The Political Dogfight

NSA Spying on Americans...at Bush's Orders...With No Courts Involved

Just when you thought W couldn't take it any further you find out he's been taking it further for years! The NSA has been authorized to act without Court oversite in any form to spy on American Citizens. No restrictions. No retroactive oversight....just do it. And W's been doing it. He reauthorized the authorization every 90 days for years.

Here's the reaction from newspapers across the nation thanks to The Huffington Post:

Kansas City Star:“The Struggle With Foreign Enemies Does Not Simply Give Him A Blank Check”…

Denver Post: Adm. Has Lost “Balance Between Essential Anti-Terrorism Tools And Encroachment On Liberties”…

LA Times: “Stunning,” “One Of The More Egregious Cases Of Governmental Overreach”…

Wash. Post: “The Tools Of Foreign Intelligence Are Not Consistent With A Democratic Society”…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Unacceptable Actions Of A Police State”…

St. Petersburg Times: “So Dangerously Ill-Conceived And Contrary To This Nation's Guiding Principles”…

NY Times: Bush “Secretly And Recklessly Expanded The Govt.'s Powers In Dangerous And Unnecessary Ways”…

That sort of says it all. Amazing what this Administration thinks it can get away with and call it patriotic as it sheds the fabric of the Constitution. Stunning.....speak out. CRY OUT!

Chuck Hagel speaks out with Courage and Conviction

Seldom, from any party, have I heard an officeholder state his convictions as clearly and with great substance as did Senator Chuck Hagel today on Meet The Press. I'm going to link the video of the segment here from Dembloggers.

This is stunning, straightforward personal honesty from a Republican Senator. Our Democrats could do well to copy the example he sets of speaking Truth to Power and directly from the Heart.

If it doesn't work check in at Dembloggers as they have it on their servers.

  WMV Media File

No Punishments...just promotions for The Officer Corps

With thanks to Andrew Sullivan's blog:

UNSCAPEGOATING: Jonathan Turley makes a powerful case for some more accountability for the detention mess. He points out the following:

True to tradition, promotion rather than punishment has been the fate of most torture-tainted officers in the Abu Ghraib scandal:

• Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller has been implicated in the abuses at both Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. He actually ordered Abu Ghraib personnel to "soften up" the prisoners. He was made an assistant chief of staff.

• Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast had knowledge of the abuses in 2003 as the head of military intelligence in Iraq and was accused of pressuring the interrogators. She was given a new position as the commander at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where U.S. and foreign troops are taught interrogation techniques.

• Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was the ranking officer in Iraq and approved many of the interrogation techniques now deemed abusive. He was returned to his command in Germany of the prestigious Army V Corps.

• The officer who oversaw interrogation at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, was given a light administrative punishment.

If we cannot yet hold Rumsfeld, Bush and Gonzales responsible, we can surely do better than jailing a few low-level grunts in this scandal.
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Wes Clark's Opening Statement today House Armed Services Committee

 

Do yourself a favor and see the great  Wes Clark interview on CSpan this morning you will have access from their page.  The Big Dog

Opening Statement of General Wesley Clark
House Armed Services Committee Hearing
April 6, 2005

Mr. Chairman, Congressman Skelton, distinguished members of this Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.   From moment one, this Committee has been strongly supportive of the men and women in uniform, and I want to commend you for that -- and thank you for the support that so many of you gave to me during my time in the military.   As a former soldier, I can't stress enough how important these deliberations are to our armed forces and military families stationed around the world -- and to the thousands of veterans I've met with over the past two years.  I have also heard from thousands of people over the internet who wish to express their gratitude for your efforts and concerns about the situation in Iraq. On their behalf and on behalf of my own family, I thank you.   

It is a privilege to appear today to present my thoughts on Iraq and our armed forces, to offer a brief retrospective on the mission there, to sketch out a successful way ahead, and to discuss the implications for the U.S. armed forces.

 

Syria/Lebanon...facts then analysis: An Excuse for War?

The current clamor and headlines on Syria and Lebanon caused me to do some basic research. I had unanswered questions and didn't have a solid factual basis for understanding the news stories.

Here is my summation of the facts as I understand them and then an analysis. My first question was, "Since Syria has repeatedly stated they will leave if asked by the Lebanese, have they been asked?" If they hadn't then how did the US and France have international standing to demand the Syrian withdrawl.

That seemingly simple question opened the door.  This article isn't short or simple but then neither is the situation.

A. The duly-constituted government of Lebanon has NEVER directly asked the Syrians to withdraw. Why? Because Syria, in the early years of great warfare against the PLO and others, stacked the government with Pro-Syrians. 

Emergency Post: Wounded at Ramstein have no Clothes

I don't generally jump up in the middle of the theatre and shout...but this time I have to do just that with every reader...every person so comes here from a search engine...everyone. Our men and women of Service need our help.

The following comes from Deputy Commander and Lt. Col Lori Noyes of the Cadet Squadron at Ramstein.

[This is enough to move me to tears. I'm only sorry that it took me a month to find out about it.]

From: Lori Noyes
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 12:28 AM
Subject: Request for Help for our wounded troops at LRMC

Dear CAP Friends:

I am writing is to tell you about a project the Ramstein Cadet Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is starting. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) here in Germany got an influx of about 500 wounded troops from Iraq last week and more arrive almost daily. They arrive straight from the battlefield, with only the torn, dirty, bloody clothes on their back. They have no clothes, underwear, or toiletry items. The hospital provides them with only a cotton gown or pajamas, robe, and disposable slippers. Some stay only a few days before being sent to hospitals stateside, while others are here up to several weeks. The military gives them a $250 voucher to buy clothing and toiletries at the BX, but many are not ambulatory, and those who are have to wait for a bus to get down to the BX on Ramstein 7 miles away. The BX runs out of the clothing and it takes weeks for more to come in. Those who can go to the BX still need something to wear to get there!

Band of Khaki Liars

Hack's Target

Band of Khaki Liars

By David H. Hackworth

12.13.04

More than seven months after Ranger Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan, the truth comes out. The former football star and famous war volunteer wasn’t killed in a fierce firefight with Taliban insurgents, as the Army brass reported – he was cut down by members of his own platoon.

It’s called “friendly fire.” If you’re on the receiving end, it ain’t fun and it’s definitely not “friendly.” But unfortunately, it will be a part of war as long as humans squeeze triggers and toss smart weapons around. Even whiz-bang stuff is only as smart as its operators – and in battle, where sleep deprivation and being scared beyond belief are the rule, GI Joe and Jane aren’t always as savvy as they should be.

In the dozen conflicts I’ve survived as a soldier or later as a war correspondent, at least 20 percent of the incoming that thumped around me, from Korea to Iraq, was the result of folks on my side firing before they put their brains, training and emotions into gear. That’s because confusion and chaos are always the names of the game in close combat. I’ve been in hundreds of firefights – some lasting a few minutes, some lasting days–

Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids, NOW!: Hackworth

12-06-2004

Hack's Target

Uncle Sam Wants Your Kids – Now!

By David H. Hackworth

We’ll soon have 150,000 U.S. troops stuck in the ever-expanding Iraqi quagmire, a number that will probably grow even larger before Iraq holds elections presently scheduled for the end of January ’05.

Maintaining such a force is a logistical and personnel nightmare for every grunt in Iraq. And according to several Pentagon number crunchers, it’s also driving the top brass bonkers. Meanwhile the insurgents continue cutting our supply lines and whacking our fighting platoons and supporters, who attrit daily as soldiers and Marines fall to enemy shots, sickness or accidents. Empty platoons lose fights, so these casualties have to be replaced ASAP.

Since this tragic war kicked off in March 2003, the United States has evacuated an estimated 50,000 KIA, WIA and non-battle casualties from Iraq back to the States – leaving 50,000 slots that have had to be filled.

The job of finding fresh bodies to keep our units topped off falls mainly to the Army Recruiting Command. But the “making-quota” jazz put out by the Recruiting Command and the Pentagon to hype their billion-dollar recruiting effort, with its huge TV expenditure and big expansion of recruiters during the past year, is pure unadulterated spin.

Not that this is anything new. The Command has a sorry reputation for using smoke and mirrors to cover up poor performance. “Hack, here’s a snapshot of how little of our 1st Quarter mission has been achieved,” says an Army recruiter.

60 years ago and a battle speaks to the Past, Present and, perhaps, Future

In an old article about a war faraway and many years ago, we may find the past, present and future mixed into a memory and a historical reality. Bernard Fall was considered the foremost authority on the wars in Indochina and the only historian to understand what, today, we would call 'an insurrgent war'. This article was published in 1964 on the 10th anniversary of the battle at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. If you think this just a historical artifact read the following paragraphs and substitute the names, countries and adversaries:

"But as other revolutionary wars -- from Algeria to the British defeats in Cyprus and Palestine -- have conclusively shown, it does not take pitched, set-piece battles to lose such wars. They can be lost just as conclusively through a series of very small engagements, such as those now fought in South Vietnam, if the local government and its population lose confidence in the eventual outcome of the contest -- and that was the case both for the French and for their Vietnamese allies after Dien Bien Phu."

This is worth your time and will add to your knowledge of the historical reality of the war we fight today. Bernard Fall, by the way, died in Vietnam, a battle casuality with US Forces. He lived large.

Dien Bien Phu: A Battle to Remember

Fifty years ago, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu fell to the Viet Minh, in one of the 20th century's most decisive battles.

By Bernard B. Fall

'With Deepest Sympathy'

By David H. Hackworth

Donald Rumsfeld – who’s known as a people-eating systems man – has a long history that shows he prefers technology to humans. Certainly as SecDef he’s always gone for high-tech military gear rather than giving the boots on the ground max priority when it comes to the basics: armored vehicles and vests, sufficient ammo and all the other vital stuff that helps soldiers make it through the Valley of Death.

His beloved shock-and-awe whiz-bang wonder weapons worked well enough initially in Afghanistan and Iraq, but as we saw on the tube last week, we’re once again back to the age-old struggle of man against man – with grunts, not machines, taking and holding ground.

And now, apparently, Rumsfeld’s obsession with machines and their efficiency has translated into his using one to replace his own John Hancock on KIA (killed in action) letters to parents and spouses. Two Pentagon-based colonels, who’ve both insisted on anonymity to protect their careers, have indignantly reported that the SecDef has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself.