VA Holiday

...Or 'How the VA got a new boss and the truth came out.' While not A Dr. Phil fan, he did a show that was worth watching. According to the VA Watchdog website, Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, say that the VA lies to Congress. Col. David Hunt, Fox News analyst, talks of "criminal" activity and says someone should be doing a "perp walk." Tammy Duckworth, head of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, tells of her terrible experiences with the VA. and veterans tell heart-wrenching stories of trying to get the care they need and have earned.Also... you'll want to hear Dr. Phil explain why the VA canceled their appearance on the show.


Parts two through six can be viewed here at VA Watchdog's website. Hopefully the present of presence will come to the VA in the New Year.

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.

Prince of Tides

And the tide is turning: Blackwater likely to be out of Iraq

Purple Heart--"out of stock" UPDATE

Passed on from Pandabonium who does an excellent job on the topic of peak oil at Floating Down Denial, is the story of a Korean War Veteran who after 55 years finally gets his Purple Heart Medal approved only to find out that they are "out of stock". Read the story here.

UPDATE:At least someone in BushCo can be shamed into action. After opting to buy his awarded Purple Heart, John Cornyn (R-TX)endeavored to find a medal for Veteran Nyles Reed of Texas.

Better late than never, dipshit.

Friendly Fire? Who Needs Enemies

New evidence came out today indicating Pat Tillman was not only shot and killed by American troops--but at close range. Pat Tillman was reportedly about to speak out against the prosecution of the war. Read the story at Mystical Maven's place and Crooks and Liars as reported by the AP..

Korey Rowe Arrested

Korey Rowe, producer of "Loose Change" was arrested Monday night in New York on a military warrant for "Desertion". Rowe, the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran was sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky in spite of showing New York law enforcement officials his DD Form 214 which proved he had been honorably discharged from the Army for two years.

Demoted

Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger should start packing his duffel bag.

Army Secretary Peter Geren is expected to recommend that a retired three-star general be demoted for his role in providing misleading information about the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, military officials say, in what would be a stinging and rare rebuke.

Private Contractors at Walter Reed fail to deliver mail

WASHINGTON - Turns out the trouble at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the focus of a firestorm of criticism over poor treatment of wounded war veterans, reached into the mailroom.

MSNBC reports.

USAF used to fill thinning Army ranks

The Washington Times is reporting that enlisted Airmen, mostly from Lackland AFB, are being given a two week training course to assume the Army duty of escorting and running convoys. USAF Airman are being used to fill out the thin Army ranks. Hard to get water from a dry well, eh boys?

The training range is Army, as is the duty itself one of the most dangerous in Iraq these days. But the camouflage-clad young men and women training to run and protect convoys are not Army; they are Air Force.
They are part of a small but steady stream of airmen being trained to do soldiers duty under the Army chain of command, a tangible sign that the Pentagon was scouring the military to aid an Iraq force that was stretched long before President Bush ordered 21,500 additional U.S. troops there.

read the rest...

Larry Johnson at No Quarter also has a piece up on the missed recruitment goals in the Army. And if you have time, a little cartoon for the kiddies.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Gen. Peter Pace is OUT. The now-former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been told to pack his bags. The Washington Note, takes note.

Way to go democrats

I have hesitated to comment on the democrats passing the funding for the ongoing Iraq occupation, without benchmarks, until this morning. On the heels of dem senate leader Harry Reid's tepid, whiny announcement that 'they did their best' and had to send the chimp-king everything he wanted, what I heard in Reid's statement was an implicit threat: the dems are our only hope and until they are in power fully, with the White House firmly in tow, they can't do anything to stop this president. The topper for me has been the news that Gold Star Mother, Cindy Sheehan has quit the Peace Movement. From Cindy Sheehan's diary at DKOS:

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes

. Read the rest of Cindy's entry. From CNN:

• Sheehan: My son "did indeed die for nothing"
• She is upset that Democrats and anti-war politicians can't end Iraq war
• She is exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll
• "I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote

Apparently, the will of 70% of the American people is meaningless to the people we have elected to execute our will. What next? Martial law? Revolution? Way to go dems, and you wonder why people call you cowardly...and oh yeah, 8 more soldiers dead as of Memorial Day.

PFC LaVena Johnson UPDATE

I have posted a number of times on the tragic death of PFC LaVena Johnson and today found a recent news report updating us on the progress of the mounting suspicion and investigation into her death, which I believe was murder. Please watch the video and if you haven't already done so, please sign the petition to put pressure on the pentagon to right this injustice to one of our brave fallen.

General Stupidity

Another prick-motherfucker General retires--finally.

Lt.Gen. William Boykin's departure ends a legendary 36 year career, most of it as a special operations warrior and member of the army's elite Delta Force counter-terrorism unit.Boykin oversaw the Pentagon's counter-terrorism operations and the so far unsuccessful search for bin Laden.

A devout evangelical Christian, he gained notoriety for a series of videotaped appearances at churches across the United States in 2003 in which he vividly portrayed the war on terrorism as a fight with Satan. [ ] Details of Boykin's career are shrouded in secrecy but he has been reported to have played a role in some of most dramatic US military engagements of the past three decades.

He is said to have been part of the Delta Force team that made an aborted attempt to rescue US hostages in Tehran in 1980.

He was seriously wounded in Grenada in 1983, was part of the invasion force sent to capture Panamanian strongman General Manuel Noriega in 1989, and led the Delta Force during the "Black Hawk Down" battle in Somalia in 1993.

It would appear from the missions the DOD feels good about releasing information on, the Gen. Boink-in is a bit of a failure in the picking-the right mission department.

Read the rest of Raw Story's account of military mental deficiency

Over The Line: 3,400 deaths in Iraq and it's only 3 PM

How many more Americans, how many more Iraqis, how many more military families must lose a loved one? Today we stand at three thousand, four hundred American military deaths.The politicians in Washington continue to posture as more die and suffer. From the point of view of a soldier that's been there, I've linked the blog "From My Position" Our politics are not in concurrence but there's very little tangling with the facts this war-injured soldier provides. Take a look and then, please contact your representatives in congress and the senate and DEMAND they cut off funding and bring the troops home. Enough is enough.

UPDATE: 3401 Dead, 5:51PM

Gasbag

Gas prices on Clinton's watch were significantly lower than during the BushCo's reign of terror. Graphic stolen from All Hat No Cattle, courtesy of Dennis in Colorado.

More Bushshit

Retired Major General John Batiste takes President Bush on, directly, when Bush says that he's just "listening to commanders on the ground" in Iraq.

The President's Parade of Progress

C&L has posted the video of the presnit's 'moments in progress'2003-2007 edition.

‘Mission Accomplished’ By The Numbers

Thank goodness for Think Progress. Always putting just the right touch on the stories that need telling. Read 'the numbers' for Bush's miserable failure on this, the one thousand, four hundred and sixtieth day since Dubya-the-despicable declared "Mission Accomplished."

Tenet's Remorse

What is with the name George? Will it now and forever be associated with incompetence? The studly Larry Johnson has posted a scathing, spot-on open letter to George Tenet on the occasion of the release of his throw-BushCo-under-the-bus missive.

It now turns out that you were the Alberto Gonzales of the intelligence community--a grotesque mixture of incompetence and sycophancy shielded by a genial personality. Decisions were made, you were in charge, but you have no idea how decisions were made even though you were in charge. Curiously, you focus your anger on the likes of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice, but you decline to criticize the President.

Read the rest...
If you can stand more of the Tenet debacle, and missed 60 Minutes last night, Scott Pelley interviews Tenet. Watch the squirm. Randi Rhodes posts clip-a-aplenty and has several linked stories on the shameless, weak-willed Sir-Tenetacle-the-duplicitous.

Habeas Corpus is Dead

This American Life with Ira Glass has updated a program done last year about people released from Guantanamo. It's valuable to get some back story about the human beings called "the worst of worst" by the criminal BushCo. Over 400 detainees, who were essentially kidnapped by the US government, have been released after being characterized by the administration as "al-Qaeda operatives, picked up off the battlefield." Listen to the shocking stories of a handful of these detainees.
"Habeas Schmabeas"

powered by ODEO