April 30, 2010 [LINK / comment]
It's been nearly six months since the massacre at Fort Hood, but have our leaders really learned the lessons yet? Are we still so afraid of being called racists that we avoid reporting potential threats before someone gets hurt? Is political correctness going to lead us to self-inflicted doom? If you read the Fort Hood review, you'll wonder if we are any safer now than we were before November 2009. It states:
DoD policy regarding religious accommodation lacks the clarity necessary to help commanders distinguish appropriate religious practices from those that might indicate a potential for violence or self-radicalization.
That document is via homelandsecurityus.com; hat tip to Stacey Morris. If we really are serious about resisting and defeating the threat we face, we'd better get used to calling things by their proper name, and not worrying about whether someone might be offended.
And on the theme of remembering, let's take a minute (or more) to reflect on the life of U.S. Army Major Andrew Olmsted, who was killed in Iraq in 2007. He was a military blogger, and on his final blog post, he said he had no regrets, whatever the consequences that may lie ahead. It's rare these days to come across someone with that kind of determined, upbeat attitude. For more, see boston.com.
On a lighter note, I came across an amusing way of depicting the diplomatic maneuverings prior to World War II, as well as the actual war, as it would be expressed on Facebook. See ebaumnation.com. For those few people such as me who are both military history buffs and Facebook users, it is hilarious!
When I was in Washington last month, I stopped to take a couple photos of the Navy Yards, next door to Nationals Park. I have long known that a Navy warship is docked there more or less permanently, but not until I saw the number near the stern end was I able to determine its identity. It's DD-933, the USS Barry, a destroyer that was commissioned in 1956, was refitted several times, and served in Cuban Missile Crisis and several other conflicts. See navy.mil.
The Washington Navy Yards, USS Barry DD-933. Click to see the full-size photo.