I wanted to share this message from a youtube friend who made some supportive comments about my political parody videos. I found this to be a real kick in the ass, as well as extremely moving.

In one of the state's largest single deployments since World War II, about half of the New Jersey Army National Guard's 6,200 troops are expected to be mobilized for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan by early 2009, state and Guard officials said yesterday.

http://www.philly.com/...

Governor Corzine blasted the callup, which was scheduled for 2010 and has been "accelerated" to 2009:

``I think it is undermining of the basic purpose of the National Guard, which is to protect local and state elements and floods and fires and whatever problems that we can have,'' Corzine said, ``and reduces our ability and it strains us on equipment.''

"The fact that we continue to have the kind of overuse of our National Guard is just a mistake," said Corzine, who voted against the Iraq war when he was a U.S. senator.

http://www.nj.com/...

It is time to reverse this over-used, politicized, and meaningless sound-bite to:

AS THE USA STANDS DOWN...THE IRAQIS MUST STAND UP!!

Start deployment of 10,000 troops per month beginning in one month!  This will require about 15-16 months to remove all troops from Iraq.  I would pass a funding bill for the Iraq portion that decreases every month by a factor of 1/15th.  Meaning; month one 100% funded for 160,000 troops, month two is ~93.5% funded for 150,000 troops, month three is ~86% funded for 140,000 troops, and so on...

Additionally, all US contractors are given a 90-day notice to cease operations in Iraq.  The Iraqi government can open bidding to all nations and manage their rebuilding process within their priorities.

The USA must beg involvement from a 'real' coalition and the UN with absolutely no caveats!  Let them get involved in security of the region since they have the most to gain, and let them be involved in any way the Iraqi government allows...period.

And like it or not insane-Bush...the Iraq oil belongs to the Iraqis!!  

Being a good liberal veteran, I subscribe to the VoteVets.org newsletter.  Upon checking my email first thing this morning, I noticed I had received an email from Peter Granato and our very own Brandon Friedman (aka The Angry Rakkasan).  The email contained a brief on the highlights of a recent VoteVets.org meeting in DC and a referral to the website RestedAndReady.com.  

I was surprised, and not pleasantly, by what I found when I clicked the link.

Representative Ellen Tauscher at Travis Air Force Base.

Military children are the latest victims of George Bush’s illegal and immoral Iraq War.  The stress of increasingly frequent and longer deployments are taking their toll on military wives. A recent studyshows that in at-risk families, mothers are  considerably more likely to abuse or neglect their children than when the fathers are at home.

Thank you, George Bush. As a result of this war,  children are being damaged for life.  Child abuse is the gift that keeps on giving.

This is going to be a short diary.  I went to a departure ceremony today.  OPSEC traditions tells me I can't tell you how many are leaving or when, so I won't.  Our sister unit is going to the place where GI's go quite frequently nowadays.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

I just got off a half-hour blogger conference call (mainly for Virginia bloggers) with Sen. Webb on "troop readiness [and] fair deployment cycles."  Aside from myself, other Virginia bloggers attending included Waldo Jaquith, "Teacherken," JC Wilmore, Terry Rea, Bryan Scrafford, Eileen Levandoski, and Virginia blogging alum (now Webb's Deputy State Director) Conaway Haskins.  In addition, Spencer Ackerman from Talking Points Memo was on the call (note: there was also a "mystery blogger" - you'll see his excellent question below).

I'm writing today as an active-duty Soldier.

The war in Iraq is on many folks' minds today, what with the spending authorization bill landing on the President's desk and the fourth anniversary of the "mission accomplished," erm, "major combat operations have ceased" moment.

Here's what's happening in the real-live, active-duty, no-shit Army:

People are pissed off. They're angry because they want to retire, but they don't want to go back to Iraq again. They're angry because the quality of incoming recruit is lower and lower, and there's little that anyone can do about it, because its all a "numbers game" being played by TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command, the part of the Army that runs initial recruit training). They're really pissed about the 15-month deployments.

My first child, Kennedy, was born on groundhog day, February 2, 2007.  On February 9, I got on a plain for Afghanistan where I THOUGHT I'd be spending the next year. More after the fold.

It's heartening that Harry Reid says he'll cosponsor Russ Feingold's short and sweet bill to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008. I'd like to believe it will pass with a veto-proof majority. I sure hope Bush's inevitable veto of the Emergency Supplemental will not lead the Congressional Dems to cave in and hand Bush one hundred million bucks to continue the war free and clear.

But when I saw this article today, I got enraged over a missed opportunity to end the war, the Murtha plan. The news story too is short and sweet--to maintain "The Surge," now only half way to full staffing, the Pentagon is sending troops back into the Big Sandbox well ahead of when they were scheduled

The 4th Infantry Division headquarters unit from Fort Hood, Texas, will return to Iraq after a little more than seven months at home -- the largest break to date from the Army's goal of giving units a year's rest after every year deployed. The 1st Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Ft. Drum, N.Y., will go back to Iraq after just 10 1/2 months at home.

This is a copy of an injunction that was delivered at the Port of Tacoma on March 11, 2007.

In an act of civil disobedience, 15 activists crossed a police barricade and delivered the following:

Surge. I'm lost in the meaning of this word and confused as to why the powers that be at the Department of Defense settled on the term "surge."   Note that "swelling" is one of the most used adjectives in the dictionary definition of the word...

surge - Pronunciation[surj] noun, verb, surged, surg•ing.
–noun

1. a strong, wavelike, forward movement, rush, or sweep: the onward surge of an angry mob.

2. a strong, swelling, wavelike volume or body of something: a billowing surge of smoke.

3. the rolling swell of the sea.

4. the swelling and rolling sea: The surge crashed against the rocky coast.

5. a swelling wave; billow.

From the diaries, with minor edits. This is why we have to end this war. mcjoan

I know my wife hasn't seen the following headline yet, or there'd be one hell of an angry, angst-ridden email in my inbox: Oklahoma National Guard to Deploy to Iraq in 2008

It seems that my brigade has been given a warning order to prepare to deploy to Iraq in 2008, about six months after I get home.

I don't know if it's the full brigade, or just the parts that haven't deployed recently, but with the new change in army policy, I could conceivably go home this summer and turn around next January and go to Iraq.

Lovely.  Just fucking lovely.

A more complete article can be found at the website of our state's very right-wing newspaper--a paper so skewed it should be printed as a tabloid instead of a broadsheet--the Daily Oklahoman (registration required):

"We very rarely receive a notification of this sort and then a decision is made not to send them, although it has happened in the past," [Adujant General of Oklahoma, Major General Henry] Wyatt said.

And if I thought that my current deployment would make me less likely to go on this new one, boy did I have another thing coming:

About 85 percent of the soldiers in the 45th Infantry Brigade already have served combat deployments, most in Iraq or Afghanistan. Two of the brigade's units are deployed now. The 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry is in Afghanistan, and the 245th Engineer Company is in Iraq. Wyatt said these soldiers will have the experience that comes with being combat veterans, but he said it will also cause additional stress.

"We understand we're asking the families and employers and soldiers to deploy again," Wyatt said.

Erm, Ya think, Sir?!?

I don't know if I'm going to have to go or not.  I damn sure ain't volunteering.

Commanders already have re-evaluated training plans in light of the possible deployment. Wyatt said much of the brigade's pre-deployment training will be handled by the Guard before the troops are activated.

Wyatt said he has pushed the Army to put the brigade on alert and issue mobilization orders as soon as possible to allow commanders access to additional equipment and other resources the troops will need. He said he hopes official orders will come in by the end of February. Body armor and some weapons are in short supply to Oklahoma Guardsmen, as National Guard units nationally have shared their resources to equip troops deploying to combat areas.

"We will not let any soldier go ... unless they are fully-equipped with all of their equipment and have all the training they need to accomplish the mission," Wyatt said. "If we can't do that, then they're not going in."

Now, I don't want anyone to think that I disrespect my Adjutant General.  I've met him personally, and he's a good man.  He takes care of business, so I've no doubt that he'll take care of us as best he can.
Having said that, if I am going to Iraq, and I haven't heard for sure yet--no one has handed me orders, or looked me in the eye and said "you, 'soonergrunt' are going," I'd rather just stay on active duty rather than have my employer try to put me to work for six months and then find ANOTHER replacement for me.

I will not volunteer for this mission, but if ordered to go, I will go.  I know that there are those out there who would have me go AWOL or refuse to deploy.

I cannot do that.  I owe too much to these young men whom I promised I would lead and protect.  I do not believe that all war is wrong, so I cannot honestly petition to be a conscientious objector.  I also do not believe that just because I hate the president I have to right to refuse to live up to my oath.  I'm not a conservative, after all.  I have a family to feed, and soldiers to take care of.  I can do neither from prison.

I just hope that neither I nor one of my men are the last to die for a mistake.

Lovely.  Just fucking lovely.

The escalation of the occupation of Iraq will mean 21,500 more deployments.  

Twenty-one thousand five hundred more goodbyes to spouses.

[more]

My neighbor got a request (he's a policeman in civilian life ) a week ago to come in for processing (getting ready to ship out on the first week of January) on December 26th. Bush cancelled his announcement due on the 18th until January. This unit is Military Police from Upstate NY. Individual Ready Reserves are being contacted, and many others, I assume, around the country.

To get a 25,000 to 35,000 escalation of troops in this war, at least 25/35 different units will be called up, plus some transfers from other bases already  overseas mainly MP's, units that have a high logistical/ policemen/administrative types will be called and a "policing" battery will be assembled out of individual callups and transfers of other units.

Yesterday George Bush declassified a whopping four pages of a National Security Estimate (copy can be found here). http://americablog.blogspot.com/...
In a style that has come to mark recent Bush speeches the president whined about leaks and the need to keep secrets, and then he released a portion of one. Assuming that he gave us what he thought was the piece of the report that was most supportive of his administration; one has to ask, what the hell does the rest of the report say? If Bush thought that "The NIE, declassified and released late Tuesday, concludes that the conflict has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic holy warriors and is "shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives." (USA Today) demonstrates support of his policies he is more addled than we thought.
Now we must try and divine what the rest of the NIE contains. Using only my crystal ball I will make predictions about the contents.