Confessions of a Reformed and Redeemed W Voter

by Blackjack Pershing                Missouri Territory

Dateline April 20, 2021

“I think we agree, the past is over. ”
― George W. Bush

 

That’s right W, and for that we are thankful.

As W has inserted himself in the national conversation of late, so let’s recap where many of us have landed on the teetotaling son of another President with a dubious record.

“Never trust a man who doesn’t drink.”

  • Winston Churchill   (OK maybe a cheap shot, but he’s earned it)

We wanted him to succeed.  In fact in the immediate wake of 9/11 even many democrats felt reassured that ‘the adults were in charge’ following 2 terms of Bill, Hill, Monica, White Water, Clintoncide, Hillary Care, Co-presidents, Vast Right Wing Conspiracies, a failed impeachment and the generally tawdry atmosphere of the Clinton Whitehouse.

Americans wanted ass kicked after 9/11.  W delivered.  Box checked.  However,  I believe it was Colin Powell at the time who said with regard to screwing up a war, ‘If you break it, you bought it.’  Did we ever.  Powell deserves to be held accountable for letting Rumsfeld drop his ‘Powell Doctrine’, built on lessons learned from Vietnam on how to win wars.  Powell’s doctrine was used in the first Gulf War: overwhelming force.  It worked.  See the ‘highway of death’.  He let Rummy screw it all up in the 2nd Gulf War.  An unending disaster ensued.

But we digress, back to W.

13 years post W, with plenty of help from truth teller Donald J Trump, most republicans and conservatives have been red pilled on W.  Eyes now wide open.

In 2001:

We thought we got a republican Harry Truman.  Instead we got a less demented, sometimes confused and togue tied republican Joe Biden.  As George H.W. might have said: ‘Not good!  Bad!’

We thought we got a more conservative George HW, less enthralled with the New World Order.  Instead we got China sellout 2.0, post Clinton, letting the offshoring spread like a plague while telling Americans we weren’t competitive.  Blaming us while giving our jobs to communists paying 1 cent on the dollar to their slave laborers.

We thought we got a happy warrior – the one that unseated loudmouth Ann Richards in TX.   Instead we got an oddly passive mopey W who refused to answer his critics, who in turn just piled on.  This passivity let down his voters and his party, and enabled the attack mob CCP-partner media we now have firmly in place.

We thought we got a down home, red neck, rootin tootin, kinda funny, ranch owning, pick up truck driving old son of a gun character as President.  What we really got was a Yale educated elitist faking it as a cowboy.

“The thing that’s important for me is to remember what’s the most important thing.”
― George W. Bush

W lucked out with stiff retreads to campaign against.  Gore and Kerry – unappealing scolds that allowed W’s charm, such as it was, to shine.  He was very likeable – we must give him that.

And funny at times: It’s a shame he only gave mean nick names only to his immediate staff: Skippy to Cheney due to his heart issues.  Turd Blossom to Karl Rove for obvious reasons.  Tiny to Richard Armitage, chubby Deputy Secretary of State.   It took a fearless champion to give nicknames to the dummies that truly deserved them in the media, democrat party etc: Donald J Trump.  His were better.

W’s largest mistakes were his foreign wars.  We have plenty of recent history that showed how to lose foreign wars: Vietnam with no clear strategy, incrementalism, and little home support.  And how to win: first Gulf War: Clear goal, Powell doctrine of overwhelming force.  Having some military background himself, W should have been wiser.  Rumsfeld, seemingly a good choice at first, turned out to be the worst of the worst technocrat.  Shock and Awe didn’t prevent us from an unmanageable mess in Iraq upon our march into Baghdad.  Such lousy execution from pedantic bigmouth Rumsfeld should have got him fired.

Remember the disappearance/retirement of General Shinseki after he told the truth about necessary troop levels needed to occupy Baghdad?  Shameful.

W’s biggest mistakes involved listening to career bureaucrats (the swamp) and taking them at their word.  The ‘de-Bathification’ of Iraq was a disaster.  Others can cover that topic better than I can.

The so called surge was late.  And necessary due to bungled strategy and poor execution.

Interesting that most of the career military officers, especially the General Officers, that have criticized Trump publicly, were key leaders in the failed foreign wars started by W.  Clearly their motivation is fear of their malfeasance being exposed, and resentment of Trump’s accurate criticism.

The ineptitude of Iraq/Afghanistan wars is settled business.  I believe the intention was to get to root causes in the region and permanently settle them.  Clearly that did not happen.  Let’s move on.

Remember when W fired Rummy in 2006, openly admitting it was because he lost congress and they (the Dems) wanted someone less controversial.  I am not Rummy fan, but really?  What kind of reasoning is that?  Fire him and take responsibility for it.  Sad.

Remember when Bush cut taxes and it really wasn’t even that much and he let the business tax stand which really was the big issue even then?

This all seems like a million years ago.  Pre-tech monopolies and censorship.  It is actually a bit hazy.  Like many, W did some good things.  But they were lost under a pile of incompetence.

“They misunderestimated me.”
― George W. Bush

Remember the embrace of globalism and so called free trade with W, a stupid republican hallmark for decades.  The problem is free trade was never free or fair.  But the Chamber of Commerce loved it as they lined their pockets while American workers got screwed.  ‘Compassionate Conservative’ W was ok with that.

Remember when W said he wouldn’t comment on his successor due to the dignity of the office, and proceeded to let Obama blame him for every bad condition that has ever existed without a word?  And remember when Trump made mincemeat of his dopey brother Jeb, W decided to join the chorus of A-holes taking shots at Trump?  Yeah.   I do.  Shove it W.

The other things are many: bailouts, Hurricane Katrina optics and execution, whatever.  Massive media misinformation had become a thing.  W is a classic example of missed opportunities, unmet expectations, investment in failed models, faith in the swamp, disguised elitism, groupthink, failed strategy setting, unwillingness to change quickly when things are not working.  Stubbornness.   We wanted him to win but he didn’t let himself.  He tried to act like the common man, but helped give birth to the forgotten man (and woman).

Finally, I’ll say it as much as it pains me.  On 9/11 when W sat there as long as he did after Andy Card told him we were under attack, and let the kids keep reading, it did suck and was embarrassing.  It pissed me off when Media Hippopotamus Michael Moore made hay with it, but on that, he was right.  Nuts.  W may have needed time to think, but he could have done that in private.  Gracefully exiting quickly was the thing to do.  WTF.

“It will take time to restore chaos”
― George W. Bush

W – you had a good life as TX governor and part owner of the Rangers.  You should have stayed.

With Regret

BlackJack Pershing

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Back-in-Iraq (Shush …)

“No boots on the ground,” President Obama

Between August 2013 and July 2015, President Obama publicly pledged “no boots on the ground” in Iraq at least 16 times. What is being under reported by the American media today is that there are over four thousand American troops back in Iraq after the Obama withdrawal, to enable the Iraqi Army and fight ISIS. Inevitably, the “train, advise, assist” label that President Obama has stated will morph into direct action and support roles as the Iraqi Army meets difficulty and falters. Furthermore, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) General Dunford, recently commented that there are fewer than five thousand troops in Iraq, as troops and units rotate in and out. So it is very merky just how many troops we currently have in Iraq, what their exact roles are and what the mission is. There are no daily press conferences covering this deployment, just small stories occasionally being reported, mostly online, due to congressional inquiry. The Commander-in-Chief has not explained the mission in an address to the nation. Five thousand troops is no small number either; last we heard there was going to be “no boots on the ground.” President Obama has ordered the equivalent of a US Army Brigade’s worth of troops and Special Forces back into Iraq? “Shush …”

With great fanfare the president withdrew troops from Iraq by the end of the calendar year 2011. After failing to secure a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the fledgling government of Iraq due to his opposition of the war and it being low on his priority list, he met his real goal of complete withdrawal. The CJCS recommended a residual US force presence of ten thousand troops as a stabilizing influence, which would have served as a deterrent to terrorist elements and created a stabilizing influence between Shia and Sunni sects as well having Americans around. But the President is a “date certain” leader and chose a date on the wall for political purposes to withdraw US forces. The president wasn’t about to let facts or mission stabilizing criteria get in the way of his predetermined decision to get out . It was about a date. It has always been about a date with this president whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan or Obamacare. It had to be done by December 31st, 2011 so he could take credit for “success” as he ramped up his re-election campaign.

“And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011,” said Obama. “We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned.” Obama

The buzz words in theater during this time was “Responsible Drawdown.” Everything was masked in these words. Political speech for we are leaving regardless of the situation. The plan was to design a plan without criteria for withdrawal but checkpoints on force levels in Iraq, returning US facilities to the Government of Iraq (GoI) and releasing all detainees back to the GoI or local Imams whom “promised” to safeguard them from returning to terrorism. It was a race to get out regardless of circumstances on the ground. No exit criteria just a date certain to be out of Iraq.

So here we are, four years since the Obama withdrawal from Iraq and we have five thousand troops back in Iraq due to his failure to personally negotiate with the GoI for a SOFA and residual US Forces to help stabilize and secure the gains of war; his failure to take counsel from his CJCS and Secretary Defense Gates; and his self-serving goal of meeting a campaign promise to help his presidential re-election campaign.

Where are we today?

  • The Islamic State of Iraq & Syria (ISIS) was born of Obama’s withdrawal, hence the president’s reluctance to brief the American public on a new force commitment to Iraq
  • Iraq is a divided country with parts controlled by ISIS, parts controlled by Iran and parts under served by a government not equipped or resourced to provide basic services to the population
  • Syria is enduring a civil war with parts controlled by ISIS and the Russians now actively fighting to prop up the brutal Assad regime along with Iran.
  • Iran sponsoring terrorism targeting Israel, Lebanon and Jordan
  • Lybia destabilized with parts controlled by ISIS after the Clinton-Obama war to remove Gadhafi. This set the stage for Benghazi and the loss of the a US Ambassador and American lives in Lybia
  • Christians being persecuted throughout the Middle East for their faith and a modern day genocide taking place where the US government has failed to act, intervene and safeguard lives during Obama’s presidency
  • Massive refugee populations fleeing Iraq and Syria imbedded with ISIS terrorists fleeing to Europe, Jordan and eventually the US. Major terrorist attacks taking place throughout Europe

The Obama Administration has demonstrated complete foreign policy failure throughout the Middle East where our enemies do not fear us and our Allies do not trust us. President Obama has fundamentally transformed the Middle East into a continent of chaos through his arrogance of power, lack of leadership and lack of experience in appreciating and understanding history. The gains made in Iraq through blood and treasure have been pissed away by a US president that failed to appreciate the importance of America leading in this troubled world through a clear understanding of US strategic interests and responsibilities versus a self-serving prism of righting American wrongs throughout the world.

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Iraq – The Surge – A Patrol      

               

by Captain JMD, call sign Echo Zulu 21, US Army (Veteran)

Memories of my time in service and specifically certain experiences in relation to deploying are still very vivid. I don’t want to be dramatic, but considering how disconnected so many Americans are with current sacrifices that are our Military is still enduring, with a war going on “behind the scenes” and most of America disengaged , I think it’s important to highlight reality.

     American Lives are being lost. I remember early October 2006. We were within 2 weeks from deploying, replacing the 4th Infantry Division (ID) out of Fort Hood, TX. The radio was already on in my Chevy Cavalier and I was driving to Physical Training (PT) on a Monday morning. Rolling to a stop in front of one of what seemed like 10,000 cleaners, the voice on the radio spoke of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that took the lives of three 4th ID Soldiers, in the Area of Operations (AO) my unit was being assigned. It wasn’t supposed to be that bad. There was a Burger King, Pizza Hut and Post Exchange (PX) there. After Wednesday, I exclusively listened to my iPod Shuffle, because it was now clearly a trend and I knew I was going to be driving right through the neighborhoods where these heroes’ families lived. Also, I was scared.

     My Platoon. I was assigned the Support Platoon 3 weeks prior to wheels up, meaning I was getting to know an entirely new Platoon Sergeant, NCO group and unit of Soldiers with jobs I was not familiar with. I was branched Ordnance out of Army R.O.T.C. and primarily had focused on maintenance and ammunition through doctrinal training. My first Platoon on Active Duty was a 120 Soldier maintenance unit. We were largely responsible for the fueling and transportation of our Heavy Battalion: Tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. We supplied oil, gasoline, and ammunition; and when down range the ultimate comfort …Porta Shitters. (By the way, ever seen one of those bad boys over flow on the back of a US Army transportation vehicle on a patrol, with the toilet paper that randomly popped off the holder, so it’s streaming down the street dangling in between every vehicle in the patrol? If you haven’t, I will give you a heads up: Battalion Commanders do not like that; however, local Iraqis will figure out a way to maximize its value and you will hate your life when you get back on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) and have to pressure wash your vehicles to remove the Iraqi Police (IP) or Iraqi Army (IA) shit.

     The Plan. Contact picked up and sustained quickly after we arrived just north of Baghdad and leadership developed a plan to take action. Part of that plan was to try and maximize assets and leaders. I was asked to train and lead my platoon to take on the route clearance mission, which would allow our tasked Engineer unit to be free for other important missions. Honestly, over tasked is likely irrelevant, because we were all “doing more with less” and that was something that, for me, has translated into a transferrable skill in the civilian workforce as well.

     IEDs Suck. IEDs were the number one killer of US Troops during the time I was deployed and it was literally increasing daily. If you took small arms fire, it was like a weight lifted off of your shoulders, because you would identify the target, return fire, destroy the target and you’re done with it. If you found an IED, a hoax IED, or got hit with one, there’s about a million different scenarios that could unfold. I’ll start with one of many long days on a route clearance patrol.

     Prayer. At 0300 my watch alarm goes off. Doesn’t matter, because I was wide awake. Grab my shaving stuff, head to the bathroom, shave, and head back to the room. Put my uniform on, bless myself with St. Jude’s oil, and head out to the motor pool. Unlock our makeshift office, check my Operations Order and walk over to headquarters. Get the Intelligence brief, say F-my life and head back to the motor pool. My Soldiers are checking the vehicles, but not much left to be done, because we got everything ready the night before. There is an extremely important local meeting, the local tribal meeting, that my Commander and other VIPs are participating in and it’s in Tarmiyiah, which as my man Echo Charlie would say, “is hotter than the devils hell”. Regardless of that, we’re going to clear the ENTIRE route, which encompasses 95% of the AO. Also, I’ve not taken a patrol up the eastern side of our AO yet, on Route Cobras, which is a 10 mile stretch of choke points connecting Route Coyotes, which connects to MSR Tampa (picture Iraqi I-95), and goes to south to Camp Taji.

     8 MPH. It’s still dark, we’re rolling out with 1 Husky (big ass mine detector), 1 Buffalo (a Transformer with a robotic arm made exclusively to be blown off by IEDs) and 3 Humvees with .50 cals. Steely eyed EZ21 (me) is in command of this elite unit, saying Hail Mary’s in between every possible time I had to actually communicate to someone and we’re topping out at 8mph.

     Iraqi Stare-down. So the sun comes up, people start coming out and we’re not finding much. We’re moving north on Cobras and as we approach 0900 in the morning, getting closer to Tarmiyah, we notice a change in the civilians. No smiles, people waving us off, people coming closer and closer to the patrol. At some point shortly thereafter, I hear the leadership head up to Tarmiyah and they are following us, since we’re clearing their route…but it’s taking longer than anticipated. At some point about 75% of the way to Tarmiyah, the leadership’s patrol catches up and they pass us to head to their destination about 5 kilometers northwest of us.   Then the call comes in from Demon 6, my commander:

     Comms. “EZ 21 this is Demon 6: we’ve got command wire on the south side of Coyotes at grid (IED indicator)”…basically, west side of Tarmiyah…the leaderships egress route-potentially. There’s two ways in and out of Tarmiyah: Cobras and Coyotes.

So Demon 6 has a platoon dismounted and they’ve established security and they’ve been there for roughly 2 hours by the time we get there. Coyotes is a slightly elevated road, with tall reeds that come up level with the roof of a Humvee in most locations. There’s limited visibility for the vehicle and the road is built up a bit, almost like on a platform in some spots.

     IED Halt. I dismount and link up with Demon 6 and we take a knee behind the vehicle opposite of the command wire. He told me that the command wire was tangled up in the reeds and there was also some loose gravel about 20 meters west on Coyotes from where we were. On top of that, we had a few Apaches come on site, and when they did, 2 people on a bike sped off (probably the enemy positioned to trigger the IED). Several indicators of a potential IED attack. All the while, the leadership meeting is over, the route is certainly NOT cleared and everyone in Tarmiyah knows who’s in that meeting.

So, we send the Buffalo up, the wire gets cut, it digs up a propane tank…no idea what’s inside of it. “2-1, what do you want to do?” I advise to call Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), and get rid of it. The site has been secure for close to 3 hours at this point and EOD was aware. They come up, do a controlled detonation and pack up shop. Time to head home, finish the route clearance and be done with this mission…but we are far from home at an 8 mph clip.

Demon Company heads back to their patrol base in Tarmiyah to help secure the Command’s patrol and we continue on with clearing Coyotes, westbound, to then hit MSR Tampa and then head south to Camp Taji. EOD hits me up on the radio, asks to pass on our left side, I say sure and we slow to about 1-2mph and drift slowly to the right side of the road, giving them the lane to our left. Then the earth explodes like a volcano. It literally looked like a volcano, zero exaggeration!

     IED explosion. I saw the flames and road break apart and then simultaneously SPC Whiskey, my driver, slammed the breaks and my head turned and faced him. I saw his face slam on the steering wheel, we stopped and my Kevlar hit the dashboard. As my head came back up, I faced out of the windshield and the explosion was still there. Instantly, I thought the EOD vehicle that just passed us was gone. Over the radio I can hear my gunner and dismount, PFC Sierra and PFC Alpha, so I know we’re up and also hear the two vehicles behind me, because they had no idea where we were since the explosion debris engulfed us. I start calling the EOD call sign, as well as the route clearance Buffalo and Husky team and they report back as all good. As soon as that happens, I start hearing our .50’s going off, trying to immobilize a van speeding off north through the reeds.

Meanwhile, I’m on the radio reporting the IED attack, being hit up by Command who’s trying to come down Coyotes to get back to the FOB, because Route Cobras was now a “black route,” meaning No Go terrain. Cobras is “black”, because our other route clearance team found an IED on it.

     IED Tactics. Two deep buried 155mm Artillery Rounds went off directly in front of my Humvee and directly behind the EOD vehicle. Battle damage assessment (BDA) conducted by the EOD team determined that the first IED that was called in was a hoax, set up to learn our tactics and drills with the plan to hit us on the way back home. Additionally, had they not buried those rounds so deep, it would have been a different outcome for both of our vehicles and crew. The blast site and burial of the 155mm rounds caused the explosion to go straight up in a controlled manner. I credit St. Jude’s oil and nonstop Hail Mary’s.

     It’s an Army thing. The Command team passed my patrol on MSR Tampa heading south back to the FOB. The gunner in my rear vehicle was not wearing his combat gloves at this point and leadership noticed. I then proceeded to take the biggest ass chewing of my Military career, after all of that, but I was talking to another unit on another frequency, so I did not hear it. I sure found out when I got back to headquarters to submit my patrol debrief.

     Lived another day. My Company Commander thought I was KIA, which she told me when I got back, because…well who knows. The rest of the Battalion staff was laughing hysterically, because of the epic ass chewing tirade the Battalion Commander went on, all while thinking he was talking to me, but in reality it was my Private dismount troop talking to him, because I was on another frequency.

Good first month. That was about 30 days into what ended up being a 15 month deployment. I’m proud to say that I still have family and friends that continue to serve and bear the sacrifices that are undoubtedly getting more and more difficult, and more distant to the American public.

 

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Exodus

The modern day Exodus has been well under way in the Middle East for the last six years of the Obama Administration. This time instead of Israelis fleeing Egypt, Christians are fleeing Iraq, Syria and neighboring countries. The exodus has been supercharged since the Obama Administration withdrew US Forces from Iraq in 2011, against the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This single decision set in motion the formation of the brutal terrorist organization ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, organized from extremist Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda Iraq (AQI) among others. ISIS is one big dung pile in the heart of the Middle East attracting  low-life maggots from across the world to terrorize the innocent, brutalize Christians and pillage civilian populations that don’t conform to their brand of Islam.

In 2010, US Vice President Joe Biden, said this, “I am very optimistic about — about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government,” said Biden. It is a gross understatement to say VP Biden got this wrong. US troops withdrew creating a vacuum for Iranian influence and cooperation with the Shia al-Maliki government to dominate Iraq’s politics, which alienated the Sunni’s leading to the resurgence of terrorism and ISIS.

Between President Obama’s flippant comment about ISIS being the JV team; and his failure to honor his own words three and half years ago  telling President Assad of Syria, that using chemical weapons would be crossing a red line, and then doing nothing as Assad gassed his own people, the president opened all the doors on the barn of ignorance, weakness and hollowness. The US has lost credibility with our friends and enemies alike resulting in tremendous loss of innocent life and the current quagmire of what is left if the heart of the middle east.

In Iraq today it is estimated that there are less than five hundred thousand Christians remaining from an Iraqi population of 1.5 million Christians ten years ago. In Syria, six hundred thousand have fled or been killed out of an estimated population of 1.1 million Christians. Al Qaeda, ISIS, terrorist maggots are not on the run, they have re-grouped, reorganized and grown in size and number, and they have carved out their own country, the so called “Caliphate,” out of Iraq and Syria. All this while the world’s greatest power has sat on the sidelines for five, six years allowing this cesspool of terrorists to grow in number while our president gave speeches denying the seriousness of the threat and the resurgence of terrorist numbers. Paris and San Bernardino were the final straws of disgust with the American public demanding action from this president as over 70% of the American public disagrees with a “leading from behind” approach to foreign policy which has now been defined as The Obama Doctrine,  “do nothing, at any cost.”

Americans may be war weary but when we withdraw from being the world’s conscious, bad things happen and in this case, a Christian Exodus of the living runs over the graves of the hundreds of thousands who have been persecuted. This is not us, this is not our country, we are not cowards. We stand up and fight for innocents, and we win! I remind all of us, there are reasons to fight!

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