Lt. Col. Edith A Disler, an associate professor of English and deputy head of the Department of English at the Air Force Academy, argues that the Air Force is attempting to reassert its masculinity through language.

Essentially, she argues that two prominent, rather recent linguistic changes or additions have intentionally excluded women serving in the Air Force.

After deeming the Air Force a support service (rather than a mainly combat service; which I would argue is correct in our current conflicts aside from the Close Air Support they provide allied ground troops), she writes:

Women have long and proudly served in almost any support function one can name — the types of functions dominant in the Air Force today. In the face of this reality, its feminine implications, and leadership’s sense that “Congress doesn’t see what the Air Force is bringing to the fight,” inhabitants of the E-ring have engaged a stealthy and powerful weapon of choice — language — to consciously instantiate reification of the male elite. Such language cloaks women in the Air Force as assuredly as our enemies and potential enemies cloak their women in conservative Islamic dress. Sadly, the use of the term “wingman” is just the start.

I’m not certain that it’s a conscious decision on the part of the Air Force leadership to exclude women through the use of language. I do think they should have taken into consideration the diversity of the force, though. There’s no excuse for the Air Force leadership to have missed the implications of such uses of language. But I don’t think it was malicious.

She does make a good point when she says this, though:

Were you to attempt to attract my attention by calling out, “Hey there, airman,” I would assume that a young enlisted member was nearby and I would neither lift my head nor break my stride. Further, as a lieutenant colonel, I consider myself an airman neither by rank nor by sex.

I don’t want to quote too much more because I want those of you who, like me, enjoy the study of language to read the article yourselves, but I did want to add this:

Lt. Col. Disler recounts watching a video that encouraged airmen to turn in other airmen they witnessed perpetrating a rape:

The video implores its viewers to “take care of your wingman.” Apparently the leadership didn’t know that they’d perpetrated a double entendre of the grandest proportion. In the parlance of today’s 20-somethings, a man who knows that another male is a sexual predator and facilitates that predatory nature is known as a “wingman.” Enter the term into your search engine of choice and you will learn that a “wingman” is a man who occupies the attentions of less attractive women so that his “pilot” can target, as it were, the attractive ones. In the Air Force video, the airman rapist, a man, is known by a friend, a man, to be a sexual predator — the enabler is thus the “wingman” of popular American culture.

. . .

At best, the leadership is out of touch with the societal surround of the demographic at which the film was targeted: 19-25 year olds. At worst, the leadership has created a nefarious subtext. Overtly, the leadership is sending a message of teamwork; covertly, however, the Air Force video invokes a term — “wingman” — peculiar to the overwhelmingly male-dominated fighter aircraft community, thereby reinforcing predatory “work hard, play hard” behaviors consistent with the “flyboy” myth of the fighter pilot. In lieu of the term “wingman,” the leadership could easily have invoked a plethora of more widely known, or at least non-gendered, terms that denote teamwork and mutual concern. Instead, the leadership chose a term from the Air Force community statistically least populated by women, nepotistically retaining delusions of self-made grandeur in hopes of fending off threats to the service’s masculinity.

I agree, I agree. I do think the Air Force leadership is out of touch with the civilian world, and especially the age group she mentions — just like the civilian world is almost completely out of touch with the military subculture. I also think that this argument (that the Air Force used a loaded word in the video that will/would likely result in ridicule rather than instruction) is stronger than her first (that the Air Force is consciously making malicious decisions in their use of language).

I will agree that, on some level, these are conscious decisions, especially in the case of the rape video. “Wingman” is probably used more by civilian college-age males than Air Force personnel (given that pilots are a fairly small percentage of the force). However, again, I don’t believe it is malicious.

And I love her closing:

Words create our worlds — hostile worlds, gentle worlds, artistic worlds and militaristic worlds. The words “duty, honor, country,” “integrity, service, excellence,” “selflessness,” and “sacrifice” invoke worlds that demand devotion enough, without ranking maleness above femaleness or killing above reluctance to kill.

Read the whole thing and let me know what you think.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who led troops in Iraq for the past year, will be nominated by President Bush to be the next commander of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Gates said he expected Petraeus to make the shift in late summer or early fall. The Pentagon chief also announced that Bush will nominate Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno to replace Petraeus in Baghdad.

Central Command oversees the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

. . .

At a hastily arranged Pentagon news conference, Gates said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other problems in the Central Command area of responsibility, demand knowledge of how to fight counterinsurgencies as well as other unconventional conflicts.

“I don’t know anybody in the U.S. military better qualified to lead that effort,” he said, referring to Petraeus.

Asked if moving Petraeus from the Iraq command could interrupt momentum against the insurgency, Gates said that by waiting until late summer or early fall he hoped to “ensure plenty of time to prepare for a good handoff.” He said it also would help that Odierno has had experience as “Petraeus’ right-hand man” over the last year.

If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus would replace Navy Adm. William Fallon, who abruptly stepped down in March after a magazine reported that he was at odds with President Bush over Iran policy. Fallon said the report, while not true, had become a distraction.

[Emphasis Mine]

A truer statement than Secretary Gates’ I could not make.

Some of my favorite COIN bloggers, though, disagree with Gen. Petraeus’ appointment — and its possible after-effects.

In another story, retold recently in Youngstown, Ohio, she describes a “young woman who lost her husband in Iraq, a lovely young woman who had a daughter.”

“Here’s what happened to her,” Clinton said. “She was given $6,000. She was told to leave the [military] base within 90 days. She was told her daughter was no longer eligible for Army medical care. She was basically on her own. So I said, ‘That’s not right.’ So we began to work to change what was really cruel — you lose your husband, you lose your wife, you lose your mom or your dad, and you’re out, and nobody seemed to care.”

Nice story. Too bad it’s false.

In a 22 March 2008 story in The New York Times, death benefits given to military families are outlined:

Three years ago, advocates for military families succeeded in winning a significant expansion in survivor benefits, which include life insurance, a death gratuity, medical care and housing and education assistance.

. . .

In 2005, the so-called death gratuity — the sum given to survivors for an active-duty death — jumped to $100,000 from $12,420, and the military’s group life insurance maximum rose to $400,000 from $250,000. Both are retroactive to October 2001, covering the nearly 4,500 service members who have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since.

There are myriad other survivor benefits, too, many determined by specific circumstances. Joyce Wessel Raezer, chief operating officer of the National Military Family Association, said that a hypothetical widow of an Army corporal based at Fort Drum, in upstate New York, with three years of service and two young children would likely receive payments totaling $5,335 a month for the first year. In addition, a spouse would get free medical care for three years — the children into adulthood — and all would receive education assistance.

Through private companies, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides insurance beneficiaries the service of a professional financial planner for a year, but a spokesman said that only one in 10 families uses it.

So, let’s see, Clinton said that:

1. The wife was given $6,000. Huh? Any other time I would assume that was the basic death gratuity to cover funeral expenses, but that was over $12,000 before being increased to $100,000 three years ago. So, false.
2. The wife was given 90 days to move off-base. Probably correct — for obvious reasons.
3. She said the daughter was no longer eligible for military health care. Completely and utterly false. Not only is her daughter eligible for military health care until she’s an adult, but the wife continues to receive it for three more years.

So she’s either out-right lying or just doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about — which she should because I’m certain the increase in death benefits had to be approved by the Senate.

This is what we want in a president?

Duck and cover! It’s a sniper!

UPDATE: Hillary’s campaign site notes that:

She cosponsored the Military Death Benefit Improvement Act to raise the military survivor benefit from $12,000 to $100,000.

So that’s something.

It reminds me of that quote from Kurt von Hammerstein:

I divide officers into four classes — the clever, the lazy, the stupid and the industrious. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest command. He has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately.

I once thought Bush fit in the clever and lazy category which is good for a President. After a while it became clear that stupid and lazy was closer to the mark which is a bad thing but not the worst. But it’s clear that around him are serried ranks of the stupid and industrious and the sooner the whole lot are gone the better. Is this the worst, most willfully blind wartime leadership in American history? I think it is.

[Hotel Tango: Kings of War]

By law, most skin mags can’t be sold in military stores. Playboy and Penthouse aren’t deemed scandalous enough to fall under those regulations, though.

When I was in Air Force technical school, you could have porn in your room as long as it didn’t involve penetration. The service wanted to save penetration for itself. “If anyone’s going to get fucked up the ass, it’s going to be you, airman, with this 24-foot Air Force cock.”

What kind of wacko group — okay, we know what kind, Donald Wildmon’s — would want to keep porn mags from highly armed, young, over-testosteroned soldiers faced with a dearth of real, live females (what’s the ratio of males to females in the military, anyone? Bueller?)?

You’re old enough to kill, son, but don’t touch yourself. You’ll go blind.

A commenter on the story over at Military.com summed it up nicely:

Pornography is one of the things that seperate us from the Islamofacists and Sharia law.

Porno is Patriotic

Damn unpatriotic, troop-hating Christian fanatics.

Whereas President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947, to realign and reorganize the Armed Forces and to create a separate Department of the Air… (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)

HCON 207 EH

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 207

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947, to realign and reorganize the Armed Forces and to create a separate Department of the Air Force from the existing military services;

Whereas the National Security Act of 1947 was enacted on September 18, 1947;

Whereas the Aeronautical Division of the United States Army Signal Corps, consisting of one officer and two enlisted men, began operation under the command of Captain Charles DeForest Chandler on August 1, 1907, with the responsibility for `all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines, and all kindred subjects’;

Whereas in 1908, the Department of War contracted with the Wright brothers to build one heavier-than-air flying machine for the United States Army, and accepted the Wright Military Flyer, the world’s first military airplane, in 1909;

Whereas United States pilots, flying with both allied air forces and with the Army Air Service, performed admirably in the course of World War I, participating in pursuit, observation, and day and night bombing missions;

Whereas pioneering aviators of the United States, including Mason M. Patrick, William `Billy’ Mitchell, Benjamin D. Foulois, Frank M. Andrews, Henry `Hap’ Arnold, James `Jimmy’ H. Doolittle, and Edward `Eddie’ Rickenbacker, were among the first to recognize the military potential of air power and courageously forged the foundations for the creation of an independent arm for air forces in the United States in the decades following World War I;

Whereas on June 20, 1941, the Department of War created the Army Air Forces (AAF) as its aviation element and shortly thereafter the Department of War made the AAF co-equal to the Army Ground Forces;

Whereas General Henry H. `Hap’ Arnold drew upon the industrial prowess and human resources of the United States to transform the Army Air Corps from a force of 22,400 men and 2,402 aircraft in 1939 to a peak wartime strength of 2.4 million personnel and 79,908 aircraft;

Whereas the standard for courage, flexibility, and intrepidity in combat was established for all Airmen during the first aerial raid in the Pacific Theater on April 18, 1942, when Lieutenant Colonel James `Jimmy’ H. Doolittle led 16 North American B-25 Mitchell bombers in a joint operation from the deck of the naval carrier USS Hornet to strike the Japanese mainland in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor;

Whereas President Harry S. Truman supported organizing air power as an equal arm of the military forces of the United States, writing on December 19, 1945, that air power had developed so that the responsibilities and contributions to military strategic planning of air power equaled those of land and sea power;

Whereas on September 18, 1947, W. Stuart Symington became the first Secretary of the newly formed and independent United States Air Force (USAF), and on September 26, 1947, General Carl A. Spaatz became the first Chief of Staff of the USAF;

Whereas the Air National Guard was also created by the National Security Act of 1947 and has played a vital role in guarding the United States and defending freedom in nearly every major conflict and contingency since its inception;

Whereas on October 14, 1947, the USAF demonstrated its historic and ongoing commitment to technological innovation when Captain Charles `Chuck’ Yeager piloted the X-1 developmental rocket plane to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first flyer to break the sound barrier in a powered aircraft in level flight;

Whereas the USAF Reserve, created April 14, 1948, is comprised of Citizen Airmen who steadfastly sacrifice personal fortune and family comfort in order to serve as unrivaled wingmen of the active duty USAF in every deployment, mission, and battlefield around the globe;

Whereas the USAF operated the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and 1949 to provide humanitarian relief to post-war Germany and has established a tradition of humanitarian assistance in responding to natural disasters and needs across the world;

Whereas the USAF announced a policy of racial integration in the ranks of the USAF on April 26, 1948, 3 months prior to a Presidential mandate to integrate all military services;

Whereas in the early years of the Cold War, the USAF’s arsenal of bombers, such as the long-range Convair B-58 Hustler and B-36 Peacemaker, and the Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress, under the command of General Curtis LeMay served as the United States’ preeminent deterrent against Soviet Union forces and were later augmented by the development and deployment of medium range and intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as the Titan and Minuteman developed by General Bernard A. Schriever;

Whereas the USAF, employing the first large-scale combat use of jet aircraft, helped to establish air superiority over the Korean peninsula, protected ground forces of the United Nations with close air support, and interdicted enemy reinforcements and supplies during the conflict in Korea;

Whereas after the development of launch vehicles and orbital satellites, the mission of the USAF expanded into space and today provides exceptional real-time global communications, environmental monitoring, navigation, precision timing, missile warning, nuclear deterrence, and space surveillance;

Whereas USAF Airmen have contributed to the manned space program of the United States since the program’s inception and throughout the program’s development at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by dedicating themselves wholly to space exploration despite the risks of exploration;

Whereas the USAF engaged in a limited campaign of air power to assist the South Vietnamese government in countering the communist Viet Cong guerillas during the Vietnam War and fought to disrupt supply lines, halt enemy ground offensives, and protect United States and Allied forces;

Whereas Airmen were imprisoned and tortured during the Vietnam War and, in the valiant tradition of Airmen held captive in previous conflicts, continued serving the United States with honor and dignity under the most inhumane circumstances;

Whereas, in recent decades, the USAF and coalition partners of the United States have supported successful actions in Panama, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other locations around the globe;

Whereas Pacific Air Forces, along with Asia-Pacific partners of the United States, ensure peace and advance freedom from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of Africa and from the Arctic to the Antarctic, covering more than 100 million square miles and the homes of 2 billion people in 44 countries;

Whereas the United States Air Forces in Europe, along with European partners of the United States, have shaped the history of Europe from World War II, the Cold War, Operation Deliberate Force, and Operation Allied Force to today’s operations, and secured stability and ensured freedom’s future in Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia;

Whereas, for 17 consecutive years beginning with 1990, Airmen have been engaged in full-time combat operations ranging from Desert Shield to Iraqi Freedom, and have shown themselves to be an expeditionary air and space force of outstanding capability ready to fight and win wars of the United States when and where Airmen are called upon to do so;

Whereas the USAF is steadfast in its commitment to field a world-class, expeditionary air force by recruiting, training, and educating its Total Force of active duty, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, and civilian personnel;

Whereas the USAF is a trustworthy steward of resources, developing and applying technology, managing professional acquisition programs, and maintaining exacting test, evaluation, and sustainment criteria for all USAF weapon systems throughout such weapon systems’ life cycles;

Whereas, when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, USAF fighter and air refueling aircraft took to the skies to fly combat air patrols over major United States cities and protect families, friends, and neighbors of people of the United States from further attack;

Whereas, on December 7, 2005, the USAF modified its mission statement to include flying and fighting in cyberspace and prioritized the development, maintenance, and sustainment of war fighting capabilities to deliver unrestricted access to cyberspace and defend the United States and its global interests;

Whereas Airmen around the world are committed to fighting and winning the Global War on Terror and have flown more than 430,000 sorties to precisely target and engage insurgents who attempt to violently disrupt rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas talented and dedicated Airmen will meet the future challenges of an ever-changing world with strength and resolve;

Whereas the USAF, together with its joint partners, will continue to be the United States’ leading edge in the ongoing fight to ensure the safety and security of the United States; and

Whereas during the past 60 years, the USAF has repeatedly proved its value to the Nation, fulfilling its critical role in national defense, and protecting peace, liberty, and freedom throughout the world: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress remembers, honors, and commends the achievements of the United States Air Force in serving and defending the United States on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the United States Air Force as an independent military service.

Passed the House of Representatives September 18, 2007.

Attest:

Clerk.

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 207

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the United States Air Force as an independent military service.

[Hotel Tango: Air Force Association]

Abu Muqawama has always been a big fan of the late French intellectual Raymond Aron. Aron, writing in his newspaper column for Le Figaro, believed it was the responsibility of the public intellectual to make a careful study of the issues at hand — economics, military strategy, etc. — before putting pen to paper and presuming anyone should read what you have written.

Then he takes Maureen Dowd to task for her latest column on the Petraeus/Crocker reports:

Shut up. Shut up now. There is nothing in your cleverer-than-thou repertoire of pop culture references and mildly amusing 8th-grade literary devices that prepares you to even open your mouth to say anything about the war in Iraq. Just be quiet. Transport yourself back to the 1990s when the biggest issue facing the country was the president’s extramarital sex life, because for those times you were perfect. Now, you’re worthless. As a matter of fact, you’re worse than worthless. Because you, writing on the allegedly-serious op-ed page of the New York Times, give everyone else an excuse to treat this war and the debate surrounding it as flippantly as you do. If you want to be taken seriously, take the issue seriously. Study it. Learn about it. Talk to people who might know something.

And if you still don’t have anything of substance to say, keep quiet. This is why you don’t see Abu Muqawama writing anything about Manolo Blahniks. That’s your territory.

This goes for MoveOn and any number of other op-ed writers and bloggers.

Inform yourselves before you start talking shit. Otherwise, you’re no different from the ideology-driven folks marching in lock-step behind Bush.

. . . [W]hen the invasion of Iraq was being planned, Kilcullen was one of a handful of senior military advisers in the coalition of the willing to voice a dissenting view. “I was one of a bunch of people … who said ‘Iraq is going to be a lot harder than you people seem to think, based on 20 years of experience doing it and studying it. It’s going to take a lot more than you seem to be willing to commit.”‘

If you don’t want to read a Bible-genealogy-like listing of his achievements, skip this next quote:

Kilcullen is one of the most influential Australian military minds of his generation. He grew up on Sydney’s north shore, the son of academics. He studied counterinsurgency as a cadet at Duntroon, served for more than 20 years in the Australian Army and was awarded a PhD in political science from the University fo NSW for a thesis on Indonesian insurgent and terrorist groups and counterinsurgency methods. He has been a military adviser to the Indonesian Special Forces in counterinsurgency, taught counterinsurgency tactics at the British School of Infantry, and served in peacekeeping operations in Cyprus and Bougainville. Kilcullen also commanded an Australian infantry company in counterinsurgency operations in East Timor and trained and led East Timorese forces after the independence vote in 1999. He was a special adviser for irregular warfare to the 2005 US Quadrennial Defence Review and is Rice’s chief strategist on counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism, working in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.

His no-nonsense guide to fighting insurgents, The 28 Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level CounterInsurgency, is used by the US, Australian, British, Canadian, Dutch, Iraqi and Afghan armies as a training document.

And I love these parts:

“Part of it is that I’m not political. Not Democrat, not Republican. I have no party affiliation in Australia either, so I don’t have to say, ‘It’s all going very well, Mr President.’ I just tell it like it is.”

. . .

Kilcullen says he’s been targeted in Iraq as a civilian adviser but he has also been targeted in the US. “There’s this war about Iraq going on in Washington. I have been targeted by enemy insurgents but also by the far Right and the far Left in American politics as a bit of a hate figure.

“The far Right thinks I’m too nice to Muslims and that I should be killing more of the enemy and focusing less on the population, and I should be saying up-front Islam is the problem, which is not the case. And the far Left think I’m some sort of Nazi occupation leader locking up Iraqis.”

. . .

“Some on the far Right call me a jihadist lover but I’ve got a pretty long body count of jihadists that I’ve either killed or put in jail. These dudes who sit behind desks in Washington, when you’ve killed half a dozen jihadists you can come and talk to me about not liking jihadists.”

Nice. These guys don’t mess around. That’s why I’m glad we have them over there leading now.

Read the whole story, though. I’ve just pointed out his achievements and a funny part I like. The real meat is in the story.

Lest we forget . . .

Army Chief of Staff George Casey on Tuesday said his heavily deployed force is “out of balance” after six years of operations overseas.

The Army is “consumed” with meeting current demands, making it difficult to prepare forces as rapidly as service leaders would like for future contingencies, Casey said during a speech at the National Press Club. Casey, who served as the top military commander in Iraq before taking over as Army chief in April, also acknowledged that soldiers do not have “acceptable” time off between deployments.

. . .

Over time, these operations have stretched and, as a result, have stressed our all-volunteer force,” Casey said. “But we remain a resilient and committed professional force.”

Efforts to grow the size of the Army by 65,000 troops will require “considerable resources and sustained national commitment” but will ease deployment pressures, Casey added.

Casey also stressed that Army officials do not plan to reinstate a military draft, even as the weight of constant deployments bears down on the all-volunteer Army. “Right now, there is absolutely no consideration, at least within the Army, being given to reinstating the draft,” Casey said. “We are not to that point.”

Casey’s comments come just days after White House Deputy National Security Adviser Douglas Lute said in a National Public Radio interview that the draft has always been “an option on the table.”

Personally, I’m surprised anyone in the administration would leave even that much leeway for interpretation. Bet Cheney ripped him a new asshole when he got off the phone with NPR.

As I’ve always said, I’m happy to head over (my Air Force service notwithstanding) as long as everyone else has to as well — men and women, no deferments for rich kids or college students or any of the other avenues that allowed the current crop of cronies in the White House to get out of serving.