An Army officer working at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has resigned in protest of the US’s “unqualified” support for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
Mann said in the letter that he tried to continue working his job and hoped that at some point the slaughter would come to an end or that President Biden would alter his policy of unconditional support. “However, at some point — whatever the justification — you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he said.
Mann pointed to his Jewish heritage as one of his reasons for resigning and speaking out. “And I want to clarify that as the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing — my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany — where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated,” he said.
“I am haunted by the knowledge that I have failed those principles. But I also have hope that my grandfather would afford me some grace; that he would still be proud of me for stepping away from this war, however belatedly,” Mann added.
I see from the major’s picture he has a CIB and a paratrooper badge. So sometime in his past he was where bullets were flying.
That is an EIB (non-combat) and a paratrooper badge just means you graduated the 3-week course.
Hawkwin
Who has an EIB and a paratrooper badge - and has never been in combat.
Edit: I looked closer and this dude has the rare triple crown, jump wings, air assault, and the rare as well as discontinued pathfinder (closed in 2020). You usually only find someone with a Ranger or Special Forces tab that has all 3. Not to rip on this dude but how has someone that was an infantry officer (looks like he is Civil Affairs now) avoided serving in combat with all that?!? The Army paid a lot for him to get specialized training only to ride a desk in the rear.
Not to rip on this dude but how has someone that was an infantry officer (looks like he is Civil Affairs now) avoided serving in combat with all that?!? The Army paid a lot for him to get specialized training only to ride a desk in the rear.
Possible reason: He is in the Intel world. I don’t know the entirety of his backstory and past assignments but he might “know too much,” as they say in the spy movies. When I was in the Air Force I knew some of these highly accomplished pilots. Flew all the hot new stuff, instructor, liason with the manufacturer, Pentagon, Red Flag Aggressor team. They said they would never fly in a combat situation because they knew too many things about too many things to risk getting shot down.
Civil Affairs seems to be the seat of a lot of fraud.
There’s a Texas Congressman who was a Civil Affairs officer who got caught claiming a bogus Bronze Star. He also proudly parades around with a Combat Infantry Badge even though he was never in the Infantry.
Of course, that just “par for the course” in our completely corrupt Congress.
Where do you go to report a case of “Stolen Valor”. Does the military even prosecute these cases.
Glad he made everything all about himself. Morals about society will do that to you.
The Ashkenazi folks need to give it a rest. This is about the Sephardic experience. The condescending attitudes need to end.
There has been a shift in the intellectual world 20 years ago that strong is wrong and weak is right. In 1944 and 1945 Germany was weak and we bombed the population centers. Hamas has to go. This is a tragedy for the Palestinians.
Hamas as far back as 2007 could have declared Gaza a country. Israel would have objected but it would be a country. The problem for Hamas, if Gaza is next to Israel the border recognition has to happen as a country. The other problem for Hamas would be free elections and civil rights would have been demanded of them.
Hamas has made itself a violent problem ever since.
From the article: An Army officer working at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
We have no way of knowing exactly what and how much he knows. Also, my previous post was merely one possible explanation, not an insider’s elucidation of facts.
Only infantrymen can earn the EIB and all Soldiers who are not in the Infantry or Special Forces can earn the ESB.
And frankly I find it silly to think someone can know too much and somehow avoid a combat assignment based on such. If that was the case then Seal Teams and Delta would never get deployed.
So far, three State Department officials, an Education Department official, and a US Army officer working for the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency have publicly resigned in protest of Biden’s support for Israel.
We owe an ironic debt of gratitude to Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan for advancing the cause of the State of Palestine at the United Nations.
By delivering a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that was so unhinged, absurd, vulgar, insulting, undignified and undiplomatic, Erdan helped to secure a lopsided vote of 143-to-9 in favor of Palestine’s U.N. membership (the rest abstained or did not vote).
The UN is comprised of 193 nations.
Meanwhile, a high level Israeli government official was criticizing “Bebe” yesterday for refusing to clearly state what the plan is for Gaza going forward.
Absolutely! I seem to remember that the Navajo Code Talkers in WWII traveled around in the company of second serviceman tasked with putting a bullet through their head if they were in danger of being captured.
Of course, pilots tend to be college graduates, and “thinkers” during a crisis.
When U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers was shot down deep inside Russia in 1960, he didn’t take the cyanide capsule he had been issued. President Eisenhower got surprised when Khrushchev frogged-marched Powers to the podium during a press conference dispelling Eisenhower’s lie that the US hadn’t been spying.
Ayup. Some years ago, there was a moderately entertaining film about the code talkers, and their minders, whose mission was “protect the code”. Apparently, the Japanese did capture some Navajos, who were not code talkers. Those men were horribly tortured, but they could not decode the spoken code talker messages, because they did not know how the code substituted Navajo words for English words that were not obviously equal.
I could be mistaken. but the music in the trailer sounds like the battle music from “Gladiator”
Yup. The music comes in clearly around the 3:20 mark. (and the trailer for “Gladiator” used the music from “Conan the Barbarian”.
Oh Ok, So you’re the famous “Mr Knowitall” we’ve always heard about. Ha ha ha. You know what they all know and know how the system applies these things. I’ll stick with reality and things I’ve actually dealt with in my own life and you can think things silly. SGOTI indeed
I think 2 Palestinians states should exist. One in Gaza and the other on the West Bank. But Hamas and the PLO do not want that.
If there was one or two Palestinians states then borders exist. Hamas more than the PLO does not want that.
If there were a Palestinian state there would be free elections. There would be freedom of religion. Again not wanted.
I would suggest to all Muslims that I want you to power share. Yes, I want you go have republics. I want freedom of religion.
Israel desperately was saying from 2007 till recently we have no one on the other side of the table.
There are four other wars in the region because of a lack of power sharing. Will that blood and those famines ever matter to you?
Zionism does not exist. Israel does. Israel is at a crossroads. Has been there for a while now. Either the Palestinians accept borders and recognize Israel or the Palestinians are violently opposed to Israel. The latter Israel drives them out of the territories. That is not Zionism.
If all you care about is Israel being at war and not the other wars I have to wonder are you bigoted against Muslims? Or do you have complete misperceptions of the Middle East?
From the bird’s eye view, Russia has her hands in all of this. Power politics is a beach get used to it.
