I don't know if there are many football fans here. I'm a huge Chicago Bears fan. Tough sledding last year but maybe we'll be back this season! Maybe not. I love the sport.
During the NFL draft this year, there was a sidebar human interest story. A guy named Caleb Campbell played at Army last year. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions this season, an NFL football team.
Does Obama have the guts to lead a change in our global military strategy? Are Iraq and Afghanistan merely giant pimples on a much greater obscenity that seems too big to focus on?
Per Al-Jazeera, as part of new defense strategy, the United States is currently spending billions of dollars to turn Guam into the new Okinawa.Two thirds of the estimated cost of $15 billion will be to relocate 8,000 soldiers from Okinawa. But it's the hardware that has the locals worried.
On the apron, old but still operational B-52 bombers... were standing by....The US outpost will see a whole array of the latest military hardware including nuclear-powered Trident submarines which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and unmanned Global Hawk spy aircraft.....By next year, the base will receive the latest state-of-the-art F-22 fighter jets, reflecting Guam’s strategic defence position in a volatile part of the world.
Via the Huffington Post, "It has been rumored by some time that the U.S. Army has had to lower its standards to get enough recruits for its expanded war-fighting needs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now firm evidence has emerged, and it is not pretty."
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has a story about a womanwho was put in charge of media relations atArlington National Cemetery who tried to open up to media coverage of the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
As most of us know such funerals have been deemed by the Bush Administration to be counter-productive to its war effort. If people started seeing funerals on TV they might demand an end to the war. Can't have that.
I don't know if this has already been diaried; certainly this was the first place I heard of the MRFF, so I imagine there are people here who know a lot more about it. I was a little surprised not to see anything on the right side about it, if not the front page, so here goes.
It’s the Fourth of July and while other families are enjoying barbeques and fireworks and family together time, I’m fighting a pity party by making a "movable banner" for my dog and dragging her to a public fireworks celebration to register voters this evening.
Don’t worry, I promise we’ll be home long before the fireworks start and make her heart pound.
I’m kidless for another fourth and if you sense a little self-pity, yeah, I’m indulging. It’s not too often but on days like this, I think have every right... You see, my two boys signed up to serve their country and nothing's been the same since.
The second in a series of Iraq war studies has been released by the Army's Combined Arms Center. The study concludes that "planning" for post-Saddam Iraq was ". . . not well thought out, planned for, and prepared for before it began."
"Additionally, the assumptions about the nature of post-Saddam Iraq on which the transition was planned proved to be largely incorrect."
Remember: The Republicans are supposed to be the experts in national security and John McSame wants another 100 years of this nonsense.
Associated Press is reporting that for the first time in history, a woman has been chosen for promotion to full general!
Nominated by President Bush, and if confirmed by the Senate, Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody would head the Army Materiel Command, responsible for equipping, outfitting and arming soldiers throughout the Army. She would become the first woman to be one of only 11 active-duty four-stars allowed by law, including the Army chief of staff, Gen. George Casey.
This may be the only thing Bush has done in his entire term that I approve of!
The military’s need for qualified and experienced personnel continues to grow. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently released data showing the Army has doubled the number of waivers it grants to recruits convicted of violent felonies including manslaughter, rape and kidnapping. In an attempt to meet personnel goals Pentagon leaders have recently relaxed enlistment standards regarding age, physical fitness, education and criminal records. The discharge of lesbian and gay Americans, however, continues.
Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) is the military's ban on openly serving lesbian, gay or bisexual service members. It was enacted by a Democratic President and has been sustained by both Democratic and Republican congresses for over a decade. Like many progressive initiatives, Democrats in Congress, who remain too skittish about being labeled a "Gays before Berets" party, have not brought up the issue in any meaningful, challenging way this session.
If you know my name, you know that I have writen tributes to our fallen servicemen and women on DailyKos for the past year. I, along with my fellow IGTNT diarists, put much care into paying tribute to these men and women by researching as much as we can to properly honor them.
I've written about the loss of some remarkable people and I cry over every one of them.
Last August I wrote a diary that included tributes to two soldiers - Spc. Kamisha Block and Staff Sgt. Paul Norris - who had died in what the Army called a "non-combat related incident." The family was initially led to believe it was "friendly fire."
As it turns out, Paul Norris murdered Kamisha and then took his own life. But it took 6 months for Kamisha's family to learn the truth about her death. Beyond that, the Army has admitted that it failed to protect her from abuse.
Oh this can't be good. The Financial Times is reporting this morning that the Pentagon is claiming it can't seem to locate "sensitive" parts for building nuclear weapons.
Another day, another middle finger to the American taxpayer and American soldier from the Bush Administration and friends at Kellogg Brown & Root.
The New York Times has an article up detailing how back in the early stages of the Iraq War, the Army's own auditor found lack of support for $ 1 billion in fees and charges sought by KBR for their "services," and that the senior civilian overseeing the KBR contract was "reassigned" for demanding KBR provide information:
The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations.
Last Friday I posted a diary at MyDD regarding the linking of the Army Public Affairs web newsletter Stand To to a strongly anti-Obama posting in their 'What's being said in Blogs' section. This had been originally reported by the Washington Post and Huffington Post linked to it on Friday at around midday regarding a Tuesday edition of Stand To. The offending link was gone before midnight.
I posted the email address of Major General Anthony A. Cucolo III, Chief of Public Affairs, US Army and sent an email on the subject which can be found in the original diary. The General's response follows over the fold.
The close relationship between top officials in various branches of the military and Veterans Administration has been disturbing for some time now. If two unrelated events today are any indication, they're about to reach the breaking point.
First off, the Army's public affairs unit is broadcasting pathetic Obama smears from milbloggers, contravening direct orders from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to stay out of partisan politics:
Nobody out there is changing the climate, you got that, soldier? This is the US Army talking to you.
In an advisory to bloggers entitled "Global Warming: Fact of Fiction [sic]," an Army public affairs official promoted a conference call with [Dr. Bruce] West about "the causes of global warming, and how it may not be caused by the common indicates [sic] some scientists and the media are indicating."
Global warming is for wimps, and so is grammar. What's that, soldier? You say NASA just released a report saying that officials have been encouraged to lie about climate change?
Two years after James E. Hansen, the leading climate scientist at NASA, and other agency employees described a pattern of distortion and suppression of climate science by political appointees, the agency’s inspector general has concluded that such activities occurred and were "inconsistent" with the law that established the space program 50 years ago.
Don't try to every other study says West is wrong and that solar activity has a negligible impact on climate change. Hell, son, what would NASA know about the sun? Leave it to the Army. It's hot when we say it's hot.
