Tag: Military

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New Ads Blame GOP Senators for Continuing Bush’s War

Jon Ponder

The public, including most liberals, blame Congressional Democrat for not ending Bush’s war — despite the fact that majorities of Democrats in both the House and the Senate voted against the war several times earlier this year.

The Democrats’ efforts were quashed in the Senate, however, where a majority of Republican senators continued to rubberstamp the president’s desire for never-ending war in the Middle East.

Now Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) have launched an ad campaign against key Bush-enablers, GOP Senators Mitch McConnell, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins and Pete Domenici, targeting them, according to an AAEI news release, for “their continued support of the President’s endless Iraq war policy, which leaves our troops in the crosshairs of another country’s religious civil war.”

Titled “Fatigues,” the ad shows children going through mock basic training. It will air in each of the four senators’ states by the Campaign to Defend America, which is part of AAEI.

Cuba Creating Mega Death Ray Technology to Repel Impending U.S. Invasion

Buck Banks

Maybe something was lost in translation, but I think the reporter for Agence France Presse must have gotten something wrong in the story about Cuba beefing up its weapons to repel a U.S. invasion. Or maybe the original story was written by the former Bat Boy story editor from the recently defunct Weekly World News.

But it was posted on DefenseNews.com, so it must be true, right?

Weapon systems that have been upgraded in precision targeting and destructive capabilities include munitions, grenades, land mines and anti-tank rockets.

Cuba has been upgrading its military arsenal since President Fidel Castro fell ill 13 months ago, to defend itself against a possible U.S. invasion, senior officers told Trabajadores weekly on August 27.

Ah-ha! I knew it. Translated from Trabajadores weekly to Agence France Presse, then to English. Get a load of this stilted, yet oddly meaningless quote:

“In the irregular combat we would face in Cuba in case of an invasion, the engineering, infantry and artillery systems we produce and repair here are of vital importance, because they’re designed for the aggressor’s direct assault,” said Lt. Col. Pascual Machado, chief coordinator of Cuba’s Military Industrial Firm (EMI).

Huh? Sounds like somebody’s been using Babelfish again. But if true, these developments would be, well really scary:

Weapon systems that have been upgraded in precision targeting and destructive capabilities include munitions, grenades, land mines and anti-tank rockets, Trabajadores said.

As an example, the weekly said a laser-guided targeting system called VLMA has boosted the AK-M automatic rifle’s precision by 80 percent to 90 percent, regardless of the shooter’s skill level.

Wait, aren’t these the same people who are still driving 1950s-era cars? Of course, I suppose if you can keep a Chevy running for 50 years, you could probably build a laser-guided targeting system out of old sardine cans and some bailing wire. And wait, what was the accuracy of the AK-M rifle before it got the VLMA and increased 80 percent up to 90 percent, 10 percent? Or did something get mangled between Spanish, French and English?

One thing the Cubans do have for their fancy-schmancy weapons system is a cool name:

Raul Castro said special military operation Caguairan, put in place following Fidel Castro’s illness, would finish at the end of 2008 — U.S. presidential elections take place in November of next year.

Caguairan is either a province in Cuba that contains Guantanamo, the name of a local tree or, translated with a little latitude, means “mega death ray” in Spanish. I guess we’ll find out around election time next year, because everybody knows the best time to invade a Third World dictatorship is just after the presidential elections when the minds of most Americans are occupied by Florida’s latest vote scandal, and, after all, George W. Bush will still be president ….

Starting With No Exit Strategy Means No End in Sight

Trish

The question isn’t “Will we leave Iraq?” The question is, “When will we leave, and how do we begin that process?” Bush answers by insisting we can’t leave now. He never says when we can, and that’s because he never had an exit strategy beyond shock and awe and mission accomplished. After three months, he was out of ideas.

See this film. If your nearest theater isn’t listed here, email them. I did, and they answered immediately and told me it’s coming my way soon.

Growingly Desperate, Army Trying Anything to Nab Recruits

Trish

You know the Army is getting desperate for recruits when it starts overlooking drug use, criminal records, age, and obesity. But oh yeah, you still can’t tell anyone you’re gay.

Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks.

Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a “buffet” of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans.

This would come after the other recent enhancements to recruiting failed to get the numbers up, including:

  • Increasing to $20,000 the bonus for troops who join by Sept. 30 and leave for boot camp within a month
  • Raising the enlistment age to 42
  • Allowing recruits to come in with non-offensive tattoos on their hands and neck
  • Offering a $2,000 bonus to Army soldiers who refer a new recruit
  • Enlisting recruits who don’t meet weight standards and must trim down their first year
  • Advertising that targets potential recruits’ parents
  • Increasing the number of recruits with general education diplomas (GEDs) rather than regular high school diplomas
  • Creating a more pleasant boot camp environment
  • Sending “gung-ho” soldiers fresh from boot camp or war zones back to their hometowns to visit old friends and schoolmates to promote the Army
  • Increasing to more than 15 percent the number of Army and Army Reserve troops given waivers for medical and moral reasons or for positive drug and alcohol screen tests

The Army blames the dwindling numbers on several factors.

More high school graduates are going to college, and the economy is strong, providing lots of civilian jobs. At the same time, only three of 10 people between 17 and 24 fully meet the military’s standards.

Less obvious factors have also decreased the recruitment pool. They include higher obesity rates, more people diagnosed with mental health conditions such as attention-deficit disorder, more criminal citations due to the increase of the drinking age from 18 to 21.

Let’s see, did we miss anything? Nah, I guess that pretty well covers all the possible reasons people aren’t joining the Army.

Oh yeah, how about THE FRICKIN’ WAR? Maybe the idea of being cannon fodder in an endless and futile bad idea doesn’t appeal to a lot of people.

Nobody Wants to Join Bush’s Army

Trish

Like Bush’s poll numbers, the mystery is not why Army recruiting numbers are so low but how they manage to score at all. Who would sign on to this catastrophe?

Summer is traditionally the peak recruiting season. Army officials are now worried that July and August will be difficult as well, raising the possibility that the Army will miss its annual goal of 80,000 new recruits for fiscal year 2007

ABC News has learned the Army missed its recruiting goal in June for the second month in a row. It’s the first time in more than two years that the Army has missed recruiting goals for two consecutive months.

The figures are especially worrisome because the summer is traditionally the peak recruiting season. Army officials are now worried that July and August will be difficult as well, raising the possibility that the Army will miss its annual goal of 80,000 new recruits for fiscal year 2007, which ends on September 30…

The Army will officially release its June recruiting figures on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials tell ABC News the numbers are similar to May, when the Army recruited only 93 percent of its goal of signing up 5500 new recruits. The goal for June was 8,400. The last time the Army missed back-to-back monthly goals was April and May 2005.

The numbers will only get more difficult in the months ahead; to meet its annual recruiting goal, the Army will need to sign up more than 30,000 new recruits over the next three months.

Are We Still in Iraq So Democrats Can Win?

Trish

Independent weekly columnist and author Hal Crowley was no doubt already working on this masterpiece when headlines proclaimed that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would — incredibly — not yet consider impeachment an option for either Bush or Cheney.

Crowther tries to MOVE US ALREADY from our collective inertia and the delusions we’ve accepted about what we have to lose by leaving Iraq (nothing) and by impeaching Bush/Cheney (nothing).

He also asks a damn good question.

The Bush administration is a cadaver decomposing on America’s doorstep—yet no one will take responsibility for it, no one will give it a decent burial, no one even has the courage to step over it and try to get on with a nation’s decent business.

Democrats are so desperate to win the presidency in 2008 that they refuse to relinquish their two most persuasive, most visible arguments for regime change

This is the president who cannot be resuscitated and cannot be removed. A lame duck is a thing we’ve dealt with before…A dead duck in the White House is a constitutional crisis no scholar ever anticipated and no think tank ever analyzed.

The president’s Memorial Day speech at Arlington was a crowning outrage, one that pushed many a patient, hopeful citizen over the edge into incoherent despair… “Now this hallowed ground receives a new generation of heroes,” he declaimed. “I hope you find comfort in knowing that your loved ones rest in a place even more peaceful than the fields that surround us here.”

…Hypocrisy of such concentrated toxicity seems almost superhuman. “Shame!” the dead cry, but in America, shame died years ago and lies buried in an unmarked grave, perhaps at Arlington…

As Baghdad disintegrated, body bags proliferated and his henchpersons’ interlocking scandals reverberated—as his approval rating scraped bottom near an historic 25 percent, meaning he’s squandered the trust of at least half the people who voted for him in 2004—President Bush faced no future but no certain reckoning. Can no one rid us of this albatross?

…Across the country, from Hawaii to Maine, 70-odd city councils and 14 state Democratic parties have voted to impeach both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney…But in Congress no one seems to have the stomach for the job.

[…]

DoD: More Concerned with Appropriations than Appropriate Medical Care for Soldiers

Buck Banks

So what happens if you develop a software system that enables Army physicians in Iraq to seamlessly track medical information on a wounded soldier through the Army’s medical system and into the Veterans Affairs medical system? And what if that software solved the problems that plagued Walter Reed Army Hospital and its treatment of wounded veterans? And what if you developed it on the cheap? And what if your software was lauded by the highest of the higher-ups in the Army and VA?

Answer: You get transferred to the equivalent of “bureacratic Siberia.”

Such was the fate of Lt. Col. Mike Fravell, who developed the patient-tracking system in 2003 and created a Web-based version last year while on a fellowship at VA.

The ability to transfer electronic medical information between DoD and the VA is critical to providing the highest quality health care to the men and women who have been wounded in combat .
— David Gorman, executive director of Disabled American Veterans

The transfer was in retaliation for Fravell’s public criticism of the two Defense health agencies, a congressional source said. At a hearing in May of the House Veteran Affairs Committee, Fravell spoke highly of the two patient-tracking systems he developed and criticized MHS’ reluctance to work with VA on the two systems. “I think on the DoD side, things are very territorial,” Fravell told the committee.

The transfer occurred despite widespread praise for Fravell’s systems. Army Chief of Staff George Casey said this month they provided the Army with “improved visibility on location, medical status and progress of soldiers’ care.” David Gorman, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, said, “The ability to transfer electronic medical information between DoD and the VA is critical to providing the highest quality health care to the men and women who have been wounded in combat or otherwise require medical care after serving in the military.”

Now why would the Department of Defense transfer a guy who had created a cheap, effective, popular tool that aids the medical treatment and care of sick and wonded soldiers? Can you spell money?

At stake are billions of dollars. Through fiscal 2006, AHLTA [Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application] alone cost Defense $775 million to develop and deploy. The system’s fiscal 2007 budget is $392 million. By comparison, [Fravell’s] Joint Patient Tracking Application system cost less than $1 million to develop and $2 million a year to maintain.

[…]

CNN Reporting Republicans Finally Oppose Iraq Occupation

Trish

It’s finally happening. Republicans are starting to join the rest of us traitorous terrorist-loving surrender monkeys in opposing the ongoing occupation in Iraq.

Anti-war sentiment among Republican poll respondents has suddenly increased with 38 percent of Republicans now saying they oppose the war.

In the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday, 69 percent of those polled believe things are going badly in Iraq. Seventeen percent think the situation is improving.

Thirty percent of Americans polled say they favor the war, the lowest level of support on record. Two-thirds are opposed.

Anti-war sentiment among Republican poll respondents has suddenly increased with 38 percent of Republicans now saying they oppose the war.

Moreover, 63 percent of Americans are ready to withdraw at least some troops from Iraq. Forty-two percent of Republicans agree.

Fifty-four percent of Americans do not believe U.S. action in Iraq is morally justified.

The telephone poll of 1,029 adult Americans was conducted between June 22 and 24, 2007, and has a sampling error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

Republican Mom Leaves Party to End Stop Loss

Trish

Blogger and lawyer Suzanne Miller with her son, Army Specialist Matthew “Cory” Beard

Michael Bloomberg isn’t the only one discarding the Republican party. A war mom who twice voted for Bush but defines his “stop loss” policy as indentured servitude has also left their ranks.

If, like me, you gritted your teeth when Cindy Sheehan spoke…well, don’t expect to feel warmer or fuzzier about Suzanne Miller, Jacksonville lawyer and mother of Army Specialist Matthew “Cory” Beard. Local alt weekly, Folio, whose stories are only available offline, interviewed Miller after she launched a blog called End Stop Loss Now.

Miller disputes that the open-ended occupation in Iraq qualifies for stop loss — the policy of rescinding the release of service members who have already served deployment terms and sending them back to battle, sometimes for three or four tours. Folio writer Jane Akre:

I was…responding to comments Laura Bush had made regarding how much she and the President suffered over the loss of our troops. I lay awake thinking about their suffering all night long and finally the solution to their problem came to me: BRING OUR BOYS AND GIRLS HOME.

Miller the attorney believes stop loss is an illegal and unconstitutional policy. The military vehemently disagrees, and points to paragraph 9c in the enlistment contract: “In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless my enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States.”

But Miller takes exception of the military’s definition of war, which she says is being defined loosely to mean any conflict. “I’m pretty sure we have not declared war on Iraq and I’m pretty sure they haven’t declared war on us,” she says firmly.

Officially, she’s right. The U.S. hasn’t officially declared war since World War II…

…in the now-famous “Mission Accomplished” speech of May 1, 2003, Pres. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq. “In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed,” he announced. “And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.”

Miller’s blogging style could best be termed, “full-contact.” She posts replies to almost every comment, which are mostly from active military or their families and are about 60 percent in favor of her wave-making and 40 percent of the “leave the decision-making to our leaders” variety. But Miller pulls no punches and her opinions are decidedly right-wing.

We are losing dozens of soldiers each month for a country that will never be civilized. For the most part, they are barbaric. The cultural difference is too great. We gave them the greatest gift on earth and that is “freedom” and look what they have one with it. Not one more of our soldiers needs to die trying to make these people get along. They are simply not worth it.

Nor does she regret voting for Bush.

If Gore had been elected, he would still be bunkered down somewhere worried about the 3 trees in Afghanistan and nothing would have been done. At least George Bush did something.

Yet the only love Miller has found has been among Democrats. She petitioned all the cable news talk shows, she said, but none of the conservatives would touch her. She was embraced instead by Alan Colmes, we venture to say, for her wit and sarcasm.

I was, again, on the Alan Colmes nationally syndicated radio show responding to comments Laura Bush had made regarding how much she and the President suffered over the loss of our troops. I lay awake thinking about their suffering all night long and finally the solution to their problem came to me: BRING OUR BOYS AND GIRLS HOME.

Florida’s Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and California’s Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey have also responded to her campaign.

I was greatly honored that Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey chose to quote me on the House floor. I agreed with everything she said about the civil war in Iraq. Ten billion dollars would have brought our kids home. So to Congresswoman Woolsey, I say “thank you” for not only recognizing that this is a useless war but also recognizing the fact that the stop loss policy is a policy that needs to end. I no longer call myself a Republican. I am American. I will vote according to my conscience and not a party affiliation.

Military Seeking a Few Good Hackers

Buck Banks

Wanted — cyber soldiers: The U.S Army and Air Force have put the word out on the street with the nation’s IT community that they are looking for some new software weapons with which to extend America’s sphere of influence in cyberspace. The guys who invented the Internet — the military-industrial complex — have asked the civilian computer industry to provide technologies they can use to wage offensive cyber attacks against enemy computer systems.

While Korea is training a generation of computer-game wizards, we’re futzing around with Howie Mandell on ‘Deal or No Deal.’

Apparently, the Army has already launched some “offensive information operations,” or OIOs, against enemy networks and communications platforms, but would not say who won or if the attacks were even successful. One does wonders because if they had won, would they be asking for help? Hmmmm.

[The Army] wants to “leverage innovative technologies” to improve its cyberattacks “and prevent enemy forces from detecting and countering efforts directed against them,” according to the announcement. “Technologies designed to interrupt these modern networks must use subtle, less obvious methodology that disguises the technique used, protecting the ability whenever possible to permit future use.”

The Air Force is more specific about its goals for upgrading its offensive cyber warfare capabilities:

The technologies would be used to “disrupt, deny, degrade or deceive an adversary’s information system,” according to the request for information. The Air Force wants technology that will help it map data and voice networks, provide it with access to those networks, conduct denial-of-service attacks on current and future network operating systems and network devices and engage in data manipulation on enemy networks.

The offensive cyberattack capabilities that the Army and Air Force want to develop match what Marine Gen. James Cartwright, commander of the Strategic Command, called for during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee in March. He told the panel that if “we apply the principle of warfare to the cyber domain, as we do to sea, air and land, we realize the defense of the nation is better served by capabilities enabling us to take the fight to our adversaries, when necessary, to deter actions detrimental to our interests.”

While Bruce Schneir, a security consultant with BT Counterpane, endorsed the Army and Air Force efforts, he noted:

Since cyber space, unlike the physical battlefield, has connections to global networks that support commerce and communications, any offensive operations conducted by the United States must be fine-tuned to avoid disrupting computer systems that are not part of any enemy system that the military would target. That would be the cyber equivalent to collateral damage inflicted in a bombing campaign.

I’m surprised that in the six weeks that I have been hearing excuses from Bellsouth about why I can’t get DSL service at my house even though I had it there for the past five years they haven’t used the “cyber collateral damage” excuse. Maybe they are saving it for next week.

I’m not so sure I like the idea of our nation’s military becoming the mad hackers of the world. It’s one thing to fend off attacks, but quite another to unleash ballistic spam bombs on our enemies’ networks. But what I’m really worried about is whether the military really knows what enemy it’s up against. A couple weeks ago I saw a few minutes of a Korean game show where these fashionably dressed Korean teenage boys sit at computers and play a networked war game while the audience screams and waves signs and three distinguished-looking experts provide what I assume was play-by-play and color commentary.

As a nation, we aren’t anywhere near that league. While Korea is training a generation of computer-game wizards, we’re futzing around with Howie Mandell on “Deal or No Deal.”

Unless the military contracts it out to The Google, I just don’t have a good feeling about the OIOs of the impending cyber war.