I used to believe in “live and let live”, but now I realize certain religionists will use any excuse, any angle, any sentiment to try and insinuate religion into every aspect of life.
“What’s it matter if Generals, and Admirals are deeply religious”? Well, if their religion encourages them to hasten armegeddon so they can be raptured, that’s what’s the matter, for one thing. It’s especially worrisome if the general in question has a bunch of atomic weapons at his/her disposal, as in certain Air Force wing nuts. So I wish it could be the way it was when I was growing up – live and let live, demonstrate by example, but your side broke the truce about 30 years ago, decided the weak won’t inherit the earth after all, only the rich powerful guys on “C” street, and your side keeps trying to do an end run around the first amendment, so some of us have responded by fighting every instance of religion in government. That’s why guys like Mikey Weinstein are heros to me.
Joe, I know you addressed your last comment to Doc, but I want to just toss this in your lap and then follow your conversation with Doc.
Don’t look for God in a building. You’ll find Him in your heart.
Joe, that was a very good post in #20. While I agree with your take on what the religious zealots were attempting to do back in the 80’s, I don’t agree with your fear that some general will try to bring about the rapture. Let’s leave that to the real threats like Ahmadinnerjacket (that whole 12 imam thing). As for worrying about protecting the 1st Amendment, I can dig that, however, I have noticed that you also don’t have a problem with limiting the 1st Amendment based on what you like and don’t like, as was stated in other threads. Plus, you don’t have a particular problem with putting more restrictions on the 2nd Amendment. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s an all or nothing approach. You either support the Constitution, including all of the Amendments, or you don’t. We can’t pick and choose which parts we will support and which ones we won’t, because whether you like it, or not, the 2nd protects the rest. I don’t like some of the things that I’m told are “protected” by the 1st Amendment, like flag burning. I really hate that one, but the Supreme Court said it’s a protected form of expression, so shitheads like Methis get to burn them whenever they want. I don’t like it and I don’t think it should be allowed, but you have to take the bad with the good, sometimes.
I made it to here before losing my Early Grey creme: “Unfortunately I suffer from unrelenting rationality.”
You owe me a new screen, Joe.:-D
Please, do not confuse those to whom you refer to as “religionists” with Christians- or even Muslims or Buddhists or Peyoteists, for that matter. While some may be, a lot are not.
And that was “Earl”. Must not giggle while typing….
OldTrooper,
Yeah, gotta take the good with the bad. At least in our system we can campaign for candidates that will amend laws in accord with modern realities, if we so choose.
PintoNag,
We probably would agree on a lot of things, like how to treat other human beings, even if we got there form entirely different directions. Chatting with you reminds me of a big disconnect I have with religious people. A lot of them are people who you would like to have as neighbors, honest, trustworthy and all that, and many are very sincere in their beliefs. You’re statement about looking for god in your heart is I’m sure, well, heart felt. I just happen to THINK(I have eliminated the word “believe” from my vocabulary – implies blind faith) that you are experiencing an emotional response, probably involving the circuitry of the pleasure center, when you feel a religious connection or sentiment. My inclination would be to study it, dissect the neural circuitry, map out the parts of the brain involved with those experiences, quantify it, even discover the adaptive utility of what we call religion. Our brains are, after all, just very elaborate pattern seeking machines designed to predict the future (based on the past). But I just can’t accept religious sentiments at face value.
I do understand your point here, Joe. If you had brought up the idea of “self-soothing” or the “god wiring” of the human brain to me even as little as four years ago, I’d have gone through the roof at you. Until I found myself face to face with that exact reality–in myself. The result? About a 9.9 on the emotional, psychological, and reality Richter scales. The road I’ve followed since then has been rough and dark and damn lonely; very, very few people have the courage to pull their religious beliefs apart and examine them critically, and even fewer are willing to discuss that process. Now?…somewhere down the line, maybe I’ll get back with you on that.
“…revealing his evidence before the book is published would be ‘unethical'”
How droll.
#19 Doc Bailey
“Sorry to ramble friends. On the subject of Faith, I have always felt that Faith is softer than Silk but stronger than Steel. It is a soft whisper in your ear and a gentle breeze in times of plenty, guiding you to lead a better life. In times of hardship it is a steadfast rock, in the storm a sheltering harbor from the tempest. In all these words true faith should rightly be ineffable. There are so many words that could be used, and yet each would fall short of relaying, the utter peace given from knowing that there is a God.”
I hope that you write everything down that you feel Doc.. the bitter and the sweet… everything… that is simply beautiful.
#21 Pinto
“Don’t look for God in a building. You’ll find Him in your heart.”
I am not a religious person, but my thoughts exactly.
Joe:
Faith in its purest form has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. Religion is simply the structure around which humans process their faith and most humans require that structure in order to maintain it. By the same token, a church, temple, synagogue or mosque is simply the structure in which humans process and maintain their religion. That all being said, if you believe that you have a soul, then you have faith. Just my meagre two bits worth.