A lot of discussion is being made about the attack on Fort Hood, where a psychiatrist went amok and decided to kill his fellow soldiers.
Here in the Philippines, we sometimes see a quiet guy suddenly go “amok” and machete his relatives or superiors. Usually people can’t understand it, but actually everyone figures he had finally […]

read more from this topic.....

Who among us has not had their faith challenged? What are we to tell the person who, for whatever reason, has lost faith in God? Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow examines how a young boy destined for the clergy became a soldier in WWII. After killing numerous […]

read more from this topic.....

Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. media has not yet picked up on the latest diplomatic controversy between Poland and the U.S. But the public disagreement between President Obama’s new ambassador in Warsaw Lee A. Feinstein and the Polish defense minister over plans to send additional Polish troops to Afghanistan is drawing media attention in Poland.

read more from this topic.....

Ah, a British paper just pooh poohed the British victory at the Battle of Agincourt, saying that Prince Hal was not outnumbered 4 to 1, merely outnumbered 2 to 1.
Actually, the author misses the point, which is that the elite knights of France got slowed down by the mud and were massacred by ordinary British […]

read more from this topic.....

A cancer support group in Pennsylvania is seeking out local veterans in the hope of being able to provide both the veterans and their families with information, education, and support about possible exposure to carcinogenic substances during their military careers.
The Veterans and Cancer Project is seeking out veterans because they are between twenty five percent […]

read more from this topic.....

President Obama was brought up in Asia, yet he seems clueless about Afghanistan, and of the geopolitical problems in this area.
The press is even worse, preferring the simplistic out of date explanations of the “Afghanistan is Viet Nam” meme, or the “Stop the war” meme, or stressing civilian casualties “reported” by Taliban linked sources without […]

read more from this topic.....

Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Blinken, national security adviser to the vice president, said in a briefing with reporters before Biden left for Europe October 20, that leaders in Warsaw, Bucharest and Prague should think less of what the U.S. can do for them and more about what they can do with the United States.

read more from this topic.....

In this day and age, it is difficult to get people to clearly tell you what they believe and support. It’s pretty much impossible to get this honesty from politicians. I have decided to air out my views on a variety of topics, at the risk of possibly alienating a few. I believe it is […]

read more from this topic.....

First came Typhoon Ondoy, which flooded Manila and the Laguna area.
Manila had at least one million people displaced from their homes due to flooding, and many whose houses were built in low lying areas were drowned from flash flooding that they did not expect. When even movie stars have to flee to the rooftops of […]

read more from this topic.....

So I’ve learned many things in my young life…well, maybe not so young anymore. Nonetheless, I have learned enough from 16 years in the Marine Corps to feel confident discussing some of the finer aspects of leadership. I attempted to give our POTUS a heads up with an article I wrote earlier this year, but […]

read more from this topic.....

Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Displaying unprecedented boldness for a US diplomatic mission, the US Embassy in Warsaw conceded on its official public website that Poles believe that the “insensitive timing” — as the Embassy put it — of the Obama administration announcement on canceling the US missile shield system in Central Europe “shows that Obama […]

read more from this topic.....

The flood waters in Manila are slowly subsiding. Family members who traveled to Manila yesterday for business reported that most of the roads were clear, but that the garbage and mud from the floods were all over the place. Some of the roads remained blocked, including major highway “underpasses” that were now lakes of water.
Several […]

read more from this topic.....

We’ve all played the waiting game – that inevitable time period between putting that first word on our eagerly awaited book-to-be to the time it finally becomes published.J.R. Hauptman, author of The Target: Love, Death and Airline Deregulation, waited twenty years for his book to be published. He began the book about five years after […]

read more from this topic.....

Dr. Diep Le is fixing teeth in Quang Tri province.
Ho hum, another do gooder article, let’s all look away to the good stuff: blood and guts and political mudslinging.
But hold it a second. There is a lot more to the story.

Not only is Major Le an American born in Viet Nam, but she is working […]

read more from this topic.....

The Associated Press has released a photo of Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, which graphically portrays the Marine shortly after being hit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) during a firefight in the Helmland Province of Southern Afghanistan.  LCpl Bernard later died from the injuries suffered in the attack.
The parents of LCpl Bernard were shown […]

read more from this topic.....

I started working on an article earlier this morning about Representative Charles Rangel and his attempt to throw the race card into the healthcare reform debate.  In researching past quotes of Charles Rangel, I came across a quote of his which makes me want to immediately fly to New York or Washington DC, wherever this uneducated […]

read more from this topic.....

A lot of nonsense being written in the news about Conservative writer George Will deciding to throw in the towel in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a mess. Big deal. It’s been a mess for a couple thousand years, and trying to “win” a war there and put in a crumpets and tea democracy is a bit delusional.
But […]

read more from this topic.....

On August 15th (August 14 in the US), Japan surrendered, ending the long struggles of World War II.
One would think that the end of a war that cost millions of Asian civilians their lives would cause rejoicing, but a lot of news organizations are ignoring the story.
The New York Times, admonished last year by a […]

read more from this topic.....

Michael Jackson was a pop star icon who earned the title, ‘King of Pop.’  He was a talented singer and dancer who broke down barriers for the African-American community.  Unfortunately, he was also a tortured soul who suffered through two marriages and divorces, along with medical and substance abuse problems.  His lifestyle and behavior often […]

read more from this topic.....

Like most children, I hated Brussel sprouts, which were soggy, bitter and terrible tasting. Indeed, they come in first in a UK poll on the most hated vegetable.
But they are a source of Vitamin C, and in places like Great Britain they are part of the traditional Christmas dinner.
But now, to the horror of sprout […]

read more from this topic.....

You wonder where authors get ideas for writing books.  They might see a movie which triggers an idea or maybe even a living experience that makes them say, “This would make a great book!”
J.R. Hauptman got the inspiration for writing his book, The Target, from his life experiences as a professional pilot.
Hauptman enlisted in the […]

read more from this topic.....

Who’s Your Daddy?
People say you can’t judge a book by its cover.   Maybe so; but the minute I laid eyes on the cover of Hell Hawks: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht, I had to read the book.  Why?  Because I wanted to find out if these guys really did […]

read more from this topic.....

Imagine the scandal.
A well known war leader’s body was taken from a cemetery on Federal land, and his skull used as an object of ridicule by the enemy. The family is requesting their return, but the bones are owned by a group that includes some of the most influential people in the land, so their […]

read more from this topic.....

The Supreme Court has rejected the effort to eliminate the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the military which, if you don’t understand the policy, SHOULD mean that the subject of sexual orientation is completely off limits. It doesn’t, however, work that way!
Here’s a scenario:
Engineman 2nd Class Fred Winters returns to his ship after a […]

read more from this topic.....

Every day we see some new concern in the western media, our media or some apex western meeting. Richard Holbrooke’s recent congressional hearing was quite pithy in this context. One comment from BBC’s anchor is still frozen in my memory, that some people argue that instead of AfPak policy it should be called the PakAf […]

read more from this topic.....

The reports now coming out of foreign press sources are eerily similar to John McCain’s accounts of his P.O.W. treatment at the Hanoi Hilton. The Telegraph, a British media outlet, last week released photos  of Guantanamo abuses that President Obama had just announced would be kept confidential. And the government of Spain revealed that despite the president’s […]

read more from this topic.....

You may be thinking that I am talking about the female servicemember, but I am actually talking about her counterpart, the military spouse (of which approximately 93 percent are still women).   According to the Rand Corporation, the research organization often used to conduct studies for the Department of Defense, although military spouses often have more […]

read more from this topic.....

Ever since the Obama administration released memos describing the types of enhanced interrogation techniques used by the C.I.A. to extract information from top-level al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terrorists, there has been a running debate on a myriad of questions, including:
† Whether the memos should have been released;
† Whether all or just some of […]

read more from this topic.....

The Philippine military continue to pursue the AbuSayyaf who hold one remaining European hostage in Sulu province.
Usually hostages get quickly ransomed for fear of being killed, but in this case things are slightly different.
For one thing, those kidnapped were from the International Red Cross, and were there to help the local Muslims: a fact that […]

read more from this topic.....

The headlines here in the Philippines are full of the usual stuff: corruption, political charges, a celebrity’s wife who was shot, and of course our lovely president, Gloria Arroyo, traveling the world to get more jobs for our Overseas foreign workers.
But one small story on GMA NEWS caught my eye:
About 30 troops from the Hawaii […]

read more from this topic.....