They don’t preserve very much of the original sound, and they distort it quite a bit in the name of increasing the bass power….

There is a wide variety of cable descramblers available for sale on the market….

I have not written about the Scott Beauchamp/New Republic story for a couple of reasons. First, I do not have any personal knowledge of the specifics of Beauchamp’s claims; the milbloggers have handled that aspect of the story well. Second……

I also served in the Air Force from 89-93. I also was in Desert Storm, but 1 year after. I was in KSA Dec 92-June 93. Eskan Village. I like it there, would of stayed another 6 months but would of had to leave the AOR from 1 day, forget it if I have to fly back to Germany, might as well fly home, and I did.

Seems the story has died down a little, will be interesting to see what becomes of it.

Some of those who say in a poll that they generically respect the military were undoubtedly among those who called returning troops “babykillers” as they spat on them.
Jack Murtha. The first on a major media outlet to call our Marines babykillers. What’s more repugnant, he’s a leader.

As someone said before, it strikes at the sympathy and outrage strings: Women (especially veteran women), the disfigured and disabled, children, and pets. The Army must investigate and close this case. The Marines went after the Hamandia and Haditha cases fairly. This must be addressed.

This is a seditious act. It is Libel. When are we going to prosecute this?

Bryan, you’re overstating the case. Our guys in WWII did shoot prisoners on occassion, but it wasn’t routine.

Tantor on July 29, 2007 at 6:46 PM

Thank you, Tantor. This was (and is) not routine. It does happen but is the exception rather than the rule.

A large majority of German prisoners ended up in prisons here in the U.S. and stayed at the end of the war. They stayed because of opportunity, but also because of how well they were treated as prisoners.

Japanese prisoners where killed, and it had a lot to do with their warrior ethos forbidding surrender. Very often a surrender flag meant an ambush. Yet, the Japanese prisoners we did hold gave U.S. soldiers high marks for their professionalism. One of the reasons Japan is our ally is because they still respect the esprit de corps of American Armed Forces.

But these examples have nothing to do with ‘Gitmo’. Most German and Japanese soldiers were professionals in their own right. But what we have locked away at Gitmo are at best international criminals. In any other sense they are murdering psychopaths. But just because we don’t have specific rules for these kinds of bad guys, doesn’t mean the responsible thing to do is to just let them go. It’s kind of like turning loose a hungry wolf pack in a flock of sheep.

There were few who stood up for the troops after Vietnam, but that’s a shame that shouldn’t be and won’t be repeated. The Beauchamp story comes down to a simple thing that most who never served in the military may not understand, and that’s the linked concepts of service and honor. It’s an honor to serve in the US military.

Our Armed Services are a direct arm/reflection of our society as a whole. Anyone who spits on the military spits on themselves, and what does that really say about the spitter?

I wasn’t old enough at the time to welcome back our Vietnam Veterans. Yet it was your duty and honor in the face of adversity in war and later in peace that inspired me to take my turn defending the walls. Just like you did for me when I was to young to know any different. And if we ask the average person serving in the Armed Forces, we are going to get a very similar answer. But it is not the average person who gets the press. It’s the small majority of nut-jobs that draw the media focus.

This is considered a fable by most liberals…

scooter on July 28, 2007 at 1:26 PM

There; fixed that for ya…

Noting the morning’s news of the “lost” Israeli soldier, his comrades seemingly left him behind, purposely? Who departs his sleeping friend AND pretends he is present by answering for him at role call? Rescued, presumably lesson learned, but not all are so fortunate. Not all.

Beauchamp has placed himself in a very precarious position.

I’m really getting tired of liberal trolls who rely on dishonest statements and then – when called on their dishonesty – never have the integrity to address their untruths.

As I was just saying in another thread, opposing views are a welcome addition here; they’re crucial, in fact.

But I don’t understand why the clear lies are allowed to continue.

Ernie Pyle wrote an unfiled column about a hard fight where GIs took casualties then rounded up the German hostages and executed them. There is an incident where GIs at a concentration camp began machine-gunning the captive SS guards. Patton tore up their court martial papers and threw them in the trash.

Patton was wrong to do that. Everyone deserves a fair trial. Here is an extract from an article by Kevin Myers:

When US soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division liberated Dachau, they were confronted by the naked bodies of tens of thousands of dead and dying prisoners, and by the sight of the camp guards surrendering under a white flag. Forty guards were promptly bludgeoned to death by prisoners and 122 were shot out of hand by GIs.

The surviving 346 SS men were then lined up against a wall and systematically machine-gunned to death, while Technician Fourth Class Arland Musser photographed the entire affair.

Later, the US Army court-martialled eight officers and NCOs for their role in the killings. When General Patton, Military Governor of Bavaria, heard about the forthcoming courts martial, he sent for all the prosecution documentation and photographs and burnt the lot in his waste paper basket. The accused men all walked free.

If you think there is rough justice of a sort here, you are wrong. Most of the SS guards who were murdered were newly arrived conscripts, while many of the worst and most brutal villains had already escaped. Thirty-six of these were later sentenced to death, but because of the massacre of guards, all sentences were commuted.

Bryan, you’re overstating the case. Our guys in WWII did shoot prisoners on occassion, but it wasn’t routine. There is the well-known example of Lt Spears gunning down prisoners during the Normandy invasion shown in “Band of Brothers.” Ernie Pyle wrote an unfiled column about a hard fight where GIs took casualties then rounded up the German hostages and executed them. There is an incident where GIs at a concentration camp began machine-gunning the captive SS guards. Patton tore up their court martial papers and threw them in the trash.

However, our military took lots of German prisoners. Many of them were shipped back on troop ships to POW camps in America, Texas and New Mexico included. They fared well in the camps, some of them returning after the war to become citizens.

Execution of prisoners was worse in the Pacific after our Marines discovered how the Japanese treated prisoners. However, I wouldn’t call execution of Japanese prisoners routine because so few surrendered.

Bryan at Hot Air: Why we care about the Beauchamp story…

I have been following this guy and the closest friends of him down and if you read their words and their life views they are a vacant bunch of nothing that are only taking up space.

A simple concentrated group of life wasters who realize their role and don’t know who to shoot at besides themselves in revenge.