Seriously. After Rev. Barber brought the house down, I thought that was a speech for the ages. Democrats will be able to use that one forever.
Then Khizr Khan took the floor. And flattened Donald Traitor with two sentences.
Watch them both.
And shame on you for that, Mr. President. End the Permanent War. Make this the last Memorial Day we have to remember new casualties.
Full transcript here.
Kentucky's 113th sacrifice to the insatiable maw of the Permanent Warren Terra is Marine Master Sergeant Aaron C. Torian of far-western Paducah, on the Mississippi River.
From KFVS12:
They say he died Feb. 15 while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2d Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Special Operations Regiment, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.Yes, he died for nothing. They all died for nothing. They're all going to die for nothing.
There are many heavy hearts in the Paducah community as the news of Torian's death on the battlefields of Afghanistan sinks in.
The Heartland Worship Center in Paducah was Master Sergeant Torian's home away from home, when he was home on leave from the military.
He was just there at Christmastime this past year.
On Saturday, the decorated and highly recognized war hero was fatally injured in a IED attack in Afghanistan. Pastor Don Young says he remembers getting the call from Torian's step-father informing him about his death.
"Jim called back and he said, "pastor, Aaron didn't make it." Well, to make a long story short, I grieved and everybody that knew Esta [Torian's mother] and her family grieved. This whole church was shook up. This city is shook up."
Now those who knew him, are sharing their thoughts of the little boy who grew up to become a Marine.
"He would make a point to come by and say hi and give us a big 'ol hug; and, just tell us about some of the things he remembered in children's church when we were his teachers," said Gail Rothrock of Paducah. "I'm just crushed, there's just no words that can say what this has done. And what he meant to us and his family. He was a wonderful young man. And what an honor and privilege to have known him."
On Sunday his Heartland Worship Center family honored the Marine with a moment of silence and prayer.
"I think there's two kinds of people. Those who run into the mess and danger to try to do something about it. And those who run from it," Pastor Nathan Joyce said. "Aaron was the kind to run into it. He loved being a Marine. And he loved what he did.
Master Sergeant Torian was serving his sixth tour of combat duty, when his military career was cut short there in Afghanistan.
He leaves behind a wife and three children.
U.S. Marine Master Sergeant Aaron Torian will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Spc. Christopher A. Landis, 27, of Independence died Feb. 10, on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, from wounds received when the enemy attacked his patrol with a rocket propelled grenade in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, the defense department said.That wailing and gnashing of teeth you hear is not from family and friends of Spc. Landis and Pfc Gray, not that they are not grieving. No, their grieving is drowned out by the anger, the fury, the rage of combat veterans - of WWII, of Korea, of Vietnam, of the Gulf War, and of Iraq and Afghanistan - who are sick unto death of the pointless waste of American lives and treasure that is the unsalvageable shithole known as Afghanistan.
He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C. and deployed to Afghanistan in the fall.
“He gave his life to protect us and our freedom,” said Independence Mayor Donna Yeager. “We mourn for him and his family.”
Yeager said that once she receives official notice of the soldier’s death, she’ll order that flags at the Independence Municipal Center and other public buildings in the city be flown at half staff.
Landis enlisted as a cryptologic linguist in the U.S. Army in March 2011. He completed initial entry training at Fort Jackson, S.C., followed by Arabic language training at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., and then advanced individual training for Cryptologic Linguist at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.
He had already received a Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star among others.
He is survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister. His family declined any interviews.
UPDATE Below
Continuing the Warren Terra has gone far beyond bullshit, through stupidity all the way to criminal homicide. However he died, Pfc Joshua A. Gray, 21 years old, of Van Lear, Ky., was murdered by every lying motherfucker who claims a universal tactic is an existential threat to this nation.A Fort Drum soldier, Pfc. Joshua A. Gray, died Monday in a non-combat-related incident at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.The news was released Tuesday afternoon by the Department of Defense. The department, in its news release, said the incident was under investigation.Pfc. Gray, 21, was a native of Van Lear, Ky., and served as a satellite communications system operator-maintainer in the 10th Mountain Division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion.He joined the Army in November 2012, and his career included assignments at Fort Jackson, S.C., along with Fort Gordon and Fort Benning, Ga. He arrived at Fort Drum in October.Pfc. Gray and the division headquarters deployed to Afghanistan in January.According to Fort Drum, Pfc. Gray’s awards include the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the NATO Medal, the Overseas Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Expert Marksmanship BadgeHe is survived by his mother and father.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel N. Fannin's family remembered him Monday as a kind-hearted young man who enjoyed the simple pleasures of camping and fishing, and died serving the country he loved.The only question now is whether Kentucky's last Afghanistan War casualty will die before or after its first Syrian War casualty.
Fannin, a Morehead native, was killed Saturday in the crash of an Air Force reconnaissance plane about 100 miles from the Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan. He had turned 30 on April 9.
The U.S. Defense Department said authorities were trying to determine what caused the crash. Officials said, however, that no enemy activity had been reported in the area at the time of the crash.
Daniel Fannin grew up in Morehead, and joined the U.S. Air Force shortly after graduating from Rowan County Senior High School in 2001.
He had lived for several years in Oklahoma with his wife, Sonya Fannin, of Oklahoma City. He was assigned to the Air Force's 552nd Operations Support Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
Kentucky's 109th sacrifice to the bottomless maw of Permanent War is 26-year-old Sgt. Michael C. Cable of Philpot, in Western Kentucky.
From the Associated Press:
Cable died Wednesday from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces in Shinwar District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.It's been ten months and 15 days since Kentucky's last Iraq/Afghanistan casualty. That's the longest stretch between deaths since the first, in September 2003.
Cable was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. He had joined the Army in 2007.
He had been a cross-country star at Daviess County High School in Owensboro a decade ago and attended Berea College, according to the Messenger-Inquirer newspaper of Owensboro ( http://bit.ly/Yi9hUB).
Kentucky's 108th sacrifice to the insatiable maw of Permanent War is 19-year-old Dustin Gross.
Tom Kenny at WTVQ:
Officials said Dustin Gross, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb.
He graduated last year from Montgomery County High School in Mount Sterling.
Once the school was notified, counselors were brought in to the high school.
The soldier's family released this statement to ABC 36 News:
"We love and are very proud of Dustin, this is very hard for us. We appreciate all the prayers, love and support from our family, friends and the community. We just need to mourn our loss in private at this time."
To little fanfare, President Obama announced last week that he signed an agreement to extend the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan for twelve more years. No one noted the irony of this, since under our Constitution, President Obama can be President for no more than another 41/2 years.
Also under our Constitution, a treaty requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate. (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2). No one in the Obama Administration even took a stab at explaining why this agreement with a foreign power was not being submitted to the Senate for concurrence. But the reason is obvious: the Senate would not concur.
Also under our Constitution, you will search in vain for any provision that authorizes a lengthy military occupation of a foreign country. In fact, the Constitution does not authorize a standing army, much less an army standing in Kabul. In the Bizarro world in which we live, we have 27 Attorneys General challenging the constitutionality of 35 million Americans getting health coverage, but no one challenges the constitutionality of an undeclared war (see Article I, Section 8 on that) that has now entered its second decade.
Presidential candidates Obama and Clinton obviously were separated by race and gender, but one of the few things that separated them on policy was Clinton's vote in favor of the war in Iraq, contrasted with Obama's 2002 statement that the war in Iraq was "dumb." This is what State Senator Barack Obama said, in October 2002, in the Federal Plaza in Chicago:
I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.
That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
Barack Obama was talking about the war in Iraq. But let's be honest. At this point, after 11 years of pointless, fruitless, endless war, doesn't all of that apply equally to the war in Afghanistan?
No, the Afghanistan clusterfuck is by no means slowing down. Kentucky's 107th casualty is our third in seven weeks, the fourth in 2012, already more than the three in all of 2011. The 2012 pace of worse-than-pointless deaths is the fastest since 2010, when five Kentucky soldiers died in one horrific 21-day stretch in June and July.
Thomas McAdam at The Arena:
Ken Faust and his wife Tess were at home Monday evening, at their house on Bradley Avenue—just south of Eastern Parkway—when they heard a knock on their door and received the news every military family dreads. Their 22-year-old son, Aaron, had been killed in Afghanistan.
The Marine delivering this devastating news could provide the family with only a few details. According to the Department of Defense, Cpl. Aaron M. Faust, of Louisville, Kentucky, died April 15 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Like his dad, Aaron was a member of the Okolona Veterans of Foreign Wars. Ken serves as the post’s Quartermaster; and also as VFW 6th District Jr. Vice Commander. Aaron’s mother, Tess, is the secretary with the Okolona VFW Ladies Auxiliary, Legislative Department Program Chairman, and an officer in the Ladies 6th District.
The Faust family knows the meaning of the words: duty, honor, and country.
"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" -- Lt. John Kerry, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971.
Kentucky's 106th sacrifice to the insatiable maw of the Iraq/Afghanistan Clusterfuck is 20-year-old David Taylor of Dixon, in Western Kentucky.
From the Fayetteville Observer:
A Fort Bragg soldier from Kentucky died Thursday in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Saturday.
Spc. David W. Taylor, 20, of Dixon, Ky., is one of two Fort Bragg soldiers killed in the war zone Thursday. He died in Kandahar province from injuries sustained in an accident at an ammunition supply point. The incident is under investigation.
Taylor was assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
A news release said Taylor was assisting in the movement of ammunition when some of the rounds he and other soldiers were moving exploded.
Taylor joined the Army in March 2010 as an infantryman. This was his first deployment.
"It was evident since the day I met him that David had all the qualities desirable in a paratrooper: smart, aggressive, committed and reliable. He displayed them readily in everything he did," said Capt. Brian W. Bifulco, his company commander.
Lt. Eric Fitzgerald, at Fort Bragg, used to be Taylor's platoon leader. "He was probably one of the most outstanding paratroopers in the whole platoon, just striving to be the best," Fitzgerald said. "When you wanted something done, when you wanted it done right, you went to Taylor for it," Fitzgerald said.
He said Taylor used to do the Crossfit physical fitness program five to six days a week in order to excel at the Army's physical fitness tests.
A release says friends described Taylor as a good man who always took the time and effort to help others.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear on Saturday announced that he will order flags at all state office buildings to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on the day of Taylor's interment. That date was still pending on Saturday.
Kentucky's 105th sacrifice to the unquenchable maw of the Iraq-AfPak Clusterfuck is Air Force Lt. Colonel John D. Loftis of Paducah.
He was a Pashto speaker working on the latest futile effort to win Afghan hearts and minds. His reward was getting shot in the head by an Afghan working in the same building.
Now can we bug the fuck out of that stone age hellhole?
From the Courier:
An airman from Paducah, Ky., was one of two U.S. military advisers killed in an attack at the Interior Ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Sunday.
Lt. Col. John D. Loftis, 44, died Saturday from wounds received during the attack, confirmed Air Force Special Operations Command spokeswoman Capt. Kristen Duncan.
The advisers were found dead after being shot in the head in their office, The Associated Press reported. A manhunt was under way for the main suspect in the shooting — an Afghan man who worked as a driver for an office on the same floor as the advisers, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
Loftis was a member of the 866th Air Expeditionary Squadron and was working in the ministry as a chief adviser to a program that developed a team of U.S. service personnel skilled in Afghan and Pakistani culture and language.
He spoke the Pashto language proficiently and had limited skills in Dari and Arabic, according to the Defense Department.
SNIP
Fiel credited Loftis with helping to improve Afghan society. “We will never forget, and the Afghan people should never forget, ... the valuable contributions he made to their country and community,” he said.
Loftis leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
Kentucky's 104th sacrifice to the insatiable maw of Permanent War is a 20-year-old from London, in the eastern mountains. He got married in October.
From the Herald:
Pfc. Dustin P. Napier, 20, died in an exchange of small-arms fire in the city of Qalat, in Afghanistan's Zabul province, according to a release the Army issued Tuesday.
Family members said Napier had wanted to be a soldier since he was a child, said retired Air Force Col. Mark Jones, commander of the Air Force ROTC program at South Laurel High School.
"He was living his dream," Jones said Tuesday.
Napier's father, Darrell Napier, said he served five years in the military. Both his sons, Darrell Jr. and Dustin, followed him into the service.
Napier, who wore his camouflage uniform and boots to school nearly every day, was the cadet commander at South Laurel his senior year, in 2009-10, and was the most-decorated cadet, Jones said.
SNIP
Darrell Napier said an Army official told him his son had been shot in the head. Dustin Napier was born and died in an Army hospital, his father said.
In speeches and ceremonial remarks, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear frequently refers to the Commonwealth's long history of military service, speaking with pride of how Kentuckians have enthusiastically volunteered for duty.
I'm not sure he fully grasps the consequences.
From the Herald:
But for the soldiers of Kentucky and their families, the war is far from over.
To understand the impact of these wars on the American fabric, McClatchy reviewed reams of reports and records from the Department of Veterans Affairs. It settled on London — a typical small American town that, when it comes to matters of war, is anything but typical.
In the past decade, nearly 200 men and women from these parts have left the service and are now collecting disability payments for the injuries they sustained during military service. Three soldiers from London were killed, a higher number than most small towns and many larger ones.
And a McClatchy assessment finds that the area has one of the highest rates in the country of veterans collecting disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder — one the costliest and most prevalent ailments to emerge from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
These grim benchmarks set London apart from many American communities.
To gauge just what these wars have done in this part of Kentucky, McClatchy visited the area and talked to many who live here: veterans, preachers, shopkeepers, parents and wives.
Kentucky's 103rd sacrifice to the bottomless maw of the Iraq/Afghanistan Clusterfuck is Brandon S. Mullins of Owensboro.
From the Messenger-Inquirer:
Brandon Mullins died Thursday doing what he loved. And his family takes comfort in that, his mother, Catherine Mullins, said Friday.
A U.S. Army chaplain notified the family Thursday that Pfc. Brandon Scott Mullins, a 21-year-old infantryman, had died in Afghanistan of injuries suffered in the explosion of a roadside bomb.
“He was driving a vehicle that struck an IED (improvised explosive device),” Catherine Mullins said. “That’s all we know so far. There may have been others involved. They don’t usually travel alone.”
Brandon Mullins, a 2008 graduate of Apollo High School, joined the Army in March 2010. After basic infantry training at Fort Benning, Ga., he was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, until May, when he was transfered to Afghanistan, his mother said.
SNIP
The Mullins have another son in the Army. Shaun Mullins is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Kentucky's latest sacrifice to the bloody maw of permanent war in the Iraq/Afghanistan clusterfuck is Sgt. Jeremy Summers, 27, of Mt. Olivet.
From the Maysville Ledger-Independent:
A Bracken County family is grieving the loss of family member and soldier, Sgt. Jeremy R. Summers.
Summers, a U.S. Army soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed July 14, a family member confirmed Friday.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Summers died after,"... enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire on July 13," in Paktika province.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell.
Summers, 27, son of Mike and Laura Summers, has been doing what he wanted to do, serving in the military, said his great-aunt Rita Salaimeh.
"He was a good boy," Salaimeh said.
As news of the loss spread, family and friends gathered at the Summers home and the home of his grandmother, Joyce Wagoner, in rural Bracken County.
Summers' parents flew to Baltimore, Md., to be there when his body arrives, Salaimeh said.
"They are meeting his casket," she said.
SNIP
Family members were notified of his death by two military personnel on Thursday night, she said.
Finding the family was slightly complicated by the location of the home and official address.
The residence is located in Bracken County, near Milford, but the mailing address is Mount Olivet, Salaimeh said.
"The (military personnel) stopped at our house (Thursday) night and asked where the family lived. They were not home, but they were eventually found and notified," said Alice Brumley, a neighbor to Summers' parents. "It is such a sad thing to have happen."
Details of the circumstances of his death were only shared with his parents, Salaimeh said.
Summers graduated from Bracken County High School and attended college before entering the army, Salaimeh said.
State Rep. Mike Denham expressed condolences to the Summers family.
"This just breaks your heart," Denham said.
Pvt. Brandon T. Pickering, 21, of Fort Thomas, Ky., died April 10 in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire and a rocket propelled grenade in Wardak province, Afghanistan, April 8. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, La.Last weekend, there was hope he would survive:
A 2008 graduate of Highlands High School has been hurt in Afghanistan. Sources tell FOX19 that Brandon Pickering, 21, was serving in the infantry in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Friends and family say Pickering was injured in the line of duty either Friday or Saturday. He was transported to Germany for treatment. His family was able to go to Germany to be with him.
The principal of Highlands High School, Bran Robinson, said this is the first time a student from the school has been hurt in Afghanistan.
"Brandon is one of those unassuming young men with a big heart," said Robinson. "It's not something that would be a surprise to those who knew Brandon, people who knew that he would go out there and have that sense of duty and dedication, and that he would give back in such a way."
From the St. Petersburg Times:
TRINITY — The call came at 1:28 p.m. Friday, the caller ID cryptically reading, "U.S. Government — Honolulu."
Larry Dalla Betta, just getting home from a youth football game, answered in the kitchen.
"Is this Larry?" an operator asked. Dalla Betta said yes. Then he heard another voice, speaking from half a world away, sudden, strained:
"Dad, I've been hit. I've lost both my legs."
"Where are you?" Dalla Betta asked. "Where are you?"
"I'm in Afghanistan," his son said. "I can't talk. They're taking me to Germany. I can contact you in 24 hours."
Dalla Betta began to talk. The line went dead.
He screamed. "Justin! Justin!" He started to cry. Justin's siblings Larry Jr., 11, and Nicole, 5, started to cry, too.
If you've driven I-75 across the Kentucky-Tennessee border, you've driven through Corbin. The hometown of Harlan Sanders, where he cooked up his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices, straddles the highway, tucked into the coal mountains just outside the Daniel Boone National Forest, about 25 miles north of the state line.
That's where Timothy M. Jackson, known there as Matt, grew up and graduated from high school. This morning, the announcements on the public address system at the school included the news that Matt, now and forever 22 and a Lance Corporal in the Marines, died yesterday in Afghanistan.
WKYT in Lexington:
Reports are that Jackson was killed by an IED, an improvised explosive device.
SNIP
(Jackson's JROTC leader Lt. Col Rick) McClure says as a high school student, Jackson dreamed of serving his country.
“Matt was very quiet, he tried to fly under the radar, didn't want to get in trouble, have his name known, but he always had a big smile on his face, and as long as I knew him, what he wanted to do was to graduate from high school and be a Marine,” McClure said.
Kentucky's 99th sacrifice to the gigantic maw of failure that is the clusterfucks in Iraq and Afghanistan is an officer who lived near Fort Knox and was based at Fort Campbell.
Army 1st Lt. Eric Yates, 26, of Rineyville, Ky., died Saturday (in Afghanistan) from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his combat unit with an improvised explosive device, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Yates was based at Fort Campbell and assigned to Bravo Company, First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
He joined the Army through the ROTC program at Western Kentucky University his junior year, said Lt. Col. Jason Caldwell, head of the military science and leadership department and the ROTC program at the school.
It was Yates' first deployment, Caldwell said. He graduated from WKU in 2008 with a double major in social studies and history and received his officer commission through the ROTC program.
Although Caldwell said he only met Yates when he returned to the university in June to let people know of his deployment, he heard “nothing but great things about him.”
“He was kind of a quiet, soft-spoken young man, but always got the job done, was always true to his word,” Caldwell said.
Another soldier assigned to the same unit died in the attack. Staff Sgt. Jamie C. Newman, 27, of Richmond, Va., died Friday, according to the Department of Defense.
Yates is survived by his father, David L. Yates, and mother, Kathy Yates, both of Rineyville, according to Fort Campbell officials.
Kentucky's 98th sacrifice to the Iraq and Afghanistan clusterfucks is Sgt. Jason D. Calo, 23, of Lexington.
He joined the Marines in November 2006 and was promoted to Sergeant July 1, 2009. He previously deployed to Iraq from September 2008 to April 2009 and deployed to Afghanistan two months ago. He died August 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province. He is survived by his wife and children, among others.
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