thedrifter
01-13-09, 07:05 AM
Just Another PCS* (Bateman's Back...)
Eric Alterman
Mon Jan 12, 1:56 pm ET
The Nation -- Hello Altercators, old and new. LTC Bob here, just checking in to the new place.
All this Altercation moving around these past few years really has not bugged me too much. The reason is fairly obvious if you know who I am, or perhaps more specifically, what I am. Among other things (writer, father, historian, husband, singer-of-bad-songs, university professor), I am a professional US Army infantry officer, and I have been for almost twenty years now. That's what that little "LTC" in front of my name means. I am a Lieutenant Colonel, and that is the way that the Army abbreviates that rank.** This matters, you see, because be it peace or war, we soldiers are America's gypsies. Indeed, by the time my oldest daughter was nine years old she had lived in Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, New York, and was in the midst of moving to her sixth state, Virginia. That is just the way it is for Soldiers and their families. Packing up and moving is so much a part of the experience that it ceases to be unique in any way. So one more Altercation jump really does not make too much of a difference on this end, my motivation remains the same.
I write for Eric's page because, well, I think that it is important that people should have some knowledge of, and connection to, their own military. To that end I figured it just made sense to write for the audience least likely to have a whole lot of experience with or personal direct connections to the military in general and the Army in particular. At the same time I hope to demystify where needed, explain some things, and express outrage when appropriate...mostly on issues relating either to the US military or some of my other afflictions, notably journalism and history. All of which brought me to Eric's page via my buddy (and former running mate) Pierce.
Now since these are new digs, that means that some healthy proportion of all of you out there reading this have never heard of me. That's cool. I'm not exactly famous by any stretch of the imagination, so don't worry. You are in a majority consisting of 5.999999 Billion. But with that being said I suppose I ought to start out with some disclaimers, just so that we can get them out of the way.
1. No, I am not a Public Relations person (or as we call them in the Army, Public Affairs Officers). Nor am I a virtual avatar created by some consortium of PR and Intel people working deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, intent on twisting your malleable minds. I really do exist. I live on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, for now and several Altercation readers have actually met me, as have Eric, Pierce and others.
2. Nothing I write is vetted by any higher authority. At the same time, you will not see me violating "OPSEC" (Operational Security, meaning that I won't tell you any secret stuff), and you will not see me making any disparaging comments about any currently seated political leader of either political party. That is the small trade off, the bit of my First Amendment rights that I give up in return for the power given to me by Congress.
3. Yes, I am a historian. I was once a professor at West Point, then for a little bit at George Mason, and currently I teach grad students in the Security Studies program at Georgetown University in my spare time after work. It is fun. I really like being a professor. As we used to say at USMA, "I teach for free, but I get paid to grade."
4. Yes, I write a lot of other stuff in other places, all of which meets the same criteria as you see in #1. I've got a hint for you though: When I am really ****ed about a current event which I am not allowed to talk about directly, I am not above writing an article using historical foundations. Readers can then decide for themselves if there are parallels.
5. I am, by nature, combative. Gee, who would think that of an infantry officer? It also means that I am more than happy to, well, 'altercate.' That's why I include my e-mail address. If something I wrote really ****es you off, tell me about it. You might convince me I was wrong, or I might change your mind. Either way I am a devout believer in the Hegelian dialectic.
6. Relevant due to #1, nothing I ever write here is approved by the US Government. These are all solely my opinions, observations, and thoughts, and do not reflect the official positions of the USG, the Department of Defense, the United States Army, any unit I have ever been in, or even my own mom and dad. Got that?
OK, well, enough about me. On to important things.
Sri Lanka
A few months ago I was in Sri Lanka, visiting my wife. (She was then posted at the US Embassy, Colombo.) It gave me a new appreciation for the situation there. It is a physically beautiful country which is being torn apart by some of the ugliest human beings extant. In my opinion there is no 'up' side to this conflict at all. Both sides are so deeply mired in feces that it is nearly impossible to extract them. The Sinhalese-Buddhist majority has demonstrated that they are willing to slaughter, massacre, and commit atrocities, and the Tamil-Hindu minority literally invented the modern use of the indiscriminate suicide bomber. And then, on the other side of the planet, this happened today.
But you know what? It did not happen before this appeared. He knew it was coming, and he kept writing anyway. That, friends, is courage. Writing his own beyond-the-grave final editorial just validates that fact. A short extract here, though I recommend following the link:
And Then They Came For Me
No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
So long as Sri Lanka can continue to generate men and women with the courage of Lasantha Wickrematunge, men who manifest the unbelievable courage needed to wield the power of the pen even when directly faced with the power of the sword, then they might, possibly, have a chance. RIP Mr. Wickremantunge. I did not know you. I wish I had. Your country will miss you.
Department of ****ing Me Off
This kind of thing just ****es us off, and it should get you mad too I hope. It does not matter Left or Right, gender or religion, region or nationality, this kind of moronic behavior is dysfunctional. Indeed, it ****es me off so much that I once wrote a book about it. And believe me, you really have to be ****ed to write a whole book about something.
The Surgeon General
President-elect Obama's choice for Surgeon General Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets hit for being a "lightweight" in some corners. People wonder if he is the right man for the job, and I cede that he looked like a rube when he screwed up his facts in a debate with Michael Moore. But you know what? The guy is a brain surgeon, and he is a masterful communicator, and he does have the cojones to accept an assignment from CNN to follow our troops into combat back in 2003. Then, while he was there, he had to stop reporting and go back to being a surgeon...in combat. You know what? That strikes me as a not-bad set of credentials when you want to convince people of something, particularly people who might not otherwise be willing to listen to somebody from the President-elect's side of the aisle.
You can write to LTC Bob at R_Bateman_LTC@hotmail.com
*"PCS" is "Permanent Change of Station" In the acronym crazy world in which I live, this is what we call "moving." Where a civilian might say something like, "Ah hell, corporate headquarters wants me to move to Manhattan." We would say, "Ah hell, PERSCOM just sent orders for me to PCS to Camp Swampy."
** In yet another picture-perfect example of how the different services really are different, we cannot even agree on how to abbreviate this rank. The Army goes with LTC (all caps, three letters), the Marines use LtCol (all together), while the USAF goes with Lt Col (note the gap?). I believe the Navy equivalent rank is, "Ye Grand High Poo-bah, Acolyte to Poseidon" or something squiddy like that, but I'm not too sure on that so don't quote me.***
*** Obviously I am still possibly a little bitter about the sixth, consecutive, disgustingly lopsided, crushing victory of Navy over Army in our annual football match.
Ellie
Eric Alterman
Mon Jan 12, 1:56 pm ET
The Nation -- Hello Altercators, old and new. LTC Bob here, just checking in to the new place.
All this Altercation moving around these past few years really has not bugged me too much. The reason is fairly obvious if you know who I am, or perhaps more specifically, what I am. Among other things (writer, father, historian, husband, singer-of-bad-songs, university professor), I am a professional US Army infantry officer, and I have been for almost twenty years now. That's what that little "LTC" in front of my name means. I am a Lieutenant Colonel, and that is the way that the Army abbreviates that rank.** This matters, you see, because be it peace or war, we soldiers are America's gypsies. Indeed, by the time my oldest daughter was nine years old she had lived in Hawaii, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, New York, and was in the midst of moving to her sixth state, Virginia. That is just the way it is for Soldiers and their families. Packing up and moving is so much a part of the experience that it ceases to be unique in any way. So one more Altercation jump really does not make too much of a difference on this end, my motivation remains the same.
I write for Eric's page because, well, I think that it is important that people should have some knowledge of, and connection to, their own military. To that end I figured it just made sense to write for the audience least likely to have a whole lot of experience with or personal direct connections to the military in general and the Army in particular. At the same time I hope to demystify where needed, explain some things, and express outrage when appropriate...mostly on issues relating either to the US military or some of my other afflictions, notably journalism and history. All of which brought me to Eric's page via my buddy (and former running mate) Pierce.
Now since these are new digs, that means that some healthy proportion of all of you out there reading this have never heard of me. That's cool. I'm not exactly famous by any stretch of the imagination, so don't worry. You are in a majority consisting of 5.999999 Billion. But with that being said I suppose I ought to start out with some disclaimers, just so that we can get them out of the way.
1. No, I am not a Public Relations person (or as we call them in the Army, Public Affairs Officers). Nor am I a virtual avatar created by some consortium of PR and Intel people working deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, intent on twisting your malleable minds. I really do exist. I live on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, for now and several Altercation readers have actually met me, as have Eric, Pierce and others.
2. Nothing I write is vetted by any higher authority. At the same time, you will not see me violating "OPSEC" (Operational Security, meaning that I won't tell you any secret stuff), and you will not see me making any disparaging comments about any currently seated political leader of either political party. That is the small trade off, the bit of my First Amendment rights that I give up in return for the power given to me by Congress.
3. Yes, I am a historian. I was once a professor at West Point, then for a little bit at George Mason, and currently I teach grad students in the Security Studies program at Georgetown University in my spare time after work. It is fun. I really like being a professor. As we used to say at USMA, "I teach for free, but I get paid to grade."
4. Yes, I write a lot of other stuff in other places, all of which meets the same criteria as you see in #1. I've got a hint for you though: When I am really ****ed about a current event which I am not allowed to talk about directly, I am not above writing an article using historical foundations. Readers can then decide for themselves if there are parallels.
5. I am, by nature, combative. Gee, who would think that of an infantry officer? It also means that I am more than happy to, well, 'altercate.' That's why I include my e-mail address. If something I wrote really ****es you off, tell me about it. You might convince me I was wrong, or I might change your mind. Either way I am a devout believer in the Hegelian dialectic.
6. Relevant due to #1, nothing I ever write here is approved by the US Government. These are all solely my opinions, observations, and thoughts, and do not reflect the official positions of the USG, the Department of Defense, the United States Army, any unit I have ever been in, or even my own mom and dad. Got that?
OK, well, enough about me. On to important things.
Sri Lanka
A few months ago I was in Sri Lanka, visiting my wife. (She was then posted at the US Embassy, Colombo.) It gave me a new appreciation for the situation there. It is a physically beautiful country which is being torn apart by some of the ugliest human beings extant. In my opinion there is no 'up' side to this conflict at all. Both sides are so deeply mired in feces that it is nearly impossible to extract them. The Sinhalese-Buddhist majority has demonstrated that they are willing to slaughter, massacre, and commit atrocities, and the Tamil-Hindu minority literally invented the modern use of the indiscriminate suicide bomber. And then, on the other side of the planet, this happened today.
But you know what? It did not happen before this appeared. He knew it was coming, and he kept writing anyway. That, friends, is courage. Writing his own beyond-the-grave final editorial just validates that fact. A short extract here, though I recommend following the link:
And Then They Came For Me
No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.
So long as Sri Lanka can continue to generate men and women with the courage of Lasantha Wickrematunge, men who manifest the unbelievable courage needed to wield the power of the pen even when directly faced with the power of the sword, then they might, possibly, have a chance. RIP Mr. Wickremantunge. I did not know you. I wish I had. Your country will miss you.
Department of ****ing Me Off
This kind of thing just ****es us off, and it should get you mad too I hope. It does not matter Left or Right, gender or religion, region or nationality, this kind of moronic behavior is dysfunctional. Indeed, it ****es me off so much that I once wrote a book about it. And believe me, you really have to be ****ed to write a whole book about something.
The Surgeon General
President-elect Obama's choice for Surgeon General Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets hit for being a "lightweight" in some corners. People wonder if he is the right man for the job, and I cede that he looked like a rube when he screwed up his facts in a debate with Michael Moore. But you know what? The guy is a brain surgeon, and he is a masterful communicator, and he does have the cojones to accept an assignment from CNN to follow our troops into combat back in 2003. Then, while he was there, he had to stop reporting and go back to being a surgeon...in combat. You know what? That strikes me as a not-bad set of credentials when you want to convince people of something, particularly people who might not otherwise be willing to listen to somebody from the President-elect's side of the aisle.
You can write to LTC Bob at R_Bateman_LTC@hotmail.com
*"PCS" is "Permanent Change of Station" In the acronym crazy world in which I live, this is what we call "moving." Where a civilian might say something like, "Ah hell, corporate headquarters wants me to move to Manhattan." We would say, "Ah hell, PERSCOM just sent orders for me to PCS to Camp Swampy."
** In yet another picture-perfect example of how the different services really are different, we cannot even agree on how to abbreviate this rank. The Army goes with LTC (all caps, three letters), the Marines use LtCol (all together), while the USAF goes with Lt Col (note the gap?). I believe the Navy equivalent rank is, "Ye Grand High Poo-bah, Acolyte to Poseidon" or something squiddy like that, but I'm not too sure on that so don't quote me.***
*** Obviously I am still possibly a little bitter about the sixth, consecutive, disgustingly lopsided, crushing victory of Navy over Army in our annual football match.
Ellie