Spotaneous Combustion

I literally made this up on the way over
PAX Alternated rifle carries to every five yard line and moseys to every 10, with an exercise that had a rep count corresponding to the yard line we were on…five manmakers, ten burpees, fifteen upright rows, twenty prison getups, etc.

LBCs x50, side crunches x25 per side

I’m finishing up a Colin Powell autobiography, and I found an interesting excerpt on Desert Shield.
At this early stage, morale among our troops was high, but the desert was bleak, forbidding world, hedged in by Muslim moral structures uncongenial to GIs from the Western world.  At one point, Prince Bandar (of Saudi Arabia, whom we were protecting from Iraqi invasion) warned me, “No Bibles.”  “Are you kidding me?” I replied.  We were being inundated with Bibles from religious groups, and I could imagine the military trying to tell folks, “The Arabs will take your sons, but not their Bibles.”
“Saudi customs officials will have to confiscate the Bibles,” Bandar insisted.  We finally worked out a deal whereby we flew the Bibles directly to air bases, and the Saudis looked the other way.
Then Bandar informed me that no religious services could be held on Arab soil for our Jewish troops.  “They can die defending your country, but they can’t pray in it?”  I asked.
“Colin, be reasonable” he answered.  “It will be reported on CNN, what will our people think?”
We found a practical solution by flying our Jewish troops by helicopter to ships in the Persian Gulf, and held Jewish services aboard ship.
Bandar also worried about crucifixes.  I told him our soldiers would be ordered to wear them inside their t-shirts, rather than outside.There are parts of this passage that I find appalling.  We are literally risking our soldier’s lives to support a country that refuses to recognize our religious diversity.  Not to mention, as a nation, we tend to bend over backwards to accommodate religious groups of all types when they come here.  Then, as I reflected further, I really came to realize that this is why America occupies the space on the world stage that it does.  We are an understanding, and accommodating nation.  But…this big dog will fight, if you rattle his cage.  You’ll be sorry that you messed with the US of A…we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!
Have a great weekend boys.  Always an honor to lead this group.