Home By Christmas 2009

Published June 9 2009

In 2009 the Pentagon has announced the capture of an American soldier by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The young man supposedly walked off base with three Afghani soldiers, although there were also reports that Bowe Bergdahl had lagged behind a patrol. A video was released by the Taliban on which the soldier admitted, "I'm scared, I won't be able to go home."

He added later in the twenty-eight minute interview, "Yo my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home. Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power."

The Pentagon was quick to comment that exploiting a soldier in this video was a violation of international law. Somehow that same international law was never applied to enemy combatants or civilians during the GW Bush years.

Next we'll be hearing that the USA does not deal with terrorists.

Political flaks know what to say when they don't know what to do.

Talk talk talk.

Only words I want to hear from Obama are 'Bringing the troops home'.

Bowe Bergdahl remained a prisoner of the Taliban for five years, since the United States does not negotiate with terrorists.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said upon his release, "He will now return to regular duty within the command where he can contribute to the mission."

Once more condemned to the Endless War the soldier served as a clerk.

According to Wikipedia on June 25, 2014, the U.S. Army stated that there is "no evidence" that Bergdahl "engaged in any misconduct" during his years in captivity. A 2010 Pentagon investigation referred to above dealt with events leading up to his capture. In July 2014, Bergdahl was returned to active duty, having previously ruled that he had not betrayed the United States during his captivity.

The Army still sought justice and referred the case to the military court in 2015.

According to Wikipedia on November 3, 2017, Nance accepted Bergdahl's guilty plea and sentenced him to be dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank, and fined $1,000 per month from his pay for ten months, with no prison time. The fine and reduction in rank were to take effect immediately, while the discharge was stayed pending automatic appeal.

That judgment was vacated on July 25, 2023, Judge Walton vacated the conviction.

In 2021 President Biden ordered a complete withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan after nearly twenty years of occupation. There are still 175 military advisers there.

They did not get home for Christmas.

Bowie Bergdahl's whereabouts are not known as of July 2025.

ps there are over 200,000 US troops overseas today. The Pentagon has no plans of disengagement from the Eternal War.

God's Army So What

Last week a couple of dozen SUVs and pickups departed from Virginia for Texas to protest against the relentless waves of migrants overwhelming the southern borders.

Their numbers have grown to a few hundred for a gathering of God's Army in the small Rio Grande town of Quemado -population 162- were the words "Join the God Fight."

Yahoo News reported this rally, as if their God in a muumuu, barbed wire, higher walls, and pushing migrants back into the river might solve this border crisis, however as usual no media ever address the causes for Venezualans, Senegalese or other nationalities fleeing their birth countries. The Endless War, and oppressive governments funded by corruption and drug money.

My Clinton Hill neighborhood has been hastily populated Senegalese men and Venezuelan families. The Africans left behind their families in hopes of feeding impoverished families, while Venezuelan economy has collapsed under US Sanctions against the inept Socialist government. There is no hope for their homelands, as the USA once more broadens the Wars on Terror and Drugs. No one leaves their homes without a reason. Not to come to the Land of the Freaked, knowing God's Army is waiting to persecute them.

According to Yahoo News conservative activists, including a group calling itself "We the People" -- the first words in the preamble to the US Constitution -- met to make their anger over immigration known, rallying under the slogan "Take our border back."

Earlier in the week "God's Army," massed five hundred people in Dripping Springs, Texas with rocker Ted Nugent and Sara Palin speaking to the gathering, which for Dripping Springs, a rural Hill Country town of 4000 souls, was like Woodstock. Five hundred people is four times the population of Quemado, but at least they are American vagrants headed to the West with San Ysidro their final destination. Praying every mile to a myth. By the way I'm an atheist, but walk out the door with food and dollar bills to help the refugees on Clinton Hill and many of us do the same, but the flood will not stop until America calls a truce on the world.

Judas Priest - Better By You, Better Than Me

This weekend I went on a Judas Priest binge.

HEADING OUT ON THE HIGHWAY, DIAMONDS AND RUST, ROCKA ROLLA etc, until YouTube popped up the lead singer's testimony in a 1990 Nevada civil suit accusing the group of inciting two Reno teenagers' suicide pact via subliminal words 'do it' in their reprieve of the Spooky Tooth song BETTER BY YOU BETTER THAN ME.

The suit was thrown out of court to the protest of conservative lawmakers and church leaders threatened by the demonic aspect of heavy metal. Comedians rallied to the defense of Judas Priest and Rob Halford suggested that a better death command would have been 'buy more of our records'.

Those forces of revision; the church and the right, ruled the country for the last 40 years.

In the summer of 2009 in Iowa City I was siting in a bar whith Alan Lage aka Colonel Rockford, and Brock Dundee, a Brit spy serving the West's Endless War in Afghanistan, when I overheard one of three overweight corn middlemen say, "This country was founded on conservative values."

I put down my drink. My good friend Alan Lage lifted his hands. "Violence doesn't solve anything."

"You're right about that." I signaled I was cool, calm, and collected and said to the old hippie, "I'm just going to say one thing."

I walked over to them and glared , as I said, "This country was founded on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and it makes me very happy to tell you dumb motherfuckers to shut your holes."

The fattish trio were stylish attired in Midwest Stretch-band khakis and a blue skirt like they were cult members. I was in black leather. No one threw a punch, but I felt vindicated by my exercising the freedom of speech. The young bartender, who had recently returned from a National Guard stint in Iraq, gave Alan Lage and me a beer.

"I'm working, so I can't say a thing. Thanks for being my voice."

"Can I ask you a favor, can you play HEAD OUT TO THE HIGHWAY?"

Coming right up."

And I still love Judas Priest.

Rock on.

To hear BETTER BY YOU BETTER THAN ME go to this URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqAPVB4u9Zs&NR=1&feature=fvwp