On May 12th, three GIs from the 10th Mountain Division were taken captive near Mahmoudiya.
After three soldiers were captured near Mahmoudiya, there was a massive effort to recover their bodies. Michael Kamber of the NY Times accompanied one patrol from the 10th Mtn Division.
Crooks and Liars has archived a five minute oral report here, with accompanying photos.
One soldier was subsequently found dead in the Euphrates River.
The 10th cycled home within the last month without avenging their lost buddies. Now it appears one of the resisters who overran the outpost may have been captured.
BAGHDAD — A raid by 2nd Cavalry (Stryker) Regiment soldiers netted an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq operative who soldiers said was linked to the May 12 abduction of three 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division soldiers.
The three were taken in an attack that killed four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier. The body of one of the missing soldiers, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., was discovered in the Euphrates River in late May but the Army is still searching for the other two soldiers — Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., and Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.
Dragoons from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s Company E, 2nd Squadron, raided several houses in Baghdad’s Hadar neighborhood early Monday morning after a tip that Abu Raquyyah was in one of them.
OK, he’s alleged, and US jails in Iraq are full of “alleged” “al Qaeda” members, but maybe they had some accurate information, for a change. GJWD to the Dragoons.
Raquyyah is linked to an al-Qaida in Iraq cell believed responsible for the soldiers’ abduction, according to Maj. Christopher Davis, 2nd Squadron operations officer.
Company E soldiers moved by moonlight to a group of houses, only a short walk from their base at Combat Outpost Blackfoot, then smashed their way into several buildings, clearing rooms as they went.
Raquyyah was unarmed and surrendered without a fight when soldiers entered the house he shared with a woman and four children.
Company E 1st Sgt. Eric Geressy said informants provided the tip that Raquyyah recently moved into the area from the town of Yusafiyah, near where the soldiers were abducted.
Geressy said that, according to the informants, Raquyyah — also allegedly responsible for bomb attacks on coalition forces — held several meetings with other insurgents in Hadar in an effort to re-establish al-Qaida there.
Two or three years from now Abu Raquyyah might actually be brought to trial, just in case the information was right, and the interrogations he goes through don’t kill him. Hopefully we’ll find out what happened to the missing soldiers. Or maybe we’ll find out that he was innocent, and was reported to settle a personal feud. Apparently that happens a lot in Iraq.
Not the best possible resolution for the 10th Mountain troops, but maybe it will make them sleep easier until they cycle back to the sandbox in 2 years.
The Stars and Stripes article details an unsuccessful search for the missing soldiers’ bodies based upon a tip from a relative who said her brother was involved in the killings.
On Nov. 16, soldiers detained another man suspected in the soldiers’ abductions.
Ibrahim Abid Aboud al-Janabi was detained after his sister, who says her family imprisoned and tortured her, told soldiers that al-Janabi mutilated and buried the two soldiers’ remains in a sand pit a quarter of a mile from their home near Owesat, southwest of Baghdad.
Troops have dug for remains and used search dogs and imaging equipment, but no official word has been released on their results.
When reading information about Iraq a prudent man would remember that since Iraq is quite dangerous our intrepid journalists tend to get their information from the MNF-I PR flack of the day or from Bu$h malAdministration sources currently occupying our White House.
Both of these sources have been proven in the past to be inaccurate, as a charitable man might say.
Further on the Anbar question” Gorilla’s Guides has a good piece on the conditions in Anbar today.
RAMADI, Iraq, Nov 29 (IPS) - A semblance of calm belies an undercurrent of violence, detentions and fear across Iraq’s volatile al-Anbar province.
The province — which occupies one-third of Iraq’s geographic area — has been a bane to authorities since the beginning of the occupation.
"The Americans talked about our province as the deadliest enemy, and suddenly they are marketing us as their best friends," Sa’doon Khalifa, an independent politician in the capital city of al-Anbar Province, Ramadi — 110 km west of Baghdad — told IPS. "They were lying to their people and to the world in both cases as we were never terrorists nor their friends now," he stressed.
I tend to believe the writers at Guides, not because they’re on the same side of the ideological coin as I am, but because when I first started reading their work, I made a point of cross-checking what they wrote against other sources and verifying their statements.
Khalifa explained that resistance fighters in al-Anbar did fight occupation forces, but now they are standing down from launching new attacks against U.S. forces.
This is due in large part to U.S. military payments to collaborating tribal sheikhs — already totalling over 17 million dollars. The money funds tribal fighters who are paid 300 dollars per month to patrol their areas, particularly against foreign fighters.
The military refers to these men as "Concerned Local Citizens," "Awakening Force," or simply "volunteers," even though it is well known that most of them used to carry out attacks against the occupation forces.
"Those Americans thought they would decrease the resistance attacks by separating the people of Iraq into sects and tribes," a 32-year-old man from Ramadi — speaking on terms of anonymity — told IPS, "They know they are going deeper into the moving sand, but the collaborators are fooling the Americans right now, and will in the end use this strategy against them."
"It is true that hundreds of fighters were killed or detained by the so-called Awakening Forces, but there are thousands who will never quit fighting until this occupation is ended," Ali Khamees, a former major of the Iraqi army told IPS in Ramadi.
Khamees believes that the de-escalation is a "new technique by the resistance to reduce the suffering of people in al-Anbar and move somewhere else to fight."
Attacks against U.S. forces have increased in other Iraqi provinces — like Diyala, Saladin and Mosul.
The U.S. army reported dozens of soldiers killed throughout November while local reports insisted that the U.S. casualties are much higher than declared.
A fact that seems to escape our never-right brethren and sistren on the Dark Side is that they would fight just as damned hard if the US was occupied by some other country. (Well, I hope they would; I know I would. Possibly the right wing in this country is actually just a pack of cowardly collaborators. I don’t know. I hope we never have to depend on them.)
Lowballing Iraqi casualties would be very easy for MNF-I which is where most of our news comes from, ultimately. It would be more difficult for them to lie about deaths because local newspapers carry obituaries and I’m confident someone somewhere is tabulating those totals. This method would be necessary since Mr Bu$h has denied Americans the privilege of honoring and welcoming their valiant dead home at Andrews Air Base.
Our dead soldiers are sneaked in under cover of night, like thieves attempting to avoid police.
Yet one more indignity these criminals have heaped upon my Army.
That part of the resistance in Iraq that has been erroneously designated as “Al Qaeda” used harsh methods when attacking the occupying forces. The Mahdi Army was also cruel in its treatment of Sunnis during its ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods and districts of Iraq. Torture and beheadings were common. But in Anbar,
Iraqis across the province are complaining about harsh tactics being meted out by the new "Awakening Forces" supported by the U.S.
"We will behead anyone who carries a gun in this province," Wussam Hardan, a senior leader of the Awakening Forces in Ramadi told sources very close to IPS in the city. "No court, no lawyers, no nothing. We have our own ways to get those criminals to confess," Hardan said.
Ooops.
The people of the province fear the recent developments, despite the relative improvement in the security situation.
"It is quieter because the Americans stopped many of their activities in al- Anbar," Shakir Mahmood, a human rights activist in Ramadi told IPS — on condition that his false name be used. "There were so many arrests by U.S. forces, police and the Awakening during the past month and we cannot even talk about it because we feel threatened by all three of them," he said.
"So many of the detainees are well known to be innocent people taken into custody according to false information by others who have a personal feud with them or their families," Mahmood added, "It is the same old story being repeated and God knows what is going to happen next."
The bottom line is that as long as US deaths are down, the Bu$hies are happy. Lower casualties equates to a quieter domestic political climate, and that is their only yardstick.
The Bu$h malAdministration has produced a lot of propaganda recently about the Anbar Awakening. Apparently, the surgedemanded by Generalissimo Field Marshal Fred Kagan has worked superbly is solving all our military problems in Iraq, if you listen to the Kagan Klan, or any other never-right media source.
(Glenn Greenwald, a vital source of sanity and keen critic of wingers and their fascistic tendencies had some interesting observations on the inner machinations of the United Sates Kagan Korporation and its linkage to all the wrong people here. Regrettably, he didn’t say much at all about the Korporation’s deep connections to the Likud Party.)
The Bu$hies have spent untold millions of our dollars buying weapons under questionable circumstances and distributing them to Sunni insurgents, as well as additional millions buying them off in order to quiet them down. Since the US Army, under Gen David Petraeus’ allegedly capable administration never bothered to actually count the rifles and pistols they bought, nor bothered to write down the serial numbers, there is some question about just where they all went. (The Yorkshire Ranter has a suggestion about where some of these missing rifles went. Surprise! They never got to Iraq.)
General Petraeus’ lame excuse that it was more important to get the weapons into the field than to account for them is laughable. (“We were kicking them out of helicopters.”)
He [Petraeus] described one case in which U.S. forces flew into the war zone of Najaf at night, their helicopters under fire, and “actually [were] kicking two battalions’ worth of equipment off the ramp and getting out of there while we still could.”
“That type of decision was something that we made at the time because those forces needed those weapons and that equipment,” Petraeus told Colmes. “We weren’t going to stay there in the dark and make guys do a serial-number inventory and sign them up, and that is what happened. We believe those weapons all certainly were given to Iraqi units.”
That is no way to manage a prudent and successful military assistance program, General. Any supply sergeant with two years’ experience with IG inspections would have figured the keen idea of registering the weapons and writing down the serial numbers before loading them onto the slick.
So we’re not really sure just how well the Anbar Sunnis are braced, but were spending lots of cash to turn them into “concerned local citizens”patrolling their own neighborhoods and supposedly fighting off the occasional bandit group masquerading as “al Qaeda in Iraq.” It’s all good, just as long as they’re not killing GIs.
It’s important to remember that these “concerned citizens” are the very people that last week – OK, two months ago – were the resistance that was bitterly contesting Mr Bu$h’s occupation of their country. After expending millions of dollars in buying new super-duper IED-proof vehicles the Bu$h malAdministration wants us to believe they have finally discovered what those who understand COIN warfare have known all along: the real solution to insurgency warfare is political, and not military. You have to bring about conditions that make the insurgent want to lay down his arms. Killing off insurgents (and hapless innocent citizens) does not defeat a resistance.
There is a school of thought in military science that the occupying forces must create a better way of life for the citizens of the occupied country in order to create civil peace. The problem with buying off your rebels is that you must keep on paying them off, month after month after month in order to have civil peace. Since the Bu$h malAdministration has finally manipulated the Maliki government to “request” that the USG occupy Iraq indefinitely, despite any UN decision to no longer authorize occupation under their auspices, we can confidently look forward to bribing the Sunnis of Iraq from now until the oil finally runs out. Because, after all, they asked us to stay. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
I don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of foreign policy. I‘m somewhat familiar with mutual interest partnerships such as NATO and SEATO, but for outright bribery to bring about peace I had to go back and look up that “history” thing that the never-right hasn’t bothered with.
If you’re not familiar with the circumstances, there is a brief explanation of the Barbary Wars here.
The cost of tribute became unsupportable, and the US had to fight a long, painful, and expensive war to defeat the Barbary pirates.
A cynical observer might well conclude that bribing the people who were killing your soldiers just a short time ago might not work, long term, especially so if part of the bargain is to give them more and better armaments. It’s probably unfortunate that the ultimate beneficiaries of all this – Big Oil – won’t have to pay the price of tribute.
But what do I know? I’m just an old brokedown sergeant, and Generalissimo Field Marshal Fred Kagan outranks me.
Have you ever read the label of a bottle of 7-Up? The title of this piece was a solid ad campaign closer of 7-Up for many years, and still appeared on the bottle the last time I looked, which I think was right after Grampaw carried me down to the train station so I could watch sainted President Lincoln’s funeral train ride through town on its way to the graveyard.
Anyway, enough about history, and the old goats who dream it.
Some people like 7-Up more than others. And a special nod to the young lady singer who makes Sam the Sham’s signature tune into a torch song.
Thursday Evening Because I haven’t Had a Laugh All Day Video Blogging
The Army is fixing a problem with their newest uniforms and it’s a good thing.
WASHINGTON — The Army is retrofitting 1 million uniforms to bolster pants that have been tearing during the rigors of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Soldiers in Iraq began reporting "crotch durability problems" with their combat uniforms in July 2005, according to the Army. Jumping into Humvees, hopping from helicopters and scrambling after insurgents have popped inseams on the baggy pants.
Rougher terrain in Afghanistan prompted complaints this past August from soldiers who said their uniforms gave out quickly.
"This is a result of soldiers working in steep and harsh terrain and literally sliding down steep hills and mountains," Army spokesman Sheldon Smith said in an e-mail.
Single-stitching has caused most of the blown-out inseams, said Erin Thomas, an Army spokeswoman. The new trousers are more durable, she said.
There has to be nothing worse than crawling around the rocks of Afghanistan with a ripped crotch in your ACUs. I speak from experience when I tell you that that 1/100th of an inch of fabric covering GI Joe may not be bullet-proof but when it’s torn you no longer think of that one bullet with your name on it. You become convinced every bullet is engraved with the name of your best friend and his two sidekicks.
A torn uniform inseam is no laughing matter, said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank.
"Any well-made uniform should maintain its stitch in virtually all combat situations except direct fire," he said. "It is a serious problem if it becomes a distraction to the war fighter who needs to concentrate on completing a mission."
The Army unveiled its current combat uniform in 2004. It has a digital camouflage pattern and pockets that can be reached while wearing body armor. The half-cotton, half-nylon uniform is supposed to last six months. U.S. plants make hundreds of thousands of them a month.
Soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan receive two sets of combat uniforms and two sets of fire-resistant ones. By January, all of the uniforms soldiers receive will be made of fire-resistant material.
I no longer have my jungle fatigues of course, but I think the seams were double-stitched. I don’t claim to having a perfect memory because, you know, white hair and all that, so I wonder whatever possessed procurement managers to not put that little item into the specifications?
Props to the Army for creating the uniforms with fire-resistant material, although it’s probably tragic they didn’t take that step from the beginning. Flame is an automatic side effect of combat involving motorized vehicles. Aviators and tankers uniforms are made from Nomex® fiber – why not GIs who are automatically associated with vehicles in today’s mechanized Army?
I've said it before, and it bears repeating: ALL Army procurement boards should have lower-rank EM on them. Colonels are too busy thinking about their retirement double-dip job with a DoD vendor to think enough about the troops.
Jordan Fox joined the Army, wanting to help his country. The patriot, from Mt Lebanon, PA, joined the Infantry (which really is the ONLY combat arm that matters) passed through training, and then elected to go through sniper school, passed and went to the one place in the world where the Army needs snipers, and that isn’t in Fort Drum.
While in the sandbox, he did his duty, saw combat, got promoted to PFC, and got wounded seriously enough that he was discharged.
(CBS) Jordan Fox received a $10,000 signing bonus when he joined the Army. The Mt. Lebanon man served his country in Iraq, where as a sniper he survived machine gun battles and a roadside bomb that knocked him unconscious and blinded him in his right eye.
The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country and unfortunately I was hurt in the process and now they're telling me that they want their money back," Fox told CBS station KDKA-TV.
It’s a simple story. Man steps up to the plate. Gets wounded and is disabled because the Army doesn’t need any one-eyed snipers this year. Gets discharged and then is asked for a rebate on the unused portion of his enlistment bonus.
ARRRGHHH!
Surprisingly, the man actually pitches a bitch, believing that there is no reason for the Army to act like a bunch of cut-throat corporatists, feeling that just because George Bu$h doesn’t give a Chinese fart what happens to American soldiers, there is no reason for the Army to act that way.
Does America really need Republican pimps in the Green bag?
A Fake News station invited him on their show, planning to sandbag him with the “announcement” arranged one hour before airtime that HQ, Department of the Army has magnanimously decided that in this case, Jordan Fox doesn’t have to give back the $2,800 that they tried to bill him for. You shouldn’t be surprised by this because Roger Ailes and Rupert “Green Card” Murdoch have built an empire for themselves fellating the Republican Party. As I understand, Mr Fox stated he was happy about the news, but immediately riposted with a comment wondering how this decision will affect all the other GIS who have been dunned.
Interestingly enough, Fox may have lost an eye in Iraq, but not his mind and as CBS (a real news network) explains,
This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses - up to $30,000 in some cases. Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
Military regulations do allow for discharged soldiers to be forced to pay back part of their enlistment bonuses if they do not serve their entire commitment, if they were found to have "pre-existing" conditions, such as psychological disorders.
Keith Olberman had a few words to say about the whole matter.
Was the Army taking the shot that maybe Jordan Fox would just meekly hand back the rest of his enlistment bonus because “We’re bigger than you are, kid. You can’t win.” ?
Naw! I don’t believe that, do you? Uniformed Republican pimps trying to outwit a soldier?
In late October, Fox got a letter from the Army seeking repayment of part of his enlistment bonus because he had only completed about a year of his three-year service.
Another letter arrived a week later warning he could be charged interest if he didn’t make a payment within 30 days.
“I was just completely shocked,” Fox said. “I couldn’t believe I’d gotten a bill in the mail from the Army.” [emph added]
“Pay it back, fast, or you’ll be charged interest, too” Nothing like a little piling on, eh, gents?
I’m reminded of stories about Mr Cheney’s Halliburton being caught overcharging the Army for meals and the Army magnanimously deciding not to sue to recoup the funds that were defrauded, arguing that it was to much work to chase after the millions of dollars stolen from the taxpayers.
Obviously, PFC Fox’s mistake was not being born a Cheney. But then, if he had been born a Cheney he wouldn’t have had to enlist, go to Iraq, and surely wouldn’t have been wounded. Members of the Cheney family always seem to have other priorities when there’s killing going on.
Faced with some nationwide adverse publicity about the matter, HQ, DA decided this is one of those times when you pull in your horns.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2007 – If you are wounded in combat and discharged as a result, you will not have to pay back your enlistment bonus, Defense Department officials said here today.
“Bonuses are not recouped simply for one's inability to complete an enlistment or re-enlistment agreement through no fault of the military member,” a policy statement said.
Pentagon officials re-stated their policy after a wounded soldier in Pennsylvania received a bill from the Army. Jordan Fox was a private first class in Baqouba, Iraq, when he was wounded in the explosion of an improvised explosive device. Fox suffered vision troubles in his right eye and suffered a back injury when the bomb went off in May.
Fox was medically discharged and went home to his town near Pittsburgh. The Army sent him a letter asking him to repay $2,800 of his $7,500 enlistment bonus. He received a second letter telling him the Army would charge interest if he didn't make a payment within 30 days.
“Department policy prohibits recoupment when it would be contrary to equity and good conscience, or would be contrary to the nation's interests,” according to the Defense Department policy statement. “Those circumstances include, for example, an inability to complete a service agreement because of illness, injury, disability, or other impairment that did not clearly result from misconduct.”
Department policy on recoupment also establishes that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the secretaries of the military departments “shall remit or cancel any and all theater debt incurred by military members who were medically evacuated from a combat zone due to injury or illness, except in the event of clear misconduct.”
Army officials said Fox will not be required to pay back any enlistment money he received. “By all accounts, his case seems to be an isolated one,” Army officials said. Anyone who does have an issue can call the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline at 1-800-984-8523.
Am I out of place asking what will happen to the Gus who got these dunning letters a year or two ago and actually scrimped, saved, and borrowed from family in order to repay the enlistment bonuses that should never have been clawed back?
Will the Army pay those citizens and veterans interest when they reimburse them?
Frequent commenter WK threw a note over the transom to advise me of some slight improvements in the plight of America’s homeless veterans.
BERNARDS -- Frederick Ohweiler said Monday that it took the better part of the past three years to prepare for life "on the outside."
"The outside" for Ohweiler means being drug and alcohol free, a roof over his head and a trade that led to a job with a future. It also means outside the system, clean and sober and on his own.
Ohweiler was for years, he said, one of the state's 8,000 homeless veterans. Nationally, homeless prevention organizations said, on any night, nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless.
In 2004, Ohweiler was enrolled in a new program at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Lyons that offered a place to live, a break from the cycle of addictions and an opportunity to enter a culinary school.
It is a national disgrace that there are 200,000 homeless veterans. Of course, that’s just one disgrace among many in the Age of Bu$h. Not all the homeless vets occurred under Mr Bu$h’s occupation of our White House, but it can be reliably stated that their plight has grown worse because of his neglect.
An administration that allowed uniformed troops to wallow in soiled and stained linen in a rotting hospital wing could be expected to have even more contempt for veterans no longer in the green bag.
On Monday he was on hand at VA Lyons to celebrate the expansion of the Hope For Veterans Transitional Housing Program, operated by Parsippany-based Community Hope.
Officials and guests marked the expansion of the program by 25 beds, increasing to 100 the number of veterans who can be served.
The new beds are in a wing of the previously abandoned building on the Lyons campus that was renovated in 2004 for the transitional housing program.
Community Hope, founded in 1985, is one of the state's largest providers of supportive housing. It operates cottages at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, offering patients there a chance to make the transition from an institution to life on the outside.
At Lyons, Hope for Veterans is a two-year residency program that offers veterans the chance to develop greater independent living skills through addiction recovery programs, job training, community service work, self-help groups, mentoring opportunities, developing savings and eventually moving to permanent housing.
I know you join me in congratulating Fred Ohweiler, and wishing the best for him and all his brothers who are trying to fight their way back to a healthy, successful and productive life after serving their country. Sadly, it’s unlikely the current pack of criminals despoiling our democracy will do anything for the veterans. It will have to wait for patriotic Americans, a Democratic President and strongly Democratic Congress, to start repairing the damage that the Republicans have brought to our nation.
WK advises that he is in one of the photos in the story linked to above, One of the balding heads is his.
Adam Elkus, who has continually challenged me professionally by forcing me to learn new subjects in order to understand him, has moved his workspace from Simulated Laughter to Rethinking Security. He’s given this page a new look, with a crisp sharp appearance and smooth interface. The same old professionalism is still there, and as always a vital link in examining National security and Foreign Policy matters.
I’ve left the link to his old blog, Simulated Laughter, since it’s useful for archive purposes.
Now that Thanksgiving has officially passed we are into the annual holiday shopping season. If you’re married, or “keeping time” with a lady, as my sainted granny used to say, make sure you buy her a holiday present she will want, something that will show her how much she means to you, and not something “she can use.”
It seems that the alleged War on Terror is getting much less popular with the troops. It’s still a big hit with the wingers, but among those who actually get to spend 15 months away from their families – again – and get to risk being blown up, or shot, or lose a limb, it’s getting to be less important.
WASHINGTON - Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam war, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year. [emph added]
This story hasn’t been discussed very much. Obviously, not in our bought-and-paid-for corporate mass media, which is far too busy paying attention to the class president race, and obsessing over whether Hillary shows too much cleavage or packs a dildo in her power pants suits, or whether Barack Obama is a closet Islamist.
Oddly enough, the media and punditocracy also doesn’t seem too concerned about Rudy Giuliani’s serial adulteries, his delight in cross-dressing, or his apparent preference for entering into business deals with criminals. Nor do they seem much concerned with Mitt Romney’s inability to stick to one side of a position. But they also seem really excited about Fred Thompson’s after shave.
I haven’t seen much written about desertion around the internet tubes, either.
It’s generally agreed that the primary topic of the November 2008 general elections will be Iraq (if Messers Bu$h and Cheney decide to allow elections.) Current polls indicate more than 72% of Americans want our troops out of Iraq, and most want them out at once. The only groups that seem to want the Occupation to continue indefinitely are Big Oil, the winger noise machine, Mr Bu$h’s 24% and the Likud Party.
According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.
These are interesting figures, because they pretty much agree with a story from last year, when Army representatives told us that about 20,000 soldiers had deserted since 2000.
Statistically that’s a drop in the bucket. But if you’re in the green bag, you notice when some dude takes off and doesn’t come back. And I guarantee you notice when more dudes quit without giving notice this year than last year. If your brain hasn’t been rattled and rolled by IEDs you probably think.
That guy from over in the 3rd Battalion? Chickenshit MFer. But when someone from your own company does it, someone you know, someone you shared death with skies off, you think, because you know he’s got the balls. He went through it with you.
.
Desertion used to be considered a pretty serious thing. Back during our last attempt at imperialism in Viet Nam, deserting, or going AWOL for more than 30 days was good for a Bad Conduct Discharge and three years in Barb Wire City. It seems that since the “Commander-in-Chief” has been proven to have deserted during that time, the Army is a little less willing to punish people for waking off the job.
Despite the continued increase in desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they get. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges.
The Army has changed. Even the Colonels and Generals are beginning to figure it out.
We hear a lot about this topic lately. Most Americans who are awake understand what it involves, and most of those have an opinion about it. Generalities are always suspect, but attitudes about waterboarding, and torture in general, seem to have coalesced around the political divide in our country. Progressives and liberals seem to judge the subject from a philosophical and ethical point of view, and are horrified that the US has resorted to such methods. Conservatives seem to believe that anything less than torture makes us look weak, and dangerously helpless.
Is it an oversimplification to say that conservatives are bedwetting cowards, terrified of the big bad Islamist bogeyman slavering outside our borders and just waiting for a chance to sneak over our borders and murder us all in our sleep, then forcing our women to dress in burkas? Well, maybe, but aren’t there a lot of similarities between the Islamic fundamentalists outside our orders and the faux-christian fundamentalists inside the country?
Both groups seem to have tremendous hang-ups about women as equal partners. They both appear to have some pretty strange problems about how women address the issues of their “personhood”. (Is there such a word? I mean the fact that women are sentient beings with minds of their own, more than just breeding machines.) Both seem eager to force religion across the broad base of the culture, realigning the process of civil and criminal law, as well as the entire process of government, to conform to their interpretations of laws supposedly handed down from a burning bush.
Mark Paul has written an engaging piece about torture in Friday’s paper.
Two centuries after the Bill of Rights, a half century after the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners, torture is no longer an evil to be denounced; it’s an open question. “McCain Finds Sympathy on Torture Issue,” a Nov. 16 New York Times headline proclaimed. It doesn’t get any more official than that. Forget earmarks and Social Security; in Election 2008 it looks as if we get to vote on stress positions, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and maybe even the rack. And the blogosphere, as usual, has got a head start on arguing what kind of place America wants to be.
The piece is well worth reading in its entirety because it highlights a specific problem that straddles the chasm the right has created in our country. Are all men equal? Are they “men”? Are some “men” more human than others? What precise justification does the right offer for the use of torture as a weapon of intelligence gathering, other than Jack Bauer’s certainty of a ticking nuclear bomb? I use the word “weapon” intentionally because doing physical, emotional, or psychological harm to another is an act of violence. I’m pretty surer waterboarding is at least one of those. Maybe we could ask John McCain because he’s actually an expert on that stuff, although his official opinion on torture seems to waver as his political fortunes change.
Mr Paul points out a few illustrative comments from public personalities both supporting and condemning the use of torture. The right seems to be obsessed with that bogeyman fear of the nuclear bomb. The Left, on the other hand, seems to focus on silly things facts, and law.
With McCain a “courageous” exception among GOP candidates, “The use of torture is fast becoming a core principle of today's Republican party,” conservative Andrew Sullivan asserts at TheAtlantic.com. “My sense is that many in the base are uncomfortable with the defensiveness of the Bush people, and their use of euphemism in this respect.”
A cynical observer would probably grasp the fact that the Bu$hies have a lot to be defensive about.
They’ve focused their laser-like mentalities on the “war on terrorism” which seems to me to be rather bogus, like the “war on poverty.” We lost that war; the poor are in greater numbers today than they were 40 years ago. We also fought a “war on drugs” and if anyone thinks we’ve won that war they just have to go down to any city neighborhood and start asking about prices.
Likewise, we see that the Right, which has historically been wrong on every other topic of public discussion, is enthusiastically backing this evil policy which has been condemned by every modern democracy.
What does this say about their ability (or inability) to authoritatively lead in this “war on terror” that they have so urgently espoused? Mark Paul describes their position on torture as “agnostic,” which I don’t quite understand, since the US has spent the last 60 years publicly condemning nations that use torture as a means of investigation and punishment.
As is usual for the Right, there is a stunning lack of protest about the official barbarity of the Bu$h malAdministration. One of the few dissenting voices on the dark side of the political chasm comes from Tony Perkins’ Family research Council, of all places.
Writing in The Evangelical Outpost, Joe Carter, director of web communications for the FRC, and a former marine, wrote:
“As Christians we must never condone the use of methods that threaten to undermine the inherent dignity of the person created in the image of God. Murdock may believe there is nothing “repugnant” about waterboarding. But there is something clearly repugnant about our unwillingness to distance ourselves from the fear-driven utilitarians willing to embrace the use of torture.”
The McClatchy article specifically suggests readers go to that Evangelical Outpost article and read some of the comments the good Christians have written. Apparently it’s moral to kill and torture people if they don’t believe in the Jewish carpenter.
I’m back from my road trip, tired, but happy, and hope you all had a good Thanksgiving holiday, even those of you who don’t observe Thanksgiving, or don’t deserve a happy day, and you know who I mean by that.
I got to catch up on some family and old friends, and that’s always good because we can live in the past, when we had a functioning government and healthy Constitution. I also got to catch up with a few enemies, and the Sicilians were right. Revenge is a meal best tasted when cold. I hope the dentist is expensive, Mikey.
I missed a few people I wanted to see, and obviously, there will have to be further road trips to catch up with them, and there are always more enemies, right?
SOUTHWORTH, Wash. - A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.
The 66-year-old man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for two weeks at his home in Kitsap County northwest of Southworth, about 10 miles southwest of Seattle, and had gotten all but one of the lug nuts off the right rear wheel by Saturday afternoon, Kitsap County Deputy Scott Wilson said.
And – no, you’re wrong.
"Nobody else was there, and he wasn't intoxicated," Wilson said.
Kurt Campbell is an expert on Asia and security issues who is now chief executive of the Center for a New American Security. He served in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, in charge of Asia/Pacific issues, and earlier taught at Harvard. Kurt has written widely, for popular and academic audiences, about everything from Japan to nuclear policy.
Mr Campbell has a must-read column today about the lack of morality among the ethical savages responsible for the destruction of Iraq and the erosion of the United Sates’ image of responsible leadership.
The version 2.0 era of neoconservative advocates of military action to topple Saddam have behaved very differently in the midst of our current quagmire in Iraq. Almost all have generally tried to put on a brave public face and to remain on the intellectual offensive, pointing out the weaknesses and limitations of their critics and full of ideas for what the United States can do next in the world. On Iraq specifically, some have blamed the overall faulty execution of the entire United States government, or the stubbornness of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, or the lack of preparation of the Army to conduct irregular operations, or the ultimate failure of the president to make timely and badly needed course corrections along the way.
Mr Campbell is commenting on the Kronsteen Defense, as explained in the James Bond film From Russia, With Love. The plan was perfect,. It could not fail. Since it failed, the failure had to have been in carrying out the plan. Blaming Rumsfeld is a particular bit of arrogance since he was a vital part of the plan. Likewise, blaming the “Army” is pointless because it just follows orders. As far as we know it was never asked for its opinion of the plan. There is also no point in blaming Gorge Bu$h either because the intransigence and arrogance of this defective man-child was a vital part of the plan.
Those who know me know whom I blame, but what do I know? I’m just a broke-down old sergeant. If we're not much smarter in 10 or 15 years than we are right now we will have these same creatures, and their younger intellectual progeny, trying to destroy things again.
Some of the troops demanded by Generalissimo Field Marshal Fred Kagan will start returning home this month.
WASHINGTON - The first big test of security gains linked to the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq is at hand. The military has started to reverse the 30,000-strong troop increase and commanders are hoping the drop in insurgent and sectarian violence in recent months - achieved at the cost of hundreds of lives - won't prove fleeting.
The current total of 20 combat brigades is shrinking to 19 as the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, operating in volatile Diyala province, leaves. The U.S. command in Baghdad announced on Saturday that the brigade had begun heading home to Fort Hood, Texas, and that its battle space will be taken by another brigade already operating in Iraq.
Between January and July - on a schedule not yet made public - the force is to shrink further to 15 brigades. The total number of U.S. troops will likely go from 167,000 now to 140,000-145,000 by July, six months before President Bush leaves office and a new commander in chief enters the White House.
It will be interesting to see whether the resistance picks up again after the short cessation of activity. Some cautious observers have maintained that the so-called surge was really designed to shoehorn more troops into Iraq in case there was a sudden need to have combat stiffeners in-country to push back against an anticipated ground response from the Iranian Army after that country’s facilities were bombed, as demanded by Dick “dick” Cheney and the Likud Party.
Some pundits have insisted that the so-called surge has accomplished its mission of quieting the civilian population although one can equally argue that the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad has been completed and that is the cause for the slightly lower civilian death tolls.
Declines in Iraqi civilian and U.S. military casualties in the past few months and talk among U.S. commanders of an emerging air of optimism and civic revival in some Baghdad neighborhoods point to positive security trends.
A key question is whether security will slip once U.S. lines thin and whether Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and orchestrator of the counterinsurgency strategy, has made enough inroads against insurgents - and instilled enough hope in ordinary Iraqis - to make the gains stick.
Others, more cynical, have felt that the sharply rising US casualties were creating a domestic political situation that was untenable for the Republican Party and that the Bu$h malAdministration had to appear to be doing something in order to keep frightened Republican politicians from bolting in order to save their seats in the 2008 elections.
Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations, who just spent 10 days in Iraq assessing the situation for Petraeus, said a key reason for recent security gains is the emergence of the local anti-insurgent alliances - not just in Anbar province where they began early this year but also now in and around Baghdad. A key to sustaining those security gains will be the U.S. military's ability to police those alliances, he said.
"It's happening on a large scale basis throughout much of the country," Biddle said in an interview Friday. "The problem is how do you keep them from either turning sides again or from going to war against each other."
Some might ask why these alliances must be “policed” if they are based on a sort of ideological or political basis of true anti-insurgency. Wouldn’t the proper motivation be self-interest and survival? If these various groups like the Anbar Awakening are merely marriages of convenience they will melt away as soon as the tap of ready Occupation cash is turned off.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Gledhill, the second-in-command for training Iraqi forces, says he is confident that conditions have improved to the point where the Iraqis are capable of filling any U.S. gaps.
"Our answer is that they not only will be able to - they already are, and will continue to do so as they gain experience, capabilities and capacity, and not only here in Baghdad but all around the country," Gledhill said in an e-mail.
Counting on the Iraqis to take over security was at the center of the U.S. strategy before Petraeus took over in February for Gen. George Casey. In a change of emphasis, Petraeus put a higher priority on securing the Baghdad population while continuing to develop Iraqi security forces.
I don’t see why the 140,000 odd Iraqi security forces wouldn’t be ready to take up the slack. After all they’ve had four years of training by the Most Powerful Army in the World™ Right? Anyone?
And once they’ve proven themselves in combat it seems likely we’ll be able to withdraw our forces from Iraq, thereby finally putting an end to the damned lies and calumny that our invasion and conquest of Iraq was merely to steal their oil.
Looking for a new helicopter, more agile and lighter than the Blackhawk for domestic use, the Army decided to try to avoid the typical years-long acquisition process and buy something right off the shelf. EADS, a European aircraft manufacturer, makes a handy little gadget called Eurocopter EC 145 which seemed perfect for the Army’s purpose since it had already been programmed, designed, tested, debugged, and was in use in several armed services already. And so the LUH (light utility helicopter) was brought on line, designated the UH-72a Lakota, because Army helicopters are named after Indian tribes.
It has been a very successful addition to several nations’ forces, but has developed some teething problems here in the US.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They aren't safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.
While the Army scrambles to fix the problem - potentially adding millions to the taxpayer cost - at least one high-ranking lawmaker is calling for the whole deal to be scrapped.
During flight tests in Southern California in mild, 80-degree weather, cockpit temperatures in the UH-72A Lakota soared above 104 degrees, the point at which the Army says the communication, navigation and flight control systems can overheat and shut down.
Are we certain this thing was carefully planned out? Those navigation and flight control systems just might come in handy.
No cockpit equipment failed during the nearly 23 hours of testing, according to the report, prepared for the Army in July. But it concluded that the aircraft "is not effective for use in hot environments."
The Army told the AP that to fix the cockpit overheating problem, it will take the highly unusual step of adding air conditioners to many of the 322 helicopters ordered.
$2.6 billion for 322 of them and they overheat? Well, this is an inconvenience. I know it’s an unpopular point with the anti-science folks like the Republican Party and various fringe lunatics like James Dobson’s followers, but summer in the United States does not resemble northern Germany in May, although the still-unproven-and-only-a-theory-like-gravity global warming catastrophe is changing the European climate too.
It has been determined that “opening a window, for heavens sake, child, before you melt,” is not the best solution, but thanks anyway for the idea, Grandmother Swensen.
The Army did not respond to questions about how much the retrofitting will cost and who will bear the expense.
That last bit is easy: The co$t will be $teep and $evere, and you and I will bear the expen$e, but if we really need the helicopter, a solution must be found.
The Army has received 12 of the Lakotas so far from the American Eurocopter Corp., a North American division of Germany's European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., or EADS. Testing on the first six by an independent arm of the Pentagon revealed the problems. The rest of the choppers are scheduled for delivery to the active-duty Army and the National Guard over the next eight years.
The Lakota represents the Army's first major effort to adapt commercially available helicopters for military use. Air conditioning is standard in commercial versions of the aircraft, which have not had overheating problems. But the military usually avoids air conditioning in military aircraft to reduce weight and increase performance.
"We don't need air conditioning in the Blackhawks, so we didn't think it would be an issue" in the Lakota, McCuin said. "But when we got the helicopter into the desert, we realized it was a problem."
The Army plans to use the Lakota for such things as search-and-rescue missions in disaster areas, evacuation of injured people, reconnaissance, disaster relief and VIP tours for members of Congress and Army brass. All of its missions will be in the U.S. or other non-combat zones.
Blackhawks, Chinooks and other helicopters will still be available for more demanding duties, such as fighting wildfires or mass evacuations.[emph added]
The Eurocopter can carry up to nine passengers and a crew of two so it will definitely be useful in emergency missions, although for shlepping around Congresscritters they probably should consider very powerful air conditioning.
The commercial purchase was designed partly to cut costs and quickly get aircraft into the field to replace two aging Vietnam-era helicopters, the Kiowa and Huey. The Army said the Lakota will also free up more Blackhawks to send to Iraq for medical evacuation flights.
The Lakota has another problem: Testers said it fails to meet the Army's requirement that it be able to simultaneously evacuate two critically injured patients. The Lakota can hold two patients, but the cabin is too cramped for medics to actually work on more than one of them at a time, the testers said.
Also, the Lakota cannot lift a standard 2,200-pound firefighting water bucket, but can handle a 1,400-pound one. The Army said it had no intention of using the Lakota to fight wildfires.
Not to sound like a nitpicker, but I’ve been hearing triumphant bleating from the White House, the Pentagon, CENTCOM, and MNF-I for the last three weeks that casualties are way down in Iraq, which is proof positive that the so-called surge as been successful and the occupation is working, and now they’re talking about needing more Blackhawks for casualty evacuation. I’m also confused about why we won’t be using this Lakota for fighting wildfires when the original press release specifically included that duty among its uses. It sure sounds like it’s intended for that, because now they will need a special Lakota-compatible water bucket. If you know how government procurement works, you’ll get the idea right away.
Being able to only work on one med evac case at a time sounds like a drawback, too.
Rumors that KBR, a subsidiary of HalliCheneyBurton, has offered to work on a 10 year no-bid contract to resolve the over-heating problem by supplying large blocks of ice have not been verified.
When I printed out the words to Pete Seeger’s wonderful anti-war anthem Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? yesterday, Jim at Ranger Against War suggested that I should remember Buffy St Marie’s remarkable Universal Soldier. He’s right of course.
There were many fine songs written from the late 20s right through the 70s that espoused sensible progressive ideas promoted through the musical style generally classified as “folk”. I just happen to like Buffy’s artwork, which principally advances Native American themes and can be seen at several museums in western Canada and at the American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe. You can find some of her artwork, as well as several music clips here. You can find one of her children's projects here.
Universal Soldier
He's five feet two and he's six feet four
He fights with missiles and with spears
He's all of 31 and he's only 17
He's been a soldier for a thousand years
He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you
And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA,
and he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way
And he's fighting for Democracy
and fighting for the Reds
He says it's for the peace of all
He's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the walls
But without him how would Hitler have
condemned him at Dachau
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He's the one who gives his body
as a weapon to a war
and without him all this killing can't go on
He's the universal soldier and he
really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from him, and you, and me
and brothers can't you see
this is not the way we put an end to war.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
On Veterans’ Day we remember the war dead of our country. We try in honest and frank humility to remember those who gave their lives for ideals like decency, and freedom, and liberty for all, not just for the citizens of this country. A lot of Americans have died in a lot of wars, stretching back more than 250 years, and quite a few of those wars have not been on our soil, thank heavens.
But Veterans’ Day started out as Armistice Day, a holiday to remember the end of the “War to end all wars,” or “The Great War,” as it was commonly called until World War II came along, and then there was a series of colonial wars in Asia, and Africa.
Last year I wrote two pieces for this day that I’m going to republish because they treat the subject with a traditional solemnity. They follow this essay. But I had a special memorial for this year.
There are many in this world who say that America has become an evil nation, an aggressor and oppressor. They look at the ring of military bases all around the world and ask, “What are you protecting us from, now that Communism is gone?”
I don’t have an answer for that, because ”Islamofasciasm” is a bullshit idea thought up by a few small, wizened old men with shriveled souls in offices in Washington and the capital of another country I’m not permitted to name when I’m talking about American wars of empire.
Rather than talk about the evil we are perpetrating today in the name of Big Oil and Big Corporations I want to talk about Americans from farms, and villages and cities who answered the call to the colors, donned uniforms, and went off to fight in order to eject oppressors from other nations. We have left trails of dead around the world in our crusades of conquest and liberation, and I think we forget that since we haven’t had much killing on our soil since 1865.
There are a lot of American cemeteries and memorials on small Pacific islands to mark the road to Tokyo. There are quite a few on the European continent, too, heading towards Paris and Rome and Berlin. Some of them are official cemeteries, and others are just small markers, erected by people who remember that men and women of another land traveled 3,000 miles to free them, and they honor that memory.
There are official lists of World War I cemeteries. This particular site mostly honors Commonwealth dead, since the British and German Empires and France suffered the most grievous losses in that war. Here’s another.
Americans have their own cemeteries in Europe. More than 100,000 Americans are interred in Europe. A lot of our kinsmen died to liberate Europe.
Not all memorials are composed of huge expanses of carefully trimmed green grass and perfectly aligned stones. These are national memorials, and are paid for by taxpayers in various countries. Some memorials are quite modest and heart-stirring.
A friend of mine was in France recently and I got an email which I want to relate. I’ve cleaned it up ever so slightly, because I keep pretending this is a family blog.
A slightly different pic from Chambord; I went for a walk in an area I haven't been before and stumbled on this memorial at the edge of the forest. There are probably hundreds like it all over France, and despite Homer Simpson, the French really do appreciate US help in the war.
All the military cemeteries are a constant reminder and they are all beautifully maintained, including the German ones. In the Somme area there are just so many monuments to men of many different nations; as I drive to and from the Channel it is just a constant succession, so you would have to be a very hard person not to think occasionally.
One little bit that has annoyed me recently is a pile of complaints from some British that the French are building a motorway over land which probably contains some as yet undiscovered dead soldiers. The French have mad[e] it clear that there is an archaeological dig first to discover any remains and give them proper burial. I don't see that you can ask for more. Without the motorway those bodies would have remained unrecognised and ignored as they have been for the last 80 years or so.
This little piece of mail touched me in a way I can’t describe. I’ve toured the Somme and Vedun areas, seen several military cemeteries and been stunned and saddened by the seemingly endless lines of stone markers, almost like whitecaps on a storm-tossed sea.
But I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
I blew up the English translation of the stone to display the brief narrative of this memorial. I’m glad to know that the pilot and copilot of the plane were rescued by the French and hidden until they could rejoin their countrymen. I wish there was word of the crew, but I haven’t been able to learn anything. I asked my British friend to make inquiries on the next trip. Maybe next year I will finally have some good news to discuss on this saddest of all days.
I noted that Judge Mukasey was approved by the Senate, advising and consenting in their full panoply of majestic anti-Americanism. Judge Mukasey of course, is the George Bu$h-approved Attorney General candidate who has spent many years not only practicing the law, but also wearing the black gown and telling other people what the law means, and, furthermore, teaching law to young minds. Yet, strangely enough, this man apparently doesn’t know how to look up what the laws of the United States have to say about torture.
I am curious, however, how it is that when the Senate is asked by us, their constituents, the voters, the taxpayers, their employers, to do something like , ohhh….. end the fucking bloodshed, or stop pissing our money down a hole in the sand, or use a constitutional method of firing a couple of criminals, they can’t do it because “we don’t have 60 votes.”
Today is November 10th, the birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Originally stablished in 1775 as the Continental Marines, the Corps was charged by the Continental Congress to be naval infantry. The first act called for raising “two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one Colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors and other officers, as usual in other regiments; that they consist of an equal number of privates as with other battalions, that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to offices, or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve for and during the present war with Great Britain and the Colonies; unless dismissed by Congress; that they be distinguished by the names of the First and Second Battalions of Marines."
[T]heir most important duty was to serve as on-board security forces, protecting the Captain of a ship and his officers. During naval engagements Marine sharpshooters were stationed in the fighting tops of the ships' masts, and were supposed to shoot the opponent's officers, naval gunners, and helmsmen.
The Marines were used to conduct amphibious landings and raids during the American Revolution. They landed twice in Nassau, in the Bahamas, to seize naval stores from the British. The first landing, led by a Captain Nicholas, consisted of 250 Marines and sailors who landed in New Providence, in the Bahamas; there they wreaked much damage and seized naval stores. The second landing, led by a Lieutenant Trevet, landed at night and captured several ships along with the naval stores.
Continental Marines landed and captured Nautilus Island and the Majabagaduce peninsula in the Penobscot Expedition. A Marine battalion also fought alongside the Continental Army in the Battle of Princeton. A group under Navy Captain Willig left Pittsburgh, traveled down the Mississippi, captured a ship and in conjunction with other Continental Marines brought by ship from the Gulf of Mexico raided British Loyalists on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain.
The Continental Marines' first and only Commandant was Major Samuel Nicholas and the first Marine Barracks were located in Philadelphia. The first recruiting station was a bar called Tun Tavern. [ed – this is very surprising news] Four additional Marine Security Companies were also raised and helped George Washington defend Philadelphia.
Many books and films have been produced about the heroism and gallantry of the Corps. It’s just about all true, as distinguished from what you’ll hear playing poker at 200 AM in a hospital ward.
This nation would not be the proud democracy it is today without their efforts.
Yesterday’s Stars and Stripes had a piece about how the military services have had to change their definitions of what is morally and legally objectionable in recruits in order to continue to feed Mr Bu$h’s ego-war.
WASHINGTON — Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned.
The review, in its early stages, comes as the number of Army recruits needing waivers for bad behavior — such as trying drugs, stealing, carrying weapons on school grounds and fighting — rose from 15 percent in 2006 to 18 percent this year. And it reflects the services’ growing use of criminal, health and other waivers to build their ranks.
Overall, about three in every 10 recruits must get a waiver, according to Pentagon statistics obtained by AP, and about two-thirds of those approved in recent years have been for criminal behavior. Some recruits must get more than one waiver to cover things ranging from any criminal record, to health problems such as asthma or flat feet, to low aptitude scores — and even for some tattoos.
The Goddess of War, and her illegitimate cousin, the Goddess of Greed, are insatiable bitches: both require daily sacrifices of humans to placate their hunger. Some clear-headed people would say that wars of aggression and conquest are immoral to begin with, and that any country so lacking in moral and ethical standards is essentially laughable when it pretends to superimpose standards of conduct on a criminal enterprise.
The goal of the review is to make cumbersome waiver requirements consistent across the services — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force — and reduce the number of petty crimes that now trigger the process. Still, some Army officers worry that disciplinary problems will grow as more soldiers with records, past drug use and behavior problems are brought in.
Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel, said the review is necessary. Now, he said, many recruits who were arrested as juveniles for what can be considered youthful indiscretions — minor fights or theft — are forced to get waivers even if they were never convicted of the crime.
“I do believe it needs to be done,” Rochelle said of the waiver review. “There are really anomalies out there.”
The waivers require more time, paperwork and investigation, from detailed health screenings and doctor referrals to testimonials about past bad behavior. Depending on the seriousness, the final decision can be made by senior recruiting officers or higher-ranking commanders. [emph added]
“I’m the big macher for personnel. I think we need more criminals, especially thieves and brawlers, in our Army, and I want to regularize this type of conduct when trolling for recruits. My job is to get warm bodies into the green bag, not to worry about what sort of people we turn loose in our barracks or on our city streets when they return from Iraq. All this pesky paperwork required to make these criminals acceptable is an encumbrance and needs to be eliminated in many cases.”
The starkest difference involves Marines and drug use. The Marines require a waiver for one-time marijuana use, while the other services don’t, and 69 percent of conduct waivers for Marines who joined from October 2006 to June 2007 were for previous drug use. It was 12 percent for the Army.
The bulk of the Army’s conduct waivers during that time — 71 percent — were for serious misdemeanors, which can include thefts worth more than $500, any incident involving a dangerous weapon on school grounds, or minor assaults and fights. A waiver is required even if the recruit was a juvenile and the charge was dismissed after restitution, community service or other conditions were met.
Any fool can see the Marine Corps will be a. more effective service with more drug users in it. Ditto for other crimes. If you liked to be braced when you went to school, you’re just the kind of recruit America needs for its 40 year involvement in Middle Eastern conquest.
The Harry S Truman Strike Group shipped out on Monday, headed for…. ?
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK - The Naval Station Norfolk-based USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group pulled away from the pier early this morning on a regularly scheduled deployment.
The nearly 7,500 sailors are likely headed to the Middle East to provide maritime security in international waters, according to the Navy.
Commanded by Rear Adm. William E. Gortney, the strike group includes the aircraft carrier and its air wing, the guided-missile cruiser San Jacinto and the submarine Montpelier.
A Florida and New Jersey-based guided-missile cruiser, guided-missile destroyer and fast combat support ship will deploy from their respective homeports and meet up with the strike group once underway.
Questions to be discussed:
1. Why is this group called a ”Carrier Strike Group” rather than a “Carrier Battle Group” ?
2. Is the difference significant?
3. What causes the difference?
4. Is it meaningful that there is no Marine Amphibious or Expeditionary Unit paired with this Strike Group?
5. Does this mean that Admirals Mullen and Fallon have finally given up resisting Dick “dick” Cheney’s insistence that Bibi Netanyahu is right and Iran must be turned into a smoking hole in the ground?
Back on May 12th a US observation post was overrun and four soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division were killed. Three more were taken prisoner. They were considered missing in action.
On May 28th one of the soldiers, PFC Joseph Anzack Jr, was found dead alongside the Euphrates River near Musayyib.
This video report submitted by the NY Times’ Michael Kamber was run on the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer. It covers part of the search for the soldiers and has a stark report of an IED ambush.
Gorilla’s Guides reports that the body of one soldier has been recovered.
As posted immediately below the independent Iraki newsagency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) are reporting the finding of the corpse of one of the captured American soldiers. According to the report a spokesman for the green zone government Ministry of Defense, said on Sunday, that a combined American/green zone government force found two days ago the body of an American soldier captured about six months ago, in an area 60 Kilometres north of the city of Hilla.
The soldier has been missing since gunmen launched an attack on an American observation post near Mahmoudia south of Baghdad, on the twelfth of May last. During the attack which was complex and well-organised the attackers killed four soldiers patrol and an Iraqi interpreter.
The gunmen captured three other soldiers. The so-called Islamic State of Irak claimed the responsibility for the attack.
The American army immediately launched a massive campaign of searches, in which thousands of American and green zone government soldiers searched the areas south of Baghdad and north of the city of Hilla during the most intense phase about 900 people were questioned intensively and 36 detained. American planes dropped leaflets offering a reward of $200 thousand dollars to those who gave information about the whereabouts of the missing soldiers. The so-called Islamic State issued a video (see report of June 4th 2007 under the heading "Late Breaking Report: for screengrabs) in which a speaker on the video said:
““Fearing the occupying army will continue its searches, harming our Muslim brothers … (the Islamic State in Iraq) decided to settle the matter and announced the news of their killing to cause bitterness to God’s enemies””
Gorilla’s Guides recently updated their website and they have not yet fixed all their coding problems. Go to their page via the link above, then scroll down to find the article titled “The reported finding of the corpse of one of the missing American soldiers” dated November 4th. Then scroll halfway through the day’s report and you will find a highlighted link to a June 4th report which contains information, and half-way through that article there are clickable licks on the left margin to three screen grabs from a tape reportedly photographed by the “Islamic Army” which show ID documents of two of the missing soldiers
The big news this weekend is of course the move by Pervez Musharraf to keep his job as President despite an election a month ago that many sensible people contend was rigged about four times more egregiously than Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Ponder that concept for a moment.
General/ President * Musharraf has had his two authorized terms in office, but desperate times require desperate measures and so he decided to run again and surprise! He won. The Supreme Court is presently deciding whether the election was a true win and General Musharraf’s decision was to avoid the danger of civic unrest by blanketing the city with troops and tanks. He paid special attention to the Supreme Court building, apparently in fear that rioting citizens might seize the building.
His concern for the safety of the Supreme Court justices deciding the legitimacy of his latest election was so high that he ordered the Army to transport the justices back home in heavily armed convoys.
Swopa, who completely misunderstands the real meaning of the situation in Pakistan, highlighted this commentary by Ms Rice, our alleged Russian expert and concert pianist:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday it was "highly regrettable" that Pakistan's president had declared a state of emergency. She urged restraint on all sides and a swift return to democracy.
The United States "does not support extraconstitutional measures," Rice said in an interview with CNN from Turkey, where she was participating in a conference with Iraq's neighbors.
It’s worth clicking the link to get Swopa’s commentary on Ms Rice’s professional opinion of Pakistan today.
General / President Musharraf is truly a man deeply concerned with the fate of his nation. A thinking man would immediately recognize that Messers Bu$h and Cheney are fortunate that there is no such danger of civic unrest in the US, since there are very few soldiers available, nor armored cars, to escort our Supreme Court Justices in this way. I know you join me in hoping there is no unrest after the November 2008 elections (if it is decided to allow them) since so much of our Army is involved in supporting the last Iraq election.
* - In contention for rank of “President for Life”
Blogging is light today because I’ve been distracted by a zillion details as I pack for the great semi-annual migration. There are birdcages to clean and birds to bring in for boarding, and the dachshund who rules the universe to bring to the vet, plants to set up, a pool to prepare (living in the tropical paradise that used to be JEB! land of course there’s a pool.)
I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off to drive up to New York to see the kids and grandkid
