Army Drops the Ball

Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan

Friday 13 November 2009 by: Dahr Jamail | Inter Press Service

Ventura, California - US Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.

[read the rest]

For the sake of argument let's just say Specialist Hutchinson was trying to get out of deployment. How is the Army brass justified in their actions? Hopefully the media spotlight this story is generating will shame someone into doing the right thing.

Uncommon Valor

Paul Rieckhoff of IAVA has posted a story on the latest, tragically posthumous, awarding of the Medal of Honor to Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti, 10th Mountain Division. Please take a few moments to view the video and acknowledge the more than sixty other male members of the 10th, the two women soldiers and the US Air Force airman who died in Afghanistan in 2006. I knew a woman Army doctor from the 10th who died in 2007. Hell of an outfit the 10th.

From Paul's write-up:

Courage, sacrifice, hero—three words thrown around carelessly these days. Politicians that cross party lines to force compromise on the divisive issues of our day are labeled “courageous.” A professional athlete that makes a bold play, leading his team to victory is deemed “heroic.” An actor who forgoes a big paycheck for the summer blockbuster to work on a small budget documentary is seen as making a “sacrifice.” Don’t get me wrong, these acts are worthy of admiration. But for a nation at war, using these terms irresponsibly does a big disservice to those that serve. [read the rest...]

The Inconvenience of Posse Comitatus

Enacted after Civil War Reconstruction in 1878, Posse Comitatus (U.S.C. 18-13850) has always been a double-edged sword. The compromise of the North with the South which withdrew Federal troops from former Confederate states and allowed racism and the general disenfranchisement of former slaves to flourish, was also intended to end the federal military from taking part in police actions. Yet once again, the Bush administration stretches law to it breaking point, while pushing our over-burdened military ever closer to the precipice.

News out today from the US Northern Command that the Army's 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be the nation's 'new police'. The 3rd ID is the most rotated combat component in Iraq and now they're home to do the same duty as part of the newest permanent part of the Army -- CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force.

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

What is played down in the articles out of NORCOM, Ft. Stewart and the Dept. of Homeland Security is the element of CCMRF (sea-smurf) being implemented to 'deal with' protesters and civil disturbances.

Posse Comitatus became law for a number of reasons but first and foremost was so American servicepersons would not be put in the position of turning weapons on the American public. It seems we creep ever-closer to martial law as the reins of power slip from the GOP's fascist grip. As the divides in American ideology deepen, the political landscape of the presidential race features McCain mobs yelling, "kill him...terrorist" and worse, while my beloved military is put in the untenable position of having to defend not the Constitution, but the ideologic policies of a rogue government.

This election can not end soon enough for me.

Tin Soldiers

A little interruption in what was a perfectly nice day. From VetVoice:

When two deaths in Iraq were announced late Sunday, something didn't sound right. It wasn't combat, there was no mention of a vehicle accident, and with two dead, it clearly wasn't a suicide...

US Soldier in Iraq Kills Superior and Another Soldier

The Women Soldiers Revistited

Somebody just posted a comment to a post I did in March 2007 called, "The Women Soldiers" I felt as a response to this comment I needed to revisit that post. Check the link and read my musings but in short, I addressed the woman now in 'combat' positions regardless of the DoD ban on woman in "direct combat positions." Also focused on the dramatic increase of sexual assault of deployed military women.

The "anonymous commenter" wrote this:

The last entry is correct.[my note: referring to the previous comment about women being able to serve in combat 'limited' positions] Women have been in combat roles for sometime. The Air Force and Navy have allowed them to serve as figher(sic) and bomber piolts(sic) for sometime, and those are combat positions. Also the Army allows women in quasi combat(sic) roles, such as Military Police (they patrol Iraq and guard convoys). I spent a year in Iraq and saw female turret gunners in convoys and female gunners on choppers. One of my female sergeants was a turret gunner and was wounded when her convoy was attacked back in 2004. She recovered, has a Purple Heart and contiues(sic) to proudly serve her country.

I have to laugh at all the lefties who left anti-military comments. Sure some women may face harassment in the military, just as they face it anywhere else but lets not take a few isolated incidents and generalize.[emphasis is mine] Also, remember that these women warriors are armed to the teeth (see the Blog photo, one of the woman is sporting an M16 with grenade launcher), so they are more than capable of fending off anyone who tries to get too fresh.

My response follows:

HopeSpringsATurtle said...
Dear Anon:

On October 1, 1994, the Defense Department issued a policy that rescinded the so-called "risk rule" that gauges the specialties to which women can be assigned. The policy was backed strongly by Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and was the extension of the changes made in April 1993 that opened most aviation specialties, including attack helicopters, to women (Army, March 1994). The policy emphasized that no job will be closed to women just because it is dangerous, but fails to open direct offensive ground combat jobs to women (Army, March 1994). Even today, though, the official policy of the Army and Marine Corps excludes women from combat which precludes 12 percent of skilled positions and 39 percent of the total positions (GAO Report, July 1996).

One more casualty of the war in Iraq brought home to Decatur, Illinois, last weekend. In this case, the soldier's vehicle was hit in Baghdad on June 21st by a rocket-propelled grenade. But this death is one of those that makes this war unique, for it was a woman, 22-year-old Army Specialist Karen Clifton.

She is one of the most recent of more than 80 women (including a friend) who have so far been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a figure nearly double the number of American military women killed in Desert Storm, Vietnam, and Korea, combined. Some 500 have been wounded, many grievously.

American women are serving in the U.S. military today in ways and numbers unthinkable a few decades ago. They are now eligible to fill more than 80 percent of military jobs, 250,000 different assignments, often serving side-by-side with men.

So far, women have served some 167,000 tours of duty in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than four times the number in the first Gulf War. They are not assigned to infantry units, to tanks or submarines, and Pentagon policy officially precludes them from serving in so-called "combat occupations." But in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, where no clear frontlines exist, such distinctions are often hard to make.

Women in both theaters today drive Humvees and trucks, escort military convoys, serve as military police, even pilot helicopters and planes on the battlefield, all of it done under the very real -- and constant -- threat of attack. And like men, many women of the U.S. Armed Services have by now served several tours in the war zones.

Insofar as rape and sexual abuse, one doesn't typically have to sleep with one eye open and armed, on a US military base, in order to not be raped or sexually abused. The incidents of such violence are at an all time high--and most of it is covered up. Your assumption is naive and uninformed, regardless of your "year served in Iraq."

When was the last time you heard of male soldiers having to wake up another soldier in order to go to the bathroom after dark as to no be raped? Waking another woman as an "escort" is the standing order for women while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, many women choose not to disturb the already less-than-advantageous sleep schedule of others, and "hold it." This has caused a precipitious increase in urinary tract infections and dehydration among other maladies.

The Real Meaning of 4000 Dead

Found over at Watertiger's place:

By LT. SEAN WALSH Wed Mar 26, 2:20 PM ET

The passing of the 4,000th service member in Iraq is a tragic milestone and a testament to the cost of this war, but for those of us who live and fight in Iraq, we measure that cost in smaller, but much more personal numbers. For me those numbers are 8, the number of friends and classmates killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 3, the number of soldiers from my unit killed in this deployment. I'm 25, yet I've received more notifications for funerals than invitations to weddings.

The number 4,000 is too great to grasp even for us that are here in Iraq. When we soldiers read the newspaper, the latest AP casualty figures are glanced over with the same casual interest as a box score for a sport you don't follow. I am certain that I am not alone when I open up the Stars and Stripes, the military's daily paper, and immediately search for the section with the names of the fallen to see if they include anyone I know. While in a combat outpost in southwest Baghdad, it was in that distinctive bold Ariel print in a two-week-old copy of the Stars and Stripes that I read that my best friend had been killed in Afghanistan. No phone call from a mutual friend or a visit to his family. All that had come and gone by the time I had learned about his death. I sometimes wonder, if I hadn't picked up that paper, how much longer I would have gone by without knowing - perhaps another day, perhaps a week or longer until I could find the time and the means to check my e-mail to find my messages unanswered and a death notification from a West Point distro list in my inbox. The dead in Afghanistan don't seem to inspire the keeping of lists the same way that those in Iraq do, but even if they did it wouldn't matter; he could only be number 7 to me.

I'm not asking for pity, only understanding for the cost of this war. We did, after all, volunteer for the Army and that is the key distinction between this army and the army of the Vietnam War. But even as I ask for that understanding I'm almost certain that you won't be able to obtain it. Even Shakespeare, with his now overused notion of soldiers as a "band of brothers" fails to capture the bonds, the sense of responsibility to each other, among soldiers. In many ways, Iraq has become my home (by the time my deployment ends I will have spent more time here than anywhere else in the army) and the soldiers I share that home with have become my family. Between working, eating and sleeping within a few feet of the same soldiers every single day, I doubt I am away from them for more than two hours a day. I'm engaged to the love of my life, but it will take several years of marriage before I've spent as much time with her as I have with the men I serve with today.

For the vast majority of American's who don't have a loved one overseas, the only number they have to attempt to grasp the Iraq War is 4,000. I would ask that when you see that number, try to remember that it is made up of over 1 million smaller numbers; that every one of the 1 million service members who have fought in Iraq has his or her own personal numbers. Over 1 million 8's and 3's. When you are evaluating the price of the war, weighing potential rewards versus cost in blood and treasure, I would ask you to consider what is worth the lives of three of your loved ones? Or eight? Or more? It would be a tragedy for my 8 and 3 to have died without us being able to complete our mission, but it maybe even more tragic for 8 and 3 to become anything higher.

"Not us, we're not going."

A quote from the article at Army Times describing a troop "mutiny" in Iraq. After a staggering number of losses in the same company, soldiers speak out and refuse to return to 'Old Mod.'

“You never really get over the anger,” said Staff Sgt. Robin Johnson, a member of Charlie’s scout platoon who had been especially close to Agami. “It just kind of becomes everything you are. You become pissed off at everything. We wanted to destroy everything in our paths, but they wanted us to keep building sewer systems and handing out teddy bears.”

Read Greg Mitchell's piece and the complete Army Times article here.

A Soldier Persecuted

By no other than the Bush administration--big surprise. A Soldier's Officer.

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

H/T to Op for the link.

Anorexic Army

Think Progress writes up Gen. Casey's report to the Senate Armed Services committee:Army ‘Out Of Balance,’ ‘Current Demand’ On Troops ‘Exceeds The Sustainable Supply’

According to “Pentagon insiders” who spoke to the Boston Globe, “Casey’s apparent alarm about the Army heightened when he returned from nearly three years of duty in Iraq.” Casey also said that “Army support systems…are straining under the pressures from six years of war.”

See the video.

Army Chief Bids Farewell

None to soon for my liking I must add. Military.Com writes:

Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, will hand over leadership of the nation's largest service today in a ceremony at Fort Myer, Va., to Gen. George Casey, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

Schoomaker took the reigns as Army chief after being called out of retirement by former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld four years ago - a controversial move that sent shock waves through Army leadership.

The "shock waves" emanating out of the Dept. of the Army are sure to render more resignations as the utter failure of leadership becomes more apparent. The slimy commanders that made choices of CYA over soldiers lives need to be in prison, but their resignations are a good beginning.

In a related story, the Pentagon is considering extending the tours of duty for 15,000 soldiers in spite of the already long deployments, because of a shortage of combat-ready units. HuffPo has it here.

Are Women Soldiers Inherently Less Valuable?

So few people seemed moved enough to comment on the "Murdered Woman Soldier" post and I am disturbed. Very few in the blogosphere, the left blogosphere mind you, have bothered to post this tragic, powerful story; A young female soldier found battered and sexually abused in her tent with a bullet hole through her head is called "suicide" by the army and they refuse to re-open the case. What more needs to be said here? Is it an underlying bias toward women in the military? Do women who choose to serve their country just automatically 'get what they deserve' when they are raped? I have posted a number of stories about the unprecedented abuse women in the military have endured since the inception of the "war on terror." The posts go virtually unnoticed. And guess what? The newest terrorists are us. Al-Qaeda ain't got nothin' on the Pentagon.

Male US military persons are raping and killing their fellow female soldiers. Military policy downrange requires that females go places in pairs while in the presumed safety of their own bases. The danger is from male soldiers and no one seems to give a shit. Women are dying of dehydration from not drinking as to avoid having to go to the toilet. I guess I didn't realize how deep the misogyny runs in the left side of the pool.

At least one man has taken this incident seriously and not only posted on it but has begun a petition to send to the Senate Armed Services Committee to force the re-opening of the investigation. Give Philip Baron of Waveflux your thanks and support by signing the petition and perhaps the family and friends of PFC LaVena Johnson may rest a bit easier. Missouri TV news report of LaVena's story.

2nd Trial Set for Objector Watada

The Army has set a second court-martial for July 16 for an officer who refused to deploy to Iraq and spoke out against the war and the Bush administration. Read more.

U.S. Soldier Takes Guilty Plea

From Digital Journal:

According to the military, five soldiers Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spc. James P. Barker, PFC Jesse V. Spielman, PFC Steven D. Green and PFC Bryan L. Howard planned to rape a a 14-year-old girl named Abeer Qassim Hamza. PFC Howard was told to monitor a radio as the others entered the victims' house. Green ordered the father, mother and younger daughter into a bedroom. Shots were fired and Green emerged and reportedly said, "I just killed them, all are dead." Green and at least one of the others proceeded to sexually assault Abeer and when they were finished, Green fired two or three shots into her head, killing her.

The March 2006 killing of the family was originally reported to be the work of insurgents. Later, soldiers told their superiors of their suspicion that U.S. soldiers were involved. The deaths are considered among the worst in a series of alleged atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq. Read the rest of the story.

Cortez was sentenced to 99 years. He got off easy.


The only known picture of Abeer Hamza.



Rest in Peace sweet Abeer.