Big Army kowtows to Spencer Ackerman’s breathless ignorance
Last month I wrote about Spencer Ackerman’s piece at Wired which totally mischaracterized materials from a course offered at the Joint Forces Staff College. the PowerPoint presentation merely set up a scenario in which Islam had morphed into a cult which threatened the United States and the US military had to meet the new challenge. Ackerman and his lapdog, Noah Schachtman, took quotes totally out of context to make it appear as if the instructor, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, was making policy pronouncements instead of just framing the discussion for the scenario.
Instead of telling me how I was wrong, Ackerman merely went on Twitter and said I was wrong, mostly because I wasn’t wrong and he was afraid to confront me.
Apparently Big Army was afraid to confront Ackerman, because at a link that Zero sent us today, they’ve fired Dooley and reconfigured the course;
Colonel David Lapan, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday a review of the course found that “institutional failures and in oversight and judgment” led to the course being modified over time in a way “that portrayed Islam almost entirely in a negative way.”
“The inquiry recommends the course be redesigned to include aspects of U.S. policy and reduce its reliance on external instruction,” Lapan said in a statement. It also recommended improving oversight of course curricula.
“The elective course’s military instructor has been relieved of his instructor duties until his permanent change of station, which was previously planned for 2012,” Lapan said.
And this is why Leon Panetta shouldn’t be the Secretary of Defense;
Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said in April that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was deeply concerned about some of the materials being taught in the course, such as the slide suggesting the United States was at war with Islam.
Yeah, just throw your officers under the bus, there, Leon, on the word of an idiot serial goat tongue-kisser like Spencer Ackerman.
That’s not the way it should have been played at all. Big Army should have taken the time to explain it, instead of playing it like they had a loose cannon running around the Joint Forces Staff College trying to formulate a policy against the religion of Islam. Spencer Ackermann remains an ignorant douche nozzle and Big Army looks like the PC pussies they really are.
I’m standing here by a plate glass window just hoping Ackerman comes by and pushes me through it. In fact, the night I wrote that piece, I stood by a plate glass window all night at the Arlington Westin Hotel…no Ackerman, though he was in the neighborhood. So he’s still not a milblogger, and he still doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
So wait a minute what you are saying is a civilian got a hold of some military education material took it completely out of context then the big army rather than just saying exactily what it was said “we are big pussies and blah blah blah…”
You know how exactly is the military supposed to train for worst case scenario if every time some ass hat gets ahold of some random slide that can be misconstrued the big army is going to respond with “we are big pussies and blah blah blah…” and not, “he shut the fuck up you don’t really know what you are talking about!”
I’ve asked on Twitter if they plan to print the full version or just the author’s edited portions. No response thus far.
Big Army isn’t afraid of Ackerman. Big Army is afraid of Ackerman’s boss.
Spencer Ackerman is the brave, brave man who loves to threaten folks with bodily harm – such as by putting their heads through glass – but whines when there’s not enough whipped cream in his latte.
Ackerman is also infamous for his membership in JournoList – the group of journalists, Obama campaign members, academicians, and bloggers who collaborated on stories and blogs in order to support the Obama 2008 campaign.
Ackerman is still getting paid, still working for the same folks, and its those folks that Big Army is scared of.
@3: Whoa there. What’s with these references about Ackerman threatening to put people’s melons through glass, as you and Jonn allude to? When did that happen? Was I out of the country at the time? I’m asking, so I can go back and read that stuff.
Here’s a National Review report of Ackerman’s threat
Thanks Jonn
Wow; this little effete leftist is just all full of bravado, eh? Why is it that the limp wristed double non-fat soy latte crowd get all tough talking while typing away, but if you ever met them and snapped their ear, they would start bawling like you kicked them in the seeds? Something tells me that Spencer isn’t as tough as he talks.
Easy fix: just do a global search and replace of the PowerPoint to change Islam to Christianity and Muslim to Christian, then it’ll be a-ok.
He didn’t explicitly threatedn Jonn…. he just threatened to figuratively do that to a rightwinger blogger, no names named. I’m thinking he’s looking for a skinny little f*ck like the “before” in Captain America…. anything larger would probably be intimidating.
Is it just me, or does he look like an old fart like me could pretty easily play basketball with his effeminate little head?
Rhetorically speaking, of course.
If a libturd were to lay hands on me to assault me (plateglass window or not), he/she/heshe/it would quickly find themselves with a faceful of pistol, as quickly as I could draw it. Obviously, I mean that rhetorically (not).
/sarc off.
Funny, I seem to recall there being some mention of a taxpayer-funded anti-bullying campaigns.
Maybe we should send them to the E-ring so the FOGO can grow a pair.
Good Report, Mr. Lilyea, if you don’t mind the compliment.
This reminds me of the song “Lay down your head (Tom) DOOLEY” and La deuxième guerre d’Indochine (Second Indochina War) —
DR DOOLEY, a US NAVY MD who was ANTI-Disease, and ANTI-Communism, worked in Vietnam and in Laos, to end both plagues. His work continues to this day (PRIVATE $$ ONLY) .
I guess the Navy was also wrong about wargaming against Japan prior to WWII!
You are right on about Secdef. Panetta as well. Have you seen the AFN 60 sec. spots where Panetta is pandering to the gay and lesbian military members? Says he wants to insure that the military is “equal opportunity” (among a lot of other blather) but stops short of insisting that all who serve have equal access to the 757 to take them home each weekend so they can clear their minds. See if you can catch that PSA on AFN, it will make you want to puke.
BTW I found a Holy Quran laying at the base of some hesco, in the dirt/weather. I put the word out that it was there…. no one will go near it. Too afraid to try to dispose of it “respectfully”, so it just continues to lay in the dirt. Way to go Leon!
he’s an idiot. Another arm chair general.
Guys like him don’t understand the process of self examination nor ethics drills. The kind as leaders we would have to do in order to evaluate our decision making processes. They are kind of battle drills for the mind. If you know how to act in certain situations then you will act properly and accordingly.
Guys like Spencer haven’t actually had to make a hard decision, other then getting soy milk or not in their morning latte.
Sadly this kinds of things are going to get more and more common as the war winds down and the warrior spirit developed these long 10 years is chipped away at. Liberals can’t stand a warrior, not even for a second.
More with the Panetta ideology before all else?
Don’t remember if it has been discussed here, but anyone else remembering that his name came up with leaks mid- to late-90’s-ish when he was another agency director? Nothing quite ever got pinned on him, but here we go – same song, second verse. Same questions. Same tactics, or lack thereof. Same fingerprints seem to be all over it. Or maybe they just all read the same books.
But back on topic. Yeah. This absolutely stinks. If we don’t get some folks in DC pretty soon who are capable of making sensible decisions, it’s going to very ugly.
Anyone read “Fighting Today’s Wars – How America’s Leaders Have Failed Our Warriors” by Bolgiano & Patterson? It’s by a couple of Army legal guys. Interesting perspective on this kind of recurrent idiocy, though mostly focusing on the insane persecutions by CID etc.
Ok serious question here does anyone think that Wahabi islam is not going to be the threat for like the next 10-15 years? Its actually kind of refreshing to see someone in the army say “hey what will happen if Islam really does try to unite into one giant happy (and slightly Evil) Caliphate. . well yeah then we really would have to make war on Islam and gee since we have people who are paid to think up worst case scenario, why don’t we draw up a plan that says “if this happens here’s how we’re going to respond to it”
No, that would be racist. Or some kind of ist. There’s no way that could maybe be reflecting reality could it?
can anyone see the snarky sarcasm in my last comment?
[…] to their personal level of incompetence), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, fired Dooley. So now Dooley is taking legal action against Big Army and Martin Dempsey for kowtowing to the […]