Bush, Rummy, Uncle Dick aren’t the first politico’s to consider our warriors fodder — death is an expectation of war, and shifting warm bodies requires a level of detachment. But I don’t remember an administration so cavalier about their well being … before, during and after … from the gutting of head wound studies to the piddly 2.2% raise they recently received to the allowing of near-criminal credit card interest rates to the “stop loss” that keeps them virtual prisoners to warring. As long as they stay where we put them, it seems they’re on their own with the consequences and aftermath of their service. So much for national gratitude.
Fodder: bulk, least valuable
Purpose: to be consumed
Below, we learn how long the Army’s projecting the GI’s in place, a soldiers reflections of Iraq as Dante’s Inferno, consequences in the Navy if you don’t go with the company line, how we’re replacing the warriors with the dumber but willing, and … gasp! … how we’re going to be nicer to them in boot camp.
The 21st Century Military, Bush style, below.
Jude
Army: Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010
LOLITA C. BALDOR, AP
10/11/06
http://tinyurl.com/jnw8d
The Secret Letter From IraqA Marine’s letter home, with its frank description of life in “Dante’s inferno,” has been circulating through generals’ in-boxes. We publish it here with the author’s approval
Friday, Oct. 06, 2006
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1543658-1,00.html
[thanks, Deb]
Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the ‘Letter from Iraq’ moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME’s Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document’s authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.
All: I haven’t written very much from Iraq. There’s really not much to write about. More exactly, there’s not much I can write about because practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military information or is depressing to the point that I’d rather just forget about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that are filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it’s a bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that’s worth reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days, every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents are up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than solutions. Every challenge demands a response. It’s like this every day. Before I know it, I can’t see straight, because it’s 0400 and I’ve been at work for 20 hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process. And once again I haven’t written to anyone. It starts all over again four hours later. It’s not really like Ground Hog Day, it’s more like a level from Dante’s Inferno.
Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I’d just hit the record setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are among the events and experiences I’ll remember best.
Worst Case of Deja Vu — I thought I was familiar with the feeling of deja vu until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I stepped off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I had left it ten months before — that was deja vu. Kind of unnerving. It was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same . . . everything. Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel universe. Home wasn’t 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.
Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.
Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”
Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.
Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How’d you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who’s just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.
Second Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — It’s a 20,000 way tie among all these Marines and Soldiers who venture out on the highways and through the towns of al-Anbar every day, not knowing if it will be their last — and for a couple of them, it will be.
Worst E-Mail Message — “The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need blood type A stat.” I always head down to the surgical unit as soon as I get these messages, but I never give blood — there’s always about 80 Marines in line, night or day.
Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we’d get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won’t give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp . . .
Greatest Vindication — Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet Coke from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can’t buy experience.
Biggest Mystery — How some people can gain weight out here. I’m down to 165 lbs. Who has time to eat?
Second Biggest Mystery — if there’s no atheists in foxholes, then why aren’t there more people at Mass every Sunday?
Favorite Iraqi TV Show — Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.
Coolest Insurgent Act — Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.
Most Memorable Scene — In the middle of the night, on a dusty airfield, watching the better part of a battalion of Marines packed up and ready to go home after over six months in al-Anbar, the relief etched in their young faces even in the moonlight. Then watching these same Marines exchange glances with a similar number of grunts loaded down with gear file past — their replacements. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said.
Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate — Any outfit that has been in Iraq recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from home, all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here — all are outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of brothers who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for when they enlisted out of high school. Man for man, they now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps.
Most Surprising Thing I Don’t Miss — Beer. Perhaps being half-stunned by lack of sleep makes up for it.
Worst Smell — Porta-johns in 120 degree heat — and that’s 120 degrees outside of the porta-john.
Highest Temperature — I don’t know exactly, but it was in the porta-johns. Needed to re-hydrate after each trip to the loo.
Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and “battlefield” tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no affect on their preconceived notions of what’s going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they’ve been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here. Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted.
Biggest Offender: Bill O’Reilly.
Best Intel Work — Finding Jill Carroll’s kidnappers — all of them. I was mighty proud of my guys that day. I figured we’d all get the Christian Science Monitor for free after this, but none have showed up yet.
Saddest Moment — Having an infantry battalion commander hand me the dog tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. He was a great Marine. I felt crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the entrance to our section area. We’ll carry it home with us when we leave in February.
Best Chuck Norris Moment — 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machinegun so that he could tie the mayor’s hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machinegun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can’t fight City Hall.
Worst Sound — That crack-boom off in the distance that means an IED or mine just went off. You just wonder who got it, hoping that it was a near miss rather than a direct hit. Hear it practically every day.
Second Worst Sound — Our artillery firing without warning. The howitzers are pretty close to where I work. Believe me, outgoing sounds a lot like incoming when our guns are firing right over our heads. They’d about knock the fillings out of your teeth.
Only Thing Better in Iraq Than in the U.S. — Sunsets. Spectacular. It’s from all the dust in the air.
Proudest Moment — It’s a tie every day, watching our Marines produce phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in teasing apart Bad Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are kicking in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by our guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high school shouldn’t be able to work so well, but they do.
Happiest Moment — Well, it wasn’t in Iraq. There are no truly happy moments here. It was back in California when I was able to hold my family again while home on leave during July.
Most Common Thought — Home. Always thinking of home, of my great wife and the kids. Wondering how everyone else is getting along. Regretting that I don’t write more. Yep, always thinking of home.
I hope you all are doing well. If you want to do something for me, kiss a cop, flush a toilet, and drink a beer. I’ll try to write again before too long — I promise.
The Bush Administration Takes Down Another American Hero
Cenk Uygur
Oct 11 2006
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/1607
Lt. Commander Charles Swift is a JAG lawyer who recently won a Supreme Court decision that upheld the values of the American justice system and reaffirmed that we are a nation of laws. So, of course, he was fired.
In the case of the Navy, they call it “passed over for promotion.” It’s an “up or out” system. So, when he was denied promotion that meant Lt. Commander Swift’s career in the US military was over. He has to pack his bags. After he is “retired” in March or April, he can no longer serve in the United States Navy.
So, quietly, two weeks after he won the landmark ruling in the Hamdan case, he was told he would be relieved of duty. Here’s my favorite quote:
“Charlie has obviously done an exceptional job, a really extraordinary job,” said Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, the Pentagon’s chief defense counsel for Military Commissions.
Sullivan added it was “quite a coincidence” that Swift was passed over for a promotion “within two weeks of the Supreme Court opinion.”
Quite a coincidence? I don’t know if he’s kidding, but that is funny. The price for doing the right thing in the Bush years is always high and always career threatening. If you lie for them, you get the Presidential Medal of Freedom (which has now disgracefully become a badge of shame rather than honor). If you stand up for what’s right, you get crushed. And apparently no one gives a damn.
Where’s the uproar? Where was the uproar when General Eric Shinseki and Army Secretary Thomas White were moved out of the Pentagon for having the courage to tell Don Rumsfeld the truth about troop levels? Where was the uproar when Bunnatine Greenhouse was removed from her job as chief procurement officer for the Army Corps of Engineers when she complained that Halliburton was unfairly receiving no-bid contracts and was getting away with overcharging the US government? Where is the uproar now that we have lost the service of yet another American hero?
Lt. Commander Swift was originally assigned to the case of Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan to play the role of the patsy. He didn’t quite have the level of expertise that such a high-profile case would normally require. He expressed considerable surprise when he was selected for the role. I am sure that back then it didn’t even occur to him that they might have picked him precisely because he didn’t have much experience.
Then he was basically asked to throw the case. Military prosecutors strongly suggested that he arrange for a guilty plea. When Swift decided to actually represent his client’s interests, his superiors could not have been pleased. They were looking for a couple of early guilty pleas to give Bush’s military tribunals an air of legitimacy that they sorely lacked. Who was Lt. Commander Swift to stand up for the American and military justice system? Who did he think he was asking for a fair trial?
Of course, it turned out Lt. Commander Swift was right. The Supreme Court agreed with him that the trials were not fundamentally fair. They were outside of our system of justice, outside of our laws and outside of our values. America became the greatest country on earth by developing a system of human rights, not by trampling on it. Everyone gets a fair trial, no matter who they are. It isn’t about them, it’s about us.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Tim McVeigh or Salim Hamdan or Charles Manson or Ramzi Yousef. The verdicts in the trials judge the defendants. The trials themselves judge us. What are we made of? What do we believe in? Lt. Commander Charles Swift understood this. Apparently his supervisors at the Pentagon did not — and to this day, even after having been scolded by the Supreme Court of the United States of America — still do not.
Lt. Commander Swift was an American hero because he stood up for real American principles when it was not the popular thing to do and he had to fight his own chain of command to do it. In the movies, he would walk into the sunset as the audience applauded. In this grotesque world that the Bush administration has created, he is walked out the back door with hardly a peep.
Another career buried, another man betrayed, another principle lost. And the band plays on.
But we shall keep these names with us. We shall guard them closely. There are men and women of courage among us. We will not forget. Their day will come again, when America is great again.
Army tops recruit goal by lowering standards
Lower test scores allowed, but high school diploma still required
The Associated Press
Oct 9, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15197832/
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army recruited more than 2,600 soldiers under new lower aptitude standards this year, helping the service beat its goal of 80,000 recruits in the throes of an unpopular war and mounting casualties.
The recruiting mark comes a year after the Army missed its recruitment target by the widest margin since 1979, which had triggered a boost in the number of recruiters, increased bonuses, and changes in standards.
The Army recruited 80,635 soldiers, roughly 7,000 more than last year. Of those, about 70,000 were first-time recruits who had never served before.
According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.
All high school graduates
The Army said all the recruits with low scores had received high school diplomas. In a written statement, the Army said good test scores do not necessarily equate to quality soldiers. Test-taking ability, the Army said, does not measure loyalty, duty, honor, integrity or courage.
Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a private research group, said there is a “fine balance between the need for a certain number of recruits and the standards you set.”
“Tests don’t tell you the answer to the most critical question for the Army, how will you do in combat?” Goure said. But, he added, accepting too many recruits with low test scores could increase training costs and leave technical jobs unfilled.
“The absolute key for the Army is a high-school diploma,” Goure said.
About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving. That is a slight increase from last year, the Army said.
Of those accepted under waivers, more than half were for “moral” reasons, mostly misdemeanor arrests. Thirty-eight percent were for medical reasons and 7 percent were drug and alcohol problems, including those who may have failed a drug test or acknowledged they had used drugs.
The Army said the waiver process recognizes that people can overcome past mistakes and become law abiding citizens.
More recruiters, big bonuses
Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Cucolo said that adding more recruiters enabled the Army to identify more recruits. “We got the right people in the field in the right places in the right numbers,” said Cucolo, the chief spokesman for the Army.
About two-thirds of the recruits qualified for a bonus — an average of $11,000 each. Some in highly valued specialties, such as special operations forces, can get up to $40,000 in extra cash.
The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve both fell slightly short of their recruiting goals.
The Reserves recruited 25,378 of the targeted 25,500; and the Guard recruited 69,042 of the targeted 70,000.
Army: Nicer drill sergeants more effective
Recruits said to be better in boot camp now that they’re not being yelled at
The Associated Press
Oct 10, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15210867/
WASHINGTON - Hollywood may have to tone down its portrayal of the military’s screaming, in-your-face boot camp drill sergeant.
In today’s Army, shouting is out and a calmer approach to molding young minds is in, says the head of Pentagon personnel.
The Army says it has reduced by nearly 7 percent the number of recruits who wash out in the first six to 12 months of military life.
“Part of it is changing the nature of how it treats people in basic training,” David S. Chu, undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said Tuesday.
That means “less shouting at everyone, in essence, which some of you may remember from an earlier generation as being the modus operandi,” he said.
The changes started about a year ago, as defense officials looked for ways to make drillmasters more effective, said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, head of Army National Guard recruiting.
He said the old way was to “talk loud, talk often, get their attention” — shock treatment to teach discipline and mold the newly recruited civilian into a soldier.
But trainers found today’s generation responded better to instructors who took “a more counseling” type role, Jones said, using strong tactics when needed but keeping them the exception instead of the rule.
No longer training in fear
The approach has had two positive results, he said: It has lowered attrition among those who go through training each year and has eased one of the greatest fears of recruits — their fear over whether they can make it through basic training.
Other changes aimed at improving graduation rates include such things as letting recruits with injuries or minor medical problems remain in the service, heal, and then go back to training. Before, an injury would have meant discharge, training officials said.
Numbers differ from service to service and depend on what the recruit is being trained for. Those training to be Navy SEALS or other special forces may wash out at the rate of 70 percent. Those training to be truck drivers may have an 80 percent graduation rate.
But Chu said that across all services, generally, some two-thirds of recruits finish their enlistment period — typically three or four years.
Some drop out within six months
Of the third who don’t make it, half bomb out in the first six to 12 months, Chu said, adding that the attrition rate is better than most private sector firms.
Keeping a balance in the number flushed out of the service is important. Too many dropouts and you lose people you really want to keep. Too few dropouts, and you are keeping people you should have let go, Chu said.
Both the military and police academies are moving away from harder-edged approaches to training, he said.
“However much it may be satisfying from the shouter’s perspective, it really isn’t the best way to shape young people for the future,” Chu said.
He made the comments as he announced that all active duty services had met their recruiting goals for the budget year ended Sept. 30. The Marine Corps Reserve met its goal and the Air Force Reserve exceeded its goal, but they were exceptions among guard and reserve forces, some of which have seen “heavy use” due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chu said.
What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
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October 11th, 2006