USS Cole: Where is their justice?

In 2012 I asked  USS Cole:  A watershed moment?  

Read on here, as I repost that column.  

USS Cole

President Bill Clinton declared, "If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act. We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable". Some critics have pointed out that, under U.S. law, an attack against a military target does not meet the legal definition of terrorism...( read more on Wiki here.)

There is no doubt in my mind that this WAS an act of terrorism. It WAS a despicable and cowardly act.

USS Cole (DDG 67): A guest post from CDR Kirk S. Lippold, USN (Ret.)

October 2010

Below is a guest post from CDR Lippold. He will be following along in the comments. If you have questions for him, please pose them.

The attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) ten years ago this October 12, was a watershed moment for the Navy and the nation. It signified that al Qaeda was now willing to attack our military capability to defend our interests worldwide. It was also a subtle shift in tactics lost on both the military and political leadership of the country. Tragically, the American people paid a heavy price eleven months later with the attacks of September 11.

Today, the military is fully engaged in a war effort to stem the tide of al Qaeda and its radical brand of Islam. As we were warned, this will be long-term fight with a determined enemy willing to die for their cause. While fortunate to date that no large-scale attacks have been successfully carried out within our borders, it is up to everyone to keep up their guard and not allow complacency to overtake the daily grind of our jobs, school and kid’s soccer games.
The crew of USS Cole rebounded from that attack and all have gone on to achieve remarkable lives for themselves – business owners, college educations, and careers within the Navy. Each possesses a unique insight into the horrors of combat the Navy has rarely seen since World War II. For the seventeen sailors that were killed that day, as well as the three shipmates we have lost since then, not a day goes by that I don’t think of them. I miss my shipmates.
This October 12, at 11:18 am the crew and families will gather in Norfolk, Virginia, to pay tribute and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. While the 10^th anniversary may be significant, for those us who saved a ship from sinking and worked tirelessly to prevent our shipmates from dying, every anniversary is just as important as the last. To those who continue to serve our nation today, thank you for your service. God Bless each of our servicemen and women and the United States of America!

All the best,
Kirk

(USNI here)


It would be very easy for me to do a political rant here, and for me to dwell on the unwillingness of the current 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's resident to call any attack on the US what it is: terrorism. Instead, I choose to remember those loved ones who lost their lives that day.

There are many sites remembering these fallen heroes. Start here, or here, or here. Arlington Cemetery also has a site dedicated to them, here.

Cherone Gunn

Signalman SR
Rex, Ga.

James McDaniels

Seaman
Norfolk, Va.

Timothy Saunders

OS 2
Ringgold, Va.

Lakiba Palmer

Seaman Recruit
San Diego, Ca.

Richard Costelow

ET Chief
Morrisville, Pa.

Andrew Triplett

Ensign
Macon, Miss.

Craig Wibberley

Seaman Apprentice
Williamsport, Md.

Gary Swenchonis Jr.

Fireman
Rockport, Texas

Kenneth Clodfelter

HT3
Mechanicsville, Va.

Lakeina Francis

MSSN
Woodleaf, N.C.

Timothy Gauna

ISSN
Rice, Texas

Marc Nieto

EN2
Fond du Lac, Wis.

Ronald Owens

EWT3
Vero Beach, Fla.

Joshua Parlett

ENFN
Churchville, Md.

Patrick Roy

Fireman Apprentice
Keedysville, Md.

Kevin Rux

EWT1 Portland, N.D.

Ronchester Santiago

MS3 Kingsville, Texas

Find these pictures, and much more about that infamous day, here, on the USS Cole Memorial page.

At the dedication of the USS Cole Memorial, then President Bill Clinton said (in part):

...In the names and faces of those we lost and mourn, the world sees our nation's greatest strength: people in uniform rooted in every race, creed and region on the face of the Earth, yet bound together by a common commitment to freedom and a common pride in being Americans.

That same spirit is living today as the crew of the USS Cole pulls together in a determined struggle to keep the determined warrior afloat....

[...]

America will not stop standing guard for peace or freedom or stability in the Middle East and around the world. But some way, some day, people must learn the lesson of the lives of those we mourn today, of how they worked together, of how they lived together, of how they reached across all the lines that divided them and embraced their common humanity and the common values of freedom and service.

Not far from here, there is a quiet place that honors those who gave their lives in service to our country. Adorning its entrance are words from a poem by Archibald MacLeish, not only a tribute to the young we lost, but a summons to those of us left behind. Listen to them.

"The young no longer speak, but they have a silence that speaks for them at night. They say, we were young, remember us. They say, we have done what we could, but until it is finished, it is not done. They say, our deaths are not ours, they are yours. They will mean what you make them. They say, whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope, we cannot say. It is you who must say this. They say, we leave you our deaths; give them their meaning."

The lives of the men and women we lost on the USS Cole meant so much to those who loved them, to all Americans, to the cause of freedom...

Read the rest of Clinton's speech here.



Today, they - and all of us - still wait for JUSTICE.


Navy Times has a good article of the crew:  After 15 years,USS Cole crew reflects on terror attack

For much more on this Terrorist attack, follow the links within  the post above AND check out War on Terror News column from 2010:  On This Day in History, Oct 12, 2000: USS Cole Attack
As always WOTN is a MUST READ.  





As we wait for justice for the USS Cole,  we always remember.  Always honour...

Those Libyan Ties to Terrorism, CIA & MI6

From War On Terror News:

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Those Libyan Ties to Terrorism, CIA & MI6

During the 70's and 80's, Libya under Qaddaffi, ordered, sanctioned, and supported just about any terrorist or rebel they could find to oppose the US, Europe, or their allies. Libya was directly responsible for bombing the La Belle discoteque in West Berlin and Pan Am Flight 103. Qaddaffi had dreams of empire and supported atrocious dictators as varied as Charles Taylor in Liberia & Sierra Leone, Daniel Ortega's Communist Sandinistas in Nicarauga, the Red Army Faction in Europe, and Abu Sayyaf in the Philipines.

But in 2003, Qaddaffi had an epiphany. His attempts at fomenting foreign revolutions had failed and he had witnessed the new American resolve to deal with tyrants, terrorists, and misbehavers developing weapons of mass destruction. In December of 2003, he voluntarily gave up his WMD program. As he began conforming to UN and International court orders to compensate the families of his prior victims, the International Community welcomed him back into the world of normalized relations. In 2010, with the support of at least 97 Nations, Libya was elected to the UN Human Rights Council.

Today, we learn that Qaddaffi was fighting as a secret ally against Islamist Terrorists, that he had not only committed his forces in the Sahara Desert against Al-Qaeda, but also that he had directed his intelligence services to cooperate with the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's MI-6. And we find out that his claims of Al-Qaeda led rebels against him hold water. ...

Go read the rest here - and be informed.

Citizens and Subjects

Food for thought from War On Terror News:

Friday, August 26, 2011

Citizens & Subjects

Throughout the majority of history, the common man has been a subject of the government. A subject is dependent on the ruler of the land for every benefit, for every grace given, for his livelihood, and he is subject to the whims of the ruler, to the dictates and decrees of the ruler. In history, their have been benevolent kings, who ruled their subjects graciously and mercifully, but they ruled their subject, and the subjects had gratitude for their wisdom and grace.

In Ancient Greece, arose the city-states, with citizens, rather than subjects. Citizens had responsibilities, and rights. They were free men, with a responsibility to educate themselves on the responsibilities to learn what it took to take part in their self-governance, in the direction of their lives and the laws their government put upon them. Citizenship was earned, by the residents of the city. It had responsibilities. The Greek City-States were powerful and one colony of it grew to a republic and then an empire: Rome.

Rome's decline began even as its empire grew. Its Caesar was not meant to be an Emperor, but an Emperor he became. Its citizens became its subjects, as the empire grew, even as the citizens of Rome retained their rights, their security, and their benefits. Its citizens forgot and abandoned their responsibilities, because they had those benefits.

Eventually, the citizens, even of Rome, became the subjects of the Caesar, of the Emperor. The powerful concept of citizenship, of the government of the people was lost to history, to the Dark Ages, along with the technological advances the era of citizenship had brought. The era of fealty, of kingdoms, of subjects, returned. Again, kings ruled their subjects, their lords, their serfs, their counts, and barons. Some ruled with grace & mercy, but ruled they did. They were the educated elite. They were entitled by birth, intelligence, and divine intervention to rule the unwashed masses, to whom they granted house, food, health and doctor, peace and war. It was the ruler, the lord, the baron, the king whom secured the borders and ruled his subjects....

And there is more. Go read here.

Our Troops are Not Your Personal PhotoOp, Mr. President

From War on Terror News, a column that says what I believe (and says it so much better than I could.) Yes, the writer begins with BHO's most recent visit to our troops, but then he gives a detailed overview of BHO and what the writer calls BHO's ' complete mishandling of Troops and War.' Read on:

12/05/2010

Our Troops are Not Your Personal PhotoOp, Mr. President

So, the POTUS dropped into Afghanistan for a few hours on 3 December 2010. He was his third trip ever and the shortest, though he never found the time while he was the Chairman of the Senate subcomittee on the War there, until he became a candidate for POTUS.

He claimed there was nowhere else he would rather be for the holidays, than with the Troops, which he had assembled late at night for his photo-op. His time inside Air Force One in Afghanistan was longer than his time with the Troops or with General Petraeus who leads them. Weather prevented him from meeting with President Karzai. That and the short time he allocated for his "visit."

He did "take the time" to pin a few Purple Hearts on Wounded Warriors while on the ground.

I wish I could believe in his commitment to win, but no matter how forcefully he stated that Our Troops were on the Offense, his Administration refuses to let go of their July 2011 retreat dates and that is detrimental to gaining the loyalty of Afghans who must choose between death threats of the Taliban or a fledgling democracy led by a besieged Karzai. The enemy, which has always had a strategy of waiting out our resolve to wain, now has not only a date for the withdrawal to begin, but also a date to begin their final assault: 2015, when the retreat is supposed to be complete, as per his positons at the NATO Lisbon meeting. (They actually said 2014, but Britain is looking at 2015.)

Instead of believing the new found commitment he expressed to 3,000 Troops forced to listen in the wee hours of the night, I'm reminded of his campaign strategy of telling everyone what they wanted to hear. I'm reminded that he pioneered a micro-campaign strategy that told San Francisco donors how he'd tax and spend while telling Southern Independents that he'd protect Gun Rights, even as he told progressives that West Virginians in small towns clung to their guns and religion. Even his website was set up to tailor the message to the regional IP address.

I'm reminded that he claimed to have finished his "new strategy" for Afghanistan in the spring of 2009, then fired two Generals for speaking honestly about the War. General McKiernan was fired for failing to parrot an Administration apology, instead insisting on protecting the Honor of Our Warriors who killed bad guys at the request of the Villagers caught in the crossfire. General McChrystal was fired for things he didn't even say, for things his Warrior Class staff said, while stuck in Europe because of a Volcano, and while their lips were loosened by alcohol and a belief that the cool journalist would keep off the record remarks, off the record....

War on Terror has much more, point by point, of BHO's 'approach.' It IS a must read.

Go here.

ISAF Forces Save Life of Afghan Child

From War on Terror News:

ISAF Forces Save Life of Afghan Child

ISAF Joint Command

KABUL, Afghanistan - A 10-year-old Afghan boy lays motionless in his hospital bed as a nurse gives him another injection of morphine to help him deal with his pain. Even in this condition, he is better than he was Sunday morning when he was nearly fatally wounded by a piece of shrapnel from an exploding rocket-propelled grenade.

The boy was on his way to school Sunday when insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade

during a fire-fight with another insurgent group. The boy was wounded in the cross fire. The insurgent-on-insurgent battle lasted most of the morning. When it was over, the boy's father brought him to a German medical facility in Kunduz for treatment.

The ISAF medical staff there began treatment of what they first thought was a gunshot wound, with the projectile still lodged in the little boy's neck. Doctors later realized it was shrapnel. The boy was then transported to Camp Marmal which houses the only medical facility in northern Afghanistan with both a brain surgeon and advanced life support equipment.

Tests revealed the shrapnel was wedged near the boy's spine....

Go read the rest here.

Flags for Fallen Military

David C. Larson is a man with an honourable mission. This was brought to my attention by Ms Marti over at War on Terror. She writes:

Flags For Fallen Military was formed in the summer of 2008 to honor the fallen soldiers in North America. The David C. Larson family set up and began running the program, with David being the founder and President. Initially it was started as Flags For Fallen Minnesota Military which was formed back in 2006, and it has been expanded to include all of our fallen military in North America. The family may choose an American or Canadian flag and pole to be placed in honor of their sons', daughters' or family members' sacrifice.

David himself has never been in the military, but comes from a military family, and knows of the sacrifices that a family makes having a member in the military. He has chosen to honor those who have served and given their all, by committing to placing a flag and pole for each family they contact, that asks. By honoring those fallen heroes, he also honors all who are currently serving or have served in the past.

Flags For Fallen Military goes very quietly about their business of honoring our fallen soldiers. I know how quietly, because I used to live in the same part of the state where they are located, and had never heard of them. I like to think I stay on top of great organizations like this, but I somehow missed this one.

The people who make up this program are all volunteers. The company is organized as a 501(c) 3 charity, so any donations you would make, are tax deductible.

Because they are so quiet, their only contact with a family is the formal letter offering them a pole and flag, should the family wish to honor their fallen hero in this manner. They wait for the family to contact them back about its placement or not after sending out their letter...

Read the rest of their piece here.

And on the home page of Flags for Fallen Military, they say:

It is our goal to honor those soldiers that have made the ultimate sacrifice in order to keep freedom alive for you and for me. It is with a humble heart that we honor these men and women by placing a flag in their honor so that we all will be reminded of the sacrifice they have made to keep this country free. They have fought and died with honor keeping America and Canada the example of freedom throughout the world.

The programme was started by one man in 2006 to honour American heroes. They have now expanded into Canada.

North American Expansion

"The opportunity to help play a role in expanding such a worthwhile program is something that brings a great deal of honor to the NABCA organization," said Steve Beden, President of the North American Booster Club Association. “Our nations have been touched deeply by the loss of many who have given the ultimate sacrifice and we are proud to be able to help be a part of expanding the program”. We envision helping a family, business or individual (herein referred to as the "team") with the development of this program in the remaining 50 states, and Canada with anyone willing to support those soldiers who have fought and fallen fighting for freedom. We would encourage the “team” to be of all Faiths, allowing them to show their respect for their fallen hero who fell for their freedom and to add closure to the many families throughout the world, showing solidarity in the fight we all share for freedom....(here)

Flags for Fallen Military is doing a great thing, in ensuring ALL our fallen - and their families - are paid some small measure of the honour and respect they have earned in service to their country.

Please go to their site, and see how you can get involved. Flags for Fallen Military is here.

Thank YOU, David!