20 December 2004

How to rescue the all-volunteer Army

Joey Galloway (the author) is the guy that co-wrote We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. The book, not the movie.

He's been a military correspondent for a long time, and knows a lot of people. He references several of them here. While he is reporting someone else's projects and proposals, it is clear that Galloway approves of these ideas, or he wouldn't be reporting them.

How do you save the Army? There are all kinds of ideas. My first step is to fire Paul Wolfowitz. Almost every controversy that Rumsfeld has had to publicly defend came from this lout...

18 December 2004

Defense & Security News

Defense Tech
Along with several others, this is a really good site for military and security news.

While some of their stuff looks a little too far forward, it's still good. Think of it as WIRED for the defense industry.

08 December 2004

CNN swings and misses

This story recently appeared on CNN.com. See if you tell me what the problem is with it:

England's lawyers lose crucial ruling
Prosecution allowed to use statements about Abu Ghraib abuse
From Susan Candiotti and Jim Polk CNN
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (CNN) -- A military judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors can use two written statements by Pfc. Lynndie England describing incidents of physical abuse and sexual degradation of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The 22-year-old mother from West Virginia faces a court-martial at Fort Bragg in January. She is charged with 19 counts of assault, conspiracy, improper conduct and indecent acts, and could be sentenced to as many as 38 years in prison.
-snip 11 paragraphs-
Among those awaiting court-martial at Fort Hood is Spc. Charles Graner, the Abu Ghraib guard who attorneys say is the father of the baby boy England gave birth to seven weeks ago.

Now I'm not usually one to criticize media people for the way they do their jobs, especially since I study this stuff for a living and I've got a perspective on how they do what they do. But Candiotti & Polk, however well-meaning they may have been, really drop the ball on this one.
If you only read the first 2 paragraphs of this story, as many people probably did on the web, you get the impression the government is picking on some poor kid's mom for a mistake she might have made. they describe England as "The 22-year-old mother from West Virginia." Well, yes, she's 22, a mother, and originally from West Virginia.
She's also a mother who got pregnant by a married man with whom she fooled around while stationed in a combat zone. To simply describe her as a "mother" impugns the good name of mothers everywhere - the ones who didn't get pregnant by a married man while ignoring the proper rules of conduct for soldiers, and who aren't in jail for physically abusing other people.
You don't get a real sense of just how wrong it is that she's a mother in the first place. Until the 11th paragraph, you have no idea that she wasn't a mother before being deployed. Why is it relevant that she's a mother at all, given what she's accused of? Why not describe her as the "22-year-old Army reservist from West Virginia?" Are we looking to intentionally drum up some sympathy for the "22-year-old mother from West Virginia"?
Candiotti & Polk really blew this one. And they wonder why people think CNN is slanted...

24 November 2004

Matthew Heidt: Security Rounds

I got this emailed to me, and it's pretty good:

We're gonna see more on this issue in the near future. Most folks who've served in combat are taking a much more objective view of how things are changing w/re to the Law of Land Warfare than those who have not.
The shots fired at the "unarmed" terrorist in that mosque in Fallujah are called "security rounds." Its a safety issue pure and simple. After assaulting through a target, put a security round in everybody's head. Sorry al-Reuters, there's no paddy wagon rolling around Fallujah picking up "prisoners" and offering them a hot cup a joe, falafel, and a blanket. There's no time to dick around in the target, you clear the space, dump the chumps, and moveon.org. Are Corpsman expected to treat wounded terrorists?
By the way, terrorists who chop off civilian's heads are not prisoners, they are carcasses.
Also, you don't know who or what is in the next room, and you're already speaking English to each other and its loud because your hearing is poor from shooting people for several days. So you know that there are many other rooms to enter, and that if anyone is still alive in those rooms, they know that Americans are in the mosque. Meanwhile (3 seconds later), you still have this terrorist that was just shooting at you from a mosque playing possum. What do you do?
Comment by Lori Kahler
It is also important to note that there have been reports that just five minutes earlier and a block away from this incident, another wounded insurgent blew himself up. He took the life of a marine and severely wounded six other marines who were trying to give aid to this insurgent. Let us not forget that Senator Kerry received a purple heart for a very similar incident, although Kerry shot the boy in the back as he was fleeing. Not only was this marine correct in shooting the wounded insurgent, he was obligated to or risk the death or injury to whole unit

16 September 2004

The Sudden Urgency of Terrorism


13 September 2004

Timing is Everything

from a friend of a friend

Family and Friends,
is Everything.
R&R in 5 weeks!!
live for these days or I'm just no longer invincible.
will see me through.
God Bless,
Love to All,
Joe :-)

12 May 2004

Thank goodness we're getting a daily body count from Iraq. We wouldn't want this war to get too closely compared to Vietnam, now would we?

11 May 2004

There's a lot I want to say, but not enough time to get to it right now. Besides, I finally got out of the Middle Ages on my game of Civ III, and that's been pretty time-consuming.

The short version of one of them is this:
The Pentagon is talking about the "six morons who lost the war" in Iraq. Those six are the twits who thought it would be cool to take pictures of Iraqi prisoners. I can almost accept that they agreed to be stupid about their ethics and their work and follow the 'instructions' of the MI guys. But I can't imagine the MI guys telling them to take pictures.

That said, the "six morons who lost the war" are not these idiots. The "six morons who lost the war" are the six morons who started the war: Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Cheney, Armitage, and the Boy-Who-Would-Be-King. As Woodward reported in his book, Bush never asked anyone if he should got to war in Iraq, and no one had the balls to tell him it was a bad idea. But that's the advice you get (or don't) when you surround yourself with dad's old cronies (most of whom never served in the military), and a guy who lost a statewide election to a corpse.

08 May 2004

From the war zone - "Breaking Chains"

The CSA wanted to share this email with you.  The email was sent to GEN
Bell, CG, USAREUR from MG Dempsey, Cdr, 1AD.

...I met yesterday outside Najaf with a 1LT from the Iron Dukes of 2-37 Armor who as tank company XO was leading a convoy of two platoons of tanks on HETs from Al Kut in the east to Najaf in the west, a distance of about 175KM. As they passed through the town of Diwaniyah, they were ambushed by a group of insurgents--undoubtedly former regime soldiers with some military training--with RPGs, heavy machine guns, and AK-47s.  The Task Force Scouts had passed through only 30 minutes earlier without contact, so this was a well planned ambush of probably 50 or so organized in two and three man teams.
The convoy suffered three soldiers KIA in the initial moments of the ambush--one Iron Duke, one 2ACR cavalry trooper, and one transportation officer.  The convoy immediately returned fire.  They had several HUMMWVs in escort, and the tanks on the back of the HETs were manned with loaders and TCs on crew served weapons.  Within minutes of the ambush, one of the HETs was disabled, and the Lieutenant realized he would have to stand and fight to ensure he had everyone.  The Iron Dukes "broke chains" as they described it, by essentially driving off the back of the HETs under fire to engage the enemy.  In the course of the next hour, they fought their way out of Diwaniyah employing every weapon available to them including main gun.  They got everyone and everything out with the exception of one HET. Enemy BDA was 30 killed and an unknown number wounded.

A day after this fight, I received an email from CPT Thomas Moore, of the 1175th Transportation, who was the convoy commander.  He wrote: "were it not for the courage and actions under fire of the 2ACR and 2-37 soldiers that day, he is certain all his men would have been killed."  He asked me if he and his soldiers engaged in that fight with us could wear the 1AD combat patch.  I told him I'd be honored.
There are many such stories of courage under fire and just as many stories of incredible compassion to the innocent...
Continuing mission, sir.

03 May 2004

Trash Haulers Have Fun, Too

from the email files:
    From the mailbag and for all my Air Force friends:
  God, I love this job!
    - Author chooses to remain anonymous