Don't ya just love it when our Congress Critters takes our best interests to heart? Better body armor? No! An improved GI Bill? No! Longer breaks between tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan? Sadly, No! What are they so concerned about now, that they need to pass a law for?
Rep. Broun(R) has introduced H.R. 5821, also known as the Military Honor and Decency Act, which would close what he calls a loophole that allows the continued distribution of pornography to soldiers, to their moral detriment, with the help of taxpayer funds.
Pornography? Are ya kidding? Nope! As Broun states...
"As a Marine, I am deeply concerned for the welfare of our troops and their mission," Broun said on April 17. "Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad. Our troops should not see their honor sullied so that the moguls behind magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can profit. The ‘Military Honor and Decency Act’ will right a bureaucratic--and moral--wrong."
There are 15 co-sponsors to the bill, all Goopers... Here's a thought, how about addressing the real reason there's an escalation in violent, sexual crimes and spousal abuse and suicides and... ad nauseum! Let's get out of Iraq, adequately fund detection and treatment programs for PTSD, Depression, Suicides, etc...
What're we fighting for...? Seriously, how can anyone defend the Repugnants, which party truly cares about the troops? So much for the separation of Church and State, and the First Amendment... As the USA Today reports...
Dozens of religious and anti-pornography groups have complained to Congress and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that a Pentagon board set up to review magazines and films is allowing sales of material that Congress intended to ban.
"They're saying 'we're not selling stuff that's sexually explicit' … and we say it's pornography," says Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, a Christian anti-pornography group. A letter-writing campaign launched Friday by opponents of the policy aims to convince Congress to "get the Pentagon to obey the law," he adds.
Puh-lease! Butt out! Pick up a weapon and join us in the trenches! Here's a nice retort...
Nadine Strossen, a New York Law School professor who heads the American Civil Liberties Union, says the law effectively censors what troops get to read in remote areas or combat zones. "We're asking these people to risk their lives to defend our Constitution's principles … and they're being denied their own First Amendment rights to choose what they read," she said.
Military.com carried a follow up report today, on the CBS News report released on Monday. I was astounded at what the VA attorneys were asserting at the federal court hearing in San Francisco.
To wit...
Lawyers for the government disagreed strongly with the veterans, claiming that the VA runs a "world-class health care system." Multiple times during his opening statement, Justice Department lawyer Richard Lepley portrayed the veterans' groups as "special interests" and argued the changes the groups seek in their lawsuit -- better and faster mental health care, and more rights for veterans appealing denials of benefits -- are beyond the judge's authority.
"You have no standards to judge," Lepley told (judge)Conti. "This court shouldn't be trying to be a substitute for what the medical professionals at the VA decide."
Damn! World class system and the VA knows what's best for the vets... I'm speechless...
Let's look at what the 'Special Interests' are arguing...
"The suicide problem is out of control," said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Our veterans deserve better."
"The system is in crisis, and unfortunately the VA is in denial," Erspamer told the court, urging U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti to appoint a special master to oversee the troubled agency. The veterans groups are also seeking a judge's order forbidding the VA from turning away any veteran who shows up at a facility seeking mental health care.
In a number of high-profile cases, Iraq war veterans have killed themselves after being turned away from the VA.
An e-mail made public during the trial revealed that the head of the VA's Mental Health division, Dr. Ira Katz, advised a media representative not to tell reporters that 1,000 veterans receiving care at the VA try to kill themselves every month.
"Shh!" the e-mail begins.
"Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"
Stumbles on it?, Aargh...! WTF? Dr. Katz followed up later with...
In an e-mail late Monday to CBS News, Katz wrote that the reason the numbers were not released was due to questions about the consistency and reliability of the findings - and that there was no public cover up involved.
Sure there was no cover up involved... And there were WMD's in Iraq...! The F*ckers have no remorse!
Update: My Senator and Chair of the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee is demanding the immediate resignation of Katz...
I am writing to request the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
Dr. Katz's personal conduct and professional judgment have been called into question by his response to the mental health needs of veterans, and in particular to veteran suicides. I believe veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would be best served by his immediate resignation.
Originally, I was going to severely thrash the VA in today's post when I saw this CBS News Investigative report...
VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show
Follow-Up Reporting On Exclusive Investigation Reveals Officials Hid Numbers
But, I decided to concentrate more on this NY Times report instead... "Talking Veterans Down From Despair"
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Nancy Nosewicz was busy fielding calls at the new national veterans hot line on a recent afternoon when someone from the Department of Veterans Affairs in Topeka, Kan., phoned. He had a 55-year-old Army veteran from the Northwest on the line who had called to complain about his benefits, but now the guy, drunk and crying, was talking about not wanting to live. Could Ms. Nosewicz pick up?
In a slurred voice, heavy from weeping, the veteran, named Robert, told her that he was homeless and wanted to “just lay down in the river and never get up.”
Ms. Nosewicz, a social worker, listened. Then in a voice firm and comforting like a big sister, she said: “We don’t want you to either. Today we’re not thinking about the alcohol or the housing, Robert. Today it’s about keeping you safe.”
She gave an assistant Robert’s phone number to find his address and alert local police to stand by. The chain of care resembled a relay race, with one runner trying not let go of the baton until the next runner had it in hand.
The veterans hot line is part of a specialized effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce suicide by enabling counselors, for the first time, to instantly check a veteran’s medical records and then combine emergency response with local follow-up services. It comes after years of criticism that the department has been neglecting tens of thousands of wounded service men and women who have returned from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Finally, they're actually doing something to stem the rising tide in suicides...
Yet whatever larger failings may exist, the staff of social workers, addiction specialists and nurses who keep the hot line running — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — can count at least some victories by the end of each shift.
Unique about this hot line, said Janet Kemp, the national suicide prevention coordinator with the department, is that now the counselors have medical information at their fingertips, which they use to connect vets with counseling near their homes. The model evolved from a new research program on suicide prevention paid for by the department.
“For years people thought that asking questions about suicide put the thought in people’s mind, but now we know that’s not true,” said Dr. Kemp, who travels throughout the country training V.A. staff.
The department is spending about $3 million to start and operate the hot line during its first year, said a spokesman, Daniel Ryan, and another $2.9 million on a mental health research center at the sprawling red-brick V.A. Medical Center in Canandaigua. Referring to the hot line’s relay model, Kerry Knox, the director of the new research center, said, “You don’t want them to fall through the cracks.”
It is available to all Vets...
Sometimes veterans have a lot of trouble asking for help, said Jacalyn O’Loughlin, a counselor. “They keep saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ ” Ms. O’Loughlin said. “Especially marines. They feel they’re weak if they reach out.”
Mr. Ryan said about half the calls to the hot line — 1-800-273-TALK (8255) — were from veterans, split fairly evenly between Vietnam and Iraq. Family members and friends also frequently call. About 30 percent of the veterans are women.
Please call them if you're contemplating it, folks... You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by calling them! It might actually get you a positive response out of VA... A veritable kick in the arse... 8-)
The Silver Star is the Army’s third highest award for valor. It is awarded in recognition of outstanding effort and courage in combat and is not come by easily. Some say that it is an award much easier to gain posthumously than standing up, and that’s probably true.
Two soldiers at Ft Lewis were recently awarded the Silver Star and a brief look at the circumstances of the awards are educational. An award citation is a brief and sometimes a too-brief narration of the situation. The scenes recounted here are not necessarily unique. Similar sights might happen anywhere in the country on any day. The valor certainly isn't unique. The only unusual thing is that the actions of these men were somehow pointed out for well-deserved recognition.
Who They Were
SFC Ismael Iban and SSG Jon Hillard, who returned from Iraq in September, are both members of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. At the ceremony, held at 1:30pm Pacific Time at the Sheridan Gym at Fort Lewis, both Soldiers were honored for their valorious actions in combat.
The Citation
“SFC Iban’s steadfast leadership and dauntless presence was instrumental in leading his 12-man platoon to overcome incredible odds presented by the enemy,” according to the narrative. “With absolute decisiveness, calmness under pressure and personal courage, SFC Iban’s performance on 19 February 2007 directly contributed to saving his fellow soldiers’ lives in Tarmiya, Iraq.”
The Narration
SFC Iban, a platoon sergeant with 3rd Platoon, C Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment was recognized for actions that he took on February 19, 2007. That day, a suicide car bomber destroyed the Tarmiya Joint Security Station, located near Taji, Iraq. Iban and his platoon were conducting a patrol about 6 miles from the station, when they were called to provide assistance.
Iban ordered his platoon to respond. As they entered the outskirts of Tarmiya, they were attacked by small-arms fire and rocket propelled grenades, coming from alleys nearby, as well as rooftops. The Soldiers returned fire and continued on to the badly damaged Joint Security Station. As they approached, they saw that it was engulfed in flames and smoke, with a huge pile of debris from the explosion blocking the road. It was then that Iban and 4 of his Soldiers got out of their Stryker vehicle and moved on foot the 250 feet it took to get to the JSS, under constant enemy fire.
When they arrived, Iban established a command and control point, and he and his men began to prepare for medical evacuation of 21 wounded US Soldiers. The rest of the platoon, meanwhile worked diligently, while under enemy fire, to clear a path on the roadway, so that a defensive perimeter could be created.
Iban loaded the more seriously wounded Soldiers into his Stryker vehicle and began moving them to the nearest helicopter landing zone. As they arrived, they were hit by an attack, with the enemy firing 7 RPGs and multiple machine guns from the nearby woods and buildings. Iban ordered his Soldiers to set up a perimeter and engage the enemy. He meanwhile dismounted and provided additional suppressive fire, to enable 4 medivac helicopters to land. The team moved while receiving intense fire, to load 9 critically wounded Soldiers into the helicopters. These actions were repeated by Iban and his men until all 21 wounded Soldiers were safely aboard the helicopters.
The citation tells none of the drama and fear of the moment, when the conscious mind might freeze, but training and instinct take control and soldiers rise to a threat. Oftentimes you have no idea whatsoever what you did, that they’re now praising so highly. You might remember the gut-griping and the tunnel vision created by adrenalin and later you might have noticed the shakes. You just somehow did what you’d been trained to do, and no country can ask more than that of a man soldier.
On March 24, 2007, while conducting clearance operations in a Baqubah neighborhood, Hilliard and his Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, B Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, were hit by a buried IED. The explosion was massive enough to catch the rear of their Stryker vehicle on fire and disable it. 7 Soldiers on board were injured.
The Citation
“Single handedly, he exposed himself on top of the burning Stryker while under accurate machine gun fire for approximately three minutes while the platoon maneuvered to establish a defensive position for the [casualty evacuation]… “SSG Hilliard’s bravery in the face of fire, tireless efforts and selfless service were instrumental in the successful recovery and evacuation of men, weapons and equipment, as well as the destruction of numerous [anti-Iraqi forces],” according to the narrative. “His actions and his demeanor were truly inspirational to those present throughout these actions.”
When the explosion occurred, Hilliard, who was riding in the rear right air guard hatch, was ejected onto the top of the Stryker vehicle. He suffered multiple injuries to his left leg. Despire his injuries, Hilliard, who is a squad leader, immediately focused his attention on his Soldiers. He saw that the ramp door has been blown off in the explosion and smoke had filled the Troop compartment. The explosion that ejected him from the vehicle, also caused him to lose his weapon. As other Soldiers arrived to provide support, they came under a sustained volley of accurate and deadly machine gun fire. Hilliard saw a M204B Machine Gun that was tangled in a sniper camouflage netting nearby. He used his knife to cut the weapon free and grabbed a box of ammunition.
…
As the other wounded Soldiers were evacuated, Hilliard suppressed multiple enemy machine gun positions. After a defensive perimeter was established, Hilliard got off of the Stryker vheicle and gained control of the remaining men in his squad, as well as grabbing his weapon which had been blown off the vehicle during the explosion. He then realized that the M204B he had been using was now with 1st Platoon.
He then raced across 165 feet of open terrain to retrieve the weapon, under small arms fire and and RPG. He retrieved his weapon and then turned to rejoin his platoon, when he collapsed from his injuries and was no longer able to walk. He was then medically evacuated to FOB Warhorse to receive treatment for his injuries.
I despise this evil and dishonest occupation of a conquered country and I have nothing but the spit from my mouth and the contents of my bladder for the cowards who lied us into this catastrophe that is destroying two nations.
However SFC Iban and SSG Hilliard might personally feel about the terrorists we are creating in Iraq they kept their obligations to their men and fought to save them, and they have honored all of us by their loyalty.
Via today’s Agonist we learn that US military officials have decided that Afghanistan is going to be easy pickings this Spring.
The Taliban are unlikely to launch a spring offensive in Afghanistan this year because all their energies will be focused in Pakistan, United States military officials said. But as that battle heats up, US officials added that they do not have enough intelligence on the ground in Pakistan.
KARACHI - With the Taliban's spring offensive just months away, the Afghan front has been quiet as Taliban and al-Qaeda militants have been heavily engaged in fighting security forces in Pakistan's tribal regions.
But now Taliban leader Mullah Omar has put his foot down and reset the goals for the Taliban: their primary task is the struggle in Afghanistan, not against the Pakistan state.
Mullah Omar has sacked his own appointed leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, the main architect of the fight against Pakistani security forces, and urged all Taliban commanders to turn their venom against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces, highly placed contacts in the Taliban told Asia Times Online. Mullah Omar then appointed Moulvi Faqir Mohammed (a commander from Bajaur Agency) but he refused the job. In the past few days, the Pakistani Taliban have held several meetings but have not yet appointed a replacement to Mehsud.
Maybe you ought to pay attention to what your enemy says. So far, they've done exactly what they have declared they would do. I dunno, it just seems easy to me, although I lack a degree from Army Vo-Tech and advanced training from the glamor school.
2. From the same article, here’s some on-the-ground intelligence for US military officials:
This major development occurred at a time when Pakistan was reaching out with an olive branch to the Pakistani Taliban. Main commanders, including Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the main Afghan Taliban based in Pakistan, Sirajuddin Haqqani, signed peace agreements. But al-Qaeda elements, including Tahir Yuldashev, chief of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, undermined this initiative.
"We refused any peace agreement with the Pakistani security forces and urged the mujahideen fight for complete victory," Yuldashev said in a jihadi video message seen by Asia Times Online. Yuldashev's closest aide and disciple, Mehsud, last week carried out an attack on a Pakistani security post and then seized two forts in the South Waziristan tribal area.
I know you’re really aching to get stuck in combat in yet another country, but look – you can’t handle the two countries you’re stuck in now. Why not allow Pakistan, a sovereign country, to handle its own internal affairs?
Pakistan bombed South Waziristan and sent in heavy artillery and tanks for a major operation against Mehsud. Other important commanders are now in North Waziristan and they support the peace agreements with the Pakistani security forces.
Pakistan's strategic quarters maintain the planned operation in South Waziristan is aimed particularly at eliminating Mehsud.
"While talking to government representatives in the jirga [peace council] we could clearly discern a grudge against Baitullah Mehsud and the Mehsud tribes by the security forces. And there are signs that the government is obsessed with a military operation to make Baitullah Mehsud a martyr," a leading member of the peace jirga in South Waziristan, Maulana Hisamuddin, commented to Voice of America.
Yes, we’re all concerned about the possibility that Pakistan might fall to a fanatical Islamist movement, and thereby the nukes might come under their control. Well, leaving aside the fact that George Bu$h engineered this danger by his refusal to properly prosecute the Taliban and al-Qadeda (headed by O b L, scion of a family the Bu$h family has done business with for 30 years) it might be a good idea to use the nuclear bunker busters that Mr Cheney has been slavering to use in Iran on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons instead.
By the way, gentlemen, if, as MG David Rodriguez suggests, you’re not concerned with the Taliban making a spring offensive, why is GEN Dan McNeill asking for another 3,000 troops?
As NATO forces struggle to contain a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the US is expected to send 3000 more marines to that nation in advance of an anticipated spring offensive.
U.S. Army General Dan McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, made the formal request for reinforcements this week. It has already received the backing of Central Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is likely to get quick approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
However, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, the move has already been under consideration by the Pentagon for the last three months, while the Bush administration "has dragged its heels," partly out of fear that it would be seen as "an admission the US was far too absorbed in Iraq, while it left Afghanistan to dangerously deteriorate."
Isn’t this actually a reversal of your decision last year to not allow the Marines to concentrate in Afghanistan?
A confused man might not be able to decide whether you gentlemen have no frickin idea what to do with the mess the neocons left you with, or whether you just have too many uniformed PR flacks practicing public diplomacy through misrepresentation.
One of the great dreams of the Osprey was that it would deposit Marines with their own organic support weapons, ready to support the assault. It looks as if the Marines might be able to assault with the Osprey, but without mortar support.
When the Marines shipped their V-22 Osprey aircraft to Iraq last year, they had to leave behind the assault vehicles and mobile mortar system that fit inside the planes.
The Marines' new mortar system can't safely carry its ammunition.
That conclusion, from a government audit, is the most recent bad news for the Marines' attempt to ferry firepower inside the Osprey. The Defense Department inspector general is investigating the program, which is two years behind schedule and $15 million over budget.
The system consists of a jeeplike vehicle called the Growler that pulls trailers carrying mortars and ammunition.
Infantrymen who’ve made a combat assault, or dealt with a swiftly-developing meeting engagement, understand just how useful organic mortars can be. They’re right there, on the spot, and can provide the artillery support you need, usually much dater than tubes or heavier artillery, at a distant fire base.
That Growler sounds like a jim-dandy little gadget to schlep round your tubes and ammo. Looks kind of cute, too. Doesn’t it remind you of those Jeeps your grampaw used to drive waay back in “the big one” ? Looks like kind of a short wheelbase, though, doesn’t it?
The Growler, made in Robbins, N.C., costs $127,000 each and cannot safely pull its ammunition trailer, according to interviews and the report from the Government Accountability Office. The trailer has a tendency to bounce or tip over, which could crush a Marine riding in the back of the Growler. A Growler, not pulling a trailer, was reported to have tipped over last summer when it swerved to avoid a turtle in the road.
Oops.
One of the reasons the Army sent away their little Jeeps, and went with the Hummer was the wider stance, thereby ensuring a more stable platform.
Should I infer from the article that the Marines are buying the puppies at $127,000 per, just because they’re tiny enough to fit inside the Osprey?
Didn’t they – you – know – test-drive them first?
Apparently not.
The problems were predictable, said Philip Coyle, who directed the Pentagon's weapons testing from 1994 to 2001. The Marines decided to start production before testing the vehicle and mortars, Coyle said.
"It is a sign of rushing to failure," he said.
Some sailor-boy in green landed on shore with a pocket full of ca$h and said “Now I need me a ride.” And an obliging salesman was right there to show him this cute little go-cart with the macho name.
“Son, what do you do?”
“Sir, I’m a mortarman.”
“Well, son, I’ve got just the thing for you. You know how heavy those mortar tubes are? And how hot and nasty it can be some places? Son, you’re gonna love this unit. It’s got a small wheelbase, so you an turn around in tight corners, and it’s narrow enough that you can fly this thing anywhere you want to. And look! It’s got a trailer hitch so you carry around trailers for your tubes and ammo! And I gave it this great name, ‘Growler.’ Chesty would have loved it.”
“Gee, that sounds great, Sir. How much is it?”
“Well, son, how much have you got?”
“Ummmmm….. about $17 million, sir.”
“Son, you just bought yourself a bunch of go-carts. Your buddies are gonna love them. No need to dirty your nice clean greens test-driving this now. I’ll send it on to your base. No you go have a nice time on shore leave.”
Now I can’t guarantee the conversation went exactly like that, because I don’t really know. Sure, there might have been a bit of poetic license. And the Marines aren’t talking because the Inspector General is really interested in the entire purchase.
The Marines won't discuss the program, known as the Expeditionary Fire Support System, because of the Defense Department's investigation.
Now, that DOD IG might not say anything harsh about the whole matter. That office has a spotty record, after all.
But they probably can’t miss this:
The contract award was controversial because the founder of Carolina Growler, Terry Crews, is a retired Marine colonel with strong connections. The Defense Department received an anonymous complaint claiming that Crews was a close friend of Brig. Gen. William Catto, who headed the agency that awarded the contract, Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va.
The complainant, who identified himself as a career procurement professional, said Catto steered the contract to Carolina Growler and General Dynamics.
After demonstrations from three companies, the selection committee recommended the contract go to a team of United Defense, which supplied the mortar, and Rae-Beck Automotive of Michigan, which built a new vehicle from scratch. According to the complaint, the United Defense bid was technically superior and cost less, while the Growler flunked crucial tests and was coupled to a much more expensive mortar system.
Gasp. Shocking, simply shocking. I also liked the part about buying a mortar system from General Dynamics, because, you see, the Marine Corps apparently doesn’t own any mortars.
One of the basic principles of Generalissimo Field Marshal Fred Kagan’s escalation was to send a lot more troops into Iraq to kill as many Iraqis as possible, (although truthfully males of fighting age were preferred to woman and children) and to die and bleed, and be wounded and maimed in order to allow the Shiite Maliki central government to have some room to make political changes with a view towards some sort of reconciliation.
Of course, many people with working brains can see that the real goal was to raise enough dust to quiet those who had the bad taste to note that the tar baby is just soaking up our blood and treasure, and to ensure some vague resemblance to “success” so that more criminals could be elected in 2008 under the banner of the republican Party.
Many wondered whether arming Sunnis and ex-Baathists was a wise solution, but they were willing to kill Saudis and Yemenis, and so the Army went ahead and put ‘em on the payroll – all 70-80,000 of them, at $300 each per month. Just don’t call them “Saudis and Yemenis” though because Mr Bu$h’s family has this long, profitable, on-going business relationship with the House of Saud.
Suddenly, if you were anti-occupation and wore a keffiyah you were automatically “al-Qaeda” (unless you were on the payroll as a ”concerned local citizen.”)
Hell, even this guy would have been “a-Q” because he fit the profile: foreigner, hated Western occupation, had the headdress and the robe, even.
The fly in the ointment is that the Shiites have just about zero interest in joining hands with the Sunni for anything, unless it’s to help the Sunni climb the steps to a gibbet. So political reconciliation was unlikely unless it was forced upon them, and in a confusing change in policy, our alleged Russian expert Condoleeza Rice doesn’t want to dictate to the Maliki government about stepping up the pace of reconciliation.
Despite the almost-universal distaste for change, something has snuck through. I know you will join me in applauding it.
The three stars that represented Saddam Hussein's Baath Party will be removed, to address the concerns of Iraqi Kurds.
They have refused to fly the flag since the fall of Saddam Hussein, saying it is too closely associated with a regime that repressed and killed their people.
The flag was also changed in 2004, when a line of script, allegedly in Saddam Hussein's own handwriting, was changed to Kufic script.
But the latest change - passed by 110 votes to 50 - is only temporary, as a design for a new flag will be sought after one year.
Well, that was momentous, wasn’t it?
The Arabic phrase shown above is pronounced as Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, and is a beautifully poetic phrase which offers both deep insight and brilliant inspiration. It has often been said that the phrase Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim contains the true essence of the entire Qur'an, as well as the true essence of all religions.
Muslims often say this phrase when embarking on any significant endeavor, and the phrase is considered by some to be a major pillar of Islam. This expression is so magnificent and so concise that all but one chapter of the Qur'an begins with the words Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim.
The common translation:
"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate".
fails to capture either the true depth of meaning or the inspirational message of this beautiful phrase. So, let's look deeper into the meaning of these wonderful words.
The rest ought to be a snap now that they’ve straightened out that flag thing.
Back in last October, the Marines asked to be excused from the Anbar province of Iraq and sent instead to Afghanistan where things are…. problematic might be a diplomatic word to use. The logic was that it would simplify troop rotation to have the Army responsible for Iraq, with their 15 month tours, and the Marines in Afghanistan, with their seven month deployments.
Additionally, since Marines are all riflemen, wherever they go they bring along riflemen temporarily assigned to Super Cobra helicopters, Harrier jets, and F/A-18 Hornet fighter bombers. Being able to deploy with your own air force makes things a bit neater.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of the KISS (Keep it simple, stupid!) methodology.... so at first glance I'm liking this plan. Marines in Afghanistan, Army in Iraq, and the Air Force out somewhere in middle America reminding everyone of how important they are.
Sarcastic irony in the Air Force. Who could have guessed?
There was some credible sense to the proposal, since the Army could rotate its troops out of Afghanistan and into Anbar, a province that is presently the great showpiece for the Bu$h malAdministration. They’re bribingpaying tribute paying the $300 per month salaries of somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 tribesman, designated as “concerned local citizens” to keep them quiet and keep the supply lines open from Kuwait and Aqabah.
Picture credit: Moon of Alabama
Only cynical people would claim that the Marines wanted to get out from under a situation (Iraq) that has been a complete failure, and especially to get out of Anbar before it blows up. I’m sure the Commandant and his staff felt they could contribute something significant to the fight in Afghanistan.
At the time it was decided that no, the Marines should stay just where they were. I can’t help feeling that decision wasn’t made in the Pentagon, but rather within our White House. After all, Anbar is the only bragging point they’ve got in the Global War On Terror ™ and why fix it if it ain’t broke?
Then last week we saw Secretary Gates going off (unfairly) on our NATO allies in Afghanistan, an attack he apologized for the next day.
Also last week we learned that GEN David McKiernan, presently CG, US Army, Europe, is slated to be assigned to command all NATO forces in Afghanistan. His predecessor, GEN Dan McNeill, asked for an additional 3,200 troops to be assigned to his command. There are presently about 40,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, including 14,000 Americans. There is also a separate command of about 12,000 US troops tasked on a counter-terrorism mission.
The Army is pretty well strapped, with all of its ready forces (including the Strategic Reserve) in Iraq. The surge escalation planned and enacted last year has tied the Army’s hands by forcing it to deploy brigades ahead of schedule (and in one case delaying a brigade’s return in order cover the planned in-country deployment around Baghdad.) The five “surge” brigades are now out of the Army’s inventory for a year or more, and as I mentioned, the Army had to dig deep into its Strategic Reserve, which is a serious matter. That’s the immediate follow-on reinforcement after the one ready brigade of the 82nd Airborne division is dispatched to whatever hot spot suddenly flares up. Those units that have recently returned to their home bases are currently combat-ineffective as they replace positions emptied by retirement, death, wounds, or soldiers released from active duty.
Finding 3,200 more US troops for Afghanistan could become a problem. Fortunately, the Commandant suggested last year that Army troops in Afghanistan be supplanted by Marines.
With the Corps currently in the process of expanding from its active duty strength of 175,000 to a planned 202,000 it will become larger and more vigorous. The reserve force provides about 40,000 additional troops. It seems quite possible the Commandant will get his wish.
This will make the proposed complete failure in Iraq the fault of the Army, and not the republicans and Mr Bu$h.
Richard Knerr died this week. He was 82. He and a childhood friend, Arthur Melin, formed the Wham-o company, and the result was a 50 year toy company which brought us some of the most significant cultural icons of our youth, (Well, maybe my youth. You young whippersnappers might not know what the hula hoop was.)
Wham-o also produced the killer toys called Frisbees, the Super-ball, and something called Slip-n-Slide. But one of their best toys was a silly little bit of frippery called Silly String. There’s no really good way to describe Silly String. It is asshattery in a can. Mothers all over the US were frantically happy that it’s easy to pick up off tables, lamps, coat racks, shelf units, fish tanks and even cocker spaniels.
There is a military use for Silly String: spray it across a suspect area, or in a room, and it hangs up on tripwires. Several ladies across the nation have campaigned for donations to ship the stuff where it was needed, as featured in this CBS TV report.
The campaign seemed to have been a big hit with folks at home.
And it has been appreciated by the REMF troops, too.
The US Army has a parameter called “deployable strength.” This figure seems to be the nominal, optimal strength of a unit as reflected on what used to be named its DA-1, the unit Morning Report. The Morning Report listed the total strength of a company-sized unit, including all personnel assigned or attached for rations and administrative support and UCMJ, and personnel on leave, in hospital or medical hold, and detached for duty elsewhere. It told a higher headquarters just who was available. The Morning Report was phased out in 1978, replaced by a more efficient electronic gizmo, but the reporting goes on. “Present For Duty” is “Deployable Strength.”
Soldiers who were medically unfit or considered borderline have been sent to the Middle East to meet Army goals for “deployable strength,” The Denver Post reported Thursday.
Quoting internal Army e-mails and a Fort Carson soldier, the newspaper said that more than 50 troops were deployed to Kuwait en route to Iraq while they were still getting medical treatment for various conditions. At least two have been sent home.
Capt. Scot Tebo, the surgeon for Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, wrote in an e-mail obtained by the newspaper that “We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment.”
Because every uniformed bureaucrat knows the legend is more important than the fact, and soldiers with crippling injuries will miraculously be cured when landed in a combat zone. After all as Mr Bu$h’s neocon advisors keep insisting, it’s all a matter of the will. Apparently that famous Jewish carpenter isn’t the only man who has ever been able to heal a sick man and will him to rise from his bed.
Master Sgt. Denny Nelson said he was sent to Kuwait last month despite a severe foot injury. He was sent back to Fort Carson after a military doctor in Kuwait wrote that he never should have been shipped out.
Maj. Harvinder Singh, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team’s rear detachment commander, said he did not believe medically unfit soldiers have been sent to Iraq. He said soldiers with medical problems are deployed only if they can be assigned to light-duty jobs and if medical services are available at their destinations.
Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said she knew of no Army policy defining “deployable strength” levels that Army commanders must meet.
Singh said commanders have goals, “but there is no repercussion if you don’t hit that goal.”
Uh huh. I see. A commander is not criticized if he doesn’t meet his goals, and it will never affect his promotion chances.
Certainly.
MSG Nelson mentioned above, injured himself while playing on his daughter’s trampoline, circumstances that the Army used to consider in “line of duty” and before the Army’s desperate push to fulfill the demands of Mr Bu$h’s ego and the greed of Mr Cheney’s friends, MSG Nelson would have been left home to fully recuperate, and to follow on when fully recovered.
Now they’re shipping bodies that breathe once in a while to Iraq.
He said he was sent to Kuwait last month even though Fort Carson doctors ordered that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months.
Nelson said two other soldiers were deployed with torn rotator cuffs, another was deployed even though he was taking morphine for nerve damage and another had mental health issues.
Nelson said the soldier with nerve damage was sent home after medical staff at a clinic in Iraq turned down his request for more pain medication.
Nelson said that while he was in Kuwait he was told by superiors he would be in charge of 52 soldiers who were receiving medical treatment.
“I expected to find a whole bunch of people, but when I got there, they were all gone. They were already all in Iraq,” Nelson said.
By the way, MSG Nelson did not continue on to Iraq.
Nelson said he feared he would be a liability to fellow soldiers because of his inability to carry full combat gear.
“I’m not going to Iraq not being able to wear any of my gear, not carry a weapon,” he said. “I become a liability to everybody around me because if they get mortared, they’re going to have to look out for me because obviously, I can’t run. I can’t look out for myself. Now I’ve got soldiers worrying about my welfare, instead of their own.”
A doctor in Kuwait – an officer actually paid to think - sent his ass (and damaged leg) back to CONUS, and sent a rather unhappy email back to the authorities at Ft Carson.
Nelson was sent back to the U.S. after a physician in Kuwait, Maj. Thomas Schymanski, sent Fort Carson officials an e-mail saying, “This soldier should NOT have even left [the continental United States] ... In his current state, he is not full mission capable and in his current condition is a risk to further injury to himself, others and his unit.”
I couldn’t speculate how The Denver Post got the copy of the email, but I’ll bet that receives a lot more attention than investigating why the Army is shipping troops to the sandbox who are not fit for duty. And then they have to be sent home, costing the US taxpayer two unnecessary plane tickets.
While discussing the V-22 Osprey in the past I noted that it’s a bit light in the self-defense department.
The machine itself is a big step forward for the Corps and I know we’re all rooting for it to deliver the snuffies somewhere near the crash and clangor of battle – but not too close, since they only carry one .30 machine gun for defensive fire, and the rear ramp has to be lowered to use it. [emph added]
The immediate image I had was the mandatory requirement to land four of these babies at a time, nose in, with their rear ramps facing out in order to provide some fire suppression. This was not a happy picture. It seems some other people had the same stomach griping I did.
Air Force and Marine Corps V-22 Ospreys may get a turret-mounted machine gun, fulfilling a long-sought requirement for a forward-firing defensive weapon and making it unique among today’s U.S. transport aircraft.
…
A nose gun was considered early in the tilt-rotor’s two-decade gestation but was branded too costly, Air Force requirements officials said.
The fiscal 2008 supplemental request includes $82 million for research, development and testing of an “all-quadrant,” or 360-degree, defensive weapon to augment the ramp-mounted 7.62mm machine gun the Marines use for now.
Navy program spokesman James Darcy said there is no timetable for finding such a gun, and the search will be bound by finances and the plodding acquisition process.
“SOCom is looking at a faster turnaround,” Darcy said. “But Air Force Special Operations Command is flying a different mission than the Marine Corps.”
I suppose that SOCOM feels that, unlike the Marine Corps, they are sent into areas where they’re not welcome. Imagine that: the Marines not having opposed landings.
There are 10 Marine Ospreys in Iraq right now, and they’re hauling troops and trash (supplies) around on logistical missions, although I have heard reports that the biggest use of Ospreys has been to haul around VIPs rather than supplies or troops. As I said, “trash.”
SOCOM put out requests for program solutions last September seeking an “all-quadrant” defensive weapon system to be ready within 120 days of contract signing.
But for the most part, those requirements are intentionally vague, he said, leaving the door open for industry to be as innovative as possible. It is not even specified whether the system should be fully integrated into the aircraft in the future or if a drop-in solution is the best plan.
“There are advantages and disadvantages to total, permanent integration,” said Air Force Maj. Rob Pittman of the Air Force acquisition office. “The quick-and-dirty solution that gets the job done might be the answer.”
One contractor, BAE Systems, has started design work already on such a system.
[…] BAE Systems has been spending its own money to develop the Remote Guardian System, a turreted, remote-operated, retractable weapon that could be fielded in the third quarter of 2008 and fitted aboard the V-22 and other aircraft, said Clark B. Freise, vice president and general manager of defense avionics for BAE.
“We’ve been investing for two years and created our own program to develop the capability,” Freise said.
While Freise would not say how much BAE has spent or how much it would charge per weapon, he did say the price would be low enough to appeal to the Pentagon and high enough to recoup its investment.
“We spent a lot of money on it,” he said. “We found a hole in their protection, we’re covering it for now, and we’ll get it back. We’d rather not say how much we’ve invested. We have shared with the Marine Corps what we think it will cost to go into production, and it is significantly lower than other solutions.”
Before the Marine Corps gets too deeply invested in new technology (and BAE'$ $olution will be an inve$tment) it might be wise to point out that the Army feels it has already recognized and resolved this problem.
The U.S. Army plans to outfit thousands more vehicles with Common Remotely Operated Weapon Stations (CROWS), which allow gunners to fire on targets from the safety of armored crew compartments.
In August, Army officials intend to choose one firm from among several competitors to receive a contract for 1,500 CROWS stations. In total, the contract could grow to as many as 6,500 CROWS, Army officials said.
“The Army is looking at the CROWS system for the up-armored Humvee, Fox [reconnaissance vehicle], RG-31 [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] and the Abrams [tank], so right now the Army is trying to finalize the basis of issue regarding how many CROWS to order and who gets them,” said Richard Audette, deputy project manager for soldier weapons at the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.
It takes one week to train soldiers.
Now, I know I get active duty readers from the Corps, and from CENTCOM and the Pentagon, and I have been hard on your bosses. It’s not that I hate officers, gentlemen. I understand they think differently, that’s all. The CROWS system has been test-driven in the sandbox, and the GIs seem to like it.
Not only can you bring along your best friend (Ma Deuce) and you don’t have to carry it! And you can fit out the installation with the Mk 19. That has got to be a popular feature.
Paul Bogosian is a lifetime US government bureaucrat. He graduated from college in 1972, enlisted in the Army and then got a Master’s degree. He has been working for us since 1976. He recently gave a talk at Association of the U.S. Army's (AUSA) Aviation Expo in Arlington, Va., Jan. 10th and discussed the future of Army Aviation.
U.S. Army Must Reinvigorate Future Rotorcraft Design, Aviation PEO Says
As the U.S. Army begins to shape its future concept of operations for vertical systems, the service needs to begin thinking more creatively about new designs and technology if it is to advance its rotorcraft capabilities, aviation program officer Paul Bogosian says.
"The concern is...we're fielding essentially the same kind of aircraft" with the same characteristics as in the past[.]We've contributed to behavior in the industry where we've invested heavily in existing platforms or building new versions of existing platforms."
A Teal Group study on the world rotorcraft market essentially said the same thing in August 2007, calling the nature of Army procurement "completely derivative." The study pointed out Sikorsky's newest offering, the upgraded UH-60M, is a modernized Black Hawk, and Boeing's CH-47F is a modernized version of an aircraft from 1962. Army Aviation wants to "reawaken" a drive for new designs and technology, Bogosian said. "Compound helicopters, more speed, what kinds of requirements for lift are associated with a future force?" He added that it is important to answer those questions and then "align science and technology investments to pursue those needs."
Bogosian had hoped to make "a more dramatic impact" on Army aviation science and technology (S&T) spending in an upcoming Program Objective Memorandum (POM), but Army Aviation lacks the "clarity and force to do that" right now. Which, he said, is "not a bad thing, considering DOD's consideration of the Joint Heavy Lift," which could have the effect of defining the next set of technologies for the industry. By the 2012-2017 POM, Bogosian added, "we'll see a dramatic realignment of aviation S&T."
It sounds to me as if Joe Taxpayer is going to be asked for $ome $erious money to keep Bell-Boeing and Lockheed Martin afloat as heavy combat in Iraq slowly recedes into the history books with a Democratic Administration.
I'm fine with giving the troops the best equipment possible. I just resent paying for it with carloads of $1,000 bills.
Some quick computation on the back of a napkin tells me Mr Bogosian is about ready to retire, too. I’ll just bet he’ll want to find a new job in some industry he knows something about.
The US general in charge of training the Afghan police has criticised British-backed plans to arm local militias in an attempt to defeat the Taliban. The remarks by Maj-Gen Robert Cone, the second most senior US soldier in Afghanistan, are likely to deepen the row between London and Washington over how to counter the insurgency.
General Cone, who is in charge of rebuilding the Afghan police force, is the second US commander to condemn the initiative. He said: "Anything that detracts from a professional, well-trained, well-led police force is not the answer."
Last month, Gordon Brown said Britain would increase its support for "community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families modelled on traditional Afghan arbakai". The arbakai system involves arming untrained Afghani men, who agree to come running at the beating of a drum if their village elders feel threatened.
British diplomats and military strategists in the restive southern province of Helmand hope the idea might bolster Afghanistan's fledgling police force, which is unable to defend itself against attacks by Taliban insurgents. At least 10 officers died yesterday in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in Kandahar. But US officials fear that arbakai fighters would fall under the command of warlords disloyal to the Afghan government. Their reluctance to endorse the plan follows a disastrous international initiative to build an "auxiliary" police force, which was scrapped last year.
Auxiliary officers were given assault rifles and uniforms after just a few days of rudimentary training, on the understanding that they would be required only to police the area they came from. "The auxiliary police was an attempt to take short-cuts," said General Cone, warning that there were similarities between the doomed auxiliaries and Mr Brown's arbakai plan. "It is very important to understand why the Afghan National Auxiliary Police Force did not work, as we look at any informal programme that doesn't promote professional policing," he added.
Analysts also fear the introduction of arbakai would undo years of effort by the United Nations to disarm illegal militias.
General Cone's remarks follow earlier criticism of the idea by the commander of the 37-nation Nato coalition in Afghanistan. General Dan McNeill said the plan would work only in small parts of the countryside which did not include Helmand, where most of Britain's 7,700 troops are stationed. He said: "My information, from studying Afghan history, is that arbakai works only in Paktia, Khost and the southern portion of Paktika, and it's not likely to work beyond those geographic locations."
General Cone is leading a root-and-branch reform of the Afghan police force, which has been ill-equipped, badly paid, poorly trained and dogged by corruption since 2001. The US government has pledged $7.4bn (£3.7bn) to improve Afghan security forces between now and October. But General Cone admitted there was no "model of what policing should be" in the country. "When Afghan people understand what well-trained, well-paid police do, they will demand it," he added. "But right now they are just not familiar."
He said he backed greater community involvement in the police if it meant "neighbourhood-watch type programmes" rather than arming and paying local people.
Britain has faced increasing criticism from allies in recent months for championing alternative tactics to defeat the Taliban. The Prime Minister promised more "tribal engagement" during a recent visit to Kabul. But last month the Afghan government expelled two UN and EU diplomats for meeting commanders sympathetic to insurgents.
There has been a lot of recent criticism of NATO efforts in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Gates fired off a broadside claiming that the NATO allies who agreed to come to Afghanistan after Mr Bu$h screwed it all up with his childish ego-war in Iraq in search of oil and his mother’s approval have in fact not been killing and dying enough.
British commanders were outraged after the US defence secretary criticised other Nato troops for their role in the bloody conflict in Afghanistan.
Robert Gates said the 30,000 US troops in Afghanistan were "doing a terrific job" in confronting the Taliban insurgency.
He added, however: "I think our allies over there, this is not something they have any experience with."
Mr Gates's comments caused an international outcry following months of simmering tensions between the U.S. and its allies over strategy in Afghanistan.
Senior British officers in Afghanistan said he should "wind his neck in".
…
Mr Gates told the Los Angeles Times he believed America's allies lack the skills to pursue successful counter-insurgency operations against Taliban guerillas.
It’s accurate to say that Denmark, Germany and Canada do not have the COIN experience that the US has purchased so expensively in Iraq. However, Mr Gates might have forgotten that Britain has had the only successful counter-insurgency campaigns in the history of the NATO member states. Even though Saint David Petraeus got to put his name on a book written by others, in true American military/management style, Britain defeated an uprising in Malaya and a particularly brutal and long-running insurrection in Northern Ireland. (My good friend A.E, might disagree with me that Northern Ireland was an apt example of COIN.)
Just because we’re in the middle of a pissing contest with the UK because they feel they’ve accomplished their mission in Southern Iraq and we wanted them to be tied down for 50 years like us is not a good reason to play Calvinball with them. They did what we asked them to, with a proportionately larger slice of their Army than we have stuck into the tarbaby.
What’s your problem, Mr Gates? Not enough Germans dying in Afghanistan? It was an American general who put them in the quiet part of Afghanistan.
Plus, no fair saying the Brits are not allowed to do in Afghanistan what we’re doing in Iraq! We’ve taken civilians in Iraq who are kinda-sorta ex-brigands, thieves, murderers and all-around not nice people and given them lots of guns, lots of money, and lots of free fire zones because they have a better dislike of Saudis than our government. We called that a great success, although in reality it’s only a temporary marriage of convenience. The Bu$h malAdministration was just seeking a propaganda victory. Sooner or later the US is going to stop paying these Anbaris baksheesh and then it will be Katie bar the door, with 70,000 well-armed and pissed off locals out of work.
The Shiite central government has decided that no more than 20% of these Iraqi mercenaries concerned local citizens will be permitted to join the army or national police forces and the other 80% are going to be left kicking the curb.
While there might be a legitimate concern that some of the Afghan police auxiliaries might be Talibani moles, we have seen that there are takfiri moles in the Iraqi Army. It’s going to happen when your colonialization policy includes kicking crates of rifles and bags of ca$h off of helicopters in a desperate attempt to stop them killing US troops in the runup to a national election.
I know I’m right, you know I’m right, and less importantly, but better-publicized, is the fact that Secretary Gates pulled in his horns the next day.
WASHINGTON - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates scrambled Thursday to praise Canada and other NATO allies fighting in Afghanistan, saying reports that he's unhappy with their efforts don't "reflect reality" or the views of the American government.
Countries like Canada that are committing combat troops are "playing a significant and powerful role," Gates told a news conference called to quell an international furor after he told the Los Angeles Times he's worried some allied forces weren't trained in counterinsurgency operations.
…
Asked whether his comments this week fit "the Washington definition of a gaffe, which is accidentally telling the truth," Gates replied: "No, I don't think so."
And he insisted the additional U.S. marines, something Canada has been requesting for some time, doesn't "reflect dissatisfaction" with the military performance of allied forces.
U.S. military analyst Bruce Riedel said Gates was venting growing unease about a badly stretched U.S. military which is facing two serious insurgencies - in Iraq and Afghanistan - without the resources to fight them both effectively. [emph added]
If Mr Gates is unhappy with the flavor of his soup he’d do better to complain to the chef, who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The tireless Erdla, the better two-thirds of Gorilla’s Guides Dubhaltach, supplied this new Traumatic Brain Injury resource.
LegalView Relaunches Traumatic Brain Injury Portal To Include Information About the Injury Affecting Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
Denver, CO (PRWEB) January 15, 2008 -- LegalView.com, the number one resource for everything legal on the Internet, relaunches its traumatic brain injury (TBI) information portal to aid soldiers returning from the Middle East who suffer from this debilitating injury.
One of the most common injuries that American soldiers returning home after serving time in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Afghanistan, is TBI. American soldiers are exposed to a number of situations where they may encounter danger and experience TBI. Reports of IED explosions plague the headlines of daily news reports alongside reports of ineffective armor for soldiers. If a family member or friend has been injured and suffers from TBI, it is important that a traumatic brain injury lawyer is contacted to provide resources on the victim receiving help as well as compensation for their injury.
TBI is a serious and debilitating injury that can adversely affect an individual by disrupting motor and speech functions as well as contribute to a loss of hearing, an inability to walk or use appendages, a loss of social skills and balance. TBI can also cause paralysis, loss of sight as well as mental disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Millions of Americans experience a brain injury or deal with a friend or family member who suffers from TBI and its many side effects. It is imperative that a victim of this injury contacts a brain injury lawyer who can offer insight into potential compensation for an individual.
There are far too many links within this article to brong them all forward. If you want to learn more about this pernicious result of George Bu$h’s instability, I would encourage you to explore the piece and look for yourselves.
MADERIYAH, Iraq -- Saad Mahami wanted more firepower. He didn't trust the Iraqi government to give him support, so inside Patrol Base Whiskey, at the edge of this village south of Baghdad, he told U.S. commanders that his 71 Sunni fighters needed additional weapons to fight the insurgent group [Saudis of] al-Qaeda in Iraq.
As he listened to Mahami's demand, Capt. David Underwood reminded his superiors that Mahami's men -- all members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary movement called Sahwa, or "Awakening" -- were already buying arms with U.S. reward money for finding enemy ammunition dumps. "And as we confiscate weapons, we hand them to Saad Mahami," Underwood told Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top commander in the region, during their meeting with the Iraqi.
The United States is empowering a new group of Sunni leaders, including onetime members of former president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, intelligence services and army, who are challenging established Sunni politicians for their community's leadership. The phenomenon marks a sharp turnaround in U.S. policy and the fortunes of Iraq's Sunni minority.
The country was awash in guns when Saddam ruled the land (a time many Iraqis now refer to as “the good times” I believe. Doesn’t it sound like the NRA is in charge of things in Iraq? Three guns for every man? It’s like one of those first person shooter games you can theoretically carry four or five different weapons at the same time and switch from one to the other as needed.
Sunni Security Unit Leader, Colleagues Killed in Attack Encouraged by Bin Laden
BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 -- A suicide bomber killed the leader of a U.S.-backed neighborhood security force in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district Monday, his aides said, the latest in a string of attacks against such forces.
The blast, along with a second explosion, killed Col. Riyadh al-Sammarai and at least 10 others, witnesses said.
The campaign against the so-called Awakening groups began after Osama bin Laden called on Muslims late last month to attack such "dangerous conspiracies."
"They are sending a message to the Awakening fighters that we must leave the movement," said Riyadh Hadi, field commander of the Adhamiyah Awakening, as he stood among the corpses of his colleagues. "But this will only increase our will to fight against them more and more."
Oh, but –wait!
Safa Hussein, Iraq's deputy national security adviser, said al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to both attack the Awakening and penetrate its ranks. "Al-Qaeda's policy is in two directions," he said.[emph added-
One is immediately reminded of Caesar/ Qaisar Saadi al-Jubory , the Iraqi soldier who killed two GIs and wounded three others after allegedly watching the GIs manhandle/mistreat/beat up an Iraqi female during a house search in the al-Haramat area, western Mosul, on December 26th.
Naturally, the immediate (automatic) reaction from MNF-I was “the guy’s an al Qaeda mole.” Somehow it seems staff pukes are incapable of understanding what happens out in the boondocks. Maybe it’s the fact that high speed, low-drag ring knockers are impervious to the shit, and always seem to get the best assignments.
As it turns out, there’s quite a bit more to the story than what the Bu$hCo drones at MNF-I admitted, but you have to read an non-bought-out press to learn what happened. See the excellent report from our friend Siun at FDL for the grits.
Special stringer support from new Daddy Dubhaltach of Gorilla's Guides.
For dessert, instead if leechee nuts, I was trying to find a report from MNF-I about the mythical [Saudi} al Qaeda being on the run, but they’re hard to find,
If you’re a veteran of OIL, OIF, or OEF, or have served six months on active duty since 9/11/201, I want you to know that the evil libruls in Massachusetts, who hate America so much they want to destroy everyone’s marriage by allowing same-gender couples to have the same rights you and I have, also hate the troops.
Hundreds of veterans' bonuses are going uncollected in the State of Massachusetts. Thanks to the state's Welcome Home Program, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans receive $1,000 while other veterans who served more than six months since Sept. 11, 2007 receive a $500 bonus. However, only about 13,000 of the state's 27,000 eligible residents have applied for the bonuses. Massachusetts veterans can call the State Treasurer's office at 617-367-9333, ext. 859, to request bonus application materials.
You can tell they hate the troops because they’re begging people who haven’t yet applied to call in for the application.
Nethoggers’ Cernig has picked up on Larissa Alexandrovna’s echoing of my commentary 10 days ago regarding the post-shooting bomb blast at the assassination of the Bu$h malAdministration’s beard, Benazir Bhutto. (I’m not being harsh about Ms Bhutto. Her death was a tragedy for Pakistan, despite her family’s rather spotted record of corruption and alleged skimming of that country’s national treasury.)
Three former US intelligence officials have told Raw Story that not only is the gunman dead, he was likely the actual target of the suicide bomber.
According to a former high ranking US intelligence official, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the delicate nature of the information, the US intelligence community understands the gunman to have been killed in the blast following Mrs. Bhutto's assassination.
"He was killed, probably not knowing that the suicide bomber was there," said this source. "We don't know for sure if the two men arrived together. We do know that the assassin died in the explosion, and was probably meant to."
I certainly don’t know anything about political assassinations, because I will deny that’s a skill set the US Army teaches its soldiers. But if I wanted to take a very important political target I wouldn’t use just one hitter. I might have a gunman in close in case the opportunity presented itself, and I might back him up with a dedicated zealot willing to kill himself (and the target) with a bomb. (This would also ensure the gunman couldn’t talk later.)
The fact that Ms Bhutto was in what is reported to have been an armored vehicle might well have mandated the bomb, should the pistol attack have failed. Providentially (or unfortunately) the pistol worked, and the bomb created further death and chaos, as well as silencing the shooter. It’s probably just coincident that the person with the vest bomb just happened to be standing right next to the shooter, eh?
Never one to leave a healing scab on a wound, I speculated further,
In case of failure I’d also have a couple of teams along the route of retreat, possibly with sophisticated anti-vehicle weapons, like RPGs. And I would need a spotter at middle distance to advise the cutoff teams whether the first attack failed, to alert them of the target’s approach.
While the suspicion of the world community has rightly settled on President Musharraf, having an inconvenient competitor eliminated in what can be passed off as a regrettable terrorist incident saves a lot of face for the Pakistani government. Face they promptly lost when they initiated an on-again, off-again series of speculations and laughable explanations about car roof levers and such. Shutting up the doctors after the fact was a nice touch, because it immediately switched the focus of the news cycle buzz from the killing to the cover up.
The danger in all this lies with the possibility that the USG might lose confidence in Musharraf, or at least more confidence than they had lost as evidenced by the insistence of Mr Bu$h and our alleged Russian expert, Ms Rice, that only Benazir Bhutto could save Pakistan from a fate worse than death. Or something.
And the only thing that could have pushed the Bu$h people to change course in Pakistan would have been the commentariat and punditocracy figuring it all out, spurred by a lot of questions from the man in the street inside the US.
Fortunately the only news audience that the Bu$hies ever pay attention to is domestic consumption. Propaganda Public diplomacy at its best, Bu$h-style. And the US corporate media has cooperated magnificently, speculating endlessly about neck wounds and moon roof levers and fortunately ignoring the first rule of political assassination: cui bono? How lucky.
As I said at the time,
I’m not saying anything. I‘m just saying eventually the truth will surface.
It should be obvious to any conscious mind that Ms Bhutto in exile was a minimal threat to President Musharraf. She was out of the country and has been noted in many places she was basically the heart and soul of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party. While it is true that any exiled politician with strong domestic support is a danger to incumbents, the simple fact is that she could not have re-entered the country without the state’s permission, and the PPP was sufficiently neutered so that there was no chance of a “students’ rebellion” a la Iran, 1979, which would gave paved the way for her triumphant return to replace the incumbent President.
I still find it hard to believe that the Bu$h malAdministration really believed they were going to get President Musharraf to shuffle off into retirement so easily, so they must have figured that they could prevail on Musharraf to allow Ms Bhutto to be Prime Minister and actually allow US forces to operate in the NWFP and FATA in order to somehow to something to distract the Taliban and al Qaeda from operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we have seen before that, they take counsel from their dreams, rather than from their fears.
Cernig ends his piece on a high note.
Can Bush at least stop selling the General-in-plainclothes advanced weaponry (e.g. nuke-capable fighters, anti-tank missiles, airborne early warning platforms) more useful against his neighbours than extremists, even if it does help line US arms manufacturers pockets with US taxpayers' money?
I like to check the Sitemeter stats – see who’s visited, what interested them enough to visit, how long they stayed, and what brought them here. That’s how I learned how many visitors I get from pentagon.mil, CENTCOM.mil, and the various services. It’s curious why they would pay attention to a little pishker of a site like this. I find they usually arrive here after googling for a photo and that brings them here.
I had a morning visit that intrigued me because it came from a technorati hit, and that lead me to a TBI survivor who apparently had trouble placing a comment on yesterday’s story about the VA’s uphill battle to respond to the massive number of vets with PTSD and TBI problems. I liked the comment. The lady has a blog. It’s interesting reading, because those of us who are not challenged really have no comprehension of how difficult simple every-day things can be.
Thanks so much for this excellent post! It brings together some great into that people really need to know. I’m a long-term (35 of my 43 years) traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor, who never received assistance or help (or even acknowledgement) of my condition. I was head-injured when I was 8 years old, and when people didn’t see any immediate physical problems, they just assumed things would work themselves out. Well, they didn’t. I had to work them out, myself. That’s the bad news — years and years of isolation, confusion, false-starts, problems with peers and teachers and parents and family… problems at every turn, with no explanation of what was going on with me. Growing up with a TBI taught me a lot — most of it thanks to the school of hard knocks.
But I have to say, there has been light at the end of the tunnel. Recovery from and successful living with a TBI is possible! I’m living proof! I’ve been through the darkest of valleys, and today I’m in a stable marriage of 17 years, I have a long and productive career history with some of the top businesses in the world, I have a satisfying social life, a healthy emotional balance, and peace of mind. All this, despite living on the margins and having tremendous difficulties over the years with this TBI.
In spite of all the difficulties (perhaps because of them), I have learned to live successfully on my own terms, drawing on my own resources and making sure my own needs are met. If I had depended on folks around me to help me out, I don’t think they could have done nearly as good a job as I’ve done. That’s one of the problems with TBI — it impacts the very part of you that you depend on to identify your needs and communicate them to others.
Even though the VA and the current administration are NOT living up to their responsibilities, there is hope. Each person can find their own way to health and balance… so long as they’re not locked away in a prison of ignorance and fear. TBI survivors are all too often on their own, but it doesn’t need to be the end of the story. Each and every one of us can live up to our true potential, even in the face of limitations. Even in the face of government neglect, PTSD, and brain injury!
I’m glad you liked the post. I noted you have a great deal of information about this injury, and some very helpful links to resources. If any of my readers want further information I hope they’ll visit your corner of blogtopia (y!sctp) and learn about how we’re treating this problem.
Broken/Brilliant has a great mission statement, and I wish her all the success possible.
Soldiers get killed and wounded in combat. That’s what war is. Some die quickly, screaming, their life’s blood spurting out, staining their buddies as they try desperately to save them. Others die slowly, inch by inch, day by day once they get home. They have no visible wounds, so amputated limbs. Their minds are dying.
Saving them is the job of the VA, which hasn’t done well in the past. The professionals at the VA are trying to win that battle.
The only outward sign of something amiss at Garry Naipo's household in this community of well-tended homes south of Fort Lewis is the ragged, yellowing lawn.
"It used to be like Safeco Field out there," Paoakalani "Paoa" Naipo said of the lawn his father no longer trims every three days. Before, Garry Naipo would forgo watching football on the weekend until the grass was cut. Once he started so early on a Saturday morning, his wife, Alii, rushed out, as she put it, "to save him from the neighbors."
Then Garry Naipo, a grandfather of three, went to Iraq -- boomeranging from cul-de-sac to combat and back in 15 months, a journey that would change his life -- and that of his family -- in subtle, corrosive ways.
Naipo, 51, is one of thousands of National Guard citizen soldiers who have left established jobs and families to answer a call and come back altered men and women. On the outside, they look fine, the same even. They blend in at work, in the grocery line, at their children's soccer games. People tell them they're lucky. They're not dead.
They don't bear the grim signatures of combat, the missing limbs or shattered skulls. Their wounds, though, are as insidious as they are invisible. Many return with brains and psyches damaged by chronic exposure to the hammering of blast waves and the afterimages left by bodies blown apart.
They come home, but not back to themselves.
“This portrait of Garry Naipo and his extended family was taken just before he left for Iraq in January 2004, when his National Guard unit was deployed. Alii Naipo says her husband came home from Iraq ‘a different man.’ She's been his main advocate in seeking help for him for post-traumatic stress disorder from the VA.”
This citizen-soldier answered his country’s call and came back a changed man. Combat changes many of us, and we don’t revert back to the person we were before.
In Iraq the exposure to significant bomb attacks has created a huge new class of wounded soldier: the Traumatic Brain Injury.
Veterans Affairs doctors estimate 60 percent to 65 percent of soldiers have experienced a significant explosion, or multiple detonations, by the time they leave the service. "Our mouths drop sometimes at how many blast events our servicepeople have been exposed to," said Jay Uomoto, a neuropsychologist with the VA Puget Sound.
That, in turn, has likely left many with undiagnosed mild to moderate brain injuries, a prognosis that some fear is setting a long fuse that could eventually swamp the system with disabilities as they emerge in the months and years to come.
There are pages of research information about this consequence of combat in Iraq, but not a great deal has reached the public about the scandal of the Army’s disgraceful soughing off of this injury.
Surprisingly, the VA recently announced that only six percent of GIs suffered from TBI. They must have been working from figures supplied from the Army. Soldiers with brain problems that were obvious to their buddies were certified as sound, and discharged into civilian life with no VA referral and no chance for disability payments for their wounds.
A VA mandatory screening program that took effect in April has looked at 61,285 veterans of the wars. Of those, 19.2 percent were identified on the screening questionnaire as potentially suffering from traumatic brain injuries and were referred for more tests.
While evaluation continues, VA spokeswoman Alison Aikele said officials believe, based on a smaller sample, that the final result about 5.8 percent will be diagnosed with TBI.
Just a few months ago, as Mr Bu$h was preparing to address the VFW, telling them what a Great Warrior Leader he was and how Islamofascism is the greatest danger ever facing the country, a group of real patriots was demanding the Bu$h malAdministration deal honestly and completely with the human consequences of its policies.
As President Bush prepares to address the 108th annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City tomorrow, Democrats today called on the President to offer more than the same empty rhetoric and broken promises on the issues that matter to America's veterans and military families. Despite years of promises, on President Bush's watch the Administration has allowed conditions at VA hospitals and medical centers like Walter Reed to deteriorate to appalling levels, has failed to accurately project the cost of treating thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and has jeopardized the personal financial information of America's 26.5 million veterans. Worse, the President's budget proposals have consistently shortchanged the VA, with his 2008 budget including a two percent cut.
Garry Naipo’s been home for two years. He has trouble with his memory, trouble with his speech centers, his fingers are going numb, and he spends his days sheltering in his garage, which he sweeps out daily.
“Since returning from Iraq, Garry Naipo leaves his house less and less. His routine is to go to work, then come home to the bunker of his garage, which he cleans on a daily basis. "My safe place," Naipo calls his garage. "I just want to feel normal," he said recently. "I want to stop looking over my shoulder."
And he’s had little help.
Although he suffers ringing in his ears, is going deaf, has memory lapses, difficulty retrieving words, problems concentrating, anxiety and anger outbursts, he has yet to be medically evaluated for concussive brain injury. A few weeks ago, more than two years after his return, he got a questionnaire in the mail regarding blast wave exposure, but he said he hasn't been able to organize his thoughts enough to answer it.
Regardless of how the symptoms are labeled, his family is sure of one thing: Iraq transformed the man they knew as husband, father and grandfather -- and he's come back to a culture that, for the most part, has hardly noticed.
Those of us who have watched the trainwreck that is George Bu$h and his elitist policies realize he has no thought for soldiers once they have been expended, physically or mentally, in the ego-war of Iraq. They make great backgrounds for his political photo ops, but beyond that their deaths and maimings mean nothing to him.
Last year I featured a few articles written by CPT Jeff Leonard, a California-based Army Reserve officer who served in Iraq with the 114th Medical Detachment as a combat stress specialist. They deal with his life in Iraq, and his duty traveling around a portion of the country, talking with GIs who’ve found the stress level of combat high enough to affect their performance, which is a major concern of the Army. A good soldier, CPT Leonard worked hard to relieve the stress by working with soldiers to overcome the natural fears a man develops when his life is in danger on a daily basis. Along the way, we learned of CPT Leonard’s own fears, and that was a very personal, revealing look into a man trained to help others.
He wrote of the pain felt by men who were supposed to be professional healers and who conducted memorials for dead soldiers, agonizing over the deaths of men they respected and loved. He wrote of soldiers second-guessing themselves after failing to save a life, and of his task to help these men get past combat’s inevitable consequences. He wrote about how to make contact with a wounded man, a bit of “us guys together” – not stage fakery, but the honest and open expression of caring about the troops.
In one of my articles I called CPT Leonard one of the bravest men I have ever heard of, and I stand by that statement today.
Waiting to go back to his family, CPT Leonard wrote openly and honestly about what he had learned about Iraq, combat, and himself. As I recall he came in for some disapproving comments in that piece. Combat and killing is very glamorous to those who’ve never been there.
DefenseLink published an article several days ago that I‘ve wanted to feature for several reasons. It deals with a similar section of counselors in Afghanistan. Company C of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Support Battalion deals in shattered nerves and minds, as CPT Leonard did. The Sky Soldiers have a long and treasured reputation as a fine unit and have earned the (sometimes grudging) respect of the paratrooper community.
They operate from Forward Operating Base Fenty somewhere up in Afghanistan, where the real war against terror – the Taliban and al Qaeda, continues unwon. The Combat Stress Control Detachment works with an Air Force Detachment doing the same job at FOB Fenty. This is a good thing for the 173rd because everyone knows the Air Force is a glide outfit: they get three hot meals a day, clean underwear every other day, clean sheets, and if they run out of ice cream, they fly a load in on a C5 Galaxy. It’s true. Really. Just ask any soldier. Plus they always load their beer pallets on a C-130 and test fly the bird up to around 15,00 feet for an hour. Makes the beer r e a l cold.
A small team of airmen and soldiers work hand in hand to help deployed servicemembers battle stress here and at some 20 surrounding forward operating bases.
The issues troops for which troops seek help vary, team members said.
“It depends a little bit on where the individual is based out of,” said Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Jeffrey Wiser, a psychiatrist with the Combat Stress Control Detachment. “I think a lot of people in the forward locations deal with combat stress reactions. FOB Fenty and some of the areas south and east of here tend to be more operational stress, home-front issues and difficulties within the unit.”
OK, all kidding about the Air Force aside, working on a base in Afghanistan is not a skate job. Dull, unchanging days of 16 hour shifts, seven days a week, bitter cold winters and nasty hot summers with the unending threat of rocket or mortar attacks do not make a happy trooper. While out in the boonies you have a better chance of getting killed, the boredom on a base like that creates its own problems. Things happen at home and you’re not there to deal with them. Wives are forced to do double duty, handling the tasks that are “Daddy’s job.”
And let’s not forget that women also serve in Afghanistan and they also have issues.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Laurie Wienclawski, a mental health technician on the team, said the team sometimes helps troops hours or days after they have witnessed tragic or shocking events. “The 173rd has lost a lot of people. Being back home, you hear about soldiers being killed and wounded in action. Until you are deployed and actually live it and see it and hear about it, it doesn’t seem real until you are actually there,” she said.
…
Wienclawski said she hoped being a woman would make it easier for troops to talk to her. When she hit the ground, she found out that was not the case. Now, she said, she can best relate to troops by finding things in common with them, like family situation or background.
Not all soldiers realize they’re suffering from stress. Some, wrapped up in that macho “super warrior” syndrome refuse to believe combat stress exists.
Servicemembers don’t always come out to seek help with their problems. Some internalize issues, and only people who really know them notice a change in their behavior, daily routine or sleep patterns, the combat stress experts said. It is important for everyone to know the typical behavior of their battle buddies, or to know their “baseline,” the experts said.
Back in 1999 the DoD realized the dangers of combat stress and developed a program to deal with it. This program has undergone continuing change as adaptation to the realities of war became apparent.
