Ralph Peters Finds the Deep End….and Keeps on Going

Yankee Sailor:

July 21st, 2009 at 6:59 pm

I think Peters in on crack most of the time. He’s a solid example of the old-school, paranoid reactionary in the Curtis LeMay mold.

Lexington Green:

July 21st, 2009 at 7:17 pm

Peters is best when he has a lot of layers of editing and time to tame his own spasmodic responses.  His essays in Parameters ten years ago were brilliant.  They were strongly worded, but had been through the mill and were finished and thoughtful pieces.  His journalism is sometimes good, but often  knee-jerk and ill-considered and overly shrill.  Live, with no filter, he cannot work the backspace button and  undo the first wild outburst that crosses his mind, then he has to dig and fight on the ground he put himself on. 

tdaxp:

July 21st, 2009 at 7:31 pm

Even if everything Peters said is true, the idea of outsourcing a portion of the US Security Operation (discipline of soldiers in wartime) to the Taliban is somewhat radical…

josephfouche:

July 22nd, 2009 at 12:50 am

I’m reminded of a remark by Benjamin Franklin about John Adams: "He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, he is absolutely out of his senses."

Eddie:

July 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 am

He is of the Jacksonian mold of national outlook and seems extremely pissed about the dishonor of this alleged deserter cavorting with the enemy’s talking points at will.
He is also probably annoyed as hell that the media will talk about this guy for weeks and make the family out to be national martyrs or something close while the average GI’s death receives next to nothing. He is saying publicly what a good number of people will say privately, though his comment is not nearly as inflammatory as the (long since blacklisted Army retiree) guy who was on some network right after 9/11 and had the stones to ask how 3 planeloads of dozens of Americans let a few guys with boxcutters take them over and crash them into buildings.

I  certainly concur though w/ the remarks of the previous commenters. I think he is just seriously pissed, with the anger overwhelming his good sense and public bearing. Rather admirable in the sense that Peters won’t wimp out like most talking heads do.

A.E.:

July 22nd, 2009 at 3:47 am

lol @ "anchor-babe"

zen:

July 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 am

"Rather admirable in the sense that Peters won’t wimp out like most talking heads do."
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No, I would not accuse Peters of hedging on what he really thinks. Here’s my problem with what he did:
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I realize that there is very ugly, backchannel, stuff being put out about this guy because I’ve seen it. It might be accurate or it might not. I recall receiving similar crap some years ago about some US soldiers in Afghanistan who allegedly "desecrated" the bodies of Taliban dead and needed to be punished for "war crimes". It came to me directly from official spokesmen sending it…umm…"unofficially"and I swallowed it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t true and some soldiers who actually were out under fire were being thrown under the bus by clever guys in office chairs with ISP connections. Having learned that lesson, I am reserving judgment here and Peters would be advised to do the same – while the prisoner is not coming across as John McCain or James Stockdale, we might next see this guy getting his head cut off on the internet. Peters is actually egging the Taliban on to do exactly that!
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Disturbing to me on a whole series of levels.

Andrew Lubin:

July 22nd, 2009 at 5:19 am

While Peters comes across as very harsh; he’s completely correct. Not only did this kid walk off his base, but his buddies at the front gate let him go…what kind of Army security is this? Seems to me that the army might have bigger problems in training and wartime discipline than just this single young man.

Eddie:

July 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 am

Zen, I agree that he should not be advocating for the "outsourcing a portion of the US Security Operation (discipline of soldiers in wartime) to the Taliban" as Dan would put it. As well that his rush to judgment is ill-advised. The rumors are swirling and anger builds, eradicating common sense and patience. I would be interested if he were actually tortured yet, given that McCain gave a false confession under duress and that was eventually ignored by most amid the happiness of him and other POWs returning home alive. 

Curtis Gale Weeks:

July 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Dan sometimes has a curious, over-analytical response to things!  "Out-sourcing a portion of the US Security Operation" is entirely beside the point as far as I’m concerned.  This is a kid who is an American; and though certainly not true for every American, the sort of individualistic, maverick behavior he exhibited does fit the ideals of freedom™ etc. we associate with being American–Or, if you will, the freedom to experiment which requires the freedom to be wrong occasionally.

None of this would excuse desertion or simple ineptitude, which should be punished fittingly by "the US Security Operation".  I’d imagine the kid has already been punished above and beyond those measures, from the looks of it.  I do not think we should applaud the "outsourcing" that the normally obtuse Ralph Peters seems to advocate here. In other words, we are not the Taliban and should not think of the Taliban as an adequate substitute for the U.S.

All of this might sound like agreement with Dan.  Actually, I just don’t want to see the kid beheaded, whatever he did.

Curtis Gale Weeks:

July 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 pm

–and as for the polish Lexington mentions, I make no excuses for Peters.  Seriously, the ability to edit and revise and so forth serves as more of a mask and kind of burlesque.

zen:

July 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm

"Not only did this kid walk off his base, but his buddies at the front gate let him go…what kind of Army security is this?"
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Agreed. That makes very little sense ( "See ya, dudes!") There’s some kind of underlying shenanigans that were going on here that helped precipitate this situation and I do not think we have been given the whole story. Or rather "stories" as the guy was variously "lagging behind", "drunk" or sneaking out to see his local girlfriend ( yeah, those Pushtuns are known for letting their daughters shed their burquas to frolic in public with foreign soldiers). I have to think that an Army investigative team is raking a lot of ppl on that base and chain of command over the coals right now.

Lexington Green:

July 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm

Yet another reason Peters should have stayed non-ballistic.  The facts currently available make no sense, and no one knows what is really going on.  As we lawyers say "investigation continues" — I hope it does. 

Ski:

July 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 am

One would suspect there is a 15-6 investigation going on, and that everyone would be keeping their mouths shut until the investigation is completed.  That looks like a big (and wrong) assumption at this point.

Peters is a total shill for a specific kind of audience as he writes for the New York Post.  This outburst from him is similar in nature to the tabloid rubbish he puts out for said fishwrap.

And Peters should know better, for a couple of reasons.  One, he’s a former Army officer and knows how 15-6’s are conducted, and he shouldn’t be yapping even if some jackass leaked details.  Secondly, like Lex said, he’s actually written quite of bit of serious material for professional Army and Joint journals in the past. 

With this outburst, he’s damaged his credibility big time.  Until the facts are made public about what the hell is going on with this situation, no one really knows what to make of it all.  It’s bizarre to say the least, but Peters does nothing but add fuel to the fire.

And he should know better. 

Tangurena:

July 27th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

Peters stirred this sort of outrage with his Blood Borders piece. However the offended folks were our alleged allies in the Middle East, so it went unnoticed by the MSM.