"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008

"You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The Fascist Bridge Between 'Left' and 'Right' in our Military

 


This blog has long pointed out the fascism from the navigator turned drone pilot who goes by the handle Nsplayr on the BaseOps forum.  He supports the government murdering American citizens without charge or trial and is a cheerleader for unchecked government power.  He is an excellent example of the fusion that occurred between the left and the neo-cons post 9/11 that is emblematic of the Democrat party today.  A party that has long since abandoned old fashioned liberal views like an appreciation for free speech, due process, etc and has replaced it with a selection from the Karl Rove hymnal.  Nsplayr brings with him much of the insanity from the left like the glass Trojan Horse known as critical race theory and equity, while sharing the rabid lust for state power against the American citizenry that so many on the right display.

His recent post above is a good example.  In it he spits out the propaganda narrative about all the bogeyman we are told to fear.  A bogeyman that includes the Proud Boys group that was led by a Hispanic man and does not advocate violence and which has been mercilessly demonized with lies from the usual liars.  We are to believe they are somehow the enemy and criminal and under the same umbrella as those terrorists GWB loved to talk about.  Nsplayr's propaganda similarly includes III Percenters which have also been so demonized along with anarchists.  What are the similarities between those groups?  It's not criminal activity, so what is it?

The answer is those groups all share the American belief that tyrannical, false, authority is not to be respected.  When those groups read the Declaration of Independence (yes, even Anarchists) they don't roll their eyes like Nsplayr does.  Whether it's King George, Adolf, Mussolini, or any other individual or group that demands obedience through the barrel of a gun, all three of those groups not only believe they have no duty to false authority, but they commit the cardinal sin of expressing that view.  Nsplayr does not appreciate people with those views, and them expressing it makes them the enemy and criminal in his fascist world view.

Of course Nsplayr sprinkles in some other groups to sound objective.  No shit revolutionary commies make the list.  You know, those people burning cities and federal buildings on the nightly news.  But only the no shit ones that actually commit crimes.  He does not include the run of the mill communist wearing a dumb t-shirt and expressing stupid ideas at the local coffee shop.  For communists, he limits their identity to the group based on actual criminal activity.  Like a sane person would do.  Except he does not extend this sanity to anarchists running a YouTube channel about self sufficiency and growing a garden, nor does he extend it to the other two groups to delineate their free speech rights which only end during no shit criminal activity.

He mops up his blurb by throwing in foreign and domestic terrorists and the drug cartels.  But the thrust of his propaganda is to lump in Americans, who recognize government has limits like our founding documents and our supreme law and system of government recognizes, with criminals and terrorists.  That was the import of his statement.  Boiled down, it's this.  If you're an American who believes American things, you're the enemy.  Keep that in mind as you witness his comrades destroying AFSOC, lowering standards based on ridiculous equity nonsense and as you watch the top General in our military make phone calls to China to assure them he will help thwart the President of the United States in any military action against China.  I'll express his mindset and operating values one more time for the people in the back.  If you're an American who believes American things, you're the enemy.

But "conservatives" like Adam Kinzinger and so many others in our military have nothing to worry about.  The key is being an American who believes American things.  If you just have conservative bumper stickers and are a proud Republican, you're fine.  For now anyway.

Nsplayr uses the neo-con language of force, violence, swagger, flags and uniforms, to build the bridge across the false political aisle with people who consider themselves conservatives.  He not only speaks their language, he shares their values, when it comes to adoration for government violence.  This bridge isn't all that strange.  Lefties value government laws and restrictions and mandates and intrusion, while sometimes (only when convenient) criticizing law enforcement that is tasked with executing those laws.  People on the right decry government laws and restrictions and mandates and intrusion, while they almost worship armed government agents tasked with executing those laws.  They are two sides of the same coin.

As I have been saying for years in military circles, there is only one party and we're not in it.  The real division is between those who value and respect the limitations placed upon government and the constitutional rights of Americans, and those who do not.  But it's the kind of division that is demonstrated when a small group is occupied by a larger group.  It's not even close to 50/50.  And those who do not value rights and limitations on government (ie Americans who do not believe American things) can justify their un-American mindsets with talking points from the left or the right, but those talking points are essentially all the same.  Two armed agent thugs arguing over which of two innocent Americans they should put in the ground and why doesn't make them substantially different.  They're still two armed thugs targeting an innocent American.

When an American realizes this reality, they see the problem in America is about twice as big as they thought it was, and twice as frightening.

A fun thought experiment.  If leftist fascists are successful at taking over our government levers of violence (as they were in Germany and Italy in the early to mid 1900s where mobs of crazies slowly went from street thugs to political thugs), what kind of view will they have regarding "conservatives" who don't bend the knee?  Perhaps ask the Americans currently politically imprisoned while yet awaiting trial for misdemeanors while they're falsely characterized with extraordinary lies in the state-owned corporate media.  They might be able to offer an opinion.  Crazy fascists historically are not kind to the members of their own groups, but they're far less kind to anybody who doesn't identify with them and profess allegiance to their crazy worldviews.  When "conservatives" realize they're essentially no different from those on the other side of the gun, however, it will make it much easier to kiss the ring.  Many in the military are already very practiced at exactly that, justifying it with political cliche.  It will be an easy walk across that false bridge.

Watching this nation devolve is like watching a black and white film in slow motion, already knowing the ending.  It couldn't be more obvious.

Friday, January 7, 2022

Declining an interview with Lt Col (ret) Wayne Phelps author of "On Killing Remotely"

 

This morning I was contacted by a drone pilot I used to "fly" with.  He asked me if I was interested in doing an interview with Wayne Phelps, author of On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones.  I politely declined the request for interview but pointed my former comrade to public information about the time I refused a mission to assassinate an American citizen without charge or trial.

I then took to Google to find out more about the author and found the CSPAN video linked above.  I didn't find the discussion particularly interesting with the exception of a claim made by Phelps at 34:21 into the video where he states:

There are some instances, interviews I had, where people actually refused to strike specific targets whether it was because it was a U.S. citizen or...


It's puzzling that Mr. Phelps would indicate that he has interviewed drone pilot(s) who refused to assassinate an American citizen.  I am the only person I know of to refuse such a mission and it was a lonely bullet on my resume to say the least.  I was not interviewed by Phelps and have had no communication with him, so I am very curious about his claim.  I find it extremely hard to believe.

 
ETA:

In the original blog post I indicated that at 34:21 Mr. Phelps had said he found that refusing to assassinate an American was likely to cause trauma and PTSD.  This was an error on my part and on second listen it appears he is suggesting that carrying out an unlawful order is likely to cause that mental disorder.  This blog post has been updated accordingly.

ETA:

Wayne Phelps is full of shit.  An anonymous source told me, so you can believe it.