Apparently, there was some fear that newly-minted squid officers would charge the podium and hack the Dear Leader to death with their ceremonial dress swords (which are, incidentally, dull as butter knives and only marginally more dangerous or weapon-like than a bent coathanger.)
Said newly-minted squid officers then marched off, damp diplomas in hand, and received the keys to jet fighters, Tomahawk launchers, whole teams full of SEALs, and other deadly weapons.
Security kabuki at its finest.
(H/T to Unc.)
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25 comments:
Well they did take an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution so...
Obama would obviously prefer a personal Oath of Fealty.
"Security . . . because you just don't get it, and you shouldn't have to."
Huh, our ceremonial pirate-stabbers were sharp.
The Hubris of Absolutism.
"It's just a good beginning." said the new High Executioner, consulting his Little List.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, and it 'bugol's the Hell out of me, too. It oughta bugol of us citizens, but it is prolly a great relief to the Cowards,that those pointy things are forbidden in the prescence of His Sacred Eminence.
John, the Monday Red
I'd thought that it was previously known that O! and company don't trust the military.
Bambi = fear
I don't think this is an "Obama" thing, I think this is a "Security Mania" thing.
Frankly it was a bad omen for this country when Penna Ave was closed to vehicular traffic...
Well, we all know how DHS feels about returning veterans, may as well start treating them appropriately before they go off to defend our sorry asses.
That's it.
The United States Government is now officially crazier than I am.
Caleb: Ours too, though as a member of the lower classes I was "entitled" to only a petty officer's cutlass, or would have been decades earlier. A few of us had repros run off in Taiwan, and, once on a lark, wore them at a CO Saturday morning inspection. Skipper was amused but asked us politely not to do it again.
The ring knockers had sharp swords back when dinosaurs (CCCP) roamed the earf.
Some of us only carried sharp files and pencils.
Shootin' Buddy
This reminded me of something I read in Coopers column a while back, (Vol 11, No 1)
"To surrender one's personal weapon is to invite disaster. This has been obvious for so long and so often that there is probably a Greek word for the practice......
In contrast one thinks of Hartmann, the all time high scoring fighter-pilot who, when asked to leave his pistol outside when being awarded his medal by Hitler, declaimed that 'If the Führer doesn't trust me, I do not want his medal.'"
Anomalous
wv: pribledg, what out rights are becoming.
Quite standard for Democrat presidents. When Clinton came to visit the 82nd in Egypt, the USSS locked up all the weapons in advance of his visit. Look at all the photo of Clinton with US trooper, they are always disarmed. There was a big fear that he would be taken out if the troops were armed.
The inmates are running the asylum.
John
Politicians prefer unarmed peasants. It's been plain for a long time that Obama considers military service both dangerous and deluded so to let the secret service insult them seems natural.
I'm shocked that they weren't made to remove their shoes...
Gmac
Umbrellas? I'd better buy that tactical umbrella with the dribble supressor, collapsible canopy, grip, and parsol lug, before they ban that too.
Most of the worry is the Secret Service bosses, that don't believe anyone that isn't under their thumb is a danger to the position they hold -- only as long as the President isn't shot at or stabbed. The President doesn't care enough to rein them in or back - after all his majority isn't that high.
I look at it the way the German pilot did, if he can't trust me I won't value any time or medals he has to offer. Stupid Leadership comes in all languages and cultures. I do know the President won't be looking me up on a rifle range anytime soon, so I will spend quality time there.
When my nephew graduated from the Naval Academy in 1998, Clinton gave the address. There was a sniper team with a .50 cal. posted on top of the press box and other teams scattered about the stadium.
After we cleared security and found our seats directly across from the press box, my six-year-old asked me why the government trusted the snipers not to shoot the president or for that matter, any of us in the crowd. It's a question I can't really answer now or then.
I'd trust any midshipman more than a president, Democrat or Republican.
I don't remember whether it was when Bush visited or Obama, anyway, he came to Berlin and apart from the usual welding shut of manholes, they really considered temporarily disarming legal gun owners within a certain radius around him.
Don't forget, quite a few of those graduating middies chose Marines as their branch, and many will be in the sandbox within a year.
I don't know when it happened, prolly in the Klintoon years, but the service academies cadets and midshipmen had to trade in their fully functional M1s and M14s (and bayonets!) for crappy plastic replicas.
I'm sure those youngsters appreciated the trust.
Jerry Pournelle calls this sort of thing the 'Temptation of the Legions'. So far they've withstood it, but someday...
All the above are right, this sort of thing isn't new. The Secret Service is trained, encouraged, paid, and promoted to be paranoid about anything that can remotely endanger its wards, that's to be expected. They have been disarming troops of rifles and pistols for years. Swords just seem to be a new silliness degree.
Wouldn't it be fine if the President said, publicly, "I'm not afraid of my country's fleet, or the loyalty of its members. Wear your swords, carry your rifles."
ScienceGirl brought up a good point- murder by Praetorians is a constant worry of tyrants. That's how, for example, the President's recent host got where he is.
This tells people that our president distrusts his officers, that they are not loyal, and that they may or may not obey orders. No sensible person buys the "It's just security, the Secret Service makes him do it" argument.
Those may or may not be good things for our allies and enemies to believe, but it's a good point.
Miss Somerled's question is very apposite, she's channeling Col. Cooper! When he trained foreigners in his techniques, he always told their bosses before departing: "I have trained these men, and they are very dangerous. I don't know who they are, I presume you do."
They're squids for Christ sake! You give 'em sharp pointy object they'll just wind up hurting them selves.
Aside from that this seems like a good way to turn the military against you.
Joseph: The really odd thing about the DHS is that about 30% of it is made up of veterans.
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