Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Out of his 4th point of contact

Afghan&Military Blog
March 31, 2009 2:48 pm

Out of his 4th point of contact



Yep, that is where this guy (http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/destor23/2009/03/the-war-in-afghanistan-was-and.php) is talking from. He claims that he ” supported the war back in 2001″. What does that mean, supported? Did he send the government a check? Did he send care packages so he could at least support the troops. And how does he define occupation. The last time I checked, Afghanistan has a standing government and political process.

Ironically he lists his location as NYC, and claims that we had a choice to wage war in Afghanistan. I am guessing either his memory does not go beyond 7 years or he did not live there in 2001.

Best Milblog you have ever heard of

Afghan&Military Blog
March 31, 2009 10:11 am

Best Milblog you have ever heard of



Head over to Blackfive at http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/03/contest-best-milblog-youve-never-heard-of.html and check out a new contest. They are trying to spotlight some of the best blogs you have ever read.

This contest is open to everyone; however, nominations can not include the major milblogs and/or any milblog nominated for a Weblog award in 2007 or 2008.

Just to clarify, this blog was not a nominee in 2006 or 2007.

By commenting on Blackfive with your recommendation, your name will go “into the hat” for a drawing to be held later.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Bouhammer Podcast #10

Afghan&Military Blog
March 30, 2009 9:11 pm

Bouhammer Podcast #10



This is the first of many podcasts that I will have here  on Bouhammer.com from my good friend, Scott Kesterson. Scott has just started his 3rd embed in Afghanistan so he took a few moments to talk with me about how things have changed there since he left in December, some new information about embed rules, and how advancements in technology have changed the way he is going to be doing this embed.

Don’t forget you can subscribe to www.bouhammer.com in your iTunes Podcast window to add this site to your podcast directory.

Click below to listen to the podcast

Scott’s first podcast from his third embed

Afghanistan Funny from ex-CIA man

Afghan&Military Blog
March 30, 2009 3:20 pm

Afghanistan Funny from ex-CIA man



This is a FoxNews Forum piece (http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/03/28/baker_taliban/) written by Mike Baker who was a former CIA Cover Field Operations Officer.

What he is talking about in this piece is exactly what I said in this blog entry, http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/a-big-mistake-by-the-president/  except that he threw in some good humor that most people can relate to in order to get his point across.

H/T to LL for sending me the FoxForum link

Afghanistan Funny from ex-CIA man

Afghan&Military Blog
March 30, 2009 3:20 pm

Afghanistan Funny from ex-CIA man



This is a FoxNews Forum piece (http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/03/28/baker_taliban/) written by Mike Baker who was a former CIA Cover Field Operations Officer.

What he is talking about in this piece is exactly what I said in this blog entry, http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/a-big-mistake-by-the-president/  except that he threw in some good humor that most people can relate to in order to get his point across.

H/T to LL for sending me the FoxForum link

Bill Maher, nothing more than an oxygen thief

A new Post "Bill Maher, nothing more than an oxygen thief" was written on the March 30, 2009 at 1:20 pm on "Afghan&Military Blog".

I used to like Bill Maher when I thought his satire was really funny.
However over the last year or two I have been less and less impressed
with this Oxygen Thief. H/T to LW from B5 for letting me know about
this. The original posting is over at Michelle Malkin's site,
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/30/another-day-another-troop-smear/
[1]

Links:
------
[1] http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/30/another-day-another-troop-smear/
http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/bill-maher-nothing-more-than-an-oxygen-thief/________________________________________________________

Stars and Stripes better watch itself

A new Post "Stars and Stripes better watch itself" was written on the March 30, 2009 at 9:11 am on "Afghan&Military Blog".Anyone who reads this blog knows that a while back Scott Kesterson was
invited to do a screening of At War at Ft.Bragg. More specifically he
was invited to do it for the 4th BDE, 82nd ABN Division. I could not
say why as it was not official yet, but this is the reason why. The
Brigade is being sent over to become a major part of Task Force
Phoenix, which is the part of the Afghanistan mission who is charged
with training and mentoring of the Afghan Army and Police.

The request for these soldiers has been outstanding since 2007 when
they gave us (I was part of TF PHX at the time) the task of training
the police. It has been a void since then and the dual-purpose
mission of training the army and police with the originally sized
force for just training the army has hamstrung the Task Force ever
since.

Well now the Army is sending the mighty 82nd over there. Personally I
think that is a mistake because they are not suited for this type of
mission. However I will hold that rationale for another posting. For
now, the purpose of this blog is to call the Military Newspaper,
Stars and Stripes to task.

The following article was emailed to me knowing that I would want to
blog about it. I have pasted the article that was sent to me in its
entirety down below. The reason I have done this is because I want to
highlight the fact that they for one; seriously disrespect the
National Guard and most specifically every National Guard member that
has served as part of Task Force Phoenix. Second is to note that they
apparently have realized what this guy Jeffrey Schogol
(Jeffrey.schogol@stripes.osd.mil) wrote. If you click the link below
you will see that the story has been changed significantly on the
website.

The line I have the biggest issue with is the following "Until now,
the military has relied heavily on inexperienced National Guardsmen
to fill out the teams". Hey Jeffrey you didn't quote anyone else
saying that so I can only assume that you came up with that witty
piece of journalism. Well I invite Mr. Schogol to take his
double-latte sipping ass out of his comfortable Washington DC chair,
pack up and head over to Afghanistan like Scott Kesterson, Andrew
Lubin, Micheal Yon or PJ Tobia have done and still are doing and
embed with some of those "Inexperienced National Guardsman" to get a
firsthand look at what inexperience looks like for himself. I am
shocked that a writer for such a military friendly and essentially
backed newspaper would make such a statement. Don't get me wrong,
there were idiots over there from both Active Duty and National Guard
that did not have the experience to be there and should have never
been mobilized, but they are a very small number compared to the
thousands of damn good troops (regardless of Active Duty or National
Guard) that spend a year of their life doing good things, leading the
fight and directly contributing to the overall good of Afghanistan and
security of our country.

I am writing Mr. Schogol an email as soon as I am done with this
posting and I invite you to do the same if you feel his level of
disrespect needs called out.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61638

4,000 4th BCT, 82nd Airborne paratroopers going to Afghanistan to
train security forces By Jeff Schogol , Stars and Stripes Mideast
edition, Saturday, March 28, 2009 WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama announced Friday that 4,000 paratroopers with
the 82nd Airborne Division will head to Afghanistan this fall to
train Afghan security forces. "For the first time, this will fully
resource our effort to train and support the Afghan Army and Police,"
Obama said. The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, which
is currently slated to deploy to Iraq, will likely be sent to
Afghanistan instead to fulfill the training mission, Defense
officials said Friday.

The deployment will fill the request by Gen. David McKiernan, the top
U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for a brigade of trainers, a
White House official said Thursday. In a sign of the new importance
the administration is placing on the mission, the 82nd Airborne
troops will be broken into 10-to-14-member advisory teams, a Pentagon
official said. Until now, the military has relied heavily on
inexperienced National Guardsmen to fill out the teams, though
Marines have also filled that role.

"The change couldn't be more dramatic," said retired Lt. Col. John A.
Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security, a
nonpartisan defense think tank. "The 82nd Airborne Division is the
nation's shock force."
The need for trainers goes back to March 2007, when commanders first
requested 3,400 trainers, mostly for the Afghan police.
Initially, Afghan police were trained by private contractors, but the
efforts floundered and the Afghan police lagged far behind the Afghan
army.

The need for trainers went largely unfilled throughout 2007 because
most of the U.S. military's trainers were in Iraq.
Since early 2008, a growing number of Marines have been used to train
Afghan security forces. The senior administration official said
Thursday that the training mission in Afghanistan had been
under-resourced for the past few years, and that the president wants
to fix that. Ultimately, the goal is to train an Afghan Army of
134,000 and a police
force of 82,000, he said.

McKiernan had requested a total of four additional brigade combat
teams' worth of troops and an additional combat aviation brigade. So
far, the Defense Department has announced the following units will be
sent to Afghanistan to meet his request: The 3rd Brigade, 10th
Mountain Division; 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade; 5th Stryker
Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division; and 82nd Airborne
Division's Combat Aviation Brigade.

The increase in forces to Afghanistan comes as the U.S. military moves
to draw down in Iraq. Even before Obama took office, there were clear
indications that the U.S. military was shifting its focus from Iraq
to Afghanistan. Most notably, former President Bush signed an
agreement with Iraq that calls for all U.S. troops to leave that
country by the end of 2011,
regardless of conditions on the ground.

http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/stars-and-stripes-better-watch-itself/________________________________________________________

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Another new Blog to check out: Solo Journalism

A new Post "Another new Blog to check out: Solo Journalism" was written on the March 30, 2009 at 12:37 am on "Afghan&Military Blog".As if Scott Kesterson does not have enough to do already, in addition
to the Where is Kilroy Blog that he has started he has created
another one. This one, called Solo Journalism and Visual Storytelling
is built more for his craft of "backpack journalism". This blog will
focus on the unique challenges and rewards by being part of this
emerging and new media type. If you are a fan of Scott's writings,
journalism, videoography, or combat photography then this blog is
probably another one you will want to add to your list.

Check it out at http://solojournalism.blogspot.com/

http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/another-new-blog-to-check-out-solo-journalism/________________________________________________________

Great pictures from Afghanistan

A new Post "Great pictures from Afghanistan" was written on the March 29, 2009 at 1:32 pm on "Afghan&Military Blog".A good friend and loyal blog reader sent me this link,
http://www.rafalgerszak.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0 to
check out some really great pictures from Afghanistan by this
photographer, Rafal Gerszak. Take a few minutes to check them out,
the artistry of his photography along with the images he captures is
pretty amazing.

http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/great-pictures-from-afghanistan/________________________________________________________

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Bouhammer being spread around

A new Post "Bouhammer being spread around" was written on the March 29, 2009 at 1:30 am on "Afghan&Military Blog".In order to raise the visibility and spread the word of this blog,
there are now Bouhammer accounts on several different social
media/blogging sites that are essentially smaller versions of
Facebook or my space.

The postings on these sites are copies of what is posted here, and it
will always be like that. There is no real reason to go there to look
for new content, however if you are on there you may stumble across
one of the sites.

You can find Bouhammer at:
http://bouhammer.vox.com/
http://bouhammer.multiply.com/
http://bouhammer.blogspot.com/

http://www.bouhammer.com/2009/03/bouhammer-being-spread-around/________________________________________________________

Follow Scott Kesterson on 'Where is Kilroy?'

Afghan&Military Blog
March 28, 2009 4:29 pm
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Follow Scott Kesterson on 'Where is Kilroy?'

Anyone that is a friend of Bouhammer is a friend of Scott Kesterson. Well Scott is now back in Afghanistan for his third, and without a doubt, most dangerous embed yet. He will still be writing occasional guest blogs here and will be recording exclusive podcasts for Bouhammer.com, but will also be writing on his new blog site, ‘Where is Kilroy’.  You can check out Where is Kilroy by going to http://kilroyredux.blogspot.com/. Add it to your RSS feed, add it to your favorite blogs cause he will no doubt be able to give you a fresh and un-edited view into life on the front lines of the “Popular, Forgotten War”

Friday, March 27, 2009

SMS Text Message Updates

Afghan&Military Blog
March 27, 2009 7:08 pm
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SMS Text Message Updates

Bouhammer.com can now send text message updates directly to your phone. There is a section on this blog site called “Bouhammer Text Message Updates” where you (friends of bouhammer) can put in your phone number and your cell carrier. After you click “Subscribe”, your number will be put into a database on the site. When Bouhammer.com has major new announcements, very special blogs, etc. then a message will go out to all subscribed friends of bouhammer.com.

So sign up today!!

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Where to find bouhammer

If you are looking for the real Bouhammer Afghan and Military Blog then head over to www.bouhammer.com

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