scottthomasb

It’s Memorial Day, and while still using my day off to move to a new apartment, drink beer, and shop at Home Depot, I’m also going to pay respect to a friend of mine who was killed in action while serving with me in Iraq last year. Israel Candelaria didn’t have to serve. When he [...]

This is going to be my last post for the evening.  I want to thank Spencer for giving me the opportunity to post some things today and would like to end with with a shout out to DARPA: If you can speak the languages of the countries you invade, you don’t need incredibly awesome toys.

Iran’s cheeky retort to Sec. of State Clinton’s accusations that the country is a military dictatorship which could potentially fuel a nuclear arms race in the middle east was clever, but didn’t address the issue at hand: Those who have been the very symbol of military dictatorships over the past decades, since the Vietnam war [...]

“Chappaquiddick has caused more deaths than nuclear energy in America.” – former nuclear submarine sailor and my late father-in-law

American troop levels are the lowest they’ve been in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, the Associated Press reports.  My initial excitement at this news is hedged only by the security issues that will go along with the March elections.  Sunni politicians being kept off the ticket certainly won’t help. President Maliki’s refusal to let America [...]

I haven’t decided yet whether the Department of Homeland Security’s favorite websites and blogs nearly matching the ones in my  favorites toolbar is a good thing or not.  One of the more interesting sites that is mentioned in the DHS report is  Borderfire Report, which details Tea Party in-fighting mixed in with a somewhat disturbing amount of anti-immigrant ranting.  Borderfire [...]

There’s something slightly morbid about live-blogging or Tweeting the recent actions in Afghanistan in almost real time. I understand the utility of documenting things as they happen (especially when civilians are being killed), and I’m not suggesting by any means that the operations shouldn’t be reported on in detail; but I have to agree with [...]

So there was an interesting post in the NYT Home Fires blog today from a woman named Catherine Ross, a Civil Affairs soldier who served in the Army Reserves for eight years.  She basically makes the argument that women in the armed forces should be allowed to serve in combat MOS (Military Operations Specialty, basically [...]