Jewish Army trainee in Ga. says he was beaten

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

<snip>

"In a letter home, a Jewish soldier in basic training at Fort Benning complained of religious discrimination and wrote that a friend overheard platoon members saying they wanted to beat him up.

Days later, Pvt. Michael Handman was beaten so badly he had to be treated at a hospital, and his father believes the attack stemmed from an investigation of Handman's claims that instructors had harassed him and used anti-Semitic slurs.

"I have just never been so discriminated against/humiliated about my religion," Handman wrote to his parents. "I just feel like I'm always looking over my shoulder. Like my battle buddy heard some of the guys in my platoon talking about how they wanted to beat the (expletive) out of me tonight while I'm sleeping."

The letter alarmed Handman's father so much he contacted U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who asked the Army to investigate."

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNWRiNe9MMsgWg92Uqx-FWRUq3HAD93J7BJ00

[TerribleLarryDingle]

1. I'm sure Saxby could give 2 shits

EOM

[Lautremont]

2. "What? That's awful! Completely unacceptable! Wait, what... a Jew? Never mind."

[TerribleLarryDingle]

4. JIM MARTIN

Georgia's only hope.

[Ken Burch]

10. Actually, what he'd really say if he could would be more like this:

"A Jew. Well they's oughta all be out there in that Iz-Ray-Ul. That's we send that place all those durn guns 'n jets 'n such. Them thar Jews are all 'sposed to move back thar and leave Jesus' country to us white folks."

:sarcasm:

[tbyg52]

15. Bingo. The bottom line on Repubs is that they only care if you are one of "us." nt

[DissedByBush]

7. I don't know anything about Chambliss

But it said he asked the Army to investigate. This is known as a "congressional" to the brass, and it is taken very seriously.

They will investigate this and will have to either prove that the accusations are untrue or show how the problem has been dealt with. I had to deal with congressionals while in the Army and it was literally rush it to the general's office because he has a certain amount of time in which to provide one of the two answers above. No general officer dares to piss off a congressman over something like this.

[kestrel91316]

3. This is what happens when some people are expected to merely

"tolerate" Jews. Just like Palin "tolerating" gays.

Whoever did this needs to be given a choice between life at Ft. Leavenworth and death by firing squad.

[PM Martin]

5. Heh, the old south, figures.

:puke:

[14thColony]

8. Bear in mind

that while Benning is in the South, the modern military is a mixture of people from all places and cultures. Xenophobia is multi-regional and not an exclusively Southern phenomenon.

[starroute]

14. You can't blame the South -- things were never this bad before

During World War II, my father was assigned to a ship that sailed out of Southern ports and had a mostly Southern crew. The other sailors seemed stand-offish to him at first, and he assumed it was because he was Jewish, or because he was from the North, or because he was college-educated.

After he had been on board long enough for the other men to loosen up with him, he asked some of them why they had kept him at arms' length at first. They explained that it wasn't any of the reasons he had assumed -- it was just because he wasn't "regular Navy."

They were all career seamen, and as a wartime draftee, he seemed like an unknown quantity to them. But that was the only thing they cared about, and once they got to know him even that was forgotten.

Things are very different now. The military has become a stronghold of extreme fundamentalism and is perhaps the least tolerant institution in our nation. I'm not sure if it began with the all-volunteer army, of if it reflects larger issues in our society, but either way, this is a relatively recent change.

[TN al]

6. My stepson did his basic at Benning last summer...

... He reported a similar beat down on a soldier with similar results. The motive wasn't clear though. Benning clearly has a problem from the CG on down. Only small fry will pay the price though.

[Ken Burch]

11. It's probably due to the "Onward Christian Soldiers/Team Jesus" mindset they get.

(And yes, they includes soldiers from everywhere.)

They see themselves as this special warrior elite who are entitled to treat everyone else with violent contempt.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Accept Jesus and all will be well!

Read the Book of Revelations and see what wonderful things the Christians are planning to do to Jews that refuse to convert.

:grr:

[1776Forever]

12. Right from Sarah Land - You must read this! Baseball, Jesus, and Alaska's Military Bases

Baseball, Jesus, and Alaska's Military Bases
By Chris Rodda Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 11:51:13 PM EST

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/9/235113/0696

After reading about Sarah Palin's "coincidental" promotion of Alaska National Guard Adjutant General, Craig E. Campbell, from Major General to Lieutenant General as soon as he changed his tune about her involvement as commander-in-chief of his troops, I decided to take a look at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) files on Alaska's military bases to see if anything of concern is going on up there religious freedom-wise.

First on the list was the website of the U.S. Army, Alaska (USARAK) Command Chaplain's Office "Ministry Team," which serves Fort Wainwright, Fort Greely, Fort Richardson, and their tenant units, which include the Alaska National Guard, whose headquarters is located at Fort Richardson. The USARAK Command Chaplain's Office is blatantly and exclusively Christian, not even providing information for soldiers of other religions. Even the worst of the other military installations that provide no non-Christian services or programs at least provide contact numbers or listings of off-base houses of worship for non-Christians to find services of their faith.

In March 2007, Fort Wainwright hosted an Army "Strong Bonds" retreat, contracting an organization called Unlimited Potential, Inc. to provide "social services." Unlimited Potential, Inc. is an evangelical baseball ministry with a military ministry whose mission is: "To assist commanders and chaplains in providing religious support to military service members and their families by sharing the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ through the medium of baseball..." and "to use our God-given abilities in baseball to reach those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to also encourage and challenge those who do.

I should back up here and explain exactly what Strong Bonds, a program currently being investigated by MRFF, actually is. Plain and simple, it's an evangelistic Christian program operating under the guise of a pre-deployment and post-deployment family wellness and marriage training program. A few years ago, Strong Bonds replaced a decade old, proven program called Building Strong and Ready Families (BSRF), which was a collaboration between the Army Nurse Corps and the chaplains. Strong Bonds cut out the Nurse Corps, creating a program run entirely by chaplains, eliminating the important physical and mental health aspects provided by public health nurses, and turning the whole thing into a program of Christian religious retreats -- paid for with your tax dollars. A lot of tax dollars.

It began with the Department of Defense (DoD) paying an advertising agency $100,000 to "sell" the Strong Bonds program to Congress. The result of the DoD's ad campaign was an unprecedented amount of funding, now being spent liberally on religious retreats, typically held at ski lodges, beach resorts, and other attractive vacation spots, luring soldiers who would never attend a religious retreat to sign up for the free vacation. MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein sums up this form of coercion with the following analogy:

"It's like a time share sales promotion. You get an all expenses paid vacation at a great resort -- the only catch is you have to sit through a sales pitch for Christianity paid for by the United States armed forces, courtesy of the American taxpayer. The Strong Bonds program is nothing less than an unconstitutional scandal and an outrage."

MRFF has already amassed quite a collection of DoD contracts for Strong Bonds retreats, which include funding for travel and accommodations, training materials, outside trainers, child care, and, of course, Christian entertainers. That one Unlimited Potential baseball ministry thing at Fort Wainwright, for example, cost taxpayers $38,269. And, this same ministry has been "Serving Christ Through Baseball" at number of other Army bases in the United States, including Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, and Fort Drum, as well as many bases overseas, presumably at a similar cost per event.

But, of even greater concern than the clear constitutional violation of the spending of tax dollars on this scheme to promote Christianity, qualified health professionals like the Army Nurse Corps are being edged out of programs dealing with issues like PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide prevention in favor of a religious approach. And, Strong Bonds isn't the only place this is happening. MRFF has uncovered that suicide prevention in the military now often includes materials such as the teachings of Rick Warren and, completely unbelievably, the teaching of creationism.

............

Are you sick yet? I am - Unbelievable - But not surprising!

[bertman]

13. As pervasive as the Christian soldier complex seems to be in the service academies and

officer corps, I'm not a bit surprised to hear about this. The cadet at the Air Force Academy who initiated the whitewash, I mean investigation, of proseletyzing and mandatory bible study, was also Jewish. I believe he eventually dropped out due to the poisonous atmosphere.

That said, based on my experience in basic training, cliques develop among the trainees. And like most examples of "group" mentality, there is often "the other" who the group must hate on in order to feel better about itself. These cliques can be northern v. southern and vice versa, ethnic, racial, religious, whatever. In such a macho, aggressive and violence-infused atmosphere it would be easy for things to get out of hand quickly if there was even a hint that it might be "overlooked". So, it will be interesting to see what comes of the investigation into this.