Angry While Black

“Anger has its place,” writes Bob Herbert — and he is angry:

No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and the awful clamping of handcuffs on the wrists of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be led off to jail by 12:51.

The charge: angry while black.

The Biggest Story Not Reported BY MSM

I heard about this on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and am providing a link to the source.  This is obviously a story that the Obama Administration/Pentagon would rather not see in the MSM and one the MSM will NOT cover.  This is a story about a unit based at Fort Carson, Colorado.  The story could be about any large U.S. Army base – Fort Benning, Fort Campbell, Fort Hood, Fort Bragg – I repeat myself, any large U. S. Army base.

Lest you think this story by Mr. Dave Philipps is an anomaly, Google ‘soldier violence “Ft Campbell” KY.’  Insert any Fort you want (use Camp for Marine Corps) and see the violence that has been perpatrated (mostly on their wives) by military folks that have spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here and here and here are a few links to get you started.

Primer on Afghan Society

Like a lot of Americans, I followed and wondered about the “war” in Afghanistan.  I mean we’ve been there almost eight years and last month, July 2009, was the most deadly for U. S.  troops. 

And like a lot of Americans, I wondered, “Why?”  I thought, this is a simple problem, right?  Get rid of the Taliban and Afghanistan will be on the road to nation-hood.  Simple.  But as time passed and nothing really improved, I thought, “There must be something else going on here.”

I know where Afghanistan is on the map.  I had read James Mincher’s “Caravans,” but was wholly ignorant of how Afghan society functioned.