Dec. 9, 2019, 1:58 PM CST / Source: TODAY
By Rachel Paula Abrahamson
Back in August, Ed Smart announced to friends and family, and later to the public, that he is gay. Though this reveal at the age of 64 would alter life as he knew it, the father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart says it was a "difficult" decision he now sees as a "miracle."
At a weekend conference in Utah supporting LGTBQ youth, Smart opened up about his internal conflict before ultimately deciding to come out.
“I stayed in the closet. I suppressed that. Out of shame, out of hate for myself, I just didn’t want that to be me,” Smart revealed Saturday during the Encircle Summit, according to NBC affiliate KSL-TV.
Smart, who was raised in the Mormon faith, said he was only able to acknowledge his sexual orientation after leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I was told it was being a deviant, being abnormal, being mentally sick,” he said.
The businessman married Lois Smart, with whom he shares six children, in 1986. After more than three decades of marriage, she filed for divorce this past July.
“I thought Elizabeth’s ordeal was very difficult, but this one is more difficult,” Smart said, “because it not only affected Elizabeth but it affected my entire family.”
https://www.today.com/news/elizabeth-smart-s-father-says-coming-out-gay-was-his-t169471
The senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can be an E-9 from any of the services, but until now, hasn’t had a distinctive rank insignia the way the sergeant major of the Army, master chief petty officer of Navy, sergeant major of the Marine Corps and chief master sergeant of the Air Force have.
As current SEAC Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell prepares to hand over responsibility to Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Ramon Colon-Lopez, he sported new insignia Monday on his Army Service Uniform. Going forward, he said, SEACs will have the same pattern nestled between their chevrons and rockers.
The insignia, featuring an eagle gripping three arrows ― the chairman’s signature logo ― is surrounded by four stars, to represent the four-star officer the SEAC advises. The Institute of Army Heraldry consulted with representatives from all four services to create the design.
“This historic step gives this position irreversible momentum,” Troxell told reporters in a Pentagon briefing.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff will welcome the fourth SEAC on board when Troxell retires on Friday, as the position was only created in 2005. Distinctive positions for senior enlisted advisers are still a somewhat modern concept.
The Marine Corps created the SMMC billet in 1957. The Army got on board with its first SMA, William Wooldridge, in 1966. He was followed a year later by inaugural MCPON Delbert Black and MCSAF Paul Airey.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/12/10/theres-a-new-rank-insignia-for-the-militarys-top-enlisted-adviser/
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s former president argued Tuesday that Washington helped fuel corruption in his nation by spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two decades without accountability.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Hamid Karzai responded to findings from a trove of newly published documents that successive U.S. administrations misled the public about the war in Afghanistan.
Karzai said the documents, obtained by The Washington Post, confirm his long-running complaints about U.S. spending.
The documents also describe Karzai, Afghanistan’s president for 14 years, as having headed a government that “self-organized into a kleptocracy.” Karzai has denied wrong-doing but hasn’t denied involvement in corruption by officials in his government.
Karzai became Afghanistan’s president after a 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban government. Thousands of pages of documents recently obtained by the Post portray successive U.S. governments lying about successes and hiding failures. After 18 years and over $1 trillion dollars in U.S. taxpayer money spent on the war, the Taliban are now at their strongest and control or hold sway over half the country.
Karzai said the U.S. spent hundreds of millions of dollars in its war on terror, with the money flowing to contractors and private security firms, and that this fostered corruption.
“What could we do? It was U.S. money coming here and used by them and used for means that did not help Afghanistan,” Karzai said.
He argued that there was no accountability.
“I’m glad this report is out, and I hope this becomes an eye-opener to the American people and that the U.S. government begins to change its attitude now toward Afghanistan,” he said, describing America’s fostering of corruption as a “tool” to impose their game plan.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the U.S.-based Wilson Center, assessed Karzai’s comments by saying: “I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say that the U.S. used corruption as a tool, but it has long been suspected — and these new documents make quite clear — that U.S. officials have thrown huge amounts of money at Afghanistan knowing full well that this would lead to more corruption than development or peace.”
The Pentagon said Monday there had been “no intent” to mislead Congress or the public, and that the Defense Department gave regular updates to lawmakers on U.S. challenges in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been trying to broker a peace deal that would pave the way for a pullout of U.S. forces.
U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad on Saturday held the first official talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban since previous seemingly successful efforts ran aground in September.
The talks will initially focus on getting a Taliban promise to reduce violence, with a permanent cease-fire being the eventual goal, said a U.S. statement. Khalilzad is also trying to lay the groundwork for negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the protracted conflict.
However, Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s spokesman in Qatar, told the AP that “ceasefire and reduction of violence will come after the peace agreement is signed.”
“These issues — foreign troops withdrawal and not allowing Afghan soil to be used against others — are mentioned in the agreement, including intra-Afghan negotiations, which will start after the signing of the agreement,” Shaheen said.
Karzai, meanwhile, called on the U.S. to take the first step and announce a unilateral ceasefire.
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/12/11/afghanistans-karzai-says-american-cash-fed-corruption/