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Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts

Thursday, February 1, 2018

#12Strong

[VIDEO] On Tuesday I saw 12 Strong which is  dramatization about the first American response after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It's a real life story about a squad of special forces soldier who were the first in Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and the ruling Taliban. And Al Qaeda thanks to the events of this film suffered a major defeat at the hands of Afghan rebels against the Taliban and these special forces soldiers.

BTW, on Al Qaeda I just had to tweet this out upon seeing a few captions at the end of this film. I have it in my head that while Radical Islam/Islamic Fundamentalism isn't entirely dead as a violent force Al Qaeda is largely a dying force.
All the same I wanted to compare this with a similar film 13 Hours directed by Michael Bay and released just about two years earlier. 12 Strong and 13 Hours are similar movies in different contexts.

12 Strong was America's first response to a very deadly terrorist attack on NYC and the Pentagon. 13 Hours involved the death of an American ambassador and violent attacks on US diplomatic staff and a CIA operation. While the men who were fighting this battle weren't active duty military at that time, they were former special forces soldiers who just so happen to be contractors to help protect the CIA operation.

Oh yeah, this was this Benghazi you might have heard about during the 2016 campaign. Resultantly 13 Hours is a drama about survival against the very violent attacks of rebel groups in Libya after the fall of Col. Qaddafi. This movie unfortunately depicted the deaths of four Americans.

With this movie in a very untrustworthy or unforgiving environment of Afghanistan these 12 American soldiers were successfully able to provide the first victories in the emerging War on Terror. And while many Afghan rebels died fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, none of those 12 American soldiers depicted in this film were killed.

Between 2001 to 2018 what's changed? Well we're still concerned about Islamic fundamentalism (which could be called Islamofascism, Radical Islam). There were some terrorist plots or actual acts of terrorism in NYC last year - a car running down people similar to what happened in London and an attempted suicide bombing at a train station. It's still unfortunately a concern even if America did essentially eliminate Al-Qaeda as a force.

While we may still be fighting this dangerous ideology the front seems to have gone from the many battlefields in the Middle East to the issue of immigration. The need for extreme vetting, the need to limit undocumented immigrats in America.

Thankfully we've yet to see another attack on America as seen as 2001. Hopefully we can keep it that way.

12 Strong is a movie I would recommend seeing.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Medal stolen from Tuskegee Airman will be replaced

These criminals are looking for a quick buck and don't care what the value of these objects are to the people who possess them. At least for this WW2 veteran he will get a replacement, but hopefully Gary, IN police will find the original one that was given to him!
Officials are working to replace a Congressional Gold Medal stolen from the home of a 93-year-old man who was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, a unit of black fighter pilots who served during World War II.

The medal was stolen from Quentin Smith's home in Gary during a burglary last summer, but Smith says he was reluctant to report the theft.

"As time went by, I became even ashamed to even announce it or ask about it until my police friend came over, and he said, 'Well, let's take a shot at it," Smith told WLS-Channel 7.

Smith, who spent much of the war as a flight instructor with the unit, was among about 300 surviving Tuskegee Airmen to receive the award in 2007.

Gary Police Sgt. Freddie Cook said Smith was his high school principal and he couldn't believe anyone could be so disrespectful.

"It broke my heart because you have not just a veteran but you also have a 93-year-old man," Cook said. "And somebody has the audacity to break into his home and take things.

“They ransacked his home. The medal was in a drawer in the bedroom. They took miscellaneous items, some jewelry and alcohol. He doesn’t care about any of it, he just wants the medal back,” he said.

City officials contacted U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's office about getting a replacement medal for Cook and the congressman hopes to present it to him soon, said Visclosky's spokeswoman, Sarah Olson.
The image in the corner is an example of a Tuskegee Airman gold medal issued to surviving members of this WW2 Air Force unit on March 29, 2007!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Today is 11/11/11

Or Veteran's Day which is November 11, 2011. The last binary date for the rest of this century! And it was preceded by 11/10/11 or November 10, 2011.

BTW, many thanks to our nation's veterans! There sacrifices will be forever appreciated. May you inspire many others to either do what you have done in serving our nation, but also inspire many others to know how blessed they are to live here. Thank you!