Article

2012-08-09 Home Front: Culture Wars

Army colonel ignites firestorm with article on crushing a 'tea party insurgency'

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-08-09 08:40|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 "Tea Party insurgency ... "

with Sarah Palin starring as Joan of Arc?? Hahahahahaha! Get over that wall Sarah. Here, I'll give you a boost!

Posted by Raider 2012-08-09 10:18|| 2012-08-09 10:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Others can speak up, but in all my instruction and classes, never was there time spent upon the Constitution of the United States and the clear implications of the Oath of Office taken as an officer. In the early 70s the Army was in CYA mode after Mai Lai with a video instruction and some words from a JAG instructor, but really nothing of substance about illegal orders.

Someone needs to brush up on the Battle of Athens, Tennessee. Somewhere in the course they'd better include the 'what if your subordinates and men refuse your orders' placing you in the position between those above and those below. Do your loyalties belong to your pay master or to the oath you took?

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-08-09 10:25|| 2012-08-09 10:25|| Front Page Top

#3 If I was planning on making plans to subdue another occupy tantrum I'd call it something like the above.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-08-09 11:11|| 2012-08-09 11:11|| Front Page Top

#4 Hence Brian Ross and James Holmes. I guess if you want free and fair elections that makes you a racist and an extremist.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2012-08-09 12:43|| 2012-08-09 12:43|| Front Page Top

#5 It's unfortunate that the authors used 'tea party'. There's a reason that we use colors to designate nations and groups during exercises.

That said, they do raise some salient points.

Posted by Pappy 2012-08-09 13:58|| 2012-08-09 13:58|| Front Page Top

#6 I agree with Bright Pebbles. If you planned to put down Occupy style riots your career would be over if you called it that. Yet if you called it Tea-Party riots you might get the same report out there, do some good, and get a promotion in the process.

Posted by rjschwarz 2012-08-09 14:40|| 2012-08-09 14:40|| Front Page Top

#7 "Unfortunate" for them I suppose. For the rest of us quite revealing.

And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (overlooking the Hall of Fallen Heroes, CIA main entrace, McClean, VA)

Posted by Besoeker 2012-08-09 14:45|| 2012-08-09 14:45|| Front Page Top

#8 Y'all should have stopped reading at History Professor at University of Kansas, the only thing funnier than a need for an extensive storyplot is if the Proggly Madam would have instead chosen Greensboro, NC and those dastardly tea people abducted Roy Williams and raised a Wildcat flag.

Seriously, why does a game colonel need a history professor? Is there some insight about the mid-19th century production of wartime socks into what a 21st century behavior might be?

And so I guess letting my daughter watch the musical 1776 has turned her into a klam member, hilarious on so many levels, especially the picture of the two of them, drinking coffee late into a stormy night, building the plot.

Posted by swksvolFF 2012-08-09 14:57|| 2012-08-09 14:57|| Front Page Top

#9 I may be a bit paranoid, but all of the things coming up about riot gear being bought for November, articles like this and general hostility toward those that don't tow the party line makes me believe that this is really pushing towards the goal of keeping Obama in office. Even if he loses the election.

Posted by DarthVader 2012-08-09 15:13|| 2012-08-09 15:13|| Front Page Top

#10 Incidents like the 'Battle of Athens' can be re-engineered with results rather different than happened in 1946. Just saying.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-08-09 15:18|| 2012-08-09 15:18|| Front Page Top

#11 Darth, the US military is unlikely to cooperate in any power grabs and without them such a grab is impossible.

Posted by Rjschwarz 2012-08-09 16:44|| 2012-08-09 16:44|| Front Page Top

#12 Tea party Glen Beck only chance of hurting people with a weapon is if you are highly trained. Soldiers and SWAT the rest of the people only have a 4 percent chance! I watched an FBI agent popping rounds at dear and in the direction of people good luck KIDZ!

Posted by Clyde Omoluter9733 2012-08-09 19:36|| 2012-08-09 19:36|| Front Page Top

#13 Not to mention that there are a lot of veterans among active Tea Partiers - and I knew of a handful of active-duty who were active also, but had to keep their involvement low-key. I was drawn into involvement in a local Tea Party myself, through friendship with a retired officer who was forming a local chapter. Having Tea Partiers in this scenario execute a coup against a legitimately-elected city government was really way, way out of line, and not credible ... considering that one of the three key principles was fidelity to the Constitution. (The other two being fiscal responsibility and free markets ... real free markets, without the thumb of big government on the scale.)
It is ... unsettling, though ... to read of high-ranked military officers appearing incapable of differentiating between the current administration and fidelity to the Constitution.

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2012-08-09 20:10|| http://www.google.com 2012-08-09 20:10|| Front Page Top

#14 ...oh, and does it dawn on these people that the war in Iraq turned when the Iraqi people had enough of the insurgents and the lack thereof in Afghanistan is going to make it damn difficult to sustain whatever is left in place. It's called consent of the governed. We showed up with all sorts of trinkets and bobbles and money, but it wasn't till the other side clearly PO'd the general population that stuff turned around. When you ID as the 'red team' people who hold fundamental beliefs that the majority of the population hold, you've set yourself up for eventual long term failure and you have to expect a number of 'aw sh*t' events that will undermine 'winning the hearts and minds' to expand any further support.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-08-09 20:24|| 2012-08-09 20:24|| Front Page Top

#15 Tea party Glen Beck only chance of hurting people with a weapon is if you are highly trained. Soldiers and SWAT the rest of the people only have a 4 percent chance! I watched an FBI agent popping rounds at dear and in the direction of people good luck KIDZ!

Clyde Omoluter9733, if you would be kind enough to clarify your above using very simple words, I would be grateful. I can't find any sense in it at all, which suggests I'm not thinking very clearly tonight.

Posted by trailing wife 2012-08-09 20:36|| 2012-08-09 20:36|| Front Page Top

#16 Seriously, why does a game colonel need a history professor?

One of the professor's works was on the Copperheads.

Posted by Pappy 2012-08-09 22:21|| 2012-08-09 22:21|| Front Page Top

#17 And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (overlooking the Hall of Fallen Heroes, CIA main entrace, McClean, VA)

I can throw out quotes too:

"We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world." - J. William Fulbright

Funny thing - I was trained to think of all possible possibles and any impossibles that came to mind, at all times. You didn't; you were at fault when something went wrong and you weren't ready. That's one of the curses of the gold braid.

Posted by Pappy 2012-08-09 22:28|| 2012-08-09 22:28|| Front Page Top

23:29 Raj
23:14 crosspatch
22:48 JohnQC
22:45 JohnQC
22:28 Pappy
22:21 Pappy
21:30 JohnQC
21:15 Eric Jablow
21:02 Mullah Richard
20:36 trailing wife
20:24 Procopius2k
20:22 Charles
20:11 Charles
20:10 Sgt. Mom
19:44 tu3031
19:36 Clyde Omoluter9733
19:35 tu3031
19:22 tu3031
19:20 American Delight
19:19 tu3031
19:16 Tarzan Spairt4671
19:14 Besoeker
19:12 tu3031
18:46 SteveS