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enhanced_deficit
06-25-2014, 01:03 PM
One facet of Afgan freedom war:


Top Green Beret Officer Forced to Resign Over Affair With WaPo Reporter

Jun 24, 2014, 10:21 AM ET


http://a.abcnews.com/images/Blotter/HT_jim_gantmar_14062320110823_13_16x9_992.jpg
Then-Special Forces Maj. Jim Gant stands with former Washington Post journalist Ann Scott Tyson near the village of Mangwel, Afghanistan in August 2011.

A legendary Special Forces commander was quietly forced to leave the U.S. Army after he admitted to a love affair with a Washington Post war correspondent, who quit her job to secretly live with him for almost a year in one of the most dangerous combat outposts in Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Special Operations Command never publicly disclosed that highly-decorated Green Beret Major Jim Gant was relieved of command at the end of a harrowing 22 months in combat in March 2012.
His commanders charged in confidential files that he had "indulged in a self-created fantasy world" of booze, pain pills and sex in a tribal village deep in Taliban and al Qaeda country with his "wife," journalist Ann Scott Tyson.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jim-gant-top-green-beret-officer-forced-resign/story?id=24266710



Related



http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/major-jim-gant-with-children-600x450.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=V8GJYLBOtVLavM&tbnid=qzkrzplvdt9uRM:&ved=0CAgQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fagora.stevenpressfield.com%2F2010 %2F01%2Freturn-to-one-tribe-at-a-time%2F&ei=9x-rU87OKZeryATxjoDoCw&psig=AFQjCNECSDjfY57snWne8fwpfgj1rFQDVg&ust=1403810167771650)


Guest Blog: We are One Tribe – and Live in The Society of Intervention
Date: 13 May 2010

A critique of intervening half-education, in reply to Major Jim Gant’s much-read blog and paper ‘One Tribe at a Time’. By Prof. Michael Daxner (*)

Important notice for the readers: it is unusual for blogs to annotate them with references from scientific literature. However, I will use some special terms that may raise your interest and require further reading.


Major Jim Gant’s blog One Tribe at a Time (Gant 2009, see here (http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2009/10/one-tribe-at-a-time-4-the-full-document-at-last/)) drastically supports some basic assumptions on societies of intervention (term is explained in Bonacker at al. 2010). We can learn a lot about such societies in the text. It is a report by a highly decorated US officer who served in 2003-4 and again in 2009 as commander of Operation Detachment Alpha 316 (ODA 613) (Special Forces) in Afghanistan, in the provinces of Helmand and Kunar – places of heavy fighting. The report’s frame is set rather concretely as a section of the story of ODA 613 (p. 4) and its commander; it is a narration of their relationship with the tribe of Malik Noorafzal (Gant sometimes also writes Noorafzhal and calls him ‘Sitting Bull’…) in Kunar: ‘My unit and I became family members…’. (I am not sure whether Gant means a tribe or a clan or a family, which would indeed make some difference for the interpretation).


http://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/guest-blog-we-are-one-tribe-and-live-in-the-society-of-intervention



http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/rohrabacher-250x198.jpg (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=oEMTczOTfMT9ZM&tbnid=QlxifohyVGf9NM:&ved=0CAgQjRw4Ew&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwonkette.com%2F470655%2Fcongressm an-dana-rohrabacher-r-the-taliban-gets-no-respect-from-afghanistan&ei=kR2rU8bSFYyxyASS94GwDQ&psig=AFQjCNHYJH0iyd0SlKPn61dv1g2tB9FV_g&ust=1403809553419932)

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-The Taliban) Gets No Respect From Afghanistan
http://wonkette.com/470655/congressman-dana-rohrabacher-r-the-taliban-gets-no-respect-from-afghanistan

William Tell
06-25-2014, 01:06 PM
It was worth it, without a doubt.

Constitutional Paulicy
06-25-2014, 01:11 PM
Thought about posting this yesterday. Amazing story really. Just goes to show how fucked up we are with our BS.

enhanced_deficit
06-25-2014, 02:03 PM
It was worth it, without a doubt.

Cuase of Freedom supercedes all other.

Pericles
06-25-2014, 03:18 PM
In many ways, the story of MAJ Gant shows why Special Forces is special and conventional units can't do what SF does. You have to convince people that they can learn to fight for their freedom to live as they wish and the fight can be successful.

The tragedy is that the degree of commitment to the population being supported is hard on family members of SF soldiers, and that broke him mentally.

enhanced_deficit
06-25-2014, 03:28 PM
The tragedy is that the degree of commitment to the population being supported is hard on family members of SF soldiers, and that broke him mentally.

That is one way to look at it. Both major Grant and WaPo "War reporter" Ann Scott Tyson were married with children when they started their affair in the middle of war to spread freedom deep in Afghan tribal belt.

Pericles
06-25-2014, 03:35 PM
That is one way to look at it. Both major Grant and WaPo "War reporter" Ann Scott Tyson were married with children when they started their affair in the middle of war to spread freedom deep in Afghan tribal belt.

And that personal failure is what the Army used to hang him out to dry. The conventional force guys that have the hate on for Green Berets always toss the "going native" epithet out there, because they can't demonstrate that the approach is unsuccessful.

oyarde
06-26-2014, 10:11 AM
That is one way to look at it. Both major Grant and WaPo "War reporter" Ann Scott Tyson were married with children when they started their affair in the middle of war to spread freedom deep in Afghan tribal belt.
I did not even know the WaPo sent reporters abroad anymore , who owns that paper these days ?

Petar
06-26-2014, 10:15 AM
I wonder if he knows anything about all the CIA related drug and child smuggling that goes on out there...

oyarde
06-26-2014, 10:18 AM
I wonder if he knows anything about all the CIA related drug and child smuggling that goes on out there...

Yeah , guess he should get points for sticking with a woman and no dancing boys .....

Petar
06-26-2014, 10:24 AM
Yeah , guess he should get points for sticking with a woman and no dancing boys .....

Let's just hope that he was able to manage at least that for everyone's sake...

oyarde
06-26-2014, 10:55 AM
And that personal failure is what the Army used to hang him out to dry. The conventional force guys that have the hate on for Green Berets always toss the "going native" epithet out there, because they can't demonstrate that the approach is unsuccessful.

In the end , I cannot say I am impressed with how they treated this guy , ( not that I am surprised) .Put him out as a Capt. , levied a massive fine against him. Fine like that is total bullshit .

Pericles
06-26-2014, 03:34 PM
Yeah , guess he should get points for sticking with a woman and no dancing boys .....

In today's Army, dancing boys would be worth at least a MSM.

oyarde
06-26-2014, 11:39 PM
Here is the deal ( with SF's) , you want it or you do not . In order to do this successfully for a period of time , even as a young NCO , much less a Senior Officer , by outside standards you would be genius , in the end you are really a creative thinking warrior who wants peace in the right hands and to leave. If you do not want to send these , then do not , do not act shocked later at what happens. I would not suggest this as a career or for any married man , or soon to be married ..... eventually your family will be your people and your job will be to ensure they survive ( and still manage to control your area) , everything else will become somewhat secondary , even if you did not want it to be so .