Special Blog Post:
Weekend on the Homefront
One of the students is regular Army, in a unit that's between rotations into Iraq. He is always joined out there in the open area by several other college students in his unit. They're not my students, but they usually hang around, maybe hoping for a turn in the conversation to something about training, deployment, scuttlebutt, whatever. The fellow in my class is always so darned respectful to me. It's almost strange: none of the slight condescension, none of the cold distancing, none of the "you're not one of 'us' attitude" I get in vague hints and impressions from the others. They're not openly disrespectful, of course. They're not quite sure how to take me, especially considering one of their own seems so loyal. I do wonder, however, how many of the professors on campus know just how little those service personnel think of them.
My Army student is in his mid-thirties, but he looks younger, this despite several rough tours in Iraq already. He's forever struggling in his classes, but Lord knows that guy is persistent. Aside from teaching him economics, I've been helping him with his calculus course work. I never thought he'd make it as far as he has since he just struggles with remembering very basic concepts from one tutoring session to the next. However, at least in part because I use a break-down, simple-step-by-simple-step approach to everything I possibly can when it comes to math, he's getting it. In a way, it's similar to a military training approach without the screaming and name-calling, although I prefer to think of it more as a "mechanic's approach" to math. Call it whatever, it works for a lot of people who otherwise have trouble learning methods and processes in mathematics courses. The economics material he's learning in my class is just overwhelming to him, at least the quantitative and graphical stuff. The memory work is what's keeping him going.
Thursday, I made arrangements to meet him on Friday for an hour of calculus tutoring: the product rule, the quotient rule, and the chain rule. We'll deal with word problems next week.
On Friday, we did the tutoring session—about an hour that gave me a lot of hope for his success in the course. He was finally seeing how to do the simple, bite-size steps instead of trying to look at and tackle the problems like undifferentiated blobs. He was getting answers, and they were right. He couldn't simplify the answers because he cannot do numerical fractions or see algebraic tricks to make long expressions shorter with factorings and cancelations, but his answers were right nonetheless, and telling him that made him grin from ear to ear. Such a boyish smile, especially when he hears praise that has almost a tough edge to it. ("Well, I'll be damned. You got that right. Well, shit, boy, you're going to be a PhD in mathematics one of these days.")
We went back outside to visit for a few minutes before I had to leave.
"Looks like we've got a cold weekend coming up," I said, feeling the blustering wind chilling me to my bones.
"Yeah, this sucks," he said as he lit a cigarette. "I'm out in the field from six tonight 'til God-knows-when on Sunday."
"Cripe, out in the bush, huh?"
"Naw, not like last time. This weekend we're training at the base," he answered, staring out at the clouds above the just-harvested corn field.
He's a mortar guy, and he's something of a rising star, despite his desire not to be. He doesn't want to make the Army his career, but all indications are that he's being moved up the line, with "First Sergeant" written all over their plans for him.
"Training on mortars at the base?"
"Naw, civil defense," he grunted absently.
I figured that meant he and his unit were being prepped for redeployment back to Iraq; then he added, "Homeland Security bullshit... just the usual riot control training."
"You want to cancel the tutoring session for Monday and do it on Wednesday?" I asked him as I picked up my books and got ready to leave.
"That'd be good. I'm going to be exhausted Monday," he answered.
He always likes to part company with a firm handshake. As we did, he thanked me for all the help. The genuineness of his gratitude was so evident. I swear, right there and then I knew he wouldn't kill me. I just knew it.
Someday, he might have to, though. After all, that's what he's being trained to do.
The Dark Wraith hopes this story makes your blood run cold.
Published 11/04/2006 11:50:00 AM
<< 31 Comments Total
Good Afternoon Dark Wraith:
Blood properly chilly. I did my undergraduate stuff right upon discharge. I met with pretty much blanket hostility on campus as were many of the other newly discharged veterans. I have always wondered how much of that was from my own surly attitude though. There were a few professors though, a couple of them were department heads, older, wiser souls, who took on the extra effort and reached out to a few of us. Two of them I still maintain contact with today (although one of them still gigs me for going to graduate school and returning to the music business). The idea that they are training the army on the weekend before election day does thoroughly chill me. It might well explain the preternatural calm of Rove and Bush far better than their intrinsic cluelessness. They are planning a hiest on election day and they are lining up the army as their cover. I wish I could put this as something somehow beyond them, but I can't.
Tuesday my friends.
Off topic but still fun, I'm hosting a full on traditional Guy Fawkes party this weekend. We will be having bonfires, there are some fun effigies to burn, masks are mandatory.
Good afternoon, Dark Wraith.
I'm proud of you for helping this guy so well. My own calculus experience is a chilling story, but eventually with a better teacher I caught on. The chain rule was my stumper for two semesters until I began to better understand the idea of substitution.
However, the thrust of your post does chill my blood. I hope for the best, but will plan for the worst.
Regards to an educator, it was my favorite position once.
I don't know how, but I had forgotten about this in the context of your post.
[This is a reproduction of blackdog's post using an embedded link.]
Dearest Wraithy Poo,
You are such a good teacher. We need so many more teachers like yourself in this country.
I'm not surprised that there is anti-riot training going on. After the elections are stolen, there will be a revolution.
Frankly I think we are in greater danger if the Democrats DO take one or both houses of Congress. If that happens, Bush and his masters will then become cornered wolverines, and their only way out of the corner will be the false-flag terror attack followed by martial law and dictatorship.
Since when has regular Army been doing riot control training as part of their regular training (in association with DHS)??
- oddjob
To my knowledge, regular Army training has NEVER had riot control aspects. (Caveat: I'm ex-Navy, so not expert in Army training.) When the Posse Commitatus Act was still in effect, riot control would've been pretty ridiculous.
Good evening, nightshift66.
The eviceration of Posse Commitatus—perhaps not so much as any Act of Congress, but more as a theory of the separation of domestic law enforcement and the standing army of the nation—seems to be at the heart of this new aspect of overall military training.
These "riot control" training exercises seem to have shown up only in the past year as far as I can recall from the indications I've gotten from soldiers I know. It might have been going on before that, but I just don't remember hearing about it.
Come to think about it, I sort of wish I still hadn't heard about it.
The Dark Wraith needs to stop chatting with students all the time.
Good evening, OddJob.
Your question is exactly the one I've been asking myself. It might be one thing if these were National Guard members, but this is an Army unit. That's the big head-banger. Army, for God's sake; and these guys aren't headed off to some other country; they're stationed right here in the United States, and a lot of them have combat experience, which means they're not going to be like riot police (even as nasty as those thugs can get in the heat of a demonstration) if push comes to shove in a tense situation involving angry protesters.
The Dark Wraith can just imagine how such a confrontation would turn out.
Good evening, Rob.
There's more than a grain of truth in your comment. I could imagine a situation where those neo-cons in Washington, if they were backed to the wall, wouldn't have much of a problem with using the military to save their bacon. After all, look at how they've treated the armed forces like their own, personal plaything for the past five years.
I wonder how many of the Democrats who've acted like nothing all that unusual has been going on in this country would suddenly come to their senses if Bush and Company decided to get really rough.
The Dark Wraith might actually enjoy seeing the look of terrified enlightenment come across the faces of a few of the long-time appeasers.
Good evening, BlondeSense Liz.
Sadly, the only reason I teach anymore is that I'm not worth a dime as anything other than a teacher. As modest as the money I make is, it's better than I could make at any other job where I could get hired at this point in my life. As brutal as that assessment is, it is the unfortunate truth of the matter.
Oh, yes, I did forget: I actually do enjoy teaching very much. But that's just a side benefit.
I seriously doubt that I'm particularly good at it, though; but that's why America has the education system it has. It gets what it pays for.
Funny how that works.
The Dark Wraith does not, however, usually laugh about the application laws of economics to education.
Good evening, blackdog.
I'll bet it would take me about an hour to get you so proficient at the chain rule of differential calculus that you'd impress yourself. And once you'd learned the method, you wouldn't have to use the substitution method most of the time.
The real trick, however, is not to be afraid to push with your pencil instead of your mind. Most of the difficulties I see in struggling math students are in part related to the misimpression they have that they're supposed to be thinking. That's not how it works. Math isn't art: there's no creativity in it, even when there is creativity in it.
I got chewed into ground burger when I was quoted in a newspaper several years ago for saying that, and I've been dog-crap in the regional academic environment ever since.
Whatever.
Thank God I know I'm right. Again, though, whatever. I do my thing, and the artistes of mathematics strut their "beauty of mathematics" across the pedagogy as if they're a bunch of wannabe poets.
Personally, I think they're jealous of true artists, and they want everybody to believe that they're every bit as sensitive and deep.
The Dark Wraith has gotten a really dim view of the high-brows of the field ever since he got chewed to pieces.
Good evening, Minstrel Boy.
I wish you hadn't mentioned that "preternatural calm of Rove and Bush" in this context. I was pretty happy thinking those guys were either delusional or just certain that the voting machine riggers would come through for them.
Yeesh.
The Dark Wraith wonders if his truck can withstand mortar fire as he high-tails it down the road to Arizona.
I can't remember the source, but within the last two weeks I saw online that one of the most recently passed laws (not the one that suspends habeas corpus, but another one) effectively eviscerates posse comitatus.
Oh, and on a differen subject, RawStory has posted a link to a news article indicating a 1999 Pentagon war game concluded that even with 400,000 troops a successful outcome in Iraq was by no means certain.
- oddjob
"The Dark Wraith wonders if his truck can withstand mortar fire as he high-tails it down the road to Arizona."
Ask some of those students of yours who have done tours in Iraq how they "armored" their vehicles--when it became apparent that the vehicles they had been issued, and the G.I.s within them were highly susceptible to damage from roadside bombs, bullets, and the like because of inadequate plating. I recall reading how junked vehicles were scavenged for pieces of steel, which were "installed" for greater protection. One G.I. reported that 3/4" plywood wasn't worth a shit; it would slow a bullet or piece of shrapnel down, but in that case whoever got hit would probably bleed to death instead of dying instantly.
Good evening, Peter of Lone Tree.
Now, there's an interesting subject: shell velocity.
People might think that the faster a bullet or larger calibre shell travels, the better.
Not so. A small shell that travels too fast will go into an armored vehicle and leave somewhere on the other side of that vehicle (there will be some degree of deflection, sort of like how a light beam is refracted as it passes through water). But a round that goes straight through the target isn't going to be all that likely to do much damage, at least not nearly as much as a round that hits the vehicle at a speed sufficient to penetrate the armor—a process that will slow it down, of course—but insufficient to exit. What happens in that case is that the round, still with hellacious speed from a rather absolute perspective, will literally "rattle around" inside, ricocheting off the interior walls dozens of times, destroying machinery and people inside.
Nasty stuff. Of course, we're the ones who are the experts in designing the weaponry that accomplishes such desirable results.
The bottom line for soldiers in Iraq trying to avoid death by IEDs is that sometimes insufficient armor is worse than no armor at all. It's a tough call, though: it depends upon the likelihood of incendiary versus shrapnel damage being the greatest danger. It also depends upon where the device detonates relative to its target.
One thing's for sure. The Americans are having to deal with a constantly evolving, constantly innovating insurgency. To the credit of the military, daily field reports on the latest tricks by the insurgents get pumped through the chain of command and then very quickly get incorporated into adaptive defensive and offensive tactics by and for our troops. It's quite a bit better than in the bad old days where guerrillas would get new tricks in their bags and soldiers wouldn't have a clue about them until it was too late for a few guys in the field.
Of course, it would be better if we'd never invaded Iraq to begin with. We wouldn't be having this conversation, and we wouldn't be worrying about armoring up our troops so a few less get killed in a bloody war of attrition.
That would be nice all the way around.
Then again, that's not how it worked out, so now we have to do whatever we can to ensure that, in some way or another, George W. Bush and Richard V. Cheney pay dearly for what they have done.
The Dark Wraith votes for life in prison for both of the sons of bitches.
Bush won't leave office without a fight. He thinks he owns the military like a BlackWater USA private militia force.
People keep saying "in 2 years, he's gone". I'm not so sure.
In fact, even if he was impeached by the House and it went to trial in the Senate where they found him guilty,I don't think he would volunterily step down.
The question will where the armed forces loyalty will lie.
I've heard rumors of coup attempts brewing in our military.
I have also heard rumors that Bush is planning to flee the country if it does all collapse around him and he finds himself guilty of war crimes among a litany of charges.
Check this out
Is Bush preparing for war crimes prosecution?
It has been reported that George W. Bush has recently purchased a 98,842 acre farm in Northern Paraguay. What on earth does the President of the United States need a 98,000+ acre farm in Northern Paraguay for?
On the surface it looks all very innocent, but lets add the very quiet trip that Jenna Bush made to the country earlier this month in which she met Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and his family at their official residence. She also met with U.S. Ambassador James Cason. Could it be that our little drunken Jenna is all grown up and playing diplomacy?
This all still seems very innocent on the surface, but now lets add the five hundred U.S. troops that arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.
http://www.teambio.org/2006/10/bush-family-98842-acres-and-a-mule/
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/1732790.php
My blood is as cold as ice and if I turn out to be right I am going to be so pissed off, as well as screwed because they will be coming to get me.
I'm going to miss the internets and the Google. This is worse than a horror movie.
Riot training was not included when I was in. It used to be illegal but has probably been changed behind our back, but the military isn't supposed to operate within the borders of the USA.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance...I'm finally beginning to understand.
Good evening, Debra.
Yes, that's what I'm hearing uniformly from old veterans: we never got "riot control" training.
We got just about everything else but the kitchen sink, but not riot control training.
It sounds too darned suspicious to me; but then again, maybe I'm just paranoid.
The Dark Wraith can't imagine why someone would be paranoid in this day and age.
Good evening, PoliShifter.
The picture concerning where the troops' loyalty will lie is very complicated. Right now, if I am reading the sentiment correctly, the vast majority of the grunts would go with the President. Some of them are loyal by ideology, others are loyal on principle. Despite the anecdotal stories of non-coms and lower hating Bush, those are the exception, not the rule by any means.
The officer corps would be divided: there is a fanatical, Right-wing, extremely religious segment that would go with Bush to the Apocalypse itself; but then there's a much more reasoned, intellectual, "Old Guard" faction that would head away from Bush.
There would be ugly clashes within the military; but right now, the non-supporters would have the upper hand. Five years from now, when more of the cadets who are getting brainwashed by the religious whackos at the academies are in the field and at their desks, the religious zealots would have the upper hand.
How it would all wash out in open, domestic war is up in the air. It would depend upon how much manpower and firepower each of the military factions could muster in a fight.
We the civilian citizens would be almost irrelevant in the short run.
The Dark Wraith is getting creeped out just writing about this.
Old veterans?
I'm crushed, which is going to be the least of my problems if this sorry scenario comes to pass.
For the first time in thirty years I wish I had stayed in. Maybe I could have had an impact, on the other hand my authority issues would probably have gotten the best of me.
Okay, maybe I am "older" but I refuse to "old".
YIKES!!!
Dear God, Debra, you know I meant "older"!
The Dark Wraith needs to learn how to shut his pie hole before it gets rearranged.
"The Dark Wraith needs to learn how to shut his pie hole before it gets rearranged."
Was it you they were talking about the other day when I overheard, "The only time he stops talking is change feet"?
No, Peter, contrary to the popular misconception that the journalist H.L. Menken was referring to William Jennings Bryan, the acerbic Mr. Menkin was actually referring to me in noting something to the effect that 'He's the only man [Menkin] had ever seen who could strut while sitting down.'
The Dark Wraith has a problem with going overboard with the pomposity sometimes.
[Which might be related to why he gets himself in hot water shooting off his fool mouth a bit too often, too.]
There is now a vast private sector with an economic interest in maintaining an endless war on terror.
But let me suggest that as with the Kent State incident, the use of the Armed Forces on American soil against Americans will have consequences John Negroponte can not comprehend.
If it is impossible to control Iraq by force, just wait until the strong arm hits on the melting pot here in the United States.
There may be some fat, cowardly, stupid Americans that can be intimidated by martial law- but they're mostly already Bush supporters.
Shia vs. Sunni? How about Confederate vs. Yankee, Catholic vs. Protestant vs. Jew vs. Muslim vs. secular, black vs. white vs. Hispanic vs. Asian, et cetera, ad infinitum. We're very diverse.
Overlay this with the possibility of access to new nukes deployed right here at home. Those Nike sites may have been re-activated in many places, although I have no evidence for that statement: only the observation of the Bush administration's sudden desire to keep their Cold War deployment data secret, with new windowless buildings, razor wire, microwave towers, and heightened security at selected installations nationwide.
If the Army couldn't keep insurgents away from Saddam's old arsenals, what makes them think they'll keep their own safe here under martial law? Particularly since many in the Armed Forces have no love for Rumsfeld? Particularly when, like Iraq, the Armed Forces might have more sympathy for American civilians than Negroponte's corporate stormtroopers?
If Negroponte tries his strong arm and secret death squad tactics here, it might not stop until Washington is a pile of radioactive rubble.
Good evening, Dark Wraith.
I wonder how many units are being trained for riot control, just now. It does, indeed, make the blood run cold.
Brrr.
And Tuesday will soon be here.
It sounds too darned suspicious to me; but then again, maybe I'm just paranoid.
The Dark Wraith can't imagine why someone would be paranoid in this day and age.
I've seen several express the sentiment that one can't be too paranoid anymore. Just what we know of the administration's predations is enough to elminate the possibility; what have they managed to keep under the radar?
It isn't paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Voter suppression seems all the rage this election cycle. I've posted about it - referencing your conversation with this young man as a touchstone. I'm curious to see just how all this is going to play out tomorrow. I'm afraid it may, indeed get very ugly. Neocons have been stacking the deck in expectation of just such a voter revolt for the past 30 years. They have many fail-safe’s in place - not the least of which would seem to be brute force – something I must admit I did not foresee. I really thought the coup would be electronic – bloodless. Let us see just how much fortitude we inherited from our forebears. Were it up to us to stand against the might of the first king George and his unjust laws – I’m afraid we would fail mightily.
Good evening again, Dark Wraith and associates-
My initial reaction to reading your post was impetuous. Call it a psychological shudder. Many associations came to mind: apocalyptic scenarios seem to be my own neurotic inclination.
The political coup in the United States has and will likely remain bloodless here at home for some time.
While war profits many, war in their own neighborhoods is less appealing.
Recall that this is the same administration that botched the response to a Category 5 hurricane. If they are out to get us, that might make us even safer than the unfortunates likely to be hurt on a random basis. If they were competent, after all, they wouldn't be trying so hard for hegemony.
Still, the damage they do to innocents is the strongest spur to action.
It is worth emphasis: the best response to the Cheney administration is a non-violent one. They understand violence. They are prepared for it.
Violence is the final refuge of the incompetent. Even the iron triangle of the Carlyle Group is starting to lose patience with this crew. Perhaps this will motivate a peaceful change in the control of Congress tomorrow.
Good evening, Kelly B.
You are making a very good and important point. There are actually "best practices" for dealing with riot police, although those methods and tactics have to be modified to deal with the military variety.
First things first. Never, ever touch a soldier in riot line formation unless you're ready to take him down or be put out of business yourself just about instantly. If you believe that you're strong enough to take down that soldier, make sure you're strong enough to also take down the five on either side of him, too, because they'll swarm you.
Then they'll beat you to a bloody pulp.
Remember: they're trained; you're not.
Also, don't pull a Ghandi. The British, for all their brutality, were ultimately civilized and finally couldn't deal with their own vicious nature. They gave up in the end because of that. Americans don't work that way: they can keep from confronting their own monsters within for far longer than you can endure an isolation cell in a prison, so they can certainly stomach through willful ignorance a brief flurry every now and then of unspeakable, raw violence against dissidents and protesters.
Whether the riot line is blue or green, if you're in the mood for violent confrontation, you're going to have to overcome a very powerful, almost instinctive desire not to do combat with a person in a uniform. The very authority of that uniform is going to act as your worst psychological deterrent to successful physical confrontation. For most people, the only way over that is through becoming one with a much larger force called "mob violence." In its purest form, it is extraordinary in its transformative effect on the passive; in its purest form, though, it is at once horrendous to that same passive person in what it does to his or her self-understanding.
I certainly do not want to see good people have to turn into animals to defeat animals. If it comes to that, so be it. Before that melancholy day, though, we can fight without bloodshed by using our minds, our wills, and our certainty of the rightness of our cause and the rectitude we can bring to this mean and injured nation.
We can and must stand. If we must be animals, then let us be so at the end of the journey of this republic. We are not at that end just yet.
After all, the election returns won't be available until Tuesday evening.
The Dark Wraith remains hopeful this night.
"The Dark Wraith remains hopeful this night."
Richard Cranium over at the AllSpinZone is optimistic also. Check out his
"Irrational Exuberance?" post.