Let's Have A War, Part XIII (Or So) & Daily Kos CENSORSHIP UPDATE

FINAL DAMN UPDATE (4 September 2007 @ 2047) ON THIS MESS FOREVER: Click to be linked to it.
Casual acquaintance, would-be cult leader & astrology-believer The Divine Mr. M. (it's the fucking internet, what do you expect?) is nonetheless pretty well clued in to that which is happening about us in the world of today (horror, pain, stupidity, ignorance) which is why Just Another Blog™ checks him (his site, really) frequently. And he's found a couple of beauts.

Let's start w/ the "legitimate" (i. e., Mainstream Old Media, this particular example part of Rupert Murdoch's News International Group) TIMESONLINE, which reveals the Pentagon's "three day blitz" plan for Iran:

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

[...]

President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”.

One Washington source said the “temperature was rising” inside the administration.

[...]

According to one well placed source, Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid, overwhelming force, should military action become necessary.

Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, has made its own preparations for airstrikes and is said to be ready to attack if the Americans back down.

[...]

But Debat believes the Pentagon’s plans for military action involve the use of so much force that they are unlikely to be used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A voice of reason there, perhaps.

Although we're anxious to see if any of that nuclear winter stuff will cool off Southern California.

But enough of think tank jagoffs & the Old Media. Let's jump right into the New Media, and a report from someone on the ground (or the flight deck) from Daily Kos Diarist "Maccabee": CENSORSHIP UPDATE (2 September 2007 @ 2045): If you tried the link you noticed that DK has taken it down. We'll leave the parts we took (regretting we didn't take the entire item, 'though we did get most of it) and remind readers that Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ has never made any claim that anything written or linked to on this "web log" is anything but the rantings of one sorry individual, & links he or she has posted to other, unverified sites. And here's a pertinent link to DK, & one to the New Yorker blog mentioned. And one for the item that started it all.
FINAL UPDATE: (4 September @ 0349) At last located the Google™ cache. We're just going to put the whole thing here, right below the photo of an LSO at work, no corrections to the original text. (Photo for illustrative purposes only.)

"We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime"

by Maccabee

Sat Sep 01, 2007 at 03:50:24 PM PDT

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her why she is telling me this.

Her answer was really amazing.

Maccabee's diary :: ::

She started in the Marines and after 8 years her term was up. She had served on a smaller Marine carrier, and found out through a friend knew there was an opening for a junior grade LSO in a training position on a supercarrier. She used the reference and the information and applied for a transfer to the United States Naval. Since she had experience landing F-18Cs and Cobra Gunships, and an unblemished combat record, she was ratcheted into the job, successfully changing from the Marines to the Navy. Her role is still aligned with the Marines since she generally is assigned to liason with the Marine units deploying off her carrier group.

Like most Marines and former Marines, she is largely apolitical. The fact is, most Marines are trigger pullers and most trigger pullers could care less who the President is. They simply want to be the tip of the sword when it comes to defending the country. She voted once in her life and otherwise was always in some forward post on the water during election season.

Something is wrong with the Navy and the Marines in her view. Always ready to go in harms way, Marines rarely ever question unless it’s a matter of tactics or honor. But something seems awry. Junior and senior officers are starting to grumble, roll their eyes in the hallways. The strain of deployments is beginning to hit every jot and tittle of the Marines and it’s beginning to seep into the daily conversation of Marines and Naval officers in command decision.

"I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval officer", she said. "But we’re all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen at the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of XOs and other officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight operations. Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there’s no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it. I have seen more than one senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find out that he has been replaced. That’s really weird. It’s also really weird because everyone who has disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive attack on Iran."

"We’re not stupid. Most of the members of the fleet read well enough to know what is going on world-wise. We also realize that anyone who has any doubts is in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them. Keep in mind that most of the people I serve with are happy to be a part of the global war on terror. It’s just that the touch points are what we see since we are the ones out here who are supposedly implementing this grand strategy. But when you liason with administration officials who don’t know that Iranians don’t speak Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second thoughts about whether these Administration officials are even competent."

I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.

"I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And whatever the consequences, whatever the consequences, they will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."

I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.

"I have become cynical only recently. I also don’t believe anyone will be able to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will give the command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft will fly and people will die, and yet few of us here are really able to cobble together a great explanation of why this is a good idea. Of course many of us can give you the 4H Club lecture on democracy in the Mid East. But if you asked any of the flight officers whether they have a clear idea of what the goal of this strike is, your answer would sound like something out of a think tank policy paper. But it’s not like Kosovo or when we relieved the tsunami victims. There everyone could tell you in a sentence what we were here doing."

"That’s what’s missing. A real sense of purpose. What’s missing is the answer to what the hell are we doing out here threatening this country with all this power? Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell a sovereign nation that they can’t build a nuke. I mean the table got EF Hutton quiet. Not so much because the man was asking a question that was off culture. But that he was asking a good question. In fact, the discussion actually followed afterwards topside where someone in our group had to smoke a cigarette. The discussion was intelligent but also in lowered voices. It’s like we aren’t allowed to ask the questions that we always ask before combat. It’s almost as if the average seaman or soldier is doing all the policy work."

She had to hang up. She left by telling me that she believes the attack is a done deal. "It’s only a matter of time before their orders come and they will be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert. She said they were already practicing traps, FARP and FAST." (Trapping is the cat of catching the tension wires when landing on the carrier, FARP is Fleet Air Combat Maneuvering Readiness Program- practice dogfighting- and FAST is Fleet Air Superiority Training).

She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have ever heard her sound off rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is something rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.

"Yes. We're gong to hit Iran, bigtime. Whatever political discussion that are going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what's going on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays. And I have a sick feeling about how it's all going to turn out."

We have two or three carrier groups in the Persian Gulf, plans drawn up, & no one, it seems, can stop George Bush from doing anything he wants, which has previously seemed to be running a business into the ground (How are Poppy & his powerful, wealthy friends going to bail you out of this one, Georgie?) or mocking those his state of Texas is about to execute. Truly, this person makes Richard M(otherfucking) Nixon looking like a well-adjusted, rational being. Worst president ever? He could grab the coveted Worst Person Ever Award from the hands of the current co-holders, A. Hitler & Joe Stalin, if he goes ahead w/ this. But as an American, Just Another Blog™ likes to see things blowing up & other people suffering ("shock & awe") so let's hope there's some swell footage!!

Thank you, & Gawd Bless America.

VERACITY UPDATE: The Editor has found a detail that may indeed indicate this is less than truthful: "Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell a sovereign nation that they can’t build a nuke." In the navy, one eats in the "mess." (Dining hall to you landlubbers.) Meals are prepared in the "galley." (What you know as a "kitchen.") Unless these officers were pulling double duty as cooks, that is an inaccuracy. Not a huge one, & we doubt that "Maccabee" was transcribing this from a recording, but it does start to raise doubts.

VERACITY UPDATE II (4 September 2007 @ 0440): Now that we have the entire item before us, we can take a good look at the whole thing. "Maccabee" isn't an outstanding writer, doesn't know much about naval air ops, & may not have been working from a transcription or recording of the conversation, although the quotes attributed to his friend the LSO scan pretty well. Most of our questions are about the first paragraphs that "Maccabee" wrote. We know there's no such thing as a "Marine carrier." It's a Navy amphibious assault ship, even if only Marine ground-support aircraft fly from it. And only Marine Corps helicopters & AV-8 "Harriers" fly off the LHDs & LHAs, not "F-18Cs." Actually, according to the Navy website we consulted, FA-18E/F Super Hornets & FA-18C/D Hornets, fly from the CVNs. (The big or "super" carriers, landlubbers.) And we're not sure about the whole thing of transferring from the Marines to the Navy. One might think that if she was qualified, the Marines wouldn't want to lose her, but while Just Another Blog™ knows a little more about Navy ships & aircraft & Marine aircraft & their use than the average person, we don't know squat about BuPers & its Marine Corps equivalent. So, while we don't think much of "Maccabee's" writing, and do wonder if the alleged LSO said she was in the "galley," all other quibbles are w/ "Maccabee's" parts of the item. And we do wonder about being able to make a 'phone call (Cell 'phone? Satellite 'phone?) from a ship in a potential combat zone. Do look in the comments for a couple of notes from a commenter who seems to know his stuff, although we disagreed w/ his conclusions.